Year in Review: December

December, December, December...

My head is still spinning with where the days went, and how quickly they've gone!

Everything was going great for most of the month. I had my girlfriend Aziza over for dinner one night, which was a lot of fun. She brought over part of her CSA (community supported agriculture) bag and we made a fantastic dinner of roasted chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and baked green beans, followed up by an apple-rhubarb pie. Dee-lish!

Mash them taters!

But just as we were beginning to drift off to dreamland that night, Madison woke up with an itchy head...she had brought home head lice from school, or so we think.

As I rushed off to the nearest 24-hour CVS, dad stripped her bed and removed all stuffed animals from her room. We treated her hair, nit picked and sent her back to bed, because by this time it was around 4:00 a.m. 

When I woke up, 2 hours later, I began cleaning and doing all the laundry in the house. Anything that could be washed was washed. Floors were vacuumed and scrubbed, bathrooms cleaned top to bottom, rugs, couches, beds, etc. were sprayed with lice killer, washed and blow dried. I cleaned and did laundry from 6:00 a.m. until 12:00 midnight. I did pretty good too, because all I had left to wash was about 5-6 loads of laundry. So I called it a day...after treating my hair too, because I just felt too crawly to go to bed. 

When I woke up again the next day I went right back at the cleaning and laundry, as I had a lot planned  for the day (dr. appt., professional nit picker was on her way over, as was the baby sitter because I had planned on going to see Prof again that night!). It was going to be a good day and nothing was going to keep me from seeing Prof.

But then it happened. After washing 1 load of laundry, the dryer broke. I went into panic mode for about 2 minutes and then called the baby sitter to see if she could help out. She was available, so I just washed the remaining laundry and she took it up to the laundromat to finish drying it (AND even though I told her not to worry about folding it and just to shove all the dry laundry into the baskets/bags I had provided, she carefully folded each piece of laundry and put them back into the baskets & bags according to each room of the house, so it would be easier to put away. She is more OCD than I, if you can believe it! If I haven't mentioned this before, I love my baby sitter and never want to lose/share her!)

The professional Nit Picker from The Hair Whisperers came over and combed over Madison's hair (only found 1 egg) and my hair (I got the all clear!). Cameron came back over with the clean and dry  laundry, and after whizzing through the house to get beds made for the night, Aziza and I were still able to go to see Prof (AMEN!).

The following days were no less crazy. It was Madison's 6th birthday and the Christmas Concert up at her school, complete with Photos with Santa as a fundraiser for the new kindergarten playground. So of course I was busy bringing cupcakes to the children, as well as taking on the Santa Photos nearly single handedly. Thanks to a handful of parent's from Madison's class + her teacher, were we able to successfully raise about $300 for the playground.

Things calmed down after the 21st. No more school to deal with, no more lice to deal with and everything fun and exciting about Christmas was about to happen.

So as I sit  here on the eve of a brand new year, reflecting on what made 2012 the fastest year on record, I can't help but feel like I've done good. 2012 was great for me. I got to see a lot of my family,  my best friend and the country, I survived a crash course in Parenting a Kindergartner, and so much more it makes my head spin just thinking about it. 

Now all I have to do is chill the Asti, get some hors d'oeuvres ready and let this year come to a close!

Be safe tonight, everyone! Happy 2013!