friday link love

I'm not sure why, but my link love posts always get me so reflective.  Probably because it's always the end of another week, and the weeks seem to pass so quickly with Claire in the mix.  

This week, I really felt how close it is - how close we are to that time of year where everyone really shows their true colors.  Where you can feel stressed, or feel the joy.  I'm already feeling a little anxiety about our family gatherings - there's so much more pressure on us to come to EVERYTHING and to be everywhere because of Claire.  Just looking at our calendar for Thanksgiving & Christmas makes me nervous.  

But, I just need to keep in mind that the most important thing is us three and I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that we can't do everything.  Christmas with a baby will be a lot easier if we just simplify.  A few things we're doing differently this year?  Fewer gifts - I'm talking just parents, siblings, and one another.  I love buying something for each and every one of my loved ones, but this year of course we want to devote the majority of our resources to Claire, and the time investment in finding the right thing for everyone is just too much!  No doubling up on events - we won't be carting ourselves around to three lunches between noon and 3 pm.  Just one Thanksgiving dinner.  Living in the moment, rather than worrying about having Claire fed and changed by the time we have to hurry hurry to the next house.  

Lastly, no pressuring ourselves about decorating.  We'll have a tree - and that's it! And even though we'll be using our good old fake tree we'll probably take a trip to a tree farm for some photos of a bundled up baby, because you have to, right?  

Ranting about the holiday season, finished.  Here are this week's favorite links!  

Seriously, stop asking parents how their kids are sleeping!  

I cannot get enough of these funny posts captioning old paintings: here, women having a terrible time at old parties, and women being proposed to.  

Did you know that even sign language has accents?  

I don't have any *fancy* holiday parties this year, but I kind of wish that I did so I'd have an excuse to wear this dress!  

Graphic design can be so clever!  I never noticed most of these hidden messages in famous logos.  

Made me laugh, but also makes me shake my head!  I think someone from Mt. Vernon, IL wrote this e-card.