Holidays!

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a long time. Or uploaded pictures of the baby... She's getting big and heavy, and my thumbs hurt from holding her. The unspoken truth about motherhood is that your thumbs hurt. A lot. But we've been soooooooooooooo busy lately, I simply haven't had the time to sit down and write anything. Christmas time has completely snuck up on us again this year. I don't know how or why it happens like that, but it does. I had a harrowing trip to the grocery store yesterday to try to stock up on provisions for the holiday; the store was busier than I've ever seen, and frustratingly, the management had rearranged everything to make way for Christmas goodies, so I found myself circling the aisles in search of my regular staples only to find cocktail weenies and mini vol-au-vents around every turn. Curse you, Waitrose. Curse you.

Since our last post we've been quite busy, not only with hanging our new curtains (pictured here behind the Christmas tree) and painting the dining room (photos coming soon, I promise), but also with lots of days out to visit friends near and far. Last weekend we were in Harrogate visiting Jeremy, Caroline and Beatrix at their elegant new home, and thankfully Isabelle was incredibly good-natured about the long drive there and back. We had a great time and are very much looking forward to another visit in the new year! What else? Shopping (there are many bargains to be had in this bum economy-- no sales taxes at one store Jules visited), tidying our messy messy house, iChatting to family in America, and meeting for Christmas festivities with friends. This is the first year (thanks to our little sprout), that we weren't able to simply drop everything and hit the town, so admittedly there were many lessons to be learned this past week. Hard ones.

Someone at our work Christmas party on Thursday asked me what was different about being a parent. While passing over the obvious answer ("Well, there's a baby in our house now and there didn't used to be...") I admitted to him that the loss of freedom was the major change, or at least the one we're struggling with most. We do take her with us as much as possible, and yeah, she's good in restaurants and pubs, but sometimes she simply can't come along. And since we're both staring down the barrel of busy work schedules for the next year, what to do with the wee one while we're out has definitely been on my mind.

I promise to try updating more regularly throughout the Christmas/Jules' birthday season. Isabelle has many cute outfits to show off, so I guarantee at least a few fashion spreads in the coming days.