White Christmas

Nine hours is better than 13 hours. At least when it comes to being in the car. So in that respect, the ride home from our NY trip was way better than our trip up. But Christmas with family is 13 times better than Christmas without. Thus, the trip was worth it.

Since our trips, especially as a family, are fewer we decided to make it a long week in NY for the holiday. We had plenty of time to just . . . be. There was little running around from house to house. I had enough of that from my younger years. And it's no fun with kids anyway so we stayed put. We even snuck in a night out with Matt, Joey and some old friends and a quick drink in Nyack.

Christmas Eve has always been my favorite night. We used to go out to dinner with Dad and Jo and brothers but there are way too many of us now. And kids . . .  well, you know. So we stay in. We eat. A lot. And we watch The Muppet Family Christmas. It was nice. But I have to say - it's changed. We have the old traditions but new ones are edging in. Those kids. . . . ! Binkers, our 'elf', found his way to NY. He "ka-poofed" there you know. He hid all over the house. We wrote him and Santa notes (and 'Santa' wrote one back! Thanks Uncle Tim!). And in the morning, instead of hanging out and taking our time as we had over the past few years as us kids have gotten older, we are once again back to rising early and waking everyone else up so we can hurry up and open gifts. With Nathan being old enough for the excitement, we have come full circle. Although Tim and Jen weren't there for our usual Christmas Eve festivities, they made sure to be there for the morning ones. And really, that was the fun part; To see the Nathan marvel at all the presents (so many of which were for him) and Benny to have a ball in all that wrapping paper. Although we don't have the same surprises as when we were young (when we came home from dinner the gifts would all magically be there under the tree and this time I actually saw Joanne go up and down the stairs making the "delivery") the small touches were still there. Small gifts sat on the table at dinner and breakfast, Secret Santa between the siblings (in person instead of Skype!) and even the Muppets (Ok, I missed this showing but Benny was sleeping so I had a small opportunity to shower.) I don't know how many Christmas's we will have at my Dads house, with the siblings, in NY. There are so many variables as our families grow and we slowly move apart. Who knows when we will all be together again.

For Christmas Day, after our morning with one side, we went to the Martins. Mom and Ed were there too and it was nice to celebrate with my fake in-laws. They may as well be a real part of our family though as we have known them for so long. Nathan and Lily loved running around some more - they really seemed to enjoy each others company this time around.

Wednesday we went down to Greg and Danielle's in NJ for more family time and pizza. More kid time! It would be nice to have had a little more down time; for me watching or holding Benny is exhausting and never-ending. He has been super whinny lately - due to teething, mommy-separation or both, I don't know. But I got some great shots of those kids playing. It started to snow and we had to cut our time short. Unfortunately we still waited too long. Our ride home was long and dangerous. Two hours instead of 30 minutes  The up side - the boys slept most of the way. Thank goodness!

The other upside - SNOW! It snowed Christmas Eve but that was a mere covering compared to the couple of inches we had that night. Aside from the presents, and playing with Lily, Nathan really loved playing in the snow. Leo, Uncle Joey and Nathan played for over an hour making huge snow people. It rained overnight and ruined what could have been another day of snow play. But it was special to get as much as we did this time around. It's almost enough to make us come back every year - if only snow on Christmas was a guarantee.

The rest of the week we played with our new toys and just hung out at Pops house. We went by the river to play and enjoyed a quick visit with Nanni and Aunt Ruth. Also, we adults had to mentally prepare for the ride home. Leo and I were stressed about it. We heard other reports that Friday traffic was bad and Saturday more snow was supposed to fall. The solution was a 4:20am wakeup. It was not fun but the result was the shorter drive and being home by 3p. A worthy sacrifice.

This weekend we had another mini Christmas (in addition to the one we had just before we left for NY too with Gigi and Grandpa!). Grandpa Truck, Babci, Kerri and kids came over for a while to play, exchange gifts and have dinner. I'm so thankful Nathan has his cousins. He just loves them. And so another mini-Christmas has been wrapped up. Today is a bit of a work day but a light one I think since New Years Eve is also upon us. No parties for us parents this year. We will settle for some good old-fashioned family time on the couch waiting for the ball to drop. I hope I can stay awake that long after such a busy week.

Truly

Things I truly enjoy: 
Christmas cards. The picture ones especially. It's cool when people who don't do pictures send cards too. But man do I love seeing new little faces each year. And people seem to enjoy ours too. Our list gets longer every year so I keep thinking, "maybe this year we will skip it." But you know me. I'll never skip a chance to challenge my creativity (and patience) when it comes to thinking up something new and showing off my boys.
My Nathan singing. Today his school did a little "pageant" of sorts. The different classes had cute little head pieces on and sang. Nathan's class were angels. It was nice to hear all the songs he has been singing over the last few weeks. There really is a song that goes, "We fish you a merry ChristMoose and a hoppy new year." I thought he was making it up.
Christmas Shopping. This one is a double-edged sword. I don't like the pressure and uncertainty and lines of shopping. But I love the idea that I have the chance to find something perfect to make someone smile. I was pretty much done but realized there were just a few more people we had to acknowledge this time of year. And my sweet little Benny is cute enough to make all the store employees oogle over him and make him smile so we can get through it. And it doesn't hurt that there are crazy deals all over the place to make me feel less guilty over a little something for me here and there.
Christmas Cookies. I got together with friends over the weekend and we each made cookies and then did a little exchanging so we all had different types to go home with. I was beginning to feel left out of the all the cookie making going on up in NY. Between Nannie and TJ I was having crazy cookie envy!
Holiday Gatherings. We went to Leo's work one last night and had a great time with a fun group of people. I even beat Leo at bowling. Yes, he was angry at the Jets and that he was having bowling ball malfunctions but still. I will take the win. This week we have a mini Christmas coming up and then smattering of more to come in the week ahead.

Things that truly make me sad: 
Having awful things happen in the world, especially this time of year, especially to children. I think about the kids that were lost last week in CT and I have to stop immediately. It makes me so unbearably sad. I thought about it when I was taking pictures of Nathan and all those kids singing today and I almost lost it. I won't watch the news. I want to know details but the funerals happening are too much. It's just too much and too scary.

So instead I'll just keep the other things in mind. There are so very many things that make me truly happy.

Something Special

I wish you could see Benny right now. Well, right this minute he is sleeping. I mean right now in his development. He is awake and aware in ways that remind us he is no longer a baby but a toddler-to-be in many ways. He knows his name and he is starting to know "no" too. Well, when we say it he doesn't actually stop what he's doing. Actually he looks at us, smiles and goes back to doing it again. What a little devil. He can stand for pretty long periods without falling and takes a step or two if he feels like it. When we want him to show off his skills is when his legs turn to jelly of course or he goes stiff and just falls forward or (real fun) backwards. He giggles a lot, seemingly at nothing. He plays well as long as there's lots to keep him busy (plastic containers, metal bowls, trucks, and whatever miscellany he can find on Nathan's bedroom floor - sometimes even legos. Eeeck!). Benny enjoys bath time, eating (Cheerios, goldfish crackers and pancakes!), and his big brother. He follows Nathan around as fast as his little crawl allows (which is pretty fast) and wants to do all that his brother does. I often see the two of them hanging over the side of the toy box digging through it. I love that they are just about there - where they can enjoy each others' company. It occurred to me today that soon they will be causing trouble together too, but hopefully the conspiracy years will wait a while longer.

Leo and I were talking about how Nathan was such a good dancer from a very young age. He had quite a beat going whenever music was played at this age. Benny doesn't seem to have the same gene. Funny how these little things are different. I can't wait to see how else they differ or turn out the same. But Benny's thing seems to be peek a boo. He appeared to play it with Leo months ago and he continues to enjoy it now. Playing with my mom's scarf, the two of them played for a while the other day. She would put it on his head and he would pull it off his face. Then he would pick it up and try to put it up to her face as if to say "your turn to hide." It's always so amazing to see these connections being made for the first time indicating understanding and personality. I never get tired of these new discoveries.

And Nathan. He is a trip too of course. He spent a night at Gigi and Grandpa's and his report card was perfect as usual. At home he seems to have trouble sitting on chairs. Yes, he literally falls of his chair or bench daily. Thinking about it sounds pretty funny actually. But it's annoying when we just need the kid to sit still and eat his damn meal. I asked if he did this at Gigi's. No, of course not. They baked cookies and cleaned and decorated a tree. With Nathan, I wondered?! His attention span is the size of a postage stamp with me. But in the presence of someone else, perhaps a special someone else, he does as he's told. He keeps up, behaves and has a lot of fun. He entertains too.They said he knew all about how sap comes from trees to make maple syrup. Nathan has all sorts of facts stored up there in that brain. Turns out her learned that from Curious George and he was able to recall it at just the right time. Amazing!

I'm proud of my boys. They drive me batty but they really are something special.

Holiday Randomness

Nathan said to me, "I don't want to go to college." When I asked why he said he has other places to go. Like McDonald's. Oh, well that explains a lot.
~~~
Looking back at this time last year I see I was as frazzled as ever. And here I thought it was worse this year. Nope the same. Ok, maybe a little worse this year. It's hard work every day with two little ones under your feet so add holiday madness and I can barely keep up. In fact I lost it and barked at Nathan for not helping clean up the living room tonight and sent him to his room. Usually I will cajole and ask nicely, over and over. But this time I my patience ran out around lunch time so his answer of "I don't want to" left him in the hallway screaming for mommy.

In short, I am tired. I was lucky to be healthy as the seasons changed but come Turkey Day I came down with mastitis (nursing moms will know - not fun). That cleared up just in time for a quick but furious stomach bug. Then I thought I would top it off with an annoying dry cough. I'm actually amazed the cough is only catching up to me now - the whole house has been coughing for at least six weeks. I'm sure if my defenses weren't down from the first calamity, the rest wouldn't have happened. Blah.

Anyway, all the winter blahness hasn't slowed me down too much. I did a photo shoot with a good friend over the weekend. Friends of ours are looking to adopt and need to raise funds so my friend was kind enough to think up this plan. We shot holiday portraits and donated half the moolah to the cause. It was a (long) fun day. Lots of experience to be had taking pictures of families all day. The most interesting take away: the bribes. Ice cream, slushies, candy apples . . . anything to make the kid smile. I can relate to this deep need to just get one stinkin' shot for the holiday cards. I didn't get what I was looking for myself in terms of pictures. But luckily I snap pics often and have a good collection to pull from. But getting that one shot is so rewarding . . .

And now on to other things. Parties and the like. Personally, I'm looking forward to when it's all done (for the most part). Being in NY, with the brothers, trading Secret Santa gifts, watching the Muppet Family Christmas. That is my happy place. I can't wait to be there.