Christmas Follies

What a great two weeks of fun our family has enjoyed. Not sure how to web a cohesive story about all our adventures, so you will have to be happy with the following pictorial review.

My sister Ann joined us for the festivities. We loved having her with us! She was here by Christmas eve and helped all of us gear up for the big day!

Constant checking of Norad's Santa tracking website. They were so in to it. In fact, when they went to bed that night, they begged us to go down and check it so that we knew if he was getting close that we had to hurry and go to bed so that Santa would stop at our house. Too cute!

The Great Debate: How many cookies does Santa eat at every house and how many carrots are the "right" amount. After much back and forth, they settled on six cookies and 8 carrots.

The final picture before going to bed with high hopes and excitement for the daybreak.

Here they are ripping into the big Santa present.

The camera caught this expression as he read the back of the steelers shirt. "Polamalu" -- he was loving it!

Santa brought CJ the "little sister, Purpley" to her Pinky horse (a white stuffed horse with a pink saddle). This gift was on CJ's Santa list for the last 3 months. Let me just say how excited I was that Santa was able to make this toy that CJ dreamed up in her head. It was just right, according to CJ, albeit "smaller" than she was hoping or thought it would be. That's when I reminded her that it was the "LITTLE" sister.

The the next day was spent playing with all the new games. Guess Who was CJ's favorite. While Alexander was all about marathon Uno.

To finally burn some of that energy, we all headed ice skating. This was the first time the kids tried ice skating while it was Ann, Zack and my first time in something like 15 to 30 years. Not sure what was more special about this day: was it the success and fun everyone had ice skating or the fact that CJ was wearing pants???

The Tuesday after Christmas, we headed to visit family. First to Zack's sister to exchange gifts with them and Zack's dad. It was a great visit for the five adults and 8 cousins.

CJ and Saren all dressed up.

Gift exchange, Part Two.

I guess you could call this controlled chaos.

Then we hopped in the car to head to my Mom and Dad's house. Another house full of aunts, grandparents and cousins. The kids were in heaven!!! On Wednesday, Zack and I took the kids and our nephew, Mike, to the Please Touch Museum in Philly. Talk about an interesting place to people watch!! The kids loved all the stuff to push, pull, poke and throw. I was on a mission to find every available Purell station.

This was a cool green-screen, dress up area. I can't believe we got Alexander to wear a pseudo costume!

Curiously, Alexander was the best of our group hula-hooping. He can shake those hips!

This was Flamingo croquet from Alice and Wonderland.

That night it was our last present opening escapade with the cousins and my parents. CJ opened two presents and then declared, "That's all I get?" Nice. That was a proud mommy moment! (Please detect my comment's dripping sarcasm).

These cousins look like they had enough of Christmas. Love the expressions of boredom on all of them.

My Mom and Dad. Always great to see them and spend some quality time.

Aunt Mary came through on this present. CJ opened it and within 2.3 seconds had changed into it. Three days later she is still wearing it. Not sure when I will get it off of her to wash!

We headed home the following day and everyone was a bit exhausted from late nights, early mornings and copious amounts of Christmas stimulation.

Another soon to be classic picture of CJ. Her Aunt Ronece gave her a dress up kit and she just had to put it all on. She stayed like this for most of the afternoon, belting out the lyrics to all of her own made-up songs. Hannah Montana better watch out!

Homework Time

Most people cringe when they hear a homework story coming. It usually involves frustration, confusion, short tempers and occasionally tears. So far, I have been lucky. Homework for a 1st grader is not that tough and my kid seems to like doing it. This fact I will, of course, remind him of in a few short years when teenage melancholy hits.

Alexander has homework Monday through Thursdays and it always include 10 to 15 minutes of reading to me. This is my favorite part. Now the tables are turned... which sadly means no more Goodnight Moon, but I really enjoy a good Berenstain Bears from my 6 year old toothless narrator.

CJ is never to be left out of anything (even homework), so she frequently joins in. She will do a few pages in a preschool workbook, color something, or try to "help". In fact, she is already writing kid-sentences and using punctuation. Sibling rivalry can be an excellent thing --- once harnessed and used for good!!

The other day, I was inspired to document our table-time. I want to remember how cool this time in their and my life is.

They were learning and having fun. Just the way I like it!

Deep thoughts....

Doing homework gets tiring, so a little head rest is apparently needed.

CJ was writing out a number chart from 0 to 100. She completed the whole thing and I was so proud!!! Four Years Old. That's all. She amazes me.

Alexander is doing a subtraction sheet. For some reason, he believes the answers are hidden on the top of his pencil.

Here comes the fun.....

"MUSH FACE"

"FISH LIPS"

Funny CJ

Two things made me laugh today with that sassy 4 year old.

1. Walking in to the HUB (that's the union building) on campus, a group of college students opened the door for us. As I thanked the man for his chivalry, CJ marched in. The three women with him looked at her and said to themselves, "She is sooooo cute".

Four steps later, CJ looks up at me and says,"I think they were talking about me."

I replied, "Yes, I think they were."

2. Playing at home, CJ goes running into the bathroom and announces to me loudly that she is going to go #2. Okay then hurry up and go to the bathroom, I replied (not sure why I always get the notification, but whatever).

Then she screams to me, "Mommy, I just hold my breath to keep the poop up."

What does that even mean? It means I got to laugh again today.

HA!

My first "really old" comment

Today at the bus stop I commented to Alexander and our neighbor's child how I was glad that they didn't have to walk to school in this 20 degree weather. Of course, Alexander replied, "Why?"

Me: Because it is really cold out here and my ears are already freezing. When I was going to school, I had to walk and I remember how cold I was.

Alexander: Did you have cars back then?

Me: {Dramatic pause to absorb my first old comment from my kids, then smile} Yes, honey. I just lived "close" enough to the school that they made me walk.

Alexander: Oh.

Christmas Season

It's only one week after Thanksgiving and our time has been filled with Christmas activities for the kids. The tree was decorated by that following Sunday by the kids, the decorations were hung with care around the house with their help and they have been diligent about counting down the days on their advent calendars in the morning when they awake.

Thursday we ventured out in the cold to see the downtown's annual tree lighting, the next night we went to our church's Advent Family Fun Night where the kids have a great time seeing friends, eating pizza, and doing Christmas crafts. They make those wonderful, hand-made ornaments that I will especially treasure when they are off at their first year of college.

Then we headed to a local Elf's Gift Shop. This event takes the kids with the help of the girl scout troop around to a vendor fair to pick out secret gifts for mom/dad/sister/brother/etc. They love this event. Although I am fairly certain that CJ will not be able to keep my present a secret. She keeps telling me "hints". Soon I suspect that she will just say, "Here's a hint Mommy: It's a necklace" or something to that effect.

Next weekend, I am taking CJ to The Nutcracker. Since her recent statements to "what I want to be when I grow up" question have been that she wants to be a ballerina and a teacher... or teach ballet, I think it is time she actually see some ballet. Stay tuned.

We received our first Christmas card on Saturday and I talked to a friend who just mailed hers out that day. Wow. Cards are always thought of as such a chore of the holiday season for me.

It's all the effort of the project: gathering the addresses, writing special notes inside and then picking up the stamps. But I sat down today to work on it, nonetheless. I have a huge storage bin of cards from years past. I mostly keep them so that I can go through and capture addresses to send to people the current year. Plus, it just feels weird to trash something people took time to mail to you.

I decided to go through all of them today. I will admit that it made me sort of melancholy if not a bit sad seeing the pictures of little cousins and children of friends who have grown up so much, seeing my plump pregnancy pose with CJ in my belly and Alexander on my lap, reading the notes from friends that we have moved away from and lost touch. Time passes. People move on. Loved ones pass on.

As I gathered up the mountain of cards from the last 5 years for the recycling bin it made me realize that everyday, not just the 4 weeks of Christmas cheer, I must love those who I have in my life today and remember to thank God for having blessed me with them in my life.

Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the Season and hopefully you'll get a card in the mail soon...