Who thought this up?

My friends Josh and Susan are having a baby, how fun! So I thought I would sprinkle a little Carlyn OCD into their lives  before they welcome baby Hazel to the 757. Since I can't teach her how to dance or vacuum yet I settled for prepping her wardrobe. Clearly I was under qualified. 

Pictured above is my attempt to organize choices by size, sleeve length and category. Each time I found a new size I started a new row, the rows kept going and going.  I felt like I was trying to organize a super 1000 box of crayolas by primary color. Is salmon with pink or orange? Is 3-6 month acceptable to put in the same pile as 6 months, or do the the white onesies go with pajamas or tights cause babies don't wear underwear. Baby sizes are stressful. Did they have a size committee that couldn't agree so they decided to use all of them?
I settled on piles of categories in labeled Ziploc bags. If this is any indication of how complicated the baby will be I feel like I should have saved my labels and bought them as much coffee as possible.

If you can't be an athlete...

People often tell my that I look athletic, my natural response it to be offended or to ask if they need a ride home because clearly they have had too much to drink.
Growing up I was the ballerina/ theatre kid in our family (shocker). My sister was a legit baseball player and then in high school forced into the ways of this world was an awesome softball player. My brother dressed like Tiger Woods and naturally was good at golf and baseball.
I was never really sad that my lack of muscular talents turned into my motto: "If you can't be an athlete be an athletic supporter."
Now, I am not saying that my dancing and singing for hours at a time wasn't a workout because it was death, but athlete sounds so dirty and competitive. I am not a big fan of dirt or uniforms so naturally when given the choice I stuck to indoor activities.
I pretended to be on the softball team with my sister for a couple seasons and became the team cheerleader with the cutest uniform. My dad gently reminded me on the way to buy new softball gear for my sister one day that "we were going to stick to our talents this year". From then on I became the supporter of athletes and I am ok with it.
Even in my adult years I can cheer for most any sport played lived and can destroy most dance competitions but I stick to observing....for the most part.

The Game of Life

I think we stumbled on a new Christmas tradition in the midst of an abnormal evening. Jamey's mom had to work on Christmas so we didn't get to hang out with his family until about 8 PM on Christmas night. Our nephew got the Game of Life for Christmas and we all played it together. I laughed hysterically the entire time. Here are a couple of the highlights, you can pay for this type of entertainment.

• Apparently he was tired of me reading the instructions "Jamey already read the destructions so he will just tell us how to play"
• After being told he had to buy a house and pay for it " I don't want a stupid log cabin and my card says it's free"
• Anytime another player got married girl player or boy player he would announce "You may now kiss the bride"
• He made his wife and daughter ride in the last seat in his car the entire time. 
• When someone else landed on "It's a girl" he said "I want twins cause then hopefully I won't get a girl"
• When Jamey landed on it's a girl he just pointed at Jamey and laughed. 
• He got a new career as an Entertainer and the card displayed a mature woman in a sequin dress. His response "At least I got a hot chick" 
• "I demand a re-match I don't want to lose to a dumb girl" 

Confessions of a 26 Year old

No shame in my game, what is magical in my life currently? Even in my old age I'm not afraid to tell you:

• I am currently obsessed with Justin Bieber's Christmas Album. I know Christmas is over but I don't care. If you haven't heard it you need to. 
• I rocked skinny jeans for the first and maybe the last time on Christmas Eve. How did I know I was too old for my outfit? The 19 year olds that helped me set-up had a sleepover and showed up  to my house the night before with the same outfit as me. 
• I might be too old for Skinny jeans but I'm still too young to cook Christmas Dinner. We ate all day and I didn't cook a thing on Christmas...awesome!
• Giving is one of my favorite things to do. My family gave instead of receiving this Christmas, that's a feeling you can't buy you should try it.
•  I graduated last week with out a single student loan as a married homeowner. The haters in my life acted like it was such a huge deal to them that I was still in school ( I obviously would have liked to finish a long time ago) and have greeted me with "are you done with school yet?"for the past 5 years. Deep down every time they asked me that question I had a huge smile on my face because these are the people in my life with the most debt and who I learned years ago don't "get it". I pray for them to meet Jesus and Dave Ramsey. 
• I didn't walk at graduation for multiple reasons. 
• It was the Saturday before Christmas and I spent the day with people I love. 
• It costs about what we spend a month on groceries to participate and I'm stingy with my grocery budget. 
• I can't name a single person I graduated with. 
• Graduation ceremonies are boring and we all know I can't sit still. 

What's in your Christmas?

This year has the shaping of a perfect Christmas for my little family. Probably because it's what we are putting into our Christmas. Very little. Simple Christmas. 

My parents and siblings called it a truce on exchanging presents and instead decided to take the yuck out of Christmas for a family we know. So our Christmas list had 4 things on it.

We won't be putting Christmas Dinner on a credit card and paying for that dinner long after (well you know where food goes), cause we met Dave Ramsey a long time ago. 

We are planning to eat finger foods and hang with my sister the week before Christmas so she can actually enjoy Christmas and not spend most of it driving. 

Don't get me wrong we will still be going to multiple locations on Christmas Day and eating tons of food but a couple steps to make it more simple is going to make it better. 

What will be in our Christmas?

• Jesus (I like to add a shocking statement to all my blogs)
• Christmas Eve with Waters Edge 
• Cookies! We baked cookies with some of our new favorite kids this weekend and my student group is having a baking night this week. (Baking night with 20 7th graders might be on the bad idea list, I will let you know)
• Elf and National Lampoon Christmas to kick off the season, Clark is one of my favorite relatives. 
• Old Friends: I love seeing my old friends that come back into town for Christmas. I love that no matter how much our daily lives change we can go right back to when we had braces and horrible fashion. 
• Jamey time: I love hanging out with Jamey and doing nothing. We have a couple of days off after Christmas and usually one of them is spent doing a whole lotta nothing.