Day 365 - December 31

Wow. It's here. Day 365. The last day.

I honestly can not believe that I managed to keep up with this, and that, for the most part, I took a picture every single day this year. And, with the exception of when we were on vacation or traveling, I posted a picture every day as well. I don't know how I expected to do when I started this a year ago, but it wasn't this well.

I've really enjoyed this project. And so I'm contemplating just keeping it going. I don't know if you can call it a 365 Project again if you just do it all over again, but I think I've mentioned that I've been way better about keeping up with this than I've ever been with our family blog, so it has some merit as a way to chronicle our life and keep in touch with family.

My only hesitation is that I don't know if I can do it again. I'm especially worried that, come the end of July, when Yellow (did I mention that's what we're calling Baby #2? Michaela was Green in the womb, so this one is Yellow) makes his or her appearance, I don't know if I'll be able to stay on top of it. I don't want to call it "Becca's 365" again if I can't commit to a full 365 days (oh, wait, it's 366 in 2012!!).

So, maybe I'll start and see how it goes. And if I feel like I can't keep up, I'll move the operation over to The FlyingFish blog, and just do it as often as I can manage. (Look at me, giving myself an out... what a way to set myself up for failure!)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably finish with picture 365 before I start thinking about starting over again at 1.

I thought it was fitting to end the year with a family portrait. How nice that Jason decided to put that shirt on Michaela today, of all the bazillions in her drawer. It gave me my inspiration!

(And if ever there was a picture that made me wish I already knew how to use that fancy-schmancy Photoshop software that showed up yesterday, this is it! UGH! I did my best with my Aperture edits, but it needed serious help - and taking it again was not an option courtesy of a kid who didn't even want to take it in the first place!!)

So thanks to everyone who took the time to check in with me every day this year! I loved all your comments, whether they were here or on the FB link I posted every night. So, what do you think? Do I keep going? Or call it good?

Day 364 - December 30

Nothing like winding down the year with an incredibly boring picture!!!

But, I'm excited about it. Thanks to a tip from my friend, Amy, earlier in the week, I hooked myself up with a copy of Photoshop Elements 10 for $30 off regular price (on Amazon, in case anyone wants to see if it's still available).

So bring on 2012... I'm FINALLY going to really learn how to edit pictures. Bye bye, Aperture... Hello, PSE 10!!!

Day 363 - December 29

Living in the south has had the effect of making it very difficult for me to get into the holiday spirit the last two years. It's just not quite right to get a Christmas tree in short sleeves, or to see rain instead of snow.

That said, there are two things that make me very happy to live in the south this time of year, even if I feel scroogey.

The first is all the Facebook posts from friends still living in Alaska (or other cold climates), talking about exactly how cold it's been on any given day (single digits in Kodiak this week... brrrr!!!!).

The second is that there are flowers. Right now, in my yard, there are flowers blooming. So it might not feel holiday-y and Christmas-y, but it's pretty!!

So I had to get a quick picture of one of our camellia blooms. We also have azalea flowers as of this week!

Day 362 - December 28

I had big plans to use a not-of-the-kid picture for today. Then I remembered the cute shots I snapped this morning while she was playing with her new train. So you get the kid.

For Christmas, Santa brought a little Ikea train set (dangit... "Santa" paid $15 for it, and now it's only $10!!). Somehow, of all the gifts, this floated to the top as a favorite.

Well, Daddy and Michaela headed to Toys R Us this morning to try to exchange a broken toy (a Rock Star Mickey microphone). Sadly, there were no microphones left, so Michaela got to go shopping for something else. Apparently, as they perused the store, she didn't want to leave any of the train tables that were set up around the aisles, so Daddy figured a bigger train set might be the way to go.

I think we may have hit the jackpot with this one! Who says trains are for boys??

Day 361 - December 27

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not take these pictures. But they're of me (well, my insides anyway), so they count.

They're also not from today, they're from last Monday. But I wasn't ready to share them until a few days ago, and I didn't want to impede on the Christmas fun, so I held off for a while longer.

I added cheater notes for those who have no idea what you're looking at when you see one of these.

Day 360 - December 26

Holy cow! I'm in the 360s!!!! Only 5 more days to go... unless I decide to keep going in 2012. Which I probably will. Maybe.

Days like today make me doubt whether I want to keep going or not. Thankfully, I was so impressed with my own skills at dinner that I took a picture of my dish. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had a picture and would've had to scrounge something up.

So, dinner. Shrimp, sauteed in butter, olive oil and garlic; tossed in some spinach to wilt down just as the shrimp was almost done; and then served it over some whole wheat penne. It was good with and without some grated parmesan cheese. I might have to make this again.

Day 359 - December 25

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm too tired to do anything besides post the picture(s) and give a quick explanation. It was a long day of presents, cleaning up the house a bit, making and eating good food, and spending some time with friends tonight. I hope that everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas!!

This was Michaela's third Christmas, and the first one that she really understood in terms of Santa bringing presents, opening gifts, etc... She was pretty excited from the start this morning, especially once she figured out that Santa wasn't actually here, but that he dropped off the presents and left while she was sleeping. She was slightly concerned about actually having to see him!

This was her first look at the Christmas morning tree, with her presents stacked to the side.

Once she took a look at the gifts, she checked out the cookies and milk, and was pretty amazed to see that Santa had eaten a bunch of the cookies and that he drank almost all the milk!

And, finally, this was the result of opening a package that contained 4 different balls. She kept asking for a ball for Christmas, but it took a few tries for Santa to figure out exactly which kind she meant. The green one was it... and I heard Santa was pretty relieved to figure that out (ie find it) just this week!

Day 358 - December 24

It's Christmas Eve! And now that I'm just getting around to this at 11:30 at night, it's almost Christmas!

Michaela was in the holiday spirit today. How could she not be? She got to open some of her presents, FaceTime with Grandma and Grandpa Jeff (or, "Grandpa and Grandpa") and aunts and uncle, put on a pretty dress, go to church, open another present, and put out cookies and milk for Santa.

In the middle of all that, I made her deal with having her picture taken. We have one set of pictures in front of the tree with a full head to toe view of Michaela, with tights and shoes on, no wrinkles in her dress, and a somewhat cooperative kid.

Then we have another set with only a hem-of-the-dress-and-up view (because there were no tights and shoes anymore) and a completely wrinkled dress (courtesy of the carseat on the way home from church), and a less cooperative kid.

I'll let you guess which set this one came from.

Day 357 - December 23

We have a pile of presents under our tree already, and Santa hasn't even visited yet! Of course, until today, only two of the gifts were for anyone but Michaela (Jason and I both finally did our wrapping today, so there's now stuff for us under there).

So we've decided over the last couple of days to let her open one or two gifts a day from extended family so that Christmas morning isn't too overwhelming.

And while Michaela has enjoyed her gifts so far, Fred REALLY enjoyed her gifts today. More specifically, he enjoyed that one of them came in a big box, which required a lot of paper to cover it, so he got to play with what he considers the best part of any gift.

I had to laugh when I looked down from the couch and saw this looking back at me, though.... that paper is most definitely just stuck to his "lip." Goofy dog.

Day 356 - December 22

Today's picture is courtesy of Michaela's Auntie Erin - no actual relation, but one of my dearest friends.

To say Erin spoils her for her birthday and Christmas would be an understatement... she doesn't go crazy, but she always seems to find the PERFECT gift.

This year, it's fairy wings and a hair clip that matches the flower on the wings. And a "wishing pond." (That would be a "wand" to the rest of us.)

You can imagine how much my tutu and dress-up loving girl liked the wings. Oh my!

For the record, that's a striped Christmas dress, with a white Barbie bride dress-up dress over it, with the wings - upside down because the long part was bothering her and is a little loose - over the top of all that. I'm pretty sure this is my two-year-old's version of heaven.

Day 355 - December 21

Another day of no pictures until a few minutes ago... so I went to the tree. And you get two pictures because, although a picture can often tell a thousand words, sometimes you need two pictures for those same words.

In this case, these two pictures perfectly explain the life of a young Coastie couple, first starting out in married life.... A life that included being on two different ships and having crazy schedules that sometimes let us be in the same place. And sometimes you have to take advantage of being in the same place, even if it means that holidays come on days other than what the calendar says.

This is one of my favorite ornaments on our tree. It holds such memories of hand-painting ornaments for our first little tree (a little 4 ft artificial), and making our crazy marriage and life work when the Coast Guard seemed to work hard at keeping us apart as much as possible during that first year. Twelve Christmases later, we've been lucky enough to get much closer to the actual date of Christmas more often than not, but we've missed many other milestones along the way. That first Christmas taught us to always take advantage of being together when we can, and to celebrate the big days whenever we get the chance, regardless of what the calendar says!

Day 354 - December 20

Tuesdays are playgroup day.

After a slow start, I had us ready to head out the door only a few minutes after the actual start of playgroup. Then a quick FB check told me that playgroup had been moved from the park to Chick-fil-A, which has a playplace, but isn't my favorite place to be. Michaela is too small for the playplace equipment, for the most part, and doesn't love that I stay on the other side of a glass door when she's playing. We don't usually have very much fun when we go there for something other than chicken nuggets.

So we braved the possible rain and headed to a different park by ourselves - the kid NEEDED to get outside. It did sprinkle on us little, but she didn't let that bother her! She spent quality time on the swings, crawling around the play structure, and, of course, spinning like crazy on the tire swing.

And, although it was nearly 70 degrees out, I'm glad we had sweatshirts. With the dampness and the wind, it actually felt chilly. Crazy Alabama weather.

Day 353 - December 19

When you are busy doing boring things like menu planning and grocery shopping during the day, and you don't get around to taking a picture, the greatest things in the world are a Christmas tree and the Hipstamatic app.

Day 352 - December 18

Back to the tree for picture-taking fodder today.

I'll warn you, there will probably be others similar to this in the coming days. I had a lot of fun playing with my camera trying to get a good glowy-tree effect tonight. But I was too lazy to get out a tripod, so we got more blur than glow on most of them. I'll have to try again later.

Meanwhile, I thought this one was cool, with the light from the star on our tree scattered on the ceiling.

Day 351 - December 17

Sometimes I'm very thankful that I almost always have a camera on me (in the form of my phone) because no one would believe what I've seen if I didn't have a picture.

Like, the other day, I took a picture of a local gas station sign (that wasn't on the base), where gas was only $2.99/gallon!

Today, it's the super classy people in the neighborhood who had this festive way to decorate for the holidays.

I'm just glad they're not close by. And I wonder if they know.....

Day 350 - December 16

I'm not sure if Michaela's excitement over her Christmas party at "school" today reaffirms our parenting decisions, or makes me feel terribly guilty for depriving her of a childhood staple.

You see, it wasn't the fact that there was a party in general to go to that made my girl so happy... it was that she knew she would be getting juice. She knew that because the only other time she's had juice was at her Halloween party at school.

Can you tell how much she was looking forward to her juice box??

Day 349 - December 15

Do you know what a 2-yr-old with an active imagination can provide you?

Endless fodder for picture-taking and general laughing.

Today's project of the day seemed to be keeping all her "guys" (a set of plastic Disney figures - Sully, Buzz, Woody, Mr. Incredible, Dash and Nemo) well-rested and comfortable.

Mostly that meant laying them down somewhere and covering them with various things - wrapping paper, a blanket (short-lived), and, eventually, Nemo napkins leftover from her birthday.

It also meant reading to them as they were resting.

Day 348 - December 14

That's a lotta cookies!

I got my last bunch of actual cookies done this morning while Michaela was at MDO. My brain stopped working before I got to the last pan so those didn't get flattened with the bottom of a glass like the rest, but oh well. I tasted one, and they're still yummy, even if they're not the same shape as the rest.

So happy to be done with the actual cookies. Tomorrow I make a simple toffee bark and then I can start giving the goodies away!

Day 347 - December 13

I would've had a more exciting picture for today if I had left my kitchen.

The baking is seriously in full force - I baked two different kinds of cookies today and mixed a third batch for baking tomorrow.

And I learned that I NEVER want to do butter cookies (they're a roll out, cut, decorate with sprinkles kind) by myself. It took forEVER! So if Jason ends up on a trip for work right before Christmas again next year, I'll be sure to get those done before he leaves so I can make him help me!

These little cookies cutters were the bane of my existence this afternoon....

Day 346 - December 12

The fun has begun!!

And by fun, I mean not-really-so-much fun.... the holiday baking.

I am not a baker. I can count on one hand the number of times per year that I bake something from scratch.

Except for at Christmas time. I bake a lot at Christmas time. Usually I make about 6 or 7 different kinds of cookies. And with the exception of my favorite Pillsbury sugar cookies, they're all from scratch.

It's not that I don't like baking, it's just that I don't like baking. But thanks to my mom, I felt this compulsion to make cookies to give away at Christmas like she's always done. And even though I'm not a fan of the process of making the cookies, nothing makes me happier than putting together a plate or a container to give to a friend. So in the end, it's totally worth it.

So tonight I got the first kind of cookies done... 7 dozen Peanut Butter Blossoms, topped with Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Yummy!

Day 345 - December 11

This picture is for my mom.

Before I get to why, though, I have to say that I'm loving Michaela's age (2 yrs, and almost 5 months) when it comes to picture-taking because, as long as she's in the mood to have a camera in front of her, she'll do pretty much anything I ask of her. This is a far cry from trying to get her to understand how to hold cards in front of her like I did back in August. You can't imagine the difficulty of capturing that pretty simple shot.

Now, though, she understands when I tell her to put a hand up, or behind or back, or "be a ballerina!" Oh, and once she'd stopped dancing, she changed her pose every time she heard the click of the camera on my phone. I'm not even kidding.

And that brings us to tonight's picture... this is for my mom because she gave Michaela these jammies quite a while ago. Without knowing they came with a tutu, Michaela started dancing around like a ballerina tonight. I had to offer up the tutu after that, and then asked her to be a ballerina so we could send a picture to Grandma.

Instead of sending it, though, I figured I'd just put it here.

I might need to get this girl in a dance class.

Day 344 - December 10

Michaela got in on the action today while I was wrapping gifts that need to be sent out to family. She was drawn to the bows, of course, and thankfully I had this peach colored one (why is there a peach bow in a Christmas package??), so she got to have one.

I'm titling this picture "I'm a Present" since that's what she told me when she put the bow on.

Day 343 - December 9

A few days ago, I posted a picture of my to-do (before Christmas) list on facebook. To say it's a little longer than I'd like would be a gross understatement.

I'm happy to report I at least got a few things knocked off of it today, though, with a free hour to shop this morning, kidlesss (Daddy got to take her to Kinder-Gym), and some time tonight to finally get stamps on the Christmas cards.

Now to finish shopping, wrapping, sending gifts across the country, baking cookies and packaging them up, and.... hmmm, that might be it. It still seems like so much though!

But at least the cards are done!

Day 342 - December 8

Today I got to get up at 4:40 in the morning and not go back to sleep, courtesy of a puking child.

I don't love being a mom on days like today.

I spent most of the morning on the couch with a kid who caught cat-naps between getting sick. At least she got a little sleep, though, and then she was feeling pretty good by about lunch time.

I think she almost doesn't mind sick days because she gets to wear footie pajamas all day (she's obsessed with wearing pajamas all day lately). Adding the tutu just made it that much better. The best, though, was that she referred to herself as "the ballerina" the whole time she was wearing the tutu. As in, "Does the ballerina want to eat her toast? Yes!"

By tonight she seemed perfectly fine. Fingers are crossed for a quiet, puke-free night.

Day 341 - December 7

Yesterday's picture is late because I spent 3 hours in the kitchen last night baking cookies for a cookie swap and putting together a breakfast casserole, both for MOPS today.

Then the kid woke up vomiting at 4:40 this morning so we didn't go to MOPS. But, a fellow mom came by and got the casserole and my cookies to bring for me, and then brought me back my empty pan - and my cookies! SCORE!

Anywho. It was a busy day yesterday. So the tree was my subject again.

I love this ornament. We got it at a craft fair, I think, in Kodiak. It's a piece of the Russian Orthodox tradition, one of the many different cultural groups represented in Kodiak. I love that we have things like this, nesting dolls (from the Russian influence), a Kuspik for Michaela when she's older (from the Alutiiq tradition), and then lots of fish/marine life reminders of our time there. Kodiak has so many different identities.

But I'm rambling... here's the picture.

Day 340 - December 6

This could count as a tree picture. But it's mostly an ornament picture. So we'll call it that. Otherwise I'll end up with the 25 days of Christmas tree pictures by the end of the month.

I love when a crystal ornament gets hung right in front of a light, especially when it happens accidentally. So pretty!

Day 339 - December 5

A warning:

This is not the first picture of our Christmas tree (there was a small bit showing in the picture of Michaela yesterday), and it won't be the last.

Day 338 - December 4

Since we went to get the tree yesterday, obviously today was the day to decorate it.

Jason nicely put the lights on last night while I took a little nap on the couch (the reason yesterday's picture was posted minutes ago), so the tree was all ready for the ornaments this afternoon.

While Michaela napped, we unwrapped ALLLLL the ornaments and hung all but a handful, saving Michaela's ornaments for her to hang when she woke up.

So when I say ALLLLL the ornaments, I'm not kidding.... we have a LOT. Our tree is about 9 feet tall and pretty wide, and it's FULL. But before we got the ornaments to the tree, we were both struck by how many there were as they were just laid out on the ground. For scale, I think the line was about 6+ feet long. A lot, right?

And, of course, I had to get a shot of Michaela hanging an ornament... on a step stool because she HAD to use a step stool.

Day 337 - December 3

My kid is a goofball.

At the tree lot (ugh, how I hate having to go to a tree lot - vs. a farm or the woods - to get a Christmas tree), Michaela picked up a stray branch and proceeded to tell us it was her umbrella. She's a little obsessed with umbrellas lately.

So here she is holding her "umbrella" over her head.

And for the record, she couldn't have cared less about finding a Christmas tree.

Day 336 - December 2

From reading to gymnastics....

Jason was home during the day today, so he got to come to Kinder-Gym with me and Michaela. Because he was there, I could do less child-supervising and more picture-taking. Sadly, I forgot that I had planned to grab my real camera, so I was stuck with just my phone.

Who needs a "real" camera, though, when you can still capture hair standing on end under the parachute with your phone?

Day 335 - December 1

It's the first day of the last month of my project! I can't believe how quickly the year has gone, and I REALLY can't believe I managed to stick with this!!!!

I especially can't believe I've managed to stick with it when I had a day like today - the picture was definitely a last-minute thought tonight!

I'm just glad Michaela decided to find a quiet moment for herself to sit next to the couch and "read" a book. I initially checked on her because things had gotten a little too quiet... never a good sign. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find this when I peaked over the side of the couch!