December Days (And Nights)

Happy 2015 to all. My days of commemorating Christmas in a timely manner and writing an eloquent new year send off are apparently on hold for the time being. But I hope you won't lose patience with me and forget about us. Someday I will be eloquent and timely, but now is not that time.

The kids are back to school after a lovely, noisy, messy, hilarious never-a-dull-moment winter break (what's that you say? You can hear me shrieking with glee all the way from New Jersey?).

Of course I joke. As my dad is fond of saying, "All good things must come to an end." There is only so much familytogetherness and staying up late to watch "Grease" and eating as many M&Ms a little person (and her parents) can take before we all run screaming for 8:00 p.m. bedtimes and wheat grass (probably no wheat grass for the kids).

But before that, there was December. Blissful, hopeful, sparkly, glittery, twinkly, all-wrapped-up in teachers' gifts and homemade chocolate oatmeal cookies and holiday school luncheons and Santa visits and staying in our pajamas all day long. Because we could, December.


This visit to Santa was hard-won. I thought I was so clever to wait until late in the season to take them (less crowds) but we still managed to arrive while the Big Guy was on break. Which meant tacking on an extra fifteen minutes to our wait. Which was totally fine of course since three year olds LOVE to wait in line (said no one never). Also? Super grouchy Santa. Notice how no one is sitting on his lap? Luckily I don't think the kids noticed, but what I noticed is, it's no longer about parking for a spell on Santa's knee and casually chatting with him and telling him what you want. It's about, what size photo package would you like, ma'am? Click. Next. Oh well. We'll still be back next year. I finally got organized and framed all the Santa pics from over the years and it's fun to see the progression (and a little terrifying to see how much bigger everyone is from year to year). I'm big on tradition, even if it does sometimes come with a dose of crabby.


Hanukkah came close to Christmas this year, which is always a treat (although it still snuck up on me as it always does and I was the crazy woman shopping at Target on Hanukkah morning, hysterically throwing "Frozen" socks and Transformers and coloring books and Spiderman tooth brushes in  my cart). Speaking of gifts, the twins also now think that the custom is to get Hanukkah gifts in the morning--due to a combination of their early bedtime and the fact that since they would surely would surely want to play with whatever gift they got, I saved their presents for the morning. Let's just say they caught on to this right quick and it took a full week after Hanukkah was over for Harry to stop greeting me with "I want to go downstairs and get my Hanukkah present" every morning.



This was the first year that big kids lit candles "by their own" (as Lucy would say), and the first year that the twins allowed the candles to stay lit (you may recall last year, when Lucy insisted on singing "Happy Birthday" and was furious when I wouldn't allow her to blow them out). This year Ellie and Leo also came close to memorizing the Hanukkah blessing.


Once upon a time, Leo's school hosted an annual "holiday lunch" for students and parents. It's been a few years since they held one but I was happy to learn it was back on for this year. Harry was already home from school by lunch time so Dudes in Holiday Sweaters, it was.


There were also preschool holiday concerts (with the requisite Santa visit with the suddenly "shy" Lucy).

There were painted Christmas cookies (edible egg wash).

And more cookies.


There were cards sent home from school that made my heart swell and my eyes tear (see above, from Leo): "I love our family." SOB.

Right before Christmas (two days before winter break) Ellie was felled by an atrocious stomach bug (is there such a thing as a non-atrocious stomach bug?) that she was kind enough to give me as an early Christmas gift. This made the last minute Christmas crunch (teacher gifts, wrapping of and delivering of said teacher gifts), shopping, meal prepping quite, um, challenging?


Fortunately, I was much better by Christmas Eve and able to mostly participate in one of my favorite activities, which is staying up late, watching the beloved "It's a Wonderful Life" and wrapping ALL the Christmas presents with Erin. Usually this is accompanied by Bailey's, but with my body still not being at 100 percent, I skipped it this year. I KNOW.


We were busy, busy elves.


Christmas dawned early (as it does every day). Within seconds the living room was a wrapping paper battlefield (note to self: we need a better Unwrap the Christmas Presents System. Anyone have any recs for "big" families and small, impatient children?). The bouche de Noel (see above) didn't fair much better than the presents.


Later in the day, my trusty assistants and I (eager to test-drive new gifts) fetched Chinese takeout (Nobody felt like cooking and I hardly felt like eating so it was perfect).


As night fell, we did something I'm sure no other family in the world did on Christmas (see above). PS., if you didn't know already? Leo IS Elsa (he doesn't allow anyone in the room to speak when he performs "Let it Go" alongside her).


Ellie stayed up late on Christmas night painting (with a new easel and paint set from Grandma Jerry).


Lucy asked to bring "just a few" of her gifts to bed.


Harry fell asleep with one of his favorite presents (that was of course, actually Leo's).


And it was, the Best Christmas Ever.

The Epic "Break," Holidays and a New Year

Happy New Year!

The only thing you can do when you are horribly behind is just jump right in, right?

Right.

Winter break was wonderful. See also: Exhausting, dizzying, frustrating and hilarious. Everything that life at our house is, times infinity, full-time.

I look forward to the "break" all year long, even if it hardly lives up to its name.



The excitement on Christmas Eve? Oh. My. Goodness. I felt like I spent the last half of my day/whole evening scraping children off the ceiling. The anticipation was palpable. But eventually they all did fall asleep which meant…Erin and I got to put together toys and wrap seventy-nine presents! Weeeeee!

Photo below snapped at approximately 10:48 p.m. Christmas Eve. By the way, thanks Sweetie, for making me wrap presents a few nights in advance, rather than saving it ALL for Christmas Eve. That was a very, very good call (we wrapped 79 presents, rather than 219). Did I mention I've become a terrible procrastinator in my old age?


Note the tidiness and organization. Short-lived, trust.

Is there anything like that moment where you've finished wrapping everything and you're sitting there in your pjs, watching the final minutes of "It's a Wonderful Life" in front of the twinkling Christmas tree, thinking to yourself, yup, it really is just that. Wonderful.  Note: I'm usually drinking a glass of Bailey's at that moment, but I wasn't this year--it says a lot that I didn't even dip into it this year (sweet Erin even bought me the "big" bottle). Too. Tired. To. Drink. The hard stuff. I know.


Aaaand the next morning. It must have taken them about three minutes to open all 219 packages.


Absolute chaos. Like always.


New art supplies from Santa = momentary calm x 4. Did I mention no one asked to turn on the TV until about 3 p.m. on Christmas Day? I think we set a record.


These new stuffed animals were a favorite gift.




No Christmas breakfast would be complete without bouche de Noel (or, as we dubbed it this year, "Christmas Cake.") And yes, the twins instantaneously both learned to say "More Christmas Cake." Clear as little bells.

And if all that Christmas excitement wasn't enough, the Oregon grandparents came to visit, two days after the sugar/new toy high had begun to wear off.

We filled our days with watercolors, neighborhood walks, trips to the playgrounds (weather permitting), more new toys and books.








They also brought a little piece of Oregon with them, both in spirit and in the form of Ducky slippers from my sister and brother-in-law.


Artist Ellie paints a portrait of Artist Grandpa.


Harry and Grandma.


Playing ball in his room with Grandpa = Leo's Most Favorite Thing Ever.



Our now (so I've proclaimed-we've gone two years in a row so it's official!) annual New Year's Eve trip to our little local zoo was memorable as always. I love it for many reasons, one of which being that it's always freezing and we're always one of approximately two families there. It's like having our own private zoo and the twins can run crazy free to their hearts' content.


Looking for penguins. Right after I took this picture it started snowing, graceful, tiny flakes. Not going to lie. It was magical. 


Twins being penguins. Because, of course!




The walk home from the zoo. It was as cold as it looks!

The big kids were overjoyed to be able to take Grandma and Grandpa to the movies on a rainy Sunday morning, sharing their passion for "Frozen" (and I was not so secretly pretty excited about seeing it a second time, myself). We concluded our day in suburbia (a novelty for G&G but nothing but the "usual" for us), with a late lunch at Leo's beloved Five Guys, where Leo and Ellie taught Grandpa about the intricacies of the fairly amazing Five Guys soda machine.


It ended up being the "break" that kept on giving. The kids went back to school last Thursday, only to get a snow day on Friday.


Four (almost) snow angels. Or, someone's always gotta go rogue.

Some like the snow…




…a bit more than others (PS. I know, I know, he needs better boots and gloves. That will help. Lucy inherited all of Ellie's old snow gear and Harry pretty much got the shaft. Placing an order today, Hair-Man. Promise!).


After purging the house of ALL chocolate and bakery items and vowing to eat nothing but brown rice and steamed tofu for the rest of the year, I MAY have run out of things to do to keep the children busy and agreed to help Ellie make cupcakes for her teddy bear's birthday (See: The loooongest winter break ever).



And now, the holidays are over. It's a new year. I won't lie. The next few months have to be my least favorite. It's cold (5-degrees this morning, to be exact).  The tree is horizontal and naked on our curb looking forlorn and dejected. All that build-up and excitement and it's all just over. I mean, of course the holidays can't go on and on (then they wouldn't be special! I find myself trying to explain to the kids). But I'm secretly grateful that many of my neighbors seem to be holding on to the spirit a bit (see above). I always think of my mom though, when I see people with Christmas lights up, far into January and February. She used to grumble about giving people "tickets" for keeping their lights going past the season.

But the best thing about the holidays (if it's possible to pick a "best," which of course, it isn't, but I will anyway) is that they come every year. And every year you get the chance to have the Best Christmas/Holiday Season Ever. This year, the holidays were pretty darn fabulous, full of all the wonder and joy I could have hoped for (yes, in spite of Lucy's wails mid-menorah lighting). Nobody cried at Santa this year (a first!) and I even got to lay on the couch for a few minutes on Christmas Day.

It's a wonderful life. Yup, it really is.

A Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas*

Let your heart be light

Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the yule-tide gay

Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again, as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore

Faithful friends who were dear to us



Will be near to us once more



Someday soon we all will be together

If the fates allow



Until then we'll have to muddle through, somehow

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

*(Words by by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin)

"Happiness, not in another place, but this place...not for another hour, but this hour."
---Walt Whitman


Happy Holidays, to you and yours! Peace, Joy and Love in 2014.



Oh and by the way, in case you haven't recently listened to the BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER, The End, hands down, no question, here you go. You're welcome and enjoy.

First Snow Storm and Christmas Cookies: Nailed It!

Saturday was our first "real" snow of the season. Thank goodness it happened on a weekend when we could enjoy it and not worry about trying to get to work or how we'd manage to pick up big kids at school in the snow with two toddlers in tow.



Ellie fulfilled a lifelong dream of finally ice skating.

Sort of.


This is so often how it goes. Ellie, Leo and Lucy plotting something (in this case a rousing snow ball fight) while Harry says "You know what? I'm gonna just go over here and play with my helicopter thankyouverymuch."


A yard full of snow to play with, half a dozen kid vehicles and she has to stand On Top of Him. This really sums it up (don't worry, the second I managed to snap this, I rescued Harry from her clutches).

Regarding the snow: Let's file this one under "Reason 979 why Big Kids Rock." Can I just say how fabulous it is to have older kids who can put on their own snow boots (mostly) and gloves and hats and coats? I really had forgotten how maddening it is to try and put miniature gloves on tiny, uncooperative fingers. And then they look at you all cold and pink and furious when they take their gloves off and they can't figure out why it feels like their fingers are going to snap off.


See? No gloves on this one. Seconds after this shot was taken she would announce that her hands were cold and "Where are my mittens?" (over there in the snow where you pulled them off in a moment of fury, Lou).

At some point in the middle of Saturday's snow storm I found myself saying, Let's make Christmas cookies! Because, clearly I've lost my mind.


Harry gave the unbaked cookies a good poke and promptly sampled some raw dough. Whoops!

I grew up making these cookies for the big Christmas Eve celebration with my step mom's family. This is the first time I was able to pull it off. It's not like it's so hard, it just takes planning, as does pretty much everything in our life. I had a minor freak out in the beginning when the dough was very sticky and none of the cutters were working but then something clicked toward the middle/end, sort of like how the first few pancakes in a batch are always terrible? Maybe it had to do with the dough temperature or something. Regardless, we rallied and they came as close to perfect as something in our house can come.

My stepmom sent me the recipe, which is from The Joy of Cooking (by the way, you can reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup--they are still plenty sweet and if you frost them like we did, they are definitely sweet enough).



These cookies actually taste really good (I know, just what we all need this time of year, more cookies that taste good). But so often Christmas cookies look good but end up tasting...not so much. Anyway, fair warning: Delicious buttery cookies.



At one point, all four were doing the same activity, which always warms my heart. Now that the twins are getting a little older, that's happening more and more and it makes me soooo happy.



OK, so Harry might have also been watching "Star Wars" and eating all of the cookies he was supposed to be decorating.

No matter.

Jumping Into '13

Oh, Hi there! Well this picture just feels like it was taken fifty million years ago. In reality, it was December 22, thankyouverymuch.

The problem with not blogging (substantially) for a long time is that the longer you don't blog, the more you don't know where to begin when you finally do. Do you just jump right in with present day? Does anyone want to read about Christmas, at this point? (Fair warning: Christmas might sneak in here, at least in pictures.)

I am firmly and unabashedly ensconced in January gloom. Not depressed, it's just the crash after the sugar (and Bailey's, ahem) high. All that anticipation, all that shopping and decorating and flurrying of activity and present opening and family visiting.

Enter, real life.

Don't get me wrong. I love real life! It's just...not The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year anymore. But then again, if it was always the most wonderful time of year, it wouldn't be The Most Wonderful Time of The Year. So.

It's been a busy, full few weeks. For some reason (four kids/two toddlers?) it was definitely the fastest winter break in history.

Waiting for Santa. If only we could use the old "Santa won't come until you're asleep" threat every night. It would make bedtime so much more efficient!

I kicked off the winter "break" (certainly not a vacation and, notice how "break" is in "ironic" quotation marks?) with a full day off to myself. It was heavenly. I did very glamorous things like shop unhurriedly at Costco and Target. I also did some last minute Christmas shopping at the mall and, wow, I forgot how tiring actual shopping (vs. clicking "submit order" is).

I was most proud of the fact that at the very last minute I purchased matching jammies for all four kids for less than $40, total (thank you Children's Place for carrying pajamas in sizes as varying as 2T to 7/8 that match). Yes, Ellie age five and Leo age eight, wear the same size.

In light of Newtown, this Christmas felt different, somehow. Maybe it was survivor's guilt or just general grief for the state of things, of knowing how many grieving parents there were (and are). Somehow getting all the right toys and having all the right "things" just didn't matter. It should always be this way of course, but this year I really felt it.

I think part of the reason winter "break" felt so busy and went by so quickly is that Leo was in camp for four of the days, so there was much shuttling to and from said camp. At first I was concerned, since pick-up and drop-off fell squarely in the middle of babies' nap times (10 a.m. and 3 p.m.). But I weighed that little inconvenience with the fact that Leo LOVES that camp, not to mention, we welcome any chance to give the kids an opportunity to do something different. Then there is the little matter of Leo + Ellie + ten days of non-stop togetherness = Dear god, Nooooo.

Ellie flirting with herself in the bathroom at camp. Did she wait until all five of us were back to the car at camp pick-up one day, with one baby STRAPPED INTO A CAR SEAT before she announced she had to use the restroom? Oh yes she did!

Winter break 2012/13 shall also be known as the week Lucy discovered pens and chairs and became, shall we say, a tad obsessed with being just like the big kids.



Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Oregon two days after Christmas and despite pleas for mercy, 7 a.m. playtime commenced quickly and without apology.

Thankfully, Grandpa is a very good sport.

Over break, Harry also fell in lurve with Leo's train table. To the babies, Leo's room = Mecca.



When we weren't making Grandpa wear funny hats and piling toys on top of him, we did our best to spend plenty of time hanging out in the big city, wining and dining him and my step mom. Cause you know us, we're so fancy like that.

HA HA HA.


Saturday brunch at Morandi. I'll add that Harry (not pictured) spent the entire meal flirting with the waitresses.

Oh Leo. You do adore your Grandpa, don't you? 

Grown-ups only dinner at Balthazar. Oh Yeah.

We spent New Year's Eve day at the Turtleback Zoo, a sweet little children's zoo that is blessedly within walking distance from our house. It was cold, but I have to say I love going there in the winter when the crowds (ha! there were maybe four other families there) are non-existent. The kids had the run of the place. After the zoo we got hot chocolate and donuts across the street, where we met a mom and her ten year old triplets. I told her she was my hero and she cooed over the babies, telling me to "Enjoy them while they are little because it goes by so fast."

Run? Did someone say run? 

It was so nice to have several extra sets of hands at the zoo that allowed the twins to roam mostly free, something they don't get enough of an opportunity to do.

The carousel at the zoo is always a favorite.

New Year's Eve we put the kids down early. Unfortunately Erin had to work so it was just the Grandparents, me and CNN's fiscal cliff coverage (no joke!). I poured myself a big glass of wine (OK, maybe more than one) and stayed up 'till the bitter end to watch the ball drop, all the while thinking it was crazy to do so, knowing Harry would be awake in less than five hours.

Imagine my surprise when everyone slept until 7 a.m. Unheard of in this house, I assure you.

Happy New Year, indeed.

Merry, Merry

Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

Let your heart be light...


From now on, your troubles will be out of sight...


Through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow...

But 'till then, we'll have to muddle through somehow.*

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Blessed is the season
Which engages the whole world
In a conspiracy of love
--Hamilton Wright Mabie, American Author

*From the inimitable "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

It's the (Mostly) Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We are...


Shopping. Leo delighted in setting off nearly every battery powered Rudolph and Singing Goose (?) at our local Bed Bath & Beyond on Saturday.


He was in Heaven. Bed Bath & Beyond? Not sure how delighted they were in us.


Still waking up at ridiculous hours. Hello 5 a.m. Saturday morning. How are you? Harry caught on to the fun of the Wash Cloth Wear and Toss. Now it's apparently a synchronized sport.

Creating....




We made these last weekend. I hadn't planned on doing them so early in the season, usually preferring to do them closer to Christmas. Let's just say I had a fit of It's Cold And Rainy and What Can We Do Inside That Doesn't Involve the Viewing of "My Little Pony?"


And so, gingerbread houses it was.




Something about making the gingerbread houses makes me a little teary. It's such a marker of time. The first year we made one, Ellie was too little to participate (the age the babies are now). That feels like it was yesterday. And, well, you know the drill. Time marching on, and all of that. On the other hand, I swoon at the thought of four big kids gathered around the table making gingerbread masterpieces.

I tried to coincide the project with nap time so that I'd be able to give the big kids my full attention (story of my life, these days).


 Of course, some people are less than cooperative and had other ideas.


Ah, well.


The more, the merrier.

Wherein Harry Thinks We Changed His Name to Harrystoptouchingthelights

He even looks guilty, doesn't he? By the way, the only reason he's not touching the Christmas lights here is because he's holding the television remote control. What can I say? The boy likes electronics. Or, electricity.

Also, note the gaping hole of no lights on that poor tree. Hey, you can only adjust a string of lights so many times before things start to look...sloppy.

But more importantly, the tree is STILL standing. At least, it was when I left for work this morning.

Furiously knocking wood.