Dear Blog,

I guess I should apologize to you for neglecting you over the past few weeks. You see, I've been, well... overwhelmed with some things and it seems that when I have to cut back, you are the first to go. It doesn't mean that I love you any less than all of the other things in my life, it's just that as a mom who works full-time at home, my favorite hobbies sometimes fall on the bottom of the priority list. I should probably go write a letter to my running shoes next as well as all of the half-finished books on my nightstand. And just so you don't think that it's only things that I love that fall to the bottom of the list, you'll be happy to know that similar letters are probably owed to things like the vacuum cleaner and piles of laundry, too. Yes, sometimes I just get behind on life, and before I know it, I've let this little place in the blog-world go weeks without a visit. So again, sorry about that. But just so you don't think I'm making all of this up, here are a few things I've been up to during my blog-absence:

We made an impromptu day trip up to Cincinnati to meet my new nephew, Samuel. And to my defense, I would've posted about this, but I wanted to let his mommy post the announcement first. He also spent some time down here over Thanksgiving and I got to snap some fun photos of the little guy. Oh how I love him so!

In conjunction with Sam's arrival, one of my best friends, Christie, and her two cutie-pie kiddos came and visited for a few weeks to help out with baby and just visit of course.

We've also done a little shopping... both online and on Black Friday, although we agreed it wasn't quite as exciting this year and somewhat overcrowded.

It's that time of year to reconnect with old friends and family, so we've been doing a lot of that, too... catching up with loved ones is always fun.

We also had Thanksgiving of course, which means lots of holiday baking! I had some help in the kitchen this year, even though she was much more interested in sampling.

And what's Thanksgiving without a little relaxing, parade watching, and football?

On top of all of this, I've been a bit under the weather for longer that I would like and my card-reader on my Mac has decided to stop working, which makes uploading photos difficult. Excuses, excuses I know, but when added to the crazy past few weeks, it really does all add up.

So yes, it's been a whirlwind month around here, but we've been having tons of fun, so I hope you'll forgive me? With the holidays coming up I cannot promise to be much better next month, but I'll certainly try. I'm just hoping that with this little break, absence will only make the heart grow fonder, so we'll see. Thanks for understanding and for always being here whenever I'm ready to come back. I miss you when I take these breaks, but always know that I'll never abandon you without telling you, okay? You're my piece of the world that lets me unload, reflect, and flex my creative muscle and I'm not sure I could make it without you. Thanks for being my blog.

Love always,
Kim