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that was the year that was	Dec. 29th, 2023 @ 07:58 pm

Christmas was EXHAUSTING.

I come from a first-generation immigrant family. Christmas growing up was my parents and sister, maybe we go see some family friends.

Quiet. Peaceful. Admittedly somewhat dull.

This year? THIS YEAR? Hoo boy.

Obviously it's somewhat my own fault, what with how I got myself into a committed relationship with a partner who not only has a family but also has a husband and he has a family, so on Christmas Day we had V's older sister and her husband and kids over for morning tea, then her younger sister and her husband and kids and their parents for lunch, and then my parents for dinner... and then on Boxing Day we went to C's family lunch.

V's brother and one of C's brothers weren't even there. Still kinda overwhelming!

With the help of V's sisters and one of her nieces we've made substantial progress in getting the house ready for the baby. We're talking about plans for decorating the nursery. So far in terms of Unique and Special Decorations all that's really there is a little drawing of a Totoro on the wall inside his cupboard, it's super cute and I'll have to show a picture of it at some point.

I drew it. Helpfully, I got paint markers for C's family's secret Santa.

The baby is, of course, continuing to grow and be more active. Highlights in externally observable development:

- I startled him. I didn't mean to, but I was lying with my head in V's lap and I was being performatively outraged about something for her entertainment and I was maybe slightly loud. He had been asleep, but he jumped.

- Last night, he was very active, but it was getting close to V's bedtime and I've been encouraging him all along to make sure he doesn't keep her from sleeping. I sang him a lullaby... and it worked. He stopped kicking and moving around.

- Today I had to sing him two lullabies. He'd been quiet during the first one, but started kicking again as soon as I stopped singing. The second one he stayed quiet.

- Sometimes he presses and holds against V's tummy instead of just kicking. If you press back gently a couple of times, he stops. (It gets uncomfortable for her.) I'm not sure it's required to say, "High five, baby! High five!" when you do it, but I do.

I still suck at reading my reading page. In my defence the last couple of weeks have been rough for concussion stuff. Going through all the stuff for reorganising to clear baby room is a lot of memory things that are still very taxing for me, and then So Many People and so many screaming children at Christmas.

I'm not sure I could have managed Boxing Day, actually, but for the first couple of hours I wasn't out with the crowds, I was in one of the bedrooms playing Lego with one of the nephews.

Before that he gave me a tour of the house (or at least, of all his toys in all the rooms in which they were located). As he was showing me around, he noted: "You're very big! And fat. But really big!"

It is hilarious to me that he clearly wanted to be clear that he wasn't calling me fat... by specifically drawing the distinction between the fact that I am fat and the thing where I am very big, because he is three feet tall (and four years old).