Quite Possibly Cabin Fever...

The kids are ready to play in the sunshine. But we have something else in mind that will also light up their faces. We have begun work on finishing our basement into a play room just for them! It has been so fun to brainstorm the many creative ideas for this space - I even want to build a tube slide from our living room down to it...we'll see! We have begun pricing out flooring and lumber and drywall and choosing paint colors and designing specialized areas for the kids to be kids and play and make messes and pretend and create. I love that I also get my living room back and won't have to pick Play-Doh out of the carpet ever again! And, then we look to the kitchen....where the walls will be coming down rather than going up! We may be crazy to even attempt this with 2 small children, but there are very few dull moments here with all of this planning. Derek and I saw the potential in this house when we bought it. We love this area and the schools and the shopping and ease of living here with kids. I love that we are making this house our home, though very slowly, and growing into it as a family. It makes it better when you have cabin fever.

Cross your fingers that Derek lets me put the slide in!

Pixies

The News

I wake up in the morning and join Derek and Greta and Jack who are having bites (Raisin Bran) and the day is on. We hit the ground running. No morning news, straight to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves today. We dress the babies and ourselves and run out for Jack's 15 month well visit to the Dr. and Greta's 3 year well visit. They were great. They are well and growing as they should. I am so thankful for it, too.

We got home and had lunch and then Derek was off to work and I nursed Jack to sleep while Greta was already in bed. I put my feet up and open my laptop. I see talk of Haiti. I see the news and it is old news. I am behind in knowing what has happened. Jack wakes up after 20 minutes and I am unable to finish reading about the horrible earthquake.

It is so hard with babies to hear about tragedy. And I can't turn on the TV until they are in bed tonight because I don't want them to see the heartbreak and horror. You want to protect them from even knowing that things like this happen let alone something like this happening to them.

Tonight Derek and Greta prayed together at bedtime. She put her little hands together underneath her little chin like a Precious Moments giant-eyed figurine. Coincidentally, she thanked God for her castle. (She is Snow White, after all). I am thankful for ours. My thoughts are with those that go without and with those that have lost everything....absolutely everything. May Greta's prayers have company in Heaven tonight.

Greta and her Prince

Greta and her Prince, originally uploaded by DerekandRebecca.

At this very moment Greta is actually Aurora dressed as Cinderella, and Jack is the Prince...which Prince doesn't really matter.

Her sweet little voice makes my heart swell. And, don't you think they are a great duo? Brother and sister...like Donny and Marie, but blonder...

Christmas with PaPa and Gee

A few days following Christmas, due to the slick roads, we finally made it to see PaPa and Gee. PaPa had gifts for Greta and Jack! I tell you, I had to hold back my tears as he watched them open with his soft brown eyes full of such love. He is unable to venture out for shopping like the rest of us. And, I know that part of the fun of Christmas is giving - especially to your grand babies. The Veteran's home set up a boutique for the men and women at the home to shop and have gifts wrapped. What he gave was nothing really. But, it meant more to me than I can even tell you.

Gee came with gifts and we all ate Chinese food together. Greta got a Snow White baby doll. Gee said, "It isn't really Christmas unless I get to give a sweet little girl a dolly." She adores it. Greta also got a leopard coat that she said is "dragon". Jack got an "alive" black bear cub that moves and makes bear sounds. He thinks it is his buddy.

Christmas Morning

Here is a little peek into our Christmas morning. Derek's parents, Jayne and Tim, flew in on Christmas Eve and made it to our home safely through the ice that was falling. On their way, they stopped at one of our favorite BBQ spots and brought everything from brisket to ribs and my very favorite sandwich - the Z Man. Oh, drool. It is bbq brisket with bbq sauce, melted provolone cheese and here's the kicker - onion rings on top! We stayed in by the fire and drank cider. The snow was falling and it was gorgeous.

It was a white Christmas! We were up early and had hot coffee. I made a delicious fruit salad with gala apples, banana, mandarin oranges and avocado drizzled with a poppyseed honey dressing, and our traditional egg fu casserole, and cranberry muffins that I ordered from Einstein Bros. Bagels. Jayne and Tim made it through the snow and we spent the day unwrapping gifts, playing, napping, and eating.

This was my first time "hostessing" a major holiday at our house, and though I felt like I was in the kitchen much of the day, I can't complain, because I very much love to cook. For dinner we had a honey baked ham that Derek stood in line outside in the sleet for an hour to pick up, and zucchini gratin and a fresh salad that Jayne taught me how to make - with almonds, mandarin oranges crunchy noodles, green onion, celery and an oriental dressing. For the grand finale, Clay, Derek's brother, made bread pudding with a banana bourbon sauce.
We were fat like Santa.

Christmas Eve

It seems to me that now having children, the whole Christmas season has taken new form and purpose. I have such magical memories of each Christmas of my childhood and so does Derek. The year Santa brought Derek and his brother bicycles, he rode them through the soot and left tracks out of the fire place to the tree. Magic. It is real. I remember the year Santa made, MADE a three story victorian doll house with shingles, velvet carpet, working lights, dishes, silver, a leather couch, a grandfather clock, a claw foot tub... even porcelain pigeons on the rooftop. And, the year Santa delivered the iron baby bed with china dolls nestled in eyelet lace gowns with ribbons and bonnets. These babies were hand made to look as my sister, Sarah, and I looked as tiny babies. Mine even had tiny tears. There is an energy that exists and grows through the season. It is magic and it is from love. It is from the thoughtfulness of a gift and the enduring love that delivers it.

Even more than Christmas morning, itself, I love Christmas Eve. I love knowing that my babies are about to burst with the anticipation and promise of what will appear underneath the tree. I remember very well this feeling. What absolute joy. And it is contagious, you know. After wrapping the final gift and placing it under the tree. Derek and I sat together on the couch and he said, "You know what I remember? I would wake up in the early hours of the morning when it was really still night and peek out of my bedroom to see if Santa had come. And it was dark and I could see that something was there and something was different, but I couldn't tell what it was and my imagination would run wild until sunrise." We turned off the lights and sat by the tree together in the dark and watched it snow and told each other stories about Christmas. And, I felt like a kid again. I felt the magic. And while watching it snow I knew this would be another Christmas I would always remember.