Well, it’s been a little over a month since I posted my winter list, so I figure I owe you all an update.  I’ve been trying to make winter a fun season for our family, to the best of my ability.  Life gets in the way, though, and it’s tough to do everything that we hope to do even in the best of times.  Hubby and I have both been completely swamped at work, and then there was the unpleasant week when Peanut brought a stomach virus home from preschool and passed it around the household.  But we are trying to make the most of our weekends and of the time we have remaining as a family of three, before Nugget joins us in just a few more weeks (at most).  So here’s what we’ve been up to so far from our winter list:

• Clean out and decorate Nugget’s nursery!  In progress – very slow progress.  I’ve made some headway on cleaning out the room we’ve designated as the nursery.  I still have a few boxes to root through and either unpack or send to storage, and then we have some work we want to get done in the room before we furnish it.  But I’ve got furniture ordered (and need to call Land of Nod to check on the status of when we might expect a delivery… hopefully before our own delivery).  Really, I just need to buckle down and get this done.
• Hike at Reinstein Woods – the first of our seasonal hikes for 2015.  Done!  Check out my recap of our hike here.  It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see what Reinstein Woods looks like in the other seasons.
• Have friends over for dinner.  I’m not sure if I can count this one as done or not.  We did have Zan and Paul over to bake cookies (for the ladies) and watch football (for the men) but Zan actually brought the dinner in her CrockPot (which was really kind of her).  I did provide nachos for snacking during the baking and football-watching.  So does that count?  Hope so, because as busy as life has been lately I don’t know if we’ll get around to hosting another dinner before Nugget arrives.
• Build a snowman with Peanut.
• Eat lots of citrus.  Working on this, not that it’s really work.  I love citrus!  I’ve been enjoying grapefruit in the mornings, oranges for snacks, and I just bought a bag of blood oranges to bake with, so expect to see them around here soon.
• Knit a baby blanket for Nugget and a pair of cozy socks for me.
• Cook up a freezer full of meals for the first few sleep-deprived newborn weeks.  Working on this, too.  I’ve got a lasagne, enchiladas, and a few other dishes in the freezer, and earlier this week I did a big double batch of turkey chili.  Hoping to make the time to get a few more entrees socked away, and maybe some muffins for breakfasts, too.
• Go cross-country skiing, pulling Peanut along on her red sled.
• Buy, assemble, and organize shelves for Peanut’s playroom.
• Visit the Botanical Gardens so Peanut can hang with her besties in the koi pond.  Hmmm, I suppose I can call this one in progress, at least.  Hubby brought Peanut to the Botanical Gardens on New Year’s Eve – but I was at the office chipping away at my mountain of work, so I didn’t get to go.  I’m glad they had a daddy-daughter day, but I want to come along on the next Botanical Gardens outing!  I love it there.
• Bake an olive oil citrus cake.
• Plan a garden to plant with Peanut this spring.  The garden is in the planning stages.  Last month I read a book on gardening with kids, and while it was a little short on actual ideas we could implement now (most of the suggestions assumed more gardening expertise than I have, and an older child than Peanut) it was certainly inspiring.  I’m thinking of doing a few containers on the back patio this year – enough to give us an activity and a chance to learn, but not so much that we get in over our heads.  Next up is picking out what to grow and deciding whether I’ll order seeds or buy the plants already started.
• Get my books unpacked, finally.  Working on this one, too.  I’ve found a home for the books in the study, for now at least – although I’m dreaming of installing built-ins in the formal living room.  Hubby set up the shelves and I’ve been unpacking a box here and a box there, and I’ve filled about 3/5 of my shelf space.  I still have a few more boxes to get through and then I need to organize my shelves, but it’s progress.
• Take a winter hike at Knox Farm in East Aurora.
• Have a date night with hubby – we’re long overdue for one, and they’re going to be even harder to come by with two kids.  Done!  We actually managed to tear ourselves away from Peanut for an evening when we were visiting my parents over Christmas week, and we went out to dinner and saw the third Hobbit movie.  I didn’t love my dinner (I’m super picky these days), but the movie was great and it was certainly refreshing to be out just the two of us.  We actually got to talk to each other without a munchkin tugging at our shirts or clamoring for attention.  The funniest thing?  I kept cringing during every loud part of the movie, thinking it was going to wake Peanut up, before I’d remember that we were out, in the theater, and she was not actually sleeping upstairs.  Parenting habits die hard, I guess.  It was hard to spend an evening away from our little love, but we decided to take advantage of the free babysitting my parents always offer and I’m glad we did.

How about that?  Looking back over the list, it actually looks like some solid progress has been made!  There’s a lot more I want to do in February and early March, provided Nugget stays put long enough for me to get some more of these things done.  But we’re doing our best, and it’s actually pretty darn good!

Did you make a winter list?  How’s it going?