Just under the wire

Here it is, New Year's Eve and I still haven't done my Christmas wrap up post. I figured I better get it done today, or I'd surely decide it was too late once we get into January.

One of the things the kids and I look forward to the most is the PJs and Pancakes breakfast that my friend, Tricia, started hosting three years ago. Sadly, the day before the breakfast, Evan came down with a stomach bug. I was so hoping that he would be better in time for the breakfast, but he was still pretty puny that morning. Luckily, my friend Nicole swept in and became a hero by volunteering to pick Pressley up and take her so she wouldn't have to miss it. I am so grateful to have selfless friends! Here are some photos I got from Tricia of the party fun.


Once Evan got to feeling better, it was time to put up the little cedar tree we brought back from Knoxville for them to decorate in the playroom. They thoroughly enjoyed putting the ornaments on it and fully appreciated the fact that mean old mommy allows this tree to have colored lights. They were SO silly that night. But the silly pictures turned out cuter than the ones I tried to make them pose for. I'm sure there is a lesson in there for me about letting kids be kids, but I'm sure I'm too stubborn to learn it.

Next up was the small family celebration for my side of the family. This is when we get together with my parents, my sister and her family, and my Granny to go out to dinner and exchange gifts before all the craziness fully carries us away. We left mom and dad's house that night thinking that we could call Santa and tell him he could skip us this year because the kids had already gotten everything they wanted and all they could handle. Of course we didn't. Who are we, the Grinch?

My sweet 90-year-old Granny ended the evening by reading the four kids a book. It was so special, and a perfect way to have the kids settle down a tiny bit while the adults were loading all the loot in the cars.

The next day, Corin's family began to arrive. As usual, Kerry and Kate played tirelessly with the kids. There were many rounds of croquet in freezing temps, several spirited games of Jenga, the annual sugar-cookie decorating, and Barbie hairstyling galore.

We also went to see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the puppet center. It was excellent. They should be putting on this production for at least the next four year, and I'll put in a little plug for the center. If you are looking for a new fun Christmas tradition with kiddos, this is an excellent thing to add to your already-busy repertoire. It is one of the best shows we've seen there. And we've seen a lot. But every show was sold out this year, so you'll have to get your tickets early.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, after many tasty meals had been prepared and enjoyed, it was time to put the kids to bed and wait for Santa. Santa thought he had it easy this year because there were no toys that required assembly. What Santa did not realize was that the giant inflatable outdoor ball that Pressley asked for would take an hour and a half to inflate. With an electric pump. (Rumor has it that he originally started the process with a hand-held pump, but was nearly exhausted after inflating only one or two chambers.) Poor Santa. It was a long night.

But Santa's work was well worth the effort, as the kids were thrilled with their new toys. We quickly re-named the Giga Ball the Liability Ball or the Certain-Trip-to-the-Emergency-Room Ball as we discovered all the ways the kids could potentially get hurt in it. Other than a few scratches and bumps, all was well.

After opening more presents than you would think would be humanly possible and having brunch with all the McCarthys plus GranNan and Poppy (my parents), we were off to Lake Hartwell to celebrate some more with my mom's extended family.

There was some narrowly averted drama when Pressley realized that she had already worn all of her festive outfits and was left with some pretty lack-luster wardrobe choices (in her mind) for Christmas day. We had a dress picked out for her to wear. A cute red corduroy number that she wore last year. It was a bit big on her last year, so I was sure it would still fit. But I was wrong. She came down in the dress, which was about two inches too short on the arms and prevented her from moving her arms much at all. We were about to have a full-on melt-down on our hands when I took her upstairs to see what we could come up with. Thanks to the snow in the forecast, I was able to convince her that a brown knit dress with pink snowflakes (also from last year) was the perfect festive option. It was way too short on her this year, but luckily we had some matching leggings we could throw under there and she ended up happy as a clam. Whew! A Christmas miracle.

It was great fun, as always, but was cut a little short this year due to the impending snow and freezing temps, so we wanted to make sure everyone was home safely before the precipitation started to freeze on the roads. It snowed hard on us most of the way home, but the streets were not yet slippery, so we made it home safe and sound with two exhausted young-uns.

And that, my friends, is the Christmas wrap-up 2010. We have, once again, had a year so filled with blessings. We are so grateful for healthy kids and jobs and family time and fun and faith. We wish you all those things going into 2011. Hope it is a great one for you!

See you in the New Year!

A rude awakening

I still plan to do a Christmas wrap-up post, but first I need to report on the events of the morning.

This morning, I was awakened at 7:05 when Evan climbed into the bed with Pressley and me. I thought his arrival meant all four of us were in the bed together, which never lasts more than a few moments, but I was still hoping I could sleep for a couple more minutes.

Next thing I knew, I heard Corin bellowing at Evan from a place that was definitely not the other side of the bed. As I struggled to understand with my cobwebby brain what was going on, the bellowing turned to me. "AMY!!", it went, "We have a crisis.... of EPIC proportions!"

So, up I jumped and ran down the hall (OK, shuffled quickly) to Evan's bathroom to find water pouring into the hallway. Corin was already on his way to gather up every towel in the house, so I stood there and rubbed my eyes until he returned and we started sopping up water.

To the best of my now-wide-awake-understanding, it happened like this:

Last night we had a babysitter stay with the kids so we could go shopping and out to dinner. While said babysitter was here, the toilet apparently became clogged and nothing was done about it. Probably because Evan didn't alert anyone to the problem. (This assumption is based on plenty of precedent.) Then, when he woke up bleary-eyed this morning, he stumbled into the bathroom, relieved himself, flushed and left the room, not knowing that the water was now rushing out of the toilet.

The part about him not knowing is being assumed after much questioning by the father figure. He swears up and down that he didn't know and his feet were not wet when he left the room. If we find out differently, the punishment will be swift and harsh.

Luckily, Corin had gotten up at 5 a.m. with a headache and was downstairs. He was thus able to hear the running water. He thought Evan had left a faucet running, so he was coming upstairs to fuss at Evan for leaving the faucet on when he discovered the real issue.

All that to say, it could've been much worse if it had gone undetected for any longer. Even with the immediate discovery, the damage was pretty extensive. By the time we got to it, the water had filled the bathroom and run into the hallway onto the hardwood floor and begun entering Evan's carpeted bedroom through both the bathroom doorway and the hallway.

We were able to schedule a steam cleaning for today with the second company I called. Which began a ripple effect. If the company was going to come and steam clean Evan's room, we might as well get the two rugs downstairs cleaned - which cleaning was long overdue. If they were going to clean the carpet in the living room, then the tree would have to come down. We thought about asking them to clean around it or just having a different room cleaned instead, but after careful consideration, I decided the wisest thing to do was just buck up and take down the tree.

Thus, as soon as we finished sopping up water off the bathroom floor and wet-vacuuming the bedroom carpet to the best of our abilities, I began the arduous task of taking the ornaments off the tree. Pressley "helped" (which was stressful), and then Corin came in to take it out to the porch and get the lights off. The minute he put the tree at the curb and brought in the two ornaments we had missed, the lawn refuse truck pulled up and carried it off.

To top it all off, our housekeeper was here today for a regularly scheduled cleaning. She has been a real trooper about working around all the obstacles... from kids that have been cooped up and largely unsupervised all day, to carpet cleaning people and the like. And I have been working like a dog to stay one step ahead of the housekeeper and the carpet people.

I need a nap. It has been quite a day and it is not even 1:00 yet.

Sigh.

(P.S. If this has been the least bit coherent, it is an absolute miracle. This is probably the most stream-of-conscious-post I've written in a while, but I'm too tired to go back and read it to make sure it makes sense. I also don't want to have to re-live it one more time by going back and reading it. So, you get what you get.)

That's all.

Another reason I love my husband

I could go back and list for you all the reasons I fell in love with Corin in the first place. There were many. Those reasons evolve over time, and new reasons come into being.

When we had children, the new reasons became ever more abundant. I feel so blessed to have a husband who loves our children so completely. He not only loves them in a way that drives him to care for them and provide for them and shape them into the people we pray they will become; he loves them with a fully involved kind of love that means he enjoys playing with them. Really playing with them in a way that I've never been able to replicate.

OK. That is the back-story.

Sooo.... You may know we got some snow here in Atlanta on Christmas day. We were away during the afternoon and evening of Christmas day spending time with family, but when we returned, we had about an inch of snow on the ground. The kids had fallen sound asleep on the way home, so they didn't get to play in the snow Christmas night. But they got up the next morning and bundled up and their daddy took them to play in it. They tried a number of different sledding spots until they found the "right" one.

We had plans to have a late lunch and see a puppet show with friends, so the snow fun was limited to the morning, and everyone seemed ok with that.

Fast forward to Monday morning. Corin got up and got dressed and headed off to work, just as he had planned. He had been gone about 5 minutes when he called and asked me to put him on speaker-phone with the kids. He told them it looked like there was still some good snow/ice on the hills in Candler Park that would surely be gone once the sun came out. He asked if they would like to go sledding one more time before the snow melted and they said yes. So, while he turned his car around to drive home, I got the kids dressed and bundled.

When Corin got home, he went and put on old jeans and neatly tucked his work-appropriate button down into them. I think he also changed his shoes and then they were off.

They were gone about 45 minutes before they arrived back home. As they were stripping off their wet stuff in the garage, I heard Corin ask Lil' P... "Did you tell mommy?" "Tell mommy what?" "That I broke my finger?"

WHAT?!?

Turns out that there was an incident where the sled went airborne and my precious husband took heroic measures to ensure that the children were not dumped into the street. In the process, his middle finger was at least dislocated and maybe broken. We'll know more after his 12:30 appointment today when he has it x-rayed. It was pretty swollen this morning and he couldn't move it.

I cannot begin to comprehend what makes a grown man turn around while heading to work, come home to pick up his children, leave part of his work clothes on, go sledding on mostly melted snow, and then do something that ends up possibly breaking his finger. But it is sometimes what we least understand that makes us love the most. I don't always understand the man, but I always love and admire him.

Now, let me get back to praying that his finger isn't actually broken....

Knox-enville

We took a trip to Knoxville for the day last Saturday to continue the tradition of helping Gran and Grandaddy chop down their tree and decorate. Having grown up with asthma and horrible allergies, not only did we not have any quaint traditions like this, but we were never even able to have a live tree unless we wanted to risk my being in the hospital for Christmas. So, I love that my kids have the opportunity to participate in this neat tradition.

We found a pretty splendid tree this year, if I do say so myself. Actually, there is no reason for me not to say so, since I really had nothing to do with it except watching and trying to keep the Lilly from eating gross things that dogs eat and to keep her away from the swinging axe. I succeeded in keeping her away from the swinging axe.

Evan, on the other hand, helped chop, saw and carry the tree back to the house. I am amazed every day at how big he's getting. It will be no time at all before he wants nothing to do with any of us. :o( Boo.

Since I missed last year's trip, I was unaware of the new tradition that Gran started, which consists of skipping the hot chocolate after the tree chopping in favor of some hot fudge sauce poured over a brownie a la mode with ice cream. Slightly more fattening than hot chocolate, but it'll do. Yummy!

So, the splendid tree caused a few problems. It had to be trimmed quite a bit because it was too tall. And then, well, then it (or Corin) broke the tree stand that was only 40 years old. So it was off to The Walmarts to get a new one. Yall know how I love me some Walmarts - especially on a Saturday nite. Anyway, the end result was lovely.

And it made a lovely back-drop for this little Norman Rockwell scene:

Gran and Grandaddy gave Evan and Pressley new books that featured, well, Evan and Pressley. Evan's had him assisting Spiderman in a caper and Pressley's had her attending Aurora's wedding. (For those of you less familiar with the princess lingo, Aurora is a.k.a. sleeping beauty. They loved their books and loved seeing them all cuddled up to their grandparents like this. So sweet.

I may be back with one more post before Christmas day, but if I get busy and don't get back to blogging until after Christmas.... Just wanted to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. Thanks for taking the time to read about our little family and our little piece of crazy.

** Oh, I just realized that I never explained the title of this post, speaking of our little piece of crazy. Knoxenville is what Pressley continues to call Knoxville. I think it is probably because Poppy used to drive to Jacksonville at least once a month, so she was always hearing about that city as well as Knoxville, so she still gets them confused. It cracks me up. It can't last much longer, so I thought I'd document it while it is still going on. **

Traditions with friends

For the third year in a row, we met up with friends from our Sunday school class and their kiddos to ride the Pink Pig and enjoy dinner together afterwards. I love that we started this tradition. The Pink Pig is a fun and kitschy Atlanta institution at Christmastime, and it is especially fun to share it with friends.

I was all ready to ride with Pressley when she ditched me for Russell and Helen's son, Benjamin. (And so it begins....) So, I rode in a car with Corin and Evan. Pressley and I had ridden together during our big day of fun a few days before, so I got over it pretty quickly.

A new addition to the Pink Pig this year (or at least new to us) is the costumed character of Priscilla the Pig that kids can have their picture made with. When P and I went to the mall on Thursday, she had her picture made with Priscilla, but the kind folks at the Pig wanted $24 for me to take it home. Ummmm, no thanks. So, imagine my delight when we found Priscilla out of her photo booth and available to pose for pictures that we could take for free. And, Evan was with us this time, so I am SO glad I didn't take the bait for the $24 photo of Pressley alone.

(Pressley also sat on Santa's lap on Thursday, though she had told the Macy's ladies she would most certainly not. I almost caved to the unconscionable price of that photo - also $24 - to mark the occasion, but again, without Evan in it, I just couldn't justify it.)


After the excitement of riding the Pig, we were tasked with figuring out the dinner option. In past years, when we've done this on a Monday night, the food court seems like a perfectly acceptable option, but I believe I was not alone in feeling like the food court was just sloppy seconds for a Friday night dinner. We called our favorite Mexican restaurant to see if they could seat 24 of us for dinner, and were not at all surprised when they said no. But, undaunted, we decided to stop by the California Pizza Kitchen on our way to the food court just to see. We were all amazed when the hostesses put their heads together and figured out a way to seat us. Not in an hour or so, but immediately.

The older kids (4 and up) got their very own kids' booth, which thrilled them, and the rest of us all sat together at one big long table. It was a surprisingly low-stress event for the first hour or so, and luckily, when kids started to lose patience, we got our checks quickly and got the heck out of dodge. It was lovely really to be able to sit and talk with friends over dinner. We feel so very blessed to have such a large Sunday school class of people with whom we genuinely enjoy spending time. Parenting is so much easier when you can share your struggles and victories with folks who share your values.

Early Christmas festivities

Lord knows we are nowhere near done with all the celebrating. But, I'm going to try to go back and catch up on all the fun we've had since we got back from New York.

The first Wednesday after Thanksgiving was our "Praise Pals" Christmas program at church. This is my first year being responsible for the Praise Pals music, so the program was particularly stressful for me this year. Especially since we had exactly 3 20-minute sessions after Halloween in which to prepare any Christmas songs. I just couldn't bring myself to start doing Christmas music with 3, 4, and 5 year olds before Halloween. Who does that?

Anyway, they did a great job. We did 3 non-Christmas songs, a simple version of Come All Ye Faithful, and a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells, complete with jingle bells. They were cute. And, I was relieved when it was over.

The following Wednesday night was the Gingerbread House competition at church. I was skeptical of how it would go since last year, the whole thing ended in tears when Pressley realized our house didn't win a prize. I upped my game this year and brought in supplies purchased ahead of time, but still tried to prepare the kids for the inevitable fact that we would not win. Luckily, I had to run off to choir practice during the judging, so I was not there to witness the chips falling where they may. However, I was told by my mom and Corin that, while there was some pouting, it was short-lived and did not ruin the evening.

Finally, the kids both had special goings-on at school on their last day. Pressley had a Christmas program, in which her class sang a song called Holiday Celebrations set to the tune of "There's a Hole in the Bucket." Pressley and her friend, Lila, got to introduce the number to the very large crowd. They did a great job. And then, Pressley, as usual, proceded to steal the show. (Well, that was my perception anyway, and it's my blog.) She was, shall we say, very expressive and passionate about singing the song.

Evan had his class party the same day. One of the room moms planned some crafts (show-off) and of course, there was WAY too much sugar consumed by a room full of six and seven year olds. SOOOOO glad I was not the teacher that had to try to control them for the remaining hour and a half of the day.

Stay tuned. Much more to come.

A celebrity among us

We had a little ice here last week. Very little. But, it meant that Pressley got an unexpected school vacation. (Evan's school - an Atlanta Public School - was open all day, but the private institution where Pressley's pre-k is housed decided to close all day.) So, P and I had a mommy/ daughter day. I had errands to run at the mall and a lunch to go to with my GSU co-workers, but I had to cancel the lunch.


As we were on our way to the mall, Pressley was complaining about not getting to go to school. Trying to empathize, I told her that I was disappointed too, because I had had to cancel my plans. But then I amended my response to add that I was also happy because I was unexpectedly going to get to spend the day with her. She said, "Yeah. Me too. One of my eyes is happy and one of my eyes is sad. [Long pause.] But, now they are both happy because I get to be with you mommy!" So, so cute!


Then, once we were at the mall, we were in the housewares department at Macy's and the ladies there were making quite a fuss over Pressley. They talked to her about whether she was going to see Santa (and were quite amused by her qualification that she was going to see Santa, but that she would not be having her picture made, because she only planned to get close enough to tell him what she wants for Christmas). They came out from behind the counter to see her outfit and fussed over how cute she looked. So, when we were ready to leave, they both shouted after us... "Bye Pressley. Have fun with Santa!" etc., etc. She gave them a little backward wave, and as we were getting on the elevator I said to her, "You are just like a celebrity everywhere we go, aren't you?" And she replied, "That's because everybody thinks I'm so cute!" Ahhh, yes. Well, we don't have any self-esteem issues to work on quite yet!



We had a lovely day together, and though I missed my grown-up lunch that I had been looking forward to, I cherish these times I get to spend with one of my kids, one-on-one.



In other new, Evan has lost a second tooth. My dad pulled it for him a couple of weeks ago. I was thrilled with that development, because much like my feelings about butterflies, I also have an irrational fear of loose teeth. Well, not a fear really so much as they just creep me out. Anyway, Evan was fine with all the tooth-pulling and fairy visiting and money making, but Pressley was completely traumatized by the whole thing. Just last night, she called me to her room well after bed-time and lights out to let me know that she does not want to be six. Because she does not want her teeth to come out and bleed. Oy! We have a long road ahead of us....

Photo update

Since I've been really lousy at keeping the blog updated recently, I thought I'd at least provide a link to some of our fun photos from this month's activities.



http://picasaweb.google.com/apmccarthy1/1012December#


I have a few stories to tell, so hopefully, I'll be back real soon.

What a lousy historian I turned out to be...

I know I've been absent for nearly a month. I don't know what to say about that. I have a lot of catching up to do I guess. I'll start with Thanksgiving. We had a lovely one, as usual. We spent Thanksgiving day with my family here in Atlanta, and then, as is our tradition, we jetted off to New York the next morning. At the crack of dawn.

We spent Saturday morning at Mohonk Mountain House. It was bitterly cold. Despite the fact that Evan had been coughing his head off for days before we left (and was likely still running a fever), he insisted on doing the Rock Scramble for the second year in a row. He is such a little monkey and loves to climb, so it was the highlight of his trip.

Later that afternoon, we went to see the Alpacas that belong to Kerry and Kate's friends, Bob and Ian. We'd never met Bob and Ian before, even though this was our 3rd or 4th trip to visit their Alpacas. Since they were home this year, we actually got to go inside the fence and feed the Alpacas. Well, Evan fed them. Pressley was not a fan of being on the same side of the fence with the Alpacas. Then, we went inside to warm up and Bob and Ian provided the gift that has just kept on giving. They gave Evan and Pressley each an Alpaca finger puppet, made out of Alpaca wool. The kids have played with those finger puppets tirelessly. They were a much bigger hit on the plane ride home than the Leapsters or the DVD player. Seriously. Who knew?

On Sunday, it was off to NYC for a 24 hour, whirlwind tour. We went to the M&M store, ate some awesome burgers and shakes at the Shake Shack, toured the Museum of Natural History, took a carriage ride through Central Park, and swung by FAO Schwartz (where Pressley was reunited with the Big Piano that she loved so much two years ago). After FAO Schwartz, the kids were fading fast, so we headed back toward the hotel for a quiet dinner at a little Italian spot around the corner from the hotel. Poor Evan promptly fell asleep on a pile of coats in the corner of our booth. Bless his heart. For a little guy who'd been fighting a cold for over a week, we really didn't cut him much slack.

The next morning, we met up with Kerry and headed over to the Today Show set to say hello to Matt Lauer. We are pretty sure the kids made it on TV when Michael Buble was greeting the crowd on the Plaza. After we had some breakfast and sent Kerry off to work, we headed back over to Rockefeller Center for some ice skating. I kinda figured it would be the most expensive 10 minutes of entertainment in the history of my parenting, but as it turns out, the kids loved it. And they stuck with it for much longer that we might have guessed.

Finally, it was time to head to the airport for a 1.5 hour flight delay and then finally home. It was a great, great trip and we are so blessed to have such fun traditions to kick off the Christmas season.