Dear Santa

Dear Santa:

When a 3 year old girl asks for make-up for Christmas, it is not always a good idea to comply with the request. I understand that your intentions were pure and that the make-up you brought is "soap and water washable", but, I declare! That stuff is the biggest mess I've ever seen. And I'm not sure our upholstered furniture will ever be the same. Additionally, I'm certain that the looks I get in public from random strangers on days that I forget or don't have time to wash her face on the way out the door will not be looks of approval. Surely I don't need to tell you that a 3 year old does not understand the concept of less is more - nor does she necessarily have the skill set to color in the lines.

I just thought it might be helpful for you to know this for future reference.

Sincerely,

A mom at her wit's end

Merry, merry Christmas wrap-up

Oh my goodness, we are so blessed. We have had such a wonderful Christmas.

Since I last posted, we have had lots of quality family time with both the Pressleys/Bainbridges and the McCarthys. On Monday night, we went to a restaurant with GranNan and Poppy, Beth, David, Will and Abby and then went back to GranNan and Poppy's house for presents and dessert. We all had such a good time. The kids got lots of great gifts that they were excited about, and of course, they got to spend time with their cousins, which they always love.

On Tuesday, the kids and I went to visit my sweet Granny at her apartment. We took some petit fours that the kids helped me make and visited for about an hour. The kids were quite literally bouncing off the walls and I was worried that we were way too much for Granny. But she seemed to thoroughly enjoy our visit. When we left, she said we had made her Christmas by coming to visit - and that made my day. (She later reported to my mother that the kids were sweet and cute and "peppy" on our visit. That is one way to describe it....)

Late Tuesday night, Kerry and Kate arrived from New York. We always enjoy their visits so much. They spoil the kids - but in the good way. They never say no when the kids ask them to read a story, climb in a tent, play a game, etc. They just love our kids and that makes my heart happy. The next afternoon, Gran and Grandaddy and Lilly (the beagle) arrived and the kids' joy was made complete. We did lots of cooking, playing, reading, etc. Kerry and Kate and Grandaddy took the kids and Lilly to the park. Check out what happened to Lil' P when she stopped moving for a second.... Yep. She fell asleep in the swing. Multiple times apparently. Poor baby. So much excitement...so little rest.

We turned out some really excellent meals while the McCarthy clan was here and enjoyed sitting around the table and just being together.

Don't worry. Pressley is not actually drinking champagne. That is "special kid champagne" in her glass - otherwise known as ginger ale.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas eve. The kids went to bed a lot later than usual. We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story out of their kids Bible story book. Then waited for them to go to sleep. And waited. And waited. Corin and I finally got to attend a Christmas eve service at Briarlake for the first time in many, many years. When we got back from church, Santa had not yet arrived, so it was a late bedtime for us.

But as usual, it was well worth it. Santa was good to the kids. Despite the fact that Santa's elf who used to make Batman legos is not making them anymore, Evan got some gifts - including other legos - that he really seemed to enjoy. Pressley got the Princess Vanity that she so desperately wanted (though we have since discovered that Santa probably could have just brought the vanity stool and she would have been perfectly happy).

Finally, after a fun day of playing with all the new toys, we headed off to South Carolina to spend Christmas evening with my mom's side of the family - 26 strong this year. What a fun bit of controlled chaos that always is. Pressley and Sydney, who don't see each other nearly enough, became fast friends and bonded over a little Leapster fun. "Baby" Michael was trying hard to keep up with the big kids this year and he was just as cute as he could be.

All in all, it was just a perfect Christmas. In all the excitement and fun of the season, we tried very hard to keep the focus on the one true Gift we celebrate this season.

We hope that you and yours had as blessed a Christmas as we did. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (well, early afternoon...).

P.S. I discovered this nifty collage feature in Picasa, so I was able to share a lot more pictures than usual in the body of the blog post, but if you still want more, check out the Dec. 09 link under Albums.

Pancakes, pajamas, and a visit from Santa

Our friend Tricia came up with a great party idea last year: a pancake breakfast with all the kids in their pajamas and a surprise visit from Santa. What could be better? Last year, Pressley and I went solo because Evan was still in school. This year, Tricia graciously hosted another Pancake and Pajama breakfast with Santa, and since this year's party was this morning (and Friday was the last day of school), Evan got to go with us.

We all had so much fun. Not only did we get to eat pancakes and other yummy breakfast food, but the mommies got to show up in jammies too. Best...party...idea...ever. I tell you what - any party I can go to with a drawstring waistband and slippers - I'm there!

The kids had an absolute blast. You may recall that last year Pressley was not so fond of the whole Santa thing. In fact she screamed and cried and clutched at my neck for all she was worth when I tried to get close enough to have our picture made. But this year, we were prepared. We've done two Santa "drive-bys" at the mall to pick up a candy cane but not sit in Santa's lap. And we've been talking about it...a lot.

Here's what happened when Santa arrived:

Yep, that would be Pressley stepping right up to introduce herself and shake Santa's hand.

Then, because there were close to thirty kids at the party, we had to wait a while to have our one-on-one time (or two-on-one, as the case may be) with Santa. The kids entertained themselves pretty well....

Then, it was finally our turn. First, a picture for mommy:

Then it was Pressley's turn to tell Santa what she wanted. Pretty much the same thing she has said at the Santa drive-bys: the make-up mirror and some make-up. (Totally appropriate for a three-year-old, don't you think?)

Then it was Evan's turn. Evan told Santa that he wants Batman legos (you know...the ones that are discontinued and selling for $160 - $600 on E-bay and we're pretty sure Santa is not going to find, I mean make, this year). And then. THEN, he gave Santa some totally new information (when I'm pretty sure I had already heard Santa say he was done shopping, I mean making all the toys). This new information was that in addition to the $600 Batman legos, he also wants some Castle legos. Since those have not been discontinued, so it looks like Santa's elves have some last minute work to do.

After all the kids who would had all sat with Santa, he then read a story. A handful of kids paid attention to the first story, but only the really faithful few book-lovers -Pressley and two other kids- stuck around for the second book (that Pressley requested).

It was just a fabulous party. Have I said that already? And it is 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we are all still in our p.j.'s. BONUS!!

We will have to get our lazy bones into some clothes eventually because we are celebrating Christmas tonight with GranNan and Poppy and my sister and her family since the McCarthys will start arriving tomorrow night. We will see my family again on Christmas night, but with a crowd of 20-25 at the big family gathering, we decided years ago that it was nice to have a more intimate celebration ahead of time so mom and dad can actually watch their grandkids open their gifts.

I'll be back when I can take another little break from living life to report on it. Until then, Merry week-of-Christmas!

Great memories being made

I celebrated Christmas with my Berry girls last Friday night, so Corin took the kids for a quick trip to Knoxville to visit Gran and Grandaddy. See, until just a few years ago, we always went to Knoxville for Christmas and we shared in some really lovely traditions there. When the family agreed to start coming to Atlanta for Christmas to ease the growing difficulty of traveling with the kids this time of year, there were many things we knew we'd miss about spending Christmas in Tennessee. Near the top of the list was the tradition of cutting down a tree off the farm on Christmas eve (or the day before), bringing it in and decorating it. Last time we did it, Pressley was a mere babe riding on Corin's shoulders.

So, Corin was able to take advantage of the free evening and squeeze in a trip to recapture that tradition. They arrived in Knoxville late Friday night, and after some breakfast and some play time, they headed out with Grandaddy to cut down a tree. I begged Corin to make sure he took some good pictures. He has this habit of not taking pictures of fun events if I'm not there. Bless his sweet heart...he did good this time. I felt like I was watching stop-action animation when I looked back at what he'd captured.

Apparently, Evan was very into the whole tree harvesting process while Pressley...not so much. She's our girly girl and there was cold and mud involved. Though, when the tree was in the stand and ready to be decorated, I'm told she rallied and participated while Evan...not so much. Here she is with Gran in front of the decorated tree.

As an added bonus, they also cut down a small tree to bring home. So now the kids have their own little tree in our office/playroom that has colored lights and great homemade ornaments. This is the room they'll be sleeping in once the family arrives tomorrow night, so I know they'll enjoy falling asleep looking at their very own special tree. Great memories being made around here....

The quest for the perfect tree

Some might say I am long overdue in getting this post up, but I'm going to say that this is actually perfect timing. Because, you see, I have decided to participate - for the first time ever - in a blog carnival. In particular a bloggy tour of homes sponsored by The Nester. Hers is not a blog I typically follow, but some of the bloggers I do follow have linked to the Holiday Tour of Homes so I've decided to participate (even though I can't, for the life of me, paste that little bloggy button on here that I'm supposed to paste on here).

OK. Back to the beginning. Last Saturday, we set out on our quest for the perfect tree. Evan wanted to go back to the Big John's in the Ansley Mall parking lot, because once you burn both your "bird fingers" on a barrel with a fire in it, I guess it makes an impression. But, I convinced him I wanted to try this church in Decatur where I had seen really pretty trees. Plus, I just find it nicer to hand over a boat-load of money to a church than to a corporate machine like Big John's. I'm standing by that decision. The very first tree we were led to by the very nice man who helped us was "the one". We had to look at several others, of course, just to make sure, but we all felt the first one was it. Well - all of us except Corin. Tree No. 3 was his favorite, but he was outvoted. (He was later very bitter to have been outvoted since "the one" had the biggest trunk known to man and he had to spend hours whittling it down so it would fit in our extra large tree stand.) The very nice man was even kind enough to take a picture of all of us showing off [er, blocking] the tree.

Anyway, it was (and is) a beautiful tree. We had a nice time decorating it last Saturday night after the boys got it down off the top of the car and Corin spent all day putting lights on it (and on the junipers in front of our front porch and on the upstairs porch railing) while the kids and I were over at mom and dad's house taking pictures for the Christmas card.

The cutest thing about the whole decorating-the-tree-thing was what Evan did. We have these dinosaur ornaments that Corin's cousin sent a few years back (recalling that Corin was a big fan of dinosaurs as a child). Evan loves them. This year, he very carefully placed all the dinosaur ornaments. When he was finished, he had these three carefully placed on the bottom branches so that it looked like the T-rex was chasing the others. He was very proud of himself. Every time we walked by the tree, we would chuckle.

Here is the finished product: I tell you, it is not a very color-coordinated or any-other-kind-of-coordinated tree. Part of me would like to have a very nice coordinated tree, but the other part of me knows that, while my kids are little, this is the kind of tree that makes the best memories.

We keep our decorations pretty simple around here. I would love to be a bit more extravagant with my decorations, but I am fairly frightened of experimenting. And I guess a little lazy. Without a big budget for these sorts of things, I'd have to get creative - and that is one of those gifts I just did not end up with.

Here is the mantle with some natural greenery and the nativity that my parents gave us as a wedding gift. And the stockings I finally ordered last year after years (literally) of looking for a knit stocking that was not ugly. Corin and I had some really cute knit stockings before we were married. I think we bought them for our first Christmas together when we were dating. But there were only two of them, so when we started having kids, I started looking for replacement stockings so we could have four coordinated ones. I really wanted to have knit ones that were reminiscent of those we had in our early days together. Call me sentimental..... However, if I had known how hard it would be, I would have just bought four when we found those two long, long ago. But, then, Corin may have run away screaming about the fact I was buying stockings for our future children before we were even engaged, and then we might not have had the happily ever after ending to our story.

In recent years, Corin has started sticking the extra greenery that gets cut off the bottom of the tree in our sitting room bookcases. I really like the way it looks. This year we really went out on a limb and put some fake holly berries up there to sass it up a little more. Since we already have red accent pieces there, it really works I think.

Finally, and I don't know if this is cheating on the Holiday Tour of Homes, but I've included a picture of the way my dining room looked last year. I don't know how well you can see it in this picture: red table runner, silver candle holders with white candles, fresh greenery and fake red holly berries, red chargers, ivory linen napkins, and fun little jingle bell napkin rings. Oh, and what appears to be some deviled eggs and a cheese tray for good measure. I could have sworn I also had some sort of actual centerpiece, but it is not in the photo and I seriously can't remember what it would have been...

I have not done a thing to decorate the table this year. I love the runner and the chargers, so I'm sure those will make an appearance again this year, but the fresh greenery was a big mess - way too messy to remove when we put food on the table, so it was a bit inconvenient. Plus, we're fresh out of fresh greenery now that we've used it all on the mantle and the bookcases.

How do you decorate your dining table for Christmas? Or what suggestions do you have for me and my table? You can see my chairs are upholstered in red and gold, which lends itself to a nice festive table setting, but my creativity is limited this year - as are my funds!

Do click on over to The Nester if you are interested in seeing literally hundreds more homes decorated for Christmas -- without ever leaving the warmth of your house or getting out of your "lounge pants" (a.k.a. pajama bottoms). I love seeing how other people decorate for Christmas, so I think this is tons of fun.

Visions of sugarplums

I told you in my last post that we were going to the Gingerbread House decorating competition last night at church. Last year, I couldn't get my kids to participate with me (plus I forgot to pre-pay for a house and I think they ran out, so I guess it was good they didn't want to do it). But, this year, I remembered to plan ahead and I didn't give the kids an option. I just told them that was what we were going to do.

We had a great time decorating our house. I was determined not to get all control-freaky about the whole thing. I just wanted it to be fun for the kids. I did control the frosting and contribute a few ideas, but mostly I let them have a lot of creative license. (We did have to stop Pressley a couple of times from putting heavy candy on the roof, but that was more about structural concerns than aesthetic value.) It turned out a LOT better than I expected. I thought it would be kind of a disaster, but it turned out pretty cute. And, GranNan and Poppy hung out to help us and take photos, respectively. So, it was all good.

Well, it was all good until we had to sit around for a long time waiting for the judging to happen. The judging took a while because there were about 40 houses and lots of people BRING IT to the gingerbread competition. They bring outside supplies (like pre-prepared trees that I can only imagine were upside down ice cream cones covered in green frosting), and one lady even brought a airbrusher-paint-gun-thingee. So, it is serious business in some of the categories.

The kids got a little antsy during the long wait, but even that wasn't so bad. But, then. Then. They handed out the prizes to the winners. (There were several different categories and 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and such, so there were 12 prizes in all for 40 teams.) I always knew we would not win a prize, and like I said yesterday, we were just in it to make some memories. But I guess I did not convey this knowledge to the youngest member of my family who burst into tears when she realized the presents had all been handed out and she did not get one.

I really don't think the sudden outburst of emotion was about the losing. I think she had no idea there was competition involved. The words she blurted through her tears had nothing to do with winning or losing. The words were, "I wanted a presennnnnnt. I really, really wanted a presennnnnt!" And it was late. So she was tired. And she was all hopped up on sugar. Poor baby.

And what did the poor baby's mommy do? Well, in my defense, it took me totally by surprise. So, I gathered her up into my arms and hugged her tightly while I silently stifled my laughter in her hair. Seriously. I did not know how else to react. I was caught completely off guard. It really never occurred to me that she would get upset.

I did finally gather my thoughts and control my laughter and explain to her that our prize was our beautiful and special house that we would get to take home and show to daddy and enjoy throughout the season. She wasn't really buying it, but she calmed down eventually. Today, I think all that remain are the happy memories.

The post-script to this entry is that Pressley's reaction (and those of several other 3 and 4 year olds who had the same reaction) has sparked quite the cyber-debate on Facebook today about whether it is appropriate to give everyone a prize for participating to keep the pre-school set from melting down at the end. I totally get the argument that in life, you don't always win and we need to teach our kids to deal gracefully with defeat. I also get that a 3 year old doesn't yet have the capacity to really understand winning and losing and there is some merit to giving out prizes for participation to compensate for that.

I think the best solution is probably to let families with pre-schoolers opt out of the competition part altogether so we can just gather our finished houses and leave before any presents show up and get handed out. If Pressley had never seen the presents, she would have been fine with the house being our "only" prize.

It must be Christmas time in Atlanta

It must be Christmas time in Atlanta...because everyone from Atlanta knows that nothing says Christmas like riding on a little pink train, shaped like a pig, residing in a giant white tent in a mall parking lot...right?

I have NO idea when or why this tradition was started. Actually, I do know when. It was 1953 according to the signs attributing historical significance to this tradition. But, why? Well, good question. All I know is that when I was a kid, we would go to the Rich's building downtown and ride the Pink Pig that was suspended from a monorail on top of the building, freeze our fannies off, and receive a sticker that said "I Rode the Pink Pig" for our troubles. Don't know why, but I always thought that was fun. When I was a kid, it looked like this:

Clearly that was before the childhood obesity epidemic, because looking at it now, I can't figure out for the life of me how anyone ever got into that thing. Now the train is on a track in (like I said before) a big white tent on top of the parking garage at the Lenox Mall Macy's. You still get a sticker that says "I Rode the Pink Pig", you still freeze your fanny off, and well, the kids still think it is big fun. Here are Evan and Lil P waiting for the ride to start. (They said they didn't need daddy OR mommy to ride this year, so we didn't have to cram ourselves in there with them.)

Pressley was much more concerned about buckling her safety restraint than about having her picture made. Why they need safety restraints for a ride that goes approximately 1 mile per hour in a circle (and not on top of a building) is beyond me. Actually, I'm an attorney. I know exactly why they have those restraints. Nevermind.

And here is the whole caboodle of kids who belong to our Sunday school friends (sans Landon because he was having none of it), because for the second year in a row, we made it a fun family outing for the whole class. It really was a lot of fun. And we herded all the kids down the mall (and 3 escalators) to the food court for dinner afterwards. You would think walking from Macy's to the food court would be easy enough, but try it sometime with nine kids aged 2 through 6. Who knew such a short walk could be so stressful!

Tonight, we're off to church to participate in a Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. (Note: I carefully avoided saying we will compete in the contest because my children are 3 and 5 and don't get enough candy at home (in their opinion), so the chance that any of the decorations will actually make it onto the house instead of into their tummies is slim to none. I don't have high expectations, but I will try to remember to take the camera just in case. We're not trying to win any awards, we're just out there makin' memories.

A pipe dream

Saturday, my "status update" on Facebook said the following:

"Amy is is headed to a park near my parents' house to see if my dad can capture some good pics of the kids frolicking happily in their Christmas finery on this 43 degree day...at naptime. What could possibly go wrong?"

I knew that outdoor photos in December would be a bad idea - even in Atlanta, but I just thought if I put enough layers under their clothes, that maybe we could get a few good shots. You see, our house was not yet decorated for Christmas and I didn't want all my photos to be taken in front of my parents' Christmas decorations, because as nice as they are, they are not ours. So, the plan was to take the kids to the lake at Henderson park and let them run around and point at ducks and look adorable. We got to my parents' house, got them dressed, bundled them up (from underneath) and took some indoor shots to start. Then, we decided to go outside at the house for a minute before we left to go to the park. We took a few shots of the kids sitting on the brick wall in front of the house (my idea) and some of them in front of the holly bush in the back (mom's idea).

This is how those turned out:

My personal favorite is the one in front of the holly bush where you can almost see Pressley's teeth chattering.

Since there was already much complaining (by kids and adults alike) about how cold it was, we ditched the park idea entirely and got some pretty cute ones inside the house in places where the decor was not too specific to mom and dad - or where there was no decor in the background.

Overall, I'm happy. But next year, I may have to get my act together a little earlier in the season so we can take advantage of the very late Indian summer around here and photograph some happy outdoor frolicking, dangit!

Ring the Bells

I have been helping teach pre-school music at church this fall on Wednesday nights. And, by that I mean that I help put the appropriate DVD in at the appropriate time (which you would think would be easy enough, but I manage to botch it up a good bit of the time), I play bad cop and threaten to put instruments in time out if people are playing them instead of listening to Ms. Lisa, and I occasionally (ok, once) fill in and do the whole shootin' match when Ms. Lisa can't be there. It has been a lot of fun. (Seriously.) Especially considering that both of my kids are in the groups that I "teach."

Ms. Lisa is due to deliver a baby really any second now, so we went ahead and scheduled the Christmas program for last night so there would be a higher likelihood that she could lead the thing. We have spent the last few weeks trying to nail down a couple of songs we've been working on for a while and trying to teach a couple of Christmas songs for good measure.

Last night's program was, well, it was. Lisa had made me a CD of all the songs we'd be performing in case she went into labor at the last minute and I had to step in. We decided it would be easiest to use that CD even if she did make it because then everything would be in one place (and I'd be less likely to screw it up). When I arrived at church at the appointed hour, there was no Lisa in sight, so I grabbed the CD out of my purse and threw it into the player. It spun for a second and then said "Er", which I presume means error. I tried a couple more times and then went down the hall to procure another player. That one didn't work either. Luckily about this time, Lisa shows up (thank the good Lord), but she didn't have all of the back up CDs she'd used to burn my copy. Her mom was with her and went back to her house to get the back-up CDs and it did work out. Except that I put the 2nd song in first and then couldn't get the 4th song to play at all - due to the fact that I'd turned the volume all the way down to make a new ending to song 3 since we never could get the kids to learn all three verses of Away in a Manger. Considering all my puddle wallering and car-interior-soaking activities earlier in the day, I should have expected that things would not go smoothly - at least where my involvement was required.

I keep telling myself that no one really cared about our technical difficulties. There were only parents and grandparents in the audience and fully half of them were seeing their kids perform (and I use that term loosely) for the very first time. So, they got what they came for despite the glitches.

Here is a video of their last song: Ring the Bells. Please note the preacher's kid on the back row on the right side of the video (starting about half way through). He really got creative with ringing his bells. I would have uploaded some of the others, but the video quality is poor and, well, I'm just not into punishing you any more than necessary. Enjoy!

On a slightly different note, I have managed to stay on my feet and out of trouble today (and I am in for the evening), so I am in a much better mood today. I haven't even cried all day. Maybe I'll get into this Christmas season after all. Talk to me again after my next foray into the shopping arena and I'll let you know where I stand. I will, after all, have to go back out since yesterday's excursion only procured one gift.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, er, monsoon season

I started my morning this morning at the DMV. Because who doesn't want to start a rainy, gross morning with a trip to the DMV with a 3 year old? I had to get a replacement decal for my tag since I discovered a couple of weeks ago, when the nice officer pulled me over, that I never received it in the mail back in June and have been driving on an expired registration ever since. That errand was as easy as pie. We walked right up to the counter, paid the $8 replacement fee and walked out - into the rain - with a new decal.

The next stop was the Macy's at Lenox. I had seen an ad yesterday that convinced me to get out and purchase the very first Christmas gift of the season. I immediately located the item, secured myself a friends and family discount, and generally felt pretty good about the whole experience...UNTIL....

Pressley and I were on our way back to the car to head to the parcel pick up. Did I mention there is a monsoon here in Georgia today?

[As an aside, I realize that we have just very recently come out a some pretty serious drought conditions here, and I'm supposed to be very thankful for the rain. Blah, blah, blah. But, I am OVER it. ENOUGH with the rain, already.]

Anyway, while I very protectively watched Pressley navigate through a puddle to make sure she didn't get her feet too wet, I turned my ankle (as has become known around here as "pulling an Amy") and tumbled headlong into a puddle as deep as my bathtub. And considering how wet I was when I got up, I apparently wallered around in it a bit. The front of both pant legs were soaked from the knee down. And the back of my left leg was wet from waist to ankle. I seriously felt like I'd been swimming. And I was cold. And embarrassed. Well, I would have been embarrassed if anyone had seen it, but I think (but for this blog entry) it would have been mine and P's little secret.

Now, mind you, I've still not retrieved my purchase from the parcel pick-up. That was another whole ordeal. I didn't want to get P out into the rain again, so I left her in the car to just pop in and let the good customer service folks I was waiting for my purchase. I waited inside (soaking wet and cold) for approximately 10 minutes without any luck getting anyone to pick up the phone at parcel pick-up. All the while, I was nervously pacing to the door every couple of minutes to look out and check on P. About the 10th time I checked on her, I decided to use the nifty little device on my key chain that allows me to roll down the windows remotely to just roll down the window for a sec to ask her if she was ok. She was. But then I realized that the nifty little device would not roll them back up remotely. Of course! So, I had to run out into the rain, get into the car, crank it, and roll up the windows. As I'm doing this, it dawns on me that I'm getting wetter than I anticipated I would. That is because the sunroof had also opened with the oh-so-helpful little doohickey. For crying out loud.

I did finally find one helpful person who actually let me return to the car to sit with Pressley and then delivered my package to my trunk. So now I'm back home - out of the wet jeans and into my stretchy pants. Dry and almost warm. I've never been more grateful for my seat heaters, by the way. But you'll have to forgive me if I'm feeling a bit like the love-child of Scrooge and the Grinch. If only we could really just focus on Jesus' birth, and time with family and friends, and not all the other insanity, I'd be just fine.

The one bright spot here is that Evan has a playdate with a neighbor today, so I don't have to go to the bus stop. Which means I can stay in my dry stretchy pants until time to go to church tonight. And, I can take a nap with P today. And you better bet your britches that I will be doing just that.

Perhaps after my do-over, I'll have enough Christmas spirit to get me through the kids' Christmas program at church tonight.

Empty suitcases; Full heart

We are back from our annual whirlwind visit to Kerry and Kate's home in Rosendale, NY. We have finished unpacking, but are still reveling in the memories. Typically, we stay in Atlanta for Thanksgiving day and then spend the long weekend in NY with the McCarthys. But this year, my friend Stephanie was getting married here in town on Saturday night, and not wanting to miss her beautiful wedding, we tweaked the trip a bit. We left on Wednesday (yes, we flew with two kids on the day before Thanksgiving) and came back on Saturday just in time to take the kids to my parents and get showered and changed for the wedding.

The first note-worthy report from the trip is that our children are now officially civilized travellers if this trip was any indication. Despite flying on the busiest travel day of the year, the trip went awfully smoothly. We arrived at the airport two hours before our flight, took the park and ride shuttle and proceeded to security with all of our stuff since I'm not into paying the airline to check my bag. I had read that none of the rest of the country is into paying for that particular "service" either, so I should expect looooong lines at security. However, we walked right up and barely had our shoes off before our bags were being x-rayed and we were being ushered through the metal detector thingee. We got to our gate (D1A - just in case you thought you couldn't be any further from ticketing than D1...they've added a D1A, apparently just for folks traveling with 2 kids on the busiest travel day of the year) and were nearly the first ones there, allowing us to snag a spot in a corner with a plug for the DVD player. The kids sat quietly on the floor with the new-to-them DVDs I rented from the blockbuster for $1 each for the week-best $5 ever spent-and watched until it was time to board. When we arrived in White Plains, the bags arrived promptly, we had no trouble locating the shuttle to our hotel, and despite the fact that we arrived there at 8:30 (which was our scheduled arrival time), we were in our room before 9pm. A-mazing!

The trip home was similarly civilized, and for that, I am eternally thankful.

While we were in Rosendale with the McCarthy clan, we had just a lovely visit. The preparations were underway by the time we arrived on Thursday morning from White Plains and, aside from a little understandable Turkey-day stress when you are feeding 15, it was a really nice, relaxing day to visit with family. And the meal was delish - as usual.

Friday morning we participated in our favorite new-ish Thanksgiving tradition - the breakfast buffet at Mohonk Mountain House, followed by some hiking and otherwise enjoying the grounds of this grand old hotel situated in the most beautiful setting you can imagine. This year we tried out an evergreen maze for the first time, but also made time to hike up to the lookout tower at the top of the mountain. Then, while Lil' P and I were hanging inside by one of the many fireplaces, Corin and Evan tried something else new--the rock scramble. Typically, the rock scramble is closed when we are there because it closes when the conditions are the least bit icy. This year, conditions were a bit less frigid than they usually are, so they were able to try to scramble. Although, when they finished, it somehow came to Corin's attention that children are supposed to be at least 8 to try the rock scramble. Good thing we didn't know that ahead of time, because it was Evan's favorite part of the trip this year.

Here are some photos to prove how gorgeous it is up there at Mohonk. (I secretly have a dream that we will spend a week there some summer and the kids will canoe, and swim, and bunny hop, and carry a watermelon to where the staff has its dance parties, and then at the end of the trip we'll go to the talent show where we'll sing a song about Kellerman's and someone will say "No one puts Pressley in a corner." But without all the extra-marital sex and unwanted pregnancies.)

Now that my mom is all appalled that I said sex and unwanted pregnancies in an otherwise lovely and family-friendly post (Please at least tell me that most of you got the Dirty Dancing reference. It wasn't subtle. Forgive me. I'm a child of the 80s.), I'll shift gears and tell you that we also had a lovely post-Thanksgiving-Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday after we returned.

My mom did the hosting and almost all the cooking this year with the exception of the crock pot mac and cheese that my sister brought and the yeast rolls that I slaved over (read: picked up from O'Charley's). Everything was delicious and comforting, and we had a lovely time seeing my Granny for any real amount of time for one of the first times since all her health problems over the summer and seeing my cousin's daughter who has grown into just a lovely young woman since the last time I saw her. And, of course, there was the cousin lovin' and chaos that always ensues when my kids are together with their beloved Will and Abby. This year, the cousins found my old doll house up in the attic and insisted that my dad dig it out from behind all manner of boxes and bins so they could play with it for exactly 4-1/2 minutes before they decided they wanted to play outside and see the neighbor's dogs.

Granny with the kids:

Kids playing with my dollhouse in the attic: (It might be nearly time to bring that treasure trove of memories to find a spot in my own home. Though that will be easier said than done.)

I would love to tell you about Stephanie's wedding, but I fear I have likely lost your attention by now. So, I'll save that for another day.

Farmers and Ninjas

Last Friday was Pressley's Thanksgiving program at school. She was supposed to dress like a farmer. Still not really sure why...but, given the fact that the child does not own anything but dresses (her choice) and refuses to wear pants, this was sure to be a problem. But, I tried. I went to The Target on Thursday and picked up a denim skirt for $7 on clearance. I made sure to keep the receipt, in case she refused to wear it. My plan was two-fold: first, I'd be really excited about the super cute skirt I bought just for her today, and second, I'd promise she could wear her tights and her boots with the skirt if she wanted to wear it to school the next day.

Last year, I would have never thought any two-pronged plan that involved tights would ever work. That is because last year, if we tried to put tights on the child, she acted like we were trying to break both of her legs. I'm not kidding. But, now, she prefers tights to socks. It is a wonder we ever get out the door in the mornings. The rules are constantly a-changin'. But I digress.

My plan worked and she wore the $7 denim skirt to school with the brown boots and looked just a teeny tiny bit like a farmer (well, not really, but at least anyone who knew to look would see that I tried). She knew all the words to Harvest Time, despite the fact that she only goes to school two days a week and they presumably practiced it five days a week. She even said "Happy Thanksgiving" at the end, which appears to have been in the plan for everyone, but I don't think anyone else said it. Just in case you didn't get to go to a children's program during this Thanksgiving season and you were worried that your holiday just wouldn't be complete without some unintelligible poem-reciting by some cute kids, I've included a video clip just for you: [Edited to add: I tried and tried to upload the edited version that is about a minute shorter, but I am technically challenged. Sorry about that. If you want to skip the first 45 seconds, it won't hurt my feelings.]

Then, on Saturday, Evan had his first karate test. He's been taking karate lessons since August, and this was the end of his first session. So, we all trekked on over to the Dojo on Saturday morning to watch about a hundred kids test for either stripes for their belts or animal patches. Evan is apparently still too new to be ready for a "rank" test, so he did one of the animal tests. His particular animal test was the crane test, which is about balance. He learned a series of move involving wings and beaks and shrieks and then had his test. He earned his new patch. I'm very proud of him, but not very excited about having a new patch to sew on the uniform. After all, last time I injured myself by jabbing the dull end of the needle underneath my fingernail trying to force the silly thing through all that thick fabric. Did I mention that sewing is not my strong suit?

I've included a couple of photos of Evan posing for me before the test and kneeling to receive his patch after the test. There are tons of photos of the warm-up and all the crane maneuvers in the November album. There was even a video of some of the warm-up, but it was really boring - even in the eyes of a mother - so I deleted it. Does that make me a bad mother or a merciful blogger -- or both?

The Halloween Carnival that almost wasn't

Evan's school puts on a Halloween Carnival every year. This year, the carnival was to take place on Halloween day. However, due to a sad development, the carnival was postponed when a teacher at the school passed away unexpectedly and the funeral was scheduled for that Saturday.

The carnival was rescheduled for mid-November. Being new to the school and wanting to support its goings-on (and needing a plan for a gorgeous fall day), we schlepped up to the school at 11 a.m. for the event. It was fun. Not amusement park fun or even hiking in the mountains fun, but a fun enough way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday. We paid entirely too much money for some hand stamps that would enable the kids to use the jumpy thing and the giant slide and then paid some more money to buy some tickets so the kids could make a wheelbarrow planter (that was free to make at the Home Depot tent at the Candler Park Fall Fest a few weekends before).

The kids did very much enjoy making their wheelbarrows. Evan made his with daddy and Pressley made hers with one of the parent volunteers who had clearly never made anything as complicated as a wheelbarrow planter before. He totally practised his craft on hers, but she didn't care. They also enjoyed the jumpy thing and the slide for about 3-1/2 minutes before they decided they'd had enough (so, we paid a little over a dollar a minute for each child...). But the things they enjoyed the most were playing on the playground [free] and playing chess [also free].

But I'm glad we went and supported the school. I'm not even mad that we overpaid for everything that we did, because that money will surely enrich my children in some way that is related to their early education.

Here are the kids making their wheelbarrows:

Pressley holding up the stickers for her wheelbarrow. Please note that she has written her [long] name on her sticker all by her very own self -- and she's only three. I am very proud of her for that. And also note how blue her eyes are and how cute her freckles... ok, ok...I know I'm biased.

Here is Corin teaching a gaggle of Evan's friends how to play chess. Well, just Evan and two friends, but I think we don't get to use the word gaggle nearly enough. There. I used it twice.

And one more of Lil' P playing on the playground.