7 Quick Takes – Christmas, Dining Out and Birthdays

1) I am very excited for all things Christmas this year. It is the first year I have ever wanted to pull out all my decorations in mid November and throw them all over the house. I guess the fact that we put our Christmas lights up so early (but we haven’t turned them on just yet) started the itching process. However, we decided that to be fair to Matteo we wouldn’t decorate the house for Christmas until AFTER his birthday.

2) I wonder how crazy it’s going to be for Matteo to wake up one day and have the whole house covered in lights and sparkles and decorative things. I have a feeling he is going to be obsessed with the tree and I’m going to spend the majority of the day preventing him from attacking it. There will be so much for him to look at, talk about sensory over load!

3) The other night I went to dinner by myself. It was the first time I had ever dined in a restaurant alone. Chad needed a ride to the airport for a work trip, Matteo was at home with his nurse and my dinner plans with a friend fell through. Instead of cancelling all together I decided I would still go even if it meant eating solo. I was totally surprised at how nice the whole experience was. The restaurant was quiet and I had a book with me. I sat and sipped green tea and read and ate sushi and it was such a relaxing night. Almost makes me wish I could do it every week! It also made be realize how thankful I am for having nurses that allow me the opportunity to do things like that.

4) Speaking of nurses, tonight Chad and I are going on a date and I’m so looking forward to dinner out just the two of us. We tend to spend all our free time with family and friend, which we really enjoy, but sometimes you just need time with each other. We will probably also take the opportunity to go out and buy Matteo’s birthday gift which is proving to be rather difficult since the grandmothers stole my idea (!) and with his birthday so close to Christmas it’s hard to plan two gifts so close together. However, I think I have a good idea in mind. We will see if it works out!

5) With Matteo’s birthday creeping up I have gone into craft overload. Well maybe not total overload but reasonable overload? I guess it will be up to his guests to determine how crazy I am. I just have so many great ideas from pintrest and instagram and I want to do them all! I mean your first born only has a first birthday ONCE in his life, right? Most of the projects are done but I came across a new idea today so we will see if I can get that done in time.

6) The theme of his birthday is UNO! Not only because uno means one in Italian and because it is one of my favourite childhood games but also because the colours of the cards are primary colours which are perfect for a kids party. But of course, being who I am, I had to even out all the primary colours with some GREY. I think it will be a fun balance.

7) I am looking forward to seeing what Matteo does when his birthday cake is presented to him. My Aunt is making him a little custom personalized birthday cake (I have very talented and awesome Aunts!). I don’t know if he will be able to blow out his candle. He will most likely try to play with it. And then of course there is the eating of the cake. I’m sure he will enjoy fits fulls of that!