how much fun can you squeeze in one weekend?

well, a LOT. really!

saturday began with my cousin's daughter's baptism - you know, the one who was born a mere week before the bean. we, of course, were running late - the ceremony was set for 10:15. we thought the time was really odd, but then i thought maybe it might've been the only time available. or something.

we arrived at the church at about 10:25 and were a little confuzzled when we pulled into the parking lot and were directed by a couple of teens wearing safety vests to the adjacent lot. and then turned our heads and noticed a SHITLOAD of kids lined up near one of the buildings. great timing for a baptism - seemed it was some kind of holiday toy giveaway or something like that. crap. we parked where we weren't supposed to and strolled into the church.

our 2nd confuzzling moment of the morning came when we saw yet another shitload of folks in the church. i thought, "wow, there's a whole lot of folks here for this kid's baptism, how cool" and then realized i recognized not a single soul.

"are we at the right church?" the kid says. and i look at the invitation again and confirm that yes, we're in the right place. and then we finally see my aunt and uncle and take a seat behind them.

dudes, it was some kind of mass ceremony. there was a long ass line-up of babies being held by their parents, waiting to receive the sacrament of baptism. i'd never seen anything like it before! when the kid was baptized 12-ish years ago, it was just her - we had the church to ourselves and didn't have to share the spotlight with anybody. and then another aunt and uncle came to sit beside us, and after i expressed my bewilderment, my aunt said "this is how they do it now. they just do a bunch at one time." heh. yeah, like cattle. how special. sheesh.

and then she leaned over and said "i bet you could squeeze the bean in and nobody would even know! haha!" and i just kind of gave a half-assed smile. i didn't have the heart (or the time, or the energy) to explain that the bean wasn't going to be raised catholic. nope. uh-uh. not gonna do it.

after it was all over, we got back in the car and decided to find a starbucks before heading over to the reception. we weren't sure what kind of eats were going to be there, and we figured we'd better be prepared. yeah. and when we arrived, we were even more glad that we'd stopped first. just...yeah.

we hung out for about an hour (55 minutes longer than the kid was willing to stay, ha) before heading home. my friend A was coming over and we were going to work on our christmas cards together while munching on treats and gabbing about anything and nothing. this has turned into a regular thing for us, although last year we managed to squeeze it in a little earlier in the season. oh, well.

she brought over a fabulous little package of cupcake bites from crumbs bakery, a couple of full-sized cupcakes, and a sweet little pink & brown outfit for the bean. of course, the latter was beautifully wrapped with lots of tape and a decorative ribbon :)

the pictures i'd sent via costco.com for our cards ended up all fucked up. they cut off the tops and bottoms of my design, and this was totally unacceptable. so i worked on cutting the paper for the layers while A was able to assemble a good number of her cards before leaving for a holiday shindig with her hub.

later, the hub, the kid, and i scurried around the house getting it nice and clean in preparation for the next day's holiday hoorah with the SFAMs. and then i wanted to finish my party favors for the girls, which the kid helped me with - these are so delicious (even though they look like nipples, as the kid noted with a guffaw: these are pretzel rings filled with white chocolate and a festive m&m placed in the middle. might sound kind of gross, but i swear, they're really tasty! those pretzels are ridiculously difficult to find - locally, i can only find pretzels in the traditional shape, rods, or "snaps" - or pick the round pretzels out of bags of chex mix. i've resorted to the latter in the past, but i really wanted to have the original rings that i'd first tried at a friend's party (her SIL made them but stubbornly refused to reveal where she got them, even when i threatened to beat it out of her). so with the magic of google, i found a company in chicago who sells them via www.mybrandsinc.com and voila - i had a case of 6 POUNDS of pretzel rings at my doorstep. eeeverybody's getting these for christmas this year!

and then it was sunday morning and time for the SFAMs to descend upon BFE - otherwise known as my home. most of the girls live out on the west side, so i was particularly grateful that they were willing to come out for our holiday gathering. and the monkey has a great recap here, so i won't reinvent the wheel! instead, i'll share a few pictures of my own, including our holiday decorations.

this is what i put those nipple treats in:

the bean spent most of the hoorah snuggled in the wrap on my chest, kangaroo-style. she slept through almost the entire shindig, but managed to wake up at the tail end long enough for nanette to hold her for a bit.

we also had a lovely assortment of holiday cookies sent to us from our friend madisen, who'd recently moved to florida and wasn't able to join us. and i[dot]j brought a magnificent spread of krispy kremes, plus sugar cookies decorated by her sweet hub.

and a few more comments:

• yup, that's a container of bacon. bacon is good. i like bacon. so i took a picture of it.
• that's one of about 7 different group pics, all taken with different cameras. heh.
• tater's fruit cups were so pretty! again, while i don't eat it, i can certainly appreciate the beauty of it.
• that's the bean in her festive attire, before i wrinkled it all up by carrying her in the wrap.
• and, yes - that's last year's white elephant score, sitting all comfy on the sink. i didn't fill him with any soap, but it was fun to see him again.

lastly, thanks to monkey for my fabulous hot chocolate pot. i so love this thing! i can't wait to whip up some dee-lish cocoa in it. YAY!!