Or at the very least, I dented it and some paint got scraped off. I was trying to delete two things from my sidebar—two itty-bitty nonessential pieces of code, honestly—and somehow I broke my theme. Then my blog disappeared. Aaaaaccckkk!

UPDATED: OMSH fixed it for me because she is a web genius and wonderful friend. Thank you so much, Heather!

I poked around a bit and figured out how to bring my blog back (whew!) but not the pretty theme. Which means my photos are all squished and my awesome Chuck banner that Brenda made for me isn’t up (boohoo!) and several other things are missing as well. I don’t want to poke around any more right now for two reasons: I might make it worse, and it’s after midnight and I have to get up early in the morning so we can go to the zoo. If I start tinkering now I could accidentally stay up till 4am trying to fix my mistake.

For now, I’m going to bed and hoping I’ll figure this all out tomorrow or the next day. In the meanwhile, if you want to see photos of the awesome International 7 Days Meet-Up we had yesterday in Lauren’s honor with Summer, Katie, Elaine, Bonnie & Brenda (Sonja and Jen couldn’t make it but we’re seeing them Tuesday), click the photo for the set.

I posted photos of two ornaments I’d painted and then blogged about them a couple of weeks ago. Bex expressed a wish to own the star-shaped one, so I put it in my Etsy shop and she promptly bought it. I brought it to Omaha with me so I could mail it as soon as I got here. Ha.

After a week in Omaha, I remembered the star. I finally mailed it TODAY, at 5:15pm, just before the post office closed. And I had to buy bubble wrap while I was there because my mom had run out.

Bex, your ornament should arrive in 2-3 days! Unless the box gets “accidentally” damaged and someone from the USPS takes a liking to it.

We had lunch today with my friend Stephanie—the same Stephanie with whom we went to the zoo after we first moved to California. She happened to be passing through Omaha on her way to spend Christmas with family in central Nebraska, so we arranged to meet for lunch at Wheatfields. It was great to see her, as always.

I splurged and let Annalie get hot cocoa. Boy was I glad I did that, because this was what the waitress brought out to her!

I wish I had gotten a photo of when the waitress first set the cocoa down in front of her. Annalie’s jaw dropped, and she was so happy and excited! I love how kids can really appreciate the simple things. The thoughtful waitress had even added a few ice cubes to the cocoa to cool it down, so Annalie didn’t have to wait to drink it.

The cocoa made up for Annalie’s disappointment that we didn’t get to sit in the sun deck by the fountain, as we usually do. So did the fact that we were sitting next to a gingerbread Dr. Seuss town. Yep, someone recreated Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas in gingerbread, frosting, and candy! I especially love the gumballs (or giant jawbreakers or whatever they are) that were used in various places.

If you look at the biggest size of the second photo you can see a little Grinch towards the bottom, with a Wheatfields restaurant on the right, and a movie theater that’s playing It’s a Wonderful Life. I kind of wanted to take more photos, but everyone was waiting for me. Anyway, as long as the weather cooperates we’ll be going back to Wheatfields on Wednesday for brunch with a bunch of friends. Maybe I’ll get the chance to take more photos then.

This was my alternate 7 Days shot. Scooters is an Omaha-based coffee company that has really good coffee at their many drive-thru locations. Today my mom and I stopped there after lunch for lattes.

Annalie got a GloDoodle at our early family Christmas on Sunday, and she’s been playing with it a lot. Can you tell we miss Troy? We do. Thank goodness we have snow and beloved restaurants and friends and family, especially a sweet new baby, to distract us.

Photo taken by Brenda Ponnay

Annalie and I had tons of fun visiting Brenda and Bug this weekend. I have many photos on my hard drive of us all having fun, but I can’t edit and upload them yet because I forgot my laptop’s power cord at Brenda’s house, 90 miles away. I’m trying to make the battery last so I can at least check email till I can get the cord back. I might not be online much in the next few days, but I should get lots of crocheting done and sleep more!