Festiveness

For once I can't say I'm sorry Christmas is over. It was great, but I'm ready for life to return to normal! Here's how we celebrated this year:
- New niece: Baby Gloris surprised the world by being born Christmas morning! She's doing quite well and is super cute! Hopefully she'll be out of the NICU for at least some of the time we're in WA next week.
- Small family Christmas: we had a special Christmas breakfast (including red Italian creme sodas) on Christmas Eve, just the 4.5 of us. We enjoyed stockings and presents and had a super lazy and nice rest of the day.
- Unfortunately, a few days earlier Rory told Blake what his gift from me was: Blake- "Rory, what'd Mama get me for Christmas?" Rory: "A coffee maker!" I screamed, Bash cried, and Blake had no surprises Christmas morning. I didn't even realize that she knew what I got him! Guess two is a tricky age...
- We were heading to Chritstmas Eve service at FCF but the roads were sooo icy; we ended up at a church much nearer to my inlaws' house. The people next to us were drunk, and Bash tried to burn the building down during the candlelight song.
- Mexican food: Christmas Eve tamales may be becoming a tradition! Then we spent the night at Nana and Baba's house (Auntie B and Ryan got in super late that evening).
- Rory really got Christmas for the first time. She kept singing happy birthday to Jesus, and she recognizes Santa and Rudolph and what not, and was super excited about stockings and presents. It makes it so much fun, but also so tiring!
- We ate yummy cinnamon bread and whatnot and did stockings and gifts again. We all crashed during the afternoon since it was an early morning (thanks to an exuberant two year old).
- We went to Blake's uncle's home for Christmas dinner. I made fun Neapolitan rice krispie treats!

She's really into "makeup" these days

Bah, humbug

Her Auntie made her some play makeup!

And we made this bench from a craigslist coffee table for her Auntie!

Recent Thoughts

Other than a relatively quick bout with the sickies, things are humming along dandily here. Christmas preparations are coming along and we're loving the homeworkless time in between semesters.

- Our toy rotation system is working great! Last week I ended up leaving the same toys out; the kids were still very engaged with them and enjoying them. I swapped them yesterday though (leaving the blocks, which are played with multiple times a day), and the kids were thrilled with the switch. I have to remind myself that the system itself isn't the goal, and it's okay to tweak it and be flexible according to what works best for our family.
- Crawling is the worst age for snow. Bashy wants to be out in it, but he gets soaked and can't really enjoy it yet. Hopefully in a couple of months he'll be good to go!
- Fun things we've done lately: Eat lunch on 12-12-12 out of muffin tins/ice cube trays with 12 slots each. I put pieces of cheese, homemade jello, cucumber, etc. in the slots and they were beyond thrilled; painted with homemade bathtub paints pre-bath; decorated graham crackers with green frosting and sprinkles (should have been done pre-bath- yikes!); and drove around a neighborhood that has luminarios and lots of Christmas lights, along with a Santa and a few bands. Oh, and a living nativity.
- I can't believe that the horrible tragedy in Connecticut is making gun control such a hot topic right now. I feel like the mode used to complete the crime is so far from the big issue; the murderer could have just as easily used a bomb, knife, or many other things to kill a huge number of babies. What people really need to be talking about is the fact that our world is a fallen, dark and evil place, even at Christmas. These awful things happen not because weapons are available, but because humans are capable of horrendous things when they refuse to bow before the Almighty King. More than ever our greatest concern should be mankind's heart, and our most fervent prayer be that Jesus returns soon. Thank God for his coming judgment; may many choose His freely given grace before that day.