Christmas 2010

Christmas is magical...especially when you have kids to share it with.  There is just something about seeing it through the eyes of a child.  Leaving the cookies for santa (Cortlan left about eight).  Feeding the reindeer (both kids had to put their boots on to shake the glittery food on the snow).  The anticipation.  Waking on Christmas morning with excitement and gasping at the wrapped treasures under the tree.  Even I had a more difficult time sleeping on Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas traditions begin on Christmas Eve, when we have my in-laws over for socializing, dinner and gifts, and a traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas.  Christmas morning is time for us to slowly enjoy the opening of presents, breakfast, and whatever else we feel like doing as a family of four.  After the kids have their naps, we head over to my parent's house for dinner and gifts with them.  If we are lucky (and this year, we were) we are able to put the kids to sleep there and enjoy the evening with some adult conversation.  This year was pretty typical in routine, and we loved every minute of it.  Even the moments that made it unique, like

• A beautiful church service with lots of singing, Everly's diaper leaking, and Cortlan obsessing over the candle we got to hold.
• Bringing up the turkey from the garage refrigerator on Christmas Eve morning, five days after putting it there to thaw, and two hours or so before it was to go in the oven, and finding it rock-solid frozen.  Still.  Fortunately, the grocery store had a fresh one left.  Otherwise, who knows what new tradition may have started.
• Our family picture in which the kids are dressed in their beautiful red and black Christmas outfits, but in which makes the appearance of two pillow pets and new winter hats.  The picture wasn't going to happen otherwise.
• Everly crying herself to sleep because she wanted to wear her new shoes from Grandma to bed on Christmas Eve.
• Cortlan waking in the morning to ask us if he was allowed to see if Santa had come, and then when he saw that he indeed had, running straight to the present that he was sure was the grill he wanted.  He opened it first, and he was right.
• Everly tearing into her presents like a champ, and loving every one, but us having to stop halfway through as she totally stripped down to her diaper and declared that she needed to get dressed.  "Desst!  Desst!!"
• Cortlan staying in his PJ's until after nap because he did not want to get dressed.
• Everly making crazy monsters with twenty different appendages with the new Play-Doh set that she got, while Cortlan made us burgers and hot dogs on the grill.
• Everly and my dad rubbing noses, laughing, and upon stopping, her saying, "Moe!  Nos!!"  (More nose!) Again and again and again.
• Cortlan telling me a bedtime story about himself and his cousins that included the line, "and up the hill I ran."

The holiday was filled with too many toys, but many, many joys.

Magical.

A letter from Santa

Dear Cortlan and Everly,

Thank you for the yummy cookies! My favorite was the stocking that was so beautifully decorated. The reindeer really enjoyed their snack, too.

You both have been very good this year. I want you to keep working hard at sharing, being first-time listeners, and not whining.

I hope you enjoy the gifts I have brought and that you take good care of them and put your toys away when you are done playing with them. Also, I brought you some things that you should share with each other because I know you will both like them.

Keep working hard and make sure you tell your mommy and daddy that you love them. I know they love you very much.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Santa Claus

My Snowflakes

My kids are on my mind today.

I am loving how they interact.  I am loving how they giggle and play.  I am loving how Everly admires her big brother so much, and how he plays right along with it. 

This weekend, we went to the mall.  Cortlan wanted to watch the fountain, and climbed up on the edge.  Everly got right up there with him, checked his stance, and adjusted herself so she was sitting just like him.  (I can't believe I didn't get a picture!)  Tonight, he was laughing with his hands over his mouth, and she made sure she was doing it just the same.  He bit his tongue while eating his vegetables at dinner and she reacted as if she had bit hers, too.  He gets a kick out of this, and is flattered by the imitation.  I know that can't possibly last.  But I can enjoy it while it does.

Cortlan's teachers gave him a drawing board with markers today, and of course he wanted to draw on it when we got home.  Everly was none too pleased that she didn't get one, too, but was happy enough once I brought out the paints.  "Everly, you are an artist!" said her big brother, proudly, as she created her masterpiece.  And she is.  She loves drawing and coloring and painting, and will sit on the stool for an hour making her designs.  Cortlan has always been a minimalist, and certainly has his own style.  Today, he was an artist, too. 

"Ooooh!" I said.  "Is that a spider?"

"No."

"A sunshine?" asks John.

"No!  Its a snowflake!"

"Ahhhh!  Of course!  And a beautiful snowflake it is."

A beautiful snowflake.  In many ways, my kids couldn't be any more different.  I am amazed by that every day.  And different doesn't mean bad.  Or good.  Just...different.  And I love it.  And I love them.

Not everything is how it appears

I try to focus on the positive here and remind myself that despite the fact that not everything goes right all of the time, life is pretty darn good.  But after the last post, I feel the need to include a disclaimer.  Things aren't always as rosy as they may seem.  A few cases in point:

I had to buy Clearasil this weekend.  And it isn't helping.  I don't know what the heck is going on, but my skin is suddenly worse than that of a teenager standing over the frier at BK.

Those cookies that I made?  Yeah.  First, they took hours.  Many things (like house cleaning) didn't get done as a result of making them.  And they probably have a little to do with my new figure (and perhaps my new complexion).

Cortlan's birthday is January 9th.  In the midst of the holiday craziness, I only just figured out what we are going to do for his party.  And nevermind the fact that I haven't gotten invites out yet.  Ok.  I haven't even bought them yet.

But for the grand finale of the day, enjoy the following excerpts from conversations with co-workers:

(classroom phone rings)
Me:  Hello?
Him:  Hey!  Did you give me a Christmas card?
Me:  (thinking that he is going to compliment me on the cuties in the pictures)Yes!
Him:  Well, it is a very nice envelope.  You know there was no card in it?
Me:  What?  There was no card in the envelope??
Him:  Nope.  But your handwriting on the front was nice.  That's how I knew it was from you.
Me:  Well, crap.  I hope yours is the only one!

Later, to another friend, in the copier room:
Me:  Hey, did you get a card from me?
Her:  No.
Me:  What?  Not even an envelope?
Her (looking at me quizzically): No.
(pause, as I try to figure out whose mailbox I must have put her card in)
Her:  But you know what?  So-and-so brought a really nice envelope to my room this morning and asked if I gave it to him.  He said there was no card in it.
Me:  Ohhhhhhh.  Yep.  That was from me.  It was a nice envelope, wasn't it?

Now, I wonder how many people got a mysterious silver-lined envelope with nice handwriting on the front.

Um. Yeah. I am going that crazy.

A wonderful weekend

It is an awesome weekend in December when...

...after discovering that most of our lights from last year no longer work and not being able to hang them anyway because the roof is covered with ice and snow, and after spending a bit too much money on an inflatable Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and over-sized solar-powered light bulbs that stick into the ground and tubes of red lights to wrap around the pillars of our front porch, our outside Christmas decorating is finally done.  And it was done before the rain (yes, rain) came.

...the aforementioned decorating is done by the hubs while I play with the kids in the snow.  In hopes that the kids would want to sledride, we dragged out the sleds.  Cort didn't want to because he didn't want to go fast.  He wanted to shovel the sidewalk and driveway instead.  Um, ok.  Deal.  (In actuality, he mostly shoveled the yard, because it was much easier.)  I took Everly down the hill in the sled, which was met with an immediate, "Moe."  So around and around we went...down the sidewalk, the driveway, up the not-so-steep hill, and then down the steeper hill of our front yard.

...I get to spend a nice couple of hours with some great friends from aerobics and the most delicious spinach bisque soup.  And chocolate raspberry tart.  And eggnog. 

...we get to have dinner with some of my favorite people prior to driving through an amazing display of lights, made much more entertaining by the text messaging occuring between the two cars.  The kids loved the lights.  The tunnels were Cort's favorite.  Everything was Ev's favorite, at least when asked in the form of yes or no questions.  (Were the teddy bears your favorite?  Desss. Did you like the tunnels best? Dessss.)

...I remember most of the lyrics to some old faves when singing at the top of my lungs with some great friends in their basement.  Hello, Violent Femmes.  I had almost forgotten about you.  Hello, again, Eddie Vedder.  I could never forget about you.

...the house is filled with the smells of nine dozen peppermint chocolate cookies baking on a Sunday afternoon.  And I did it with the help of my little baking buddy, who couldn't have been more excited to dump the ingredients into the mixer and watch it go around.

Loving these moments.

The tirimisu at Carmine's was heavenly

So I recently got back from a trip to NYC - four glorious days of bus and subway riding, tour going, show seeing, Christmas shopping, overeating, walking, and keeping track of other people's kids - to an overload of things to do and a sudden realization that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away.

I really missed my kids.  A lot.  I kept seeing kids in strollers and wishing I was happily pushing mine along as well.  (And then I would realize that the odds of my kids sitting that still just watching the world go by, watching their parents shop, and staying up way past their bedtime without so much as a peep or whimper or a "I wanna walk!!" are pretty slim.  I don't know if they sedated these kids or what, but it was almost weird.)

Anyway, two days later, I finally got the suitcase unpacked.  I also finally cracked the newspaper (really to just look at the ads at this point) and got to the end of the first paragraph in an article in the Parade magazine (that is tucked away in with the ads) before I stopped to record it here:

Jack Black's best parenting advice:  "Never try to make a happy child happier.  Just leave it alone.  When you try and kick it up to another level with a scoop of ice cream or whatever, it ruins everything."

So, so true.