Such a Merry Christmas

A letter to our lovely lambs, Maddie and Ollie, on Christmas Day, 2010:
In years to come, you'll look back at all these posts and photos and will remember some of your earliest Christmas memories. We hope that recording funny details and silly stories here will be another gift for you, one day. So, here goes! Ollie, your excitement has been mounting for weeks and weeks. On December 1st, you and Maddie each got a personal email from Santa, with a video from him showing your actual photo in his "good book" way up at the North Pole. You were quite struck with this video message, a bit taken aback, really... partway through watching it, you looked up at me and said, "Santa knows everything." All this month, we've been talking about Christmas and Santa and being a good boy - once or twice, Daddy even had to call Santa from his cell phone to let him know that you were teetering close to the edge of bad boy status. You were not happy when it came to this, but the truth is, you are one of the best boys on the planet, and your ocassional slip-ups could never really set you back. Early on, you decided that you'd like to ask Santa for a baby dinosaur for Christmas, and soon after, you added "lemon holder" to your wish list. Yes, a lemon holder. We know you like the flavor of lemons, but even we were surprised with this unusual request - a request that persisted right up until Christmas day. We just had to wait and see if Santa would be able to meet such a wish. Maddie, meanwhile- you're still too young to know what's coming from day to day, but I will say that as it approached, we'd exclaim, "Christmas is coming!" and you would respond excitedly, "Yay!!!!" So you must have known something was up.
After nearly a week in Maine, it was Christmas Eve, and the excitement reached a fever pitch. In fact, you were so overcome that you barely made it through dinner, Ollie, and Daddy took you to the sofa to lie down, where you promptly fell asleep, just before 7pm. Maddie soon followed, and your dad and I had an unexpected super-relaxed evening with the rest of the family while you both slept upstairs. We had dessert, then moved to the living room for our Christmas Eve pajama-present opening (you were both sorely missed for this), Grandma's famous glug, and our traditional reading of A Child's Christmas in Wales. It's one of the most peaceful times of the year, sitting all together and sharing that beautiful story aloud, a story that fills your mind with such vivid images and your heart with the wonder and whimsy of childhood. You'll enjoy it differently each year as you grow up, and you can remember that it connects you to so many generations of your family. I can still see and hear my grandfather reading it aloud, and this year Grandma Patty read it masterfully, probably hearing her father's voice in her own head all the while.
Eventually, we all headed back to our little house down the road, which had gotten a bit chilly from neglected woodstoves. We hung up the stockings and left out treats for Santa and his reindeer, and were amazed in the morning to discover that, once again, he had remembered to fill the stockings here, but leave all the big presents at Grandma and Granddaddy's house. How he keeps track of all this, we'll never know. After inspecting the contents of your stockings, and having a great webcam with Grandma Carole in England (Granddad was outside tending to his dead car battery, poor thing), we sped over to G&G's house to meet your cousins and Ian and Suz and have a great frenzy of stocking-opening (see photo). Ollie, your stocking included a stuffed hedgehog, an old-fashioned tabletop bell, like you might see at a post office, a chocolate Santa, a Chuggington bowl, a make-it-yourself straw kit, a mini Simon game, a kaleidescope, and more! Maddie, yours included a shiny gold zip-up bag and some sparkley play necklaces, a can of spray foam soap with a duck dispensor on top, a little soft babydoll and an even littler ballerina doll, a wind-up robot girl, hair bands, cute socks, and more! We all bounded downstairs to a big breakfast of cheese-sausage-egg strata (a new favorite!), coffee, juice, and Grandma's wonderful stollen and Finnish coffee bread (Mommy's favorite). After that, we spent ALL morning opening presents in the big living room. We fantasize about opening one present at a time and admiring them all slowly, but that never happens, does it? Maddie's favorite presents this year were your babydoll and stroller and little toy purse, and Ollie's favorites were a huge Playmobil airplane, a toy cash register with shopping basket accessories, and a remote controlled Robo-Raptor (who makes an appearance in the group photo). The rest of the day was spent playing and playing, and getting ready for our big dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, which was somehow even more delicious than usual this year. Loads of Christmas cookies for dessert, and then two VERY sleepy lambs heading back home to a cozy, happy sleep. Ollie and Maddie, thank you for making Christmas day, and every day, so joyful for us. xoxoxo

YUM

This post is just for mommy, because I'm really proud of these pretty cookies I made!! I call them "poor man's truffles," because they have this super crazy rich soft chocolate filling, which is made NOT with the finest Swiss or Belgian chocolate, but with Oreo cookies blended with cream cheese! And they kill everyone with their yumminess. It's tricky to get the melted chocolate over them without making a huge mess, and to decorate them quickly before the chocolate hardens... Ollie, Aidan and Eli helped with that. Maddie helped by trying valiantly to eat all the little ornaments before they went on the trees. Very pleased with them... with our big crowd at Christmas, I'm sure they'll disappear in the blink of an eye!

Sleepykins

Beautiful Maddie, asleep in the car while Dad and Ollie run errands, and Mommy sits with you, snapping photos and trying to figure out her new phone.

One Busy Day

This year, the big Christmas party for the "Moms Around the Lake" group I'm in fell *exactly* at the same time as my Messiah concert, and I was really bummed! It's a great party - so many families and friends there, including all the dads, a huge potluck dinner, and even Santa comes! So I was actually a little bit pleased that we couldn't find a babysitter to watch the kids, which freed up Andy to take them to the party rather than attend my concert. They had a lot of fun, although Maddie had a royal freak-fest when she saw Santa, and apparently it took her ages to calm down. Nor did the kids eat anything at all, despite there being enough food there to feed a gazillion people.

So, although I was sad to miss the party, my Messiah concert with the New Jersey Conservatory was FANTASTIC!! We sang our hearts out, and by the end of "Worthy is the Lamb," I actually started crying, it was so beautiful and AWESOME. Here's a teeny tiny photo of me with my pearl-bedecked choir buddies, Laura and Lora... I took this with my new phone and I'm not sure why it's so tiny. Anyway, what a concert. So good!

First Big-Girl Haircut

My post on October 19, 2010 is called "Boy Cut," and I was chastising myself for giving Maddie the same haircut that I always gave Ollie. I thought, "Never again!" I'll take her to a real hair salon, and she'll get a girly cut. So that was my mission when we went to Snip-Its in Rockaway a week or so ago. As you can see from photo 1, she wasn't too pleased with this idea at the beginning. She cried a bit, but at least she pretty much stayed in one place. The lollipop helped a lot (photo 2). By the end, she sat resignedly in the seat, just waiting for the ordeal to be over. She looks quite dashing in her "after" shot, especially in her super snazzy outfit, for which I got a lot of amused comments on facebook! But she was wearing a cute sweatshirt over that top for most of the day, I promise. Anyway, by the time I got home I realized that it was actually a really BAD haircut - pretty much a blunt bowl cut that made her look Amish. I spent the rest of the day chasing her around with scissors, trimming a little bit here and there to get the hair off her ears. She's back to the boy cut, which looks incredibly cute on her, and I've learned my lesson: for now at least, Mommy's haircuts are just fine.

Best Buddies

How can I resist publishing these photos?!! Look at those silly girls.... this photo was taken right before they both stood up on the table and started dancing. Ryan and Addie hang out with Ollie and Maddie just about every week, sometimes a few times a week, when we're lucky. It's fun to see them grow and change together; Maddie is only saying a handful of words now, but when she hears Ollie talking about Ryan, she shouts out - "Addie!!" The boys are getting a lot better at playing together without having meltdowns about sharing toys, etc.... the other day, they closed all the doors to the living room and were in there for nearly an hour - no shouting or drama!! When Carol and I finally got around to checking on them, we found they had been "decorating for a birthday party," and had stuck dinosaur stickers all over every imaginable surface in the room, including walls, windows, lamps, pillows, you name it. Thankfully, they weren't very adhesive stickers - phew.

Wayne!

One of my best friends from college, Wayne Perry, was passing through town a few weeks back, and made time for a short visit before continuing on to Rhode Island... we calculated that it's probably about 16 years since we've seen each other!! I literally don't think he's aged a day, and we picked up right where we left off, laughing and sharing stories. I'm looking forward to next time, and hope it might include both of our families... having Wayne for a dad, I can only imagine his kids must be a blast, just like Ollie and Maddie. Sooner than another 16 years would be GREAT!

Candycanes and Smiles

After admiring lots of glamourous Christmas light displays around our neighborhood, it became clear that the candycanes were Ollie's favorite thing, and we decided it was high time to get some outdoor decorations up at our house as well, for the first time ever. Ollie was SO excited when we bought them, and we set them up in the afternoon with lots of help from Daddy, who used all of his Daddy skills to refrain from swearing repeatedly throughout the process. It was bitterly cold out, and he had to hammer little plastic spikes into the frozen ground, without breaking them or splitting the candycanes when they were pushed down on top of the spikes. We marvelled at how much work some people must take on to put up the crazy light displays we've seen around town, and here was Andy fussing over 12 candycanes!!! So, here is the fruit of our labors; maybe we'll add a few candycanes each year, at least enough to make it all the way to the front door. Meanwhile, we found a few miraculous displays a couple of towns away, in particular one that features a HUGE tree that's hung with lights so it looks like a firework - it's amazing! They must have used a crane to do them, or something like that. Seriously impressive. I know our modest candycane effort holds a sweet and righteous place in the world of holiday lighting, but I'm grateful for the occasional INSANE light displays that pop up here and there, full of silliness and joy; they make us smile.

The Honeymoon is Over

Every parent in our family has benefited from the early years of their kids' lobster-eating experimentation - that beautiful time when they're big enough to warrent their own lobster at the table, but all they really want to do with it is poke and play - not actually EAT it! So, the poor parents have to step in and take care of the cracking and the eating... all the while narrating the process to their kids, under the guise of teaching them but secretly gleeful about the lobster bounty. For many, many years, as a child I would only eat the claws, and mom and dad weren't too upset about that. My nephew, Aidan, was happy until recently to get his plate piled high with the spindley legs from everyone's lobsters, and my brother would just have to sigh and eat the rest of it. Now, barely four years old, Ollie has completely consumed his first lobster, and there's no turning back - the honeymoon is over!! We're a bit sad, Ollie, but you do make us proud!

The Fire Brigade

It was an exciting night in Tenants Harbor! We were in Maine for Thanksgiving week, and were keeping toasty at home with the woodstoves on. Andy and I put the kids to bed, and were in the living room plunking on our laptops, when I told Andy it seemed a bit cold... so he opened the damper on the woodstove and sat back down. About thirty seconds later, we heard a huge SWOOSH and the woodstove started blasting air through it and sounding like a freight train. We both jumped up and freaked out, and Andy ran outside to look at the top of the chimney, and came back in to declare that we had a chimney fire and to call 911! He went and got the kids out of bed, and a few minutes later there were three fire engines parked outside, red lights flashing (no sirens, thankfully!), and about twelve firemen. Ollie thought this was all VERY EXCITING. His eyes were big like saucers the whole time, and he kept very close to me but also very aware of all that was going on. Andy had shut down the chimney fire pretty quickly when he closed the damper, but the firemen still did a great job inspecting everything, including the attic, and even went on the roof to drop a chain down the chimney and clean it out a bit more. Yay St. George Fire Department! They were so helpful and nice. So, let's hope we don't have too many more exciting nights like this...

Yummy Playdate

My friend, Jenna, had a playdate recently where everyone brought along something "pretty" that they had baked... the idea being that we all like to bake pretty things, but we don't do it much because then we'd have lots of fattening treats around the house all the time! So we decided to make "ghost pops" - fudgey oreo ball fillings dipped in white chocolate and made into lollipops - they came out great!! Jenna made really cool decorated cookes that looked like nametags for "Moms Around the Lake" and "Meetup.com" - very clever. Here's a photo of Ollie and Claire having fun together, as usual. Thanks for the great playdate, Jenna!

All The Leaves Are Gone...

... but thankfully, the sky is NOT gray most of the time! We've had a gorgeous weekend, temps just over 60, sunny skies and crisp air - we did our first and last raking of the season! Our method is simple and foolproof: wait till ALL the leaves fall, and the wind has blown lots of them away, then (and only then) commence raking. They had blown into two smallish areas of our yard, pretty easy job, then Andy and Ollie mowed the whole yard to get the stragglers. I especially don't get leaf blowers - I SWEAR I can rake any yard in a fraction of the time that someone needs to do the same with a leaf blower. I think it's a guy thing - it makes tons of noise and blows the crap out of everything - what could be better? I think I may have swayed Andy on this one; he used it today for about 2 minutes before switching back to the rake. :-)

We're four-season walkers at Kittatinny State Park... the leaves may be gone now, but this warm weekend has pushed back winter in our minds - can Christmas really be just a few weeks away?? Ollie's very excited for snow.

Birthday Boy

Ollie, you turned 4 today -- FOUR!! Four years ago I became a mom, Andy became a dad, and we held this big bundle in our arms, all 10 pounds, 10 ounces of you. We have marveled at your wonderfulness every day thereafter. You're so full of energy and joy and curiosity and kindness. And FUN! Speaking of fun, your fourth birthday was super, super fun... it started on Friday, when you helped me make your big airplane cake. You're such a good cook, and you love to pull a chair up to the counter and help in any way possible, especially if it involves the kitchen sink or cracking eggs (which you're very good at). You decided a few weeks ago that you'd like an airplane cake, so we spent lots of time looking at them on Google images, getting ideas. I finally got up the courage to design a plane that looked manageable, so I drew a picture of it on paper the size of the cake pan, then cut out the pieces. We made the cake together (double recipe! yum!), then let it cool and covered it for the night. Today we put the design pieces over the cake and cut it up, and made a double batch of butter frosting, but the cake turned out to be soooo big that I had to make extra frosting! It took a really long time to frost... you wanted a blue airplane, but this is the closest I could get without using so much coloring that it was yucky tasting. You were SO happy with the cake, and it was super delicious, but the best thing about it was making it together. It took so long to frost that sometimes you would wander away to play, then come back a little later and exclaim, "Wow, Mommy, you're doing a really great job with the frosting!"

So, this morning you came downstairs to a big stack of presents from us, both grandparents, your cousins in England, and Auntie Mavis. You got a Geotrax train, a remote control amphibious vehicle, books, an erector set, a Peppa Pig t-shirt, and more! We spent a good part of the day putting together your train and making your cake, and then at 3:30 we headed to Titan Gym for your little birithday party. Your closest friends were there - Ryan and Addie, Claire, Emily, Brooke and Maddie, Carys and Lowri, and Georgie of course - your oldest friend in New Jersey. Titan Gym has loads of trampolines, and you all had so much fun bouncing on them! After playing for an hour and getting really hot and tired, you came over to the party area for your yummy cake, juice, and other treats. It's so nice you have such good friends here, and we're happy we could celebrate your birthday with them... our little boy, who's not so little any more. We love you so very much, Ollie, you're the most lovely boy that ever was.

Our Little Dragon

Ollie Bollie, you get your own Halloween post, to show off what a good sport you've been over the years in your first and only Halloween costume - a scary dragon! When you were one, you barely tolerated it, and mostly rolled around on the floor in an attempt to rub the costume off... but you did give us some smiles, as you can see!
You were just getting the hang of it when you were two, and the costume fit you well, with room to grow. That was the year that we'd just gotten back from England, only to find SNOW!
When you were three, the costume was a tiny bit snug, but you still loved it to bits. You really liked trick-or-treating this year.And this year, baby, the costume was truly too small for you, but you squeezed in like a sport, the dragon feet resting a few inches above your own. You were so excited about Halloween this year! You're a wonderful dragon, but you're still our little lamb, and we love you so much.

Halloween in T Harbor!

What a great Halloween!!! We couldn't resist coming to Maine for a long weekend, and the chance to trick-or-treat on Watts Ave.! It was such a nice few days - morning walks down to the harbor with steaming coffee cups in hand, loads of playtime with Grandma and Granddaddy, Ian and Suz and cousin Eli... Granddaddy was super excited to give Ollie his "birthday boat" (a week before his birthday) -- a handmade little wooden boat that had a hidden "Happy Birthday" song in it from a greeting card, and a button on top that you press and hold down to make the song play! Ollie loved it, of course. Andy had to work in his nice office in the garage all day on Friday, where the woodstove kept him extra toasty. Over the weekend we carved our imported pumpkin (fresh from the fields in NJ!) -- Andy quickly got frustrated with traditional carving and opted for a more efficient technique - see photo! We were so impressed with the result, especially the delicate nostrils.

Saturday night was our big night out - Ian and Suz watched the kids for us (thank you!!!!) and we went across the street with Mom and Dad to our friend Beth's famous Halloween Party - she throws a bang-up party every year with a great costume theme that changes each time. This year it was to dress up as a song title, so I went as "Kiss" by Prince (making use once again of my fabulous homemade kiss costume), and Andy went as "Devil in Disguise." I loved mom's costume as well - she went as "Yesterday," and wore a costume made of newspaper from yesterday's paper, and a hat draped with black fabric since she "had a shadow hanging over her" - get it? Awesome!

Halloween day just flew by - Andy had to work in the morning, and I took the kids to G&Gs for a great bagel brunch. Eli came back with us to our house at Maddie's naptime, and he and Ollie had fun playing all day. We had everyone over for a dinner of Andy's famous saffron pistachio risotto with Maine shrimp and peas (super good batch!) and then it was time to get the kids suited up. At first Maddie fussed and struggled to get her tutu off, but pretty soon she seemed pretty happy with it. We all headed down to the East Wind, where they were giving out special goody bags in the lobby, then to Big Dave's house around the corner, and Anne and Tony's... after that, Mom and Dad headed back to our house to give out candy, and we continued on our rounds. It was freezing out (literally), and Ollie got tired and cranky pretty fast, but we all trudged on, the promise of candy keeping Ollie from total meltdown. I was so proud of our cute little house, pumpkins shining, long candlesticks in the front windows, sparkley decoration on the door, woodsmoke rising from the chimney. Such a Happy Halloween!!

"Tis the Season

... for pumpkin hats!! Grandma Patty made these a few years ago - they're actually both the "grown up" sized hats, a bit roomy on the kids, but the baby sized one is too small for even Maddie now! They're so cute in them. I'm just really disappointed because we're here in Maine for Halloween weekend, and I've left the hats behind in NJ!!! And it's COLD here! Ah well, they did get quite a lot of use out of them this month, and we'll keep wearing them for a few more weeks, till we have to switch to super-duper warm hats.

Matzo

I don't think I've ever posted a photo of our cat, and since the blog exists partly as a way for us to look back on our lives in years to come and remember the good, the bad, and the furry (Andy would use other adjectives to describe Matzo) - I thought I'd better post a few now. Today we actually installed a new cat door to the basement, since the existing door did not meet with Matzo's exacting requirements (the new one has a soft flap; the old one had a hard plastic flap). We're hoping that he'll deign to use it so we won't have to leave the entire door open at night, wasting lots of good woodstove heat. Another reason for posting photos is that many of our friends think we may have an "imaginary cat," since they never see him... he goes into deep hiding when there are strangers around, although he has been known to make appearances. He's actually in deep hiding a lot - but as soon as the kids are napping or asleep at night, he appears, happy and meowing for his dinner. He's MOST happy when Andy is away on business, and he has me all to himself. He may seem standoffish if you don't know him, but when it's just me and him, he's so cuddley and sweet. I love you, Matzo.

October Farm Fun

We have had so much fun this month going to the local farms, especially Tranquilty Fams in Andover - nearly every weekend has been beautiful weather, and there's not much we'd rather do on those crisp, sunny days than dive into huge vats of corn! Seriously, it's awesome. Their hayride is so nice, although it starts off going right next to the pumpkin catapult area (see photo of Andy demonstrating his pumpkin hurling skills), so even though it's super fun to watch them get shot into the air towards a distant target (hopefully, not us) I'm always a bit afraid that we'll get pelted by a stray. That's the dramatic part of the ride; the rest of it is just nice, bumpy dirt road all the way to the pumpkin patch and back again through the woods. The first time we went we just enjoyed the ride, but then the pumpkins looked so good out there, we decided to go back the next weekend and actually get off the wagon and hunt for our own pumpkin. I may be wrong, but I think is be the first time I've ever done that! I felt bad for all the zillions of beautiful pumpkins out there that would never get picked, since there are just so many of them.

Turtleback Zoo

We had a really fun trip to the zoo yesterday, with Emily and her friend, Jacob. The ferris wheel and the train were big hits, as usual. :-)