Winter Trip

Greg's family has what some may call a competitive spirit. Thus, it was no surprise to us that Carly's cousins, Jack and Colin, each insisted on getting a new little brother when Carly got hers. Here they are seeing who can best hold onto the little brothers.

Holiday Pics

They say this past Monday was Blue Monday. Apparently, people get depressed this time of year for many, many reasons, including the holiday credit card bills arriving in the mail, blown New Year's resolutions, crappy weather, and spending way too much time trapped in a small, cluttered, toy-overridden home waiting for a rude cable guy to come 2 hours late and do half the job he was supposed to do. Actually, that last one is just mine. Anyway, so here's my cure...posting some pics of the holiday madness. The 2009 holiday madness, just to be clear.

Let me start with Thanksgiving weekend. We kicked off the weekend with a kick-ass decision to coordinate our flight arrival in Michigan with Scott's flight from the West coast. Fannnnnntastic idea. Riding in mom's car with 4 (not small) adults, 2 kids in carseats, 4 suitcases, and 1 improperly attached, borrowed cartop carrier was a great way to get into the holiday spirit. It's all about quality family time, isn't it.

Once we got to Mom's house, though, we had a great time. The cousins spent Thanksgiving Day playing hard and making a hell of a lot of noise. When it was time to go around the table and say what we were thankful for, Carly looked down, thought about it and then grinned and quipped, "I'm thankful for coming." So damn sweet. Also sweet was Grandma Rita's attendance at dinner and the warmth & respect her great-grandchildren paid her. And, proving that her memory is not, in fact, gone, she stunned us all by inquiring about the origins of the beautiful silver on the table (it was hers). Oh, smack!

Of course, Greg again refused to let the 7 and under crowd win a card game.



Can you say p-o-o-p-e-d?





We returned home to the thick of the holiday season. It was time for me to step up and bring the Christmas treats to the 3 year-old preschool class. Last year, I royally screwed up the Easter treats and then made them worse by trying to decorate them, so I decided to stay in my comfort zone this time. And, I have enough self-confidence to admit that this includes baking with marshmallows. Again.



Sully, is that a green food-coloring stain around your mouth?


The Friday following Carly's preschool Christmas Spectacular (suffice it to say that our showboat did not disappoint), Carly and I had a very fun outing to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. Carly picked her outfit (including the purse and pearls) and many of the night's details. We took the subway just for kicks (excuse the pun), we ate a massive cup of donut holes at the show, we went out for ice cream afterwards, and we thoroughly enjoyed the magic of the show. (One of us is still talking about the dancing Santas.) The main excitement for me, however, didn't really come until after the show when Carly entertained the entire ladies restroom line with her own version of high kicks and holiday singing. She had one lady in tears laughing so hard. I, on the other hand, actually a bit embarrassed and trying to calmly get the situation under control (why did I allow all those donut holes?!).

Of course, after getting her feet wet with the restroom line audience, she did the same thing on the subway ride home. This time, the crowd wasn't feeling it as much, so she decided to up the ante with some fake sightings out the window. "Look mom! I see Santa outside!!!" she said as she cranked her neck around to see who was listening. (No one.) Without much response, this quickly escalated to "Look mom, I see POOP out the window!!!!". I was mortified, but trying hard to swallow away my laughter. Well, you can imagine that this got the attention of the other riders. Mission Accomplished.





As we were making our way home that night, the snow began. WINTER STORM 2009. It was lovely, it was festive, it was magical.....while it was snowing. It killed our New England holiday travel plans, however, and let's be honest....getting snowed in with two kids and a large golden retriever loses it's romanticism after 48 hours.




If I had to pick the most excited family member....I would have to pick Sully. He is still looking for some of those snowballs we threw.

Sucks to get wet in the snow.

And, by the time Christmas rolled around, we were exhausted. It felt like we had done a lot of prep work this season. We made homemade wreaths for our bedroom doors (wouldn't advise using the glass balls that break into 8 million pieces when they inevitably fall and break), met with Santa, attended holiday parties, read endless books about Santa and baby Jesus, collaborated on gifts for cousins, picked out and decorated our tall & skinny tree....okay, this is admittedly sounding very vanilla and lame, but when you have a 1 year old and a 3.5 year old...they provide all the magic you need. And the drama. :)






Cheers to 2010!! xoxo Sara

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday T-dog!!


Ole' little man. That's right, Teddy had a very big week this past week. Thursday started off with a celebration at our local Mexican restaurant (we are 4 for 5 as far as 2009 family birthday celebrations go and I'm not feeling optimistic about Sully's chances at the sombrero and fried ice cream combo). As I mentioned, Teddy recently has become intrigued with silverware and his birthday night was no exception. It isn't easy to eat rice with a fork, but damn it if he didn't give it his best shot. The spoon/ice cream combo was much (much) easier.






On Friday night, we co-hosted a birthday bash for Teddy & Henry and 12 of their closest 3 year-old pals at a local hot spot. Okay, it wasn't a hot spot, but it was entertaining.













The ball pit was both fun and terrifying as Teddy realized it was deeper than anticipated.











And, then we headed home for a few gifts. Carly decided that she wanted to get Teddy a teddy bear for his birthday. Suspicious. She picked it out, wrapped it, and opened it for him. Later that night, when Teddy was already in bed, I found the new teddy bear tucked safely under Carly's sheets. When I quizzed her about it, she said that the teddy bear was going to sleep with her that night. I don't think Teddy has seen it since. And I actually doubt he minds. The big hits were the magnet set from the Pietrosantes, the fire truck from Nana, and the basketball hoop. Santa is going to have a tough time reinventing Teddy's wish list.





And, never ones to rush, we had Teddy baptized on Saturday. It was something of a guerrilla baptism with neither of the bicoastal godparents present, but that was the least of our worries.



Turned out, Mr. Fancy Pants couldn't handle his new shoes. He proceeded to use them as a drum set through the entire ceremony. Have you ever heard saddle shoes hit the sides of a wooden pew in an empty church?



And, not to be outdone or forgotten, Carly staged her own not-so-silent protest of the baptism. It was a bit unclear what the problem was, but she was definitely not happy when the 4 of us (Nana, Greg, Teddy and I) were asked by the priest to step onto the altar.

The drama continued, long enough for the priest to make a comment about children often not attending mass (I am not making this stuff up) and well into the post-baptism celebration at the same bar where we celebrated Carly's baptism.







All's well that ends well I suppose.

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Saturday morning view. I love when fresh snow covers up all the flaws in our lawn.