Holiday Highlights, Part II

After a morning of visiting with family and playing at the park, Christmas Eve officially began with the donning of festive holiday attire. Lucie is not used to having someone to match with, and was so excited that her doll had an identical dress (thanks Gigi).

We enjoyed an delicious cioppino dinner, our traditional reading of "The Polar Express", and a pile of gifts for the kids.



The next morning Lucie and Ryan were delighted by a note from Santa letting them know he'd left gifts for them in their living room at home. That Santa Claus really is a considerate guy, and made our packing on the way home a lot easier. We headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for several more days of celebrations, including a delicious turkey dinner, complete with sweet potato fries for Lucie and Ryan, and a visit to Christmas in the Park.



Over the next few days, Ryan enjoyed testing out his new sports equipment with Daddy, Grandpa and Uncle Greg, and his space puzzle with Jessica (soon to be Aunt Jessica -- hooray!). Lucie was in pony heaven caring for several new little friends, and put on a fashion show for Grandma with jewelry from her new jewelry box.



Many thanks to our families for such a special and memorable holiday. We're looking forward to many more wonderful times together in 2010.

Holiday Highlights, Part I

My two little fliers and I prepared for take-off and headed up to Gigi and Papa's house several days before Christmas. Their pre-flight reading is now routine, not because anyone really cares where the emergency exits are, but more because L & R love looking at the picture of the plane "landing" on water. Uncle AJ will have to explain the physics of that at a much later age.

For the first year, Lucie and Ryan were willing to sit briefly on Santa's lap at a family party, at least until he gave them a gift, and then they bounded as fast as they could back to me. They were both impressed that Santa gave them books with their favorite "My Little Pony" and "Handy Manny" (or "Handy Mandy" in Ryan-speak) characters, and declared that he was actually a pretty nice and observant guy, despite any earlier reservations.

Much more Christmas fun was had at Gigi and Papa's as we went on a holiday train ride (complete with fake snow flying alongside of each car's windows), checked out neighborhood lights, and spent a morning constructing Lucie and Ryan's own gingerbread house scene. Lucie spent most of the time eating chocolate kisses, while Ryan constructed a multi-story marshmallow snowman he named "Giant". We were sure "Giant" would bite the dust at some point, but we propped him up with a graham cracker and lots of frosting, and Gigi says he's still standing to this day.


Unfortunately Tate was too sick at the beginning of the week to join us, though once he was feeling better, we paid him a visit for some always high-energy and fun cousin time. The kids raced around the house on scooters while Caleb looked on with delight. You'll be crashing into walls at high speed with them in no time, big guy.

Snowbound!

Strange to think about snow on a day when the mercury hit 82 degrees, but Lucie and Ryan have gone more than four years without having ever experienced snow. And while that is mostly due to geography, it's a little sad. Fortunately, the streak is scheduled to end next month when we head to the mountains for a long weekend.


Since that trip (and probably all snow trips for the next few years) will be focused on sledding and snowmans, I decided to sell my snowboard gear. I haven't been on snow since 2003 and better to free up valuable garage space for L & R's Christmas presents.

And even though L & R demonstrated great form at age 2 1/2, we'll probably wait another year or so before strapping them in.

Christmas Spirit

Even though this is our second Christmas in the house, we only managed to put up a paltry little tree last year. This year, Lucie and Ryan insisted we prepare early to avoid a repeat performance.

So last weekend, with Grandma and Grandpa's help, we got started. First order of business was a wreath for the gate. Nearby pine trees contributed pine cones while L & R made paper snowflakes with Grandma.

Next up was outdoor lights. After last year's holiday let-down, I bought LED lights on clearance sale and, for eleven months, the boxes have been gathering dust in the garage. It took a few hours to install the hooks (nothing says Christmas like dangling 15 feet up armed with a hammer, drill, hooks, and electricity...) and tuck power cords out of sight, but our house is now officially lit every evening. And while the brightness of the LED lights is a little underwhelming, at least it only costs us 20 cents per week to light them up.

Finally, we decided not to get a tree — just didn't make sense this year. After much discussion, we arrived at a compromise: the lights intended for the tree would be put up in L & R's room instead. The lights are turned on each night at bedtime and turned off once no creatures are stirring.

Me, I want a hula hoop

Lucie and Ryan made their stage debut at the preschool Christmas show last week. There were so many sweet and funny moments throughout the night, my favorites including Ryan's enormous yawn on stage, Lucie's chipmunk ears falling over her eyes, and how little Fiona (next to Ryan) kept looking over at him for clues on the final words to "Away in the Manger".

Lucie wore a dress that was my Christmas dress as a girl, sewn by my Mom with a matching one for Rachel. It fit Lucie perfectly. She was so proud to wear it, declaring to her friend's dad that "This was my Mommy's dress!"

The kids were exhausted when we got home, especially after the post-show sugar cookie rush wore off. When I tucked a sleepy Ryan into bed, I told him how proud I was of his singing. "Oh Mommy" he murmured, eyes drooping shut, "it was nothing."

Tech-Savvy Boy

While we weren't paying attention, a little boy has become quite proficient with all kinds of gadgets and buttons around here. It started with an interest in learning to use our digital camera. In no time Ryan had mastered taking photos, deleting photos, changing the date/time stamp, and mysteriously turning on a chirping noise every time a photo is snapped.

That was just the beginning. Now Ryan can hook the camera up to the computer, upload photos and add them to his personal folder in iPhoto, all on his own. He's very proud of this achievement, and meticulously arranges his roughly 84 uploaded photos, routinely going through his assortment of random (and mostly unflattering) shots of his parents, firetrucks outside the grocery store and poses of his loved ones, batting helmet, and train tracks.

Once Ryan mastered the digital camera, he became quite intrigued by the Netflix envelope that occasionally appears in our mail. For many years we had kept this a secret, maintaining that only "Mommy & Daddy shows" could arrive in a red envelope. Everyone seemed okay with that, until we were all sick one week and I began searching Netflix for some kids' movies to get us through a long stretch indoors. Once Ryan caught sight of the Diego and Little Einsteins movies on the computer screen, the jig was up. Our queue has never been the same since.

This all seems so different from my childhood, when developed photos came in paper envelopes at Longs Drugstore, and movies were a slumber-party treat on a rented VCR from the video store. Now our four-year-old now knows how to work a TiVo remote and greets me at preschool pick-up with, "Mommy, mommy -- did you get Daddy's text?"

Thankfully, low-tech games involving a blanket, a giggling sister and yelling "BOO!" out the door at the rain (I don't get it either) are still some of the favorite activities in our house.

Happy Birthday Daddy

As our kids love to do, the countdown to Daddy's birthday was started over a week in advance. Everyone from Lucie and Ryan's preschool teacher to the guy behind the counter at the smoothie shop was kept well informed of how many more days remaining until December 1st.

Once the day came, it did not disappoint. L& R each got a "Happy Birthday" helium balloon at the grocery store, we celebrated with mint chip ice cream cake, and the first windows of the long anticipated chocolate Advent calendars were revealed. No wonder these kids were excited. It was a wonderful celebration for a wonderful-in-every-way Daddy and husband! We love you.