Hunting and gathering

No lily left unsearched...

...no plastic pool left unturned...

...no grass untouched...

...by our cuties in the hunt for Easter eggs.

The sweet fruits (well, fruit-flavored candy beans, at least) of their labor.

Even sweeter is the fact that this little badger shares with Daddy without complaint. Once, at least.  I don't think that we asked for more than that.

Gifts, part 1

For my 30th birthday, my aunt Linda gave me a gingerbread house. Perhaps not the first thing on a 30 year old's birthday wish list, but for me this was perfect. One of my many fond childhood memories is of working on the annual gingerbread house at Linda's house with my sister and our two cousins. In fact, when I think of my aunt and uncle's old house on Powers street, the gingerbread house pops into my head about 50% of the time -- it made that much of an impression. This gift came at an especially perfect time because just a week prior, Jonah had seen a gingerbread house at a store and asked if we could have one. Yes!!

The fantasy...

...the reality. Not too shabby!

The boys attempted to cover their gingerbread man and snowman with colored fondant. Well, what I should say, is that they attempted to *nicely* cover the gingerbread man and the snowman with fondant; you can see that the little figures are definitely covered.

Aunt Linda's note said that, at age 30 and with two young kids and a husband, she wanted to start some of her own family's traditions, and the gingerbread house was one of them. This tradition was shared with many of us outside of her immediate family and has become a treasured memory. I hope to add the house of yum to my own family's traditions so that my own kids might someday look back and remember not just the house, but also the love surrounding it.

Tannenbaum

This was our family's first year having a Christmas tree. We've always gone back to Grand Rapids for Christmas, and I haven't felt like buying a tree, hauling it into our house and dealing with maintenance and clean-up for a couple weeks, only to be gone on the day that is the reason for having a tree! Since we stayed in Chicago this year, though, a tree went up. After much searching, I even found my coveted all-blue lights at Walgreens. Of course, that wasn't before I'd decorated the tree with multi-colored strings of lights, so I was briefly faced with the dilemma: Redecorate, or no? I really wanted those blue lights, so I did.

Jonah with my old-time Sports Santa ornament. This was the first (and so far only) casuality among our ornaments. It currently lies in two pieces on the kitchen butcher block.

Manny contemplates -- what else? -- a Handy Manny ornament. This one is his favorite to point out on our tree: "Hanny Manny!"

The children's attempts to actually hang the ornaments were completely futile, but sometimes it really is the thought that counts.

Feast of St Nicholas

Happy feast of Saint Nicholas to all!

Not having a fireplace, we improvised with the stocking-hanging location. Near the back door, in the kitchen, works well enough for us!

Manny and Jonah are thrilled with their puppy stockings. Iohan slept thru the party, and, like most babies, will probably sleep thru most of the special days of his infancy.



$1 flatware from Target...

...and a little box of Jelly Belly jelly beans are enough to make two boys very happy. Yet another reason to treasure these early years.

Gabriel spent way too long putting this mini-kitchen together, not because of any ineptitude on his part, but because the thing arrived in an impossibly large number of separate pieces. I almost burst into tears when I looked into the box, but Gabe saved the day when he said, "Don't worry, honey, I'll take care of it. What are dads for if not this?" Thankfully, the boys really like it, so it wasn't time wasted. Well done, Gabriel.

First visit with Santa

Well, this is something that I never did as a child: The meeting with Santa. The religious group in which I grew up was pretty zealous about not celebrating any holidays that may have had a religious meaning behind them. We had no Christmas tree when I was a child, though my immediate family and one set of grandparents did give gifts. (Ironicially, we celebrated the entirely secular holiday of Thanksgiving with gusto.) Visiting Santa was out of the question. Indeed, from the first I knew that "Santa Claus," he of the red suit and herd of reindeer and elven slavery, was a myth. Sinful child that I was, I maliciously ruined Christmas for some neighbor children, making sure to let them know that, "Fools, Santa isn't real!"

Now, as a mom, this is one battle that I'm choosing not to fight, or at least not to go out of my way to fight. I plan to avoid Halloween like the plague no matter how cute kids in costume look, but Santa is ubiquitous, and, as far as I'm concerned, harmless. As my parents did with me, I told Jonah that Santa is a pretend man who rides around in a sleigh with reindeer and is believed to bring children gifts. My kids won't actually receive gifts from Santa, nor will I ever stand in line at the mall so they can sit on his lap, but I won't go out of my way to avoid Santa. Our children will know about Nicholas, saint and Bishop of Myra, and, admittedly, things could get a little confusing when the kids learn that "Santa Claus" is a corruption of "Saint Nicholas." For now, though, Santa Claus of the reindeer and Saint Nicholas whom we honor on the 6th of December are two entirely different people.

This Santa fell into our laps. This fall, Jonah's been attending a Chicago Park District "play class" near our house. The class lasts for 1 hour and 45 minutes, which has been just enough time for me to go grocery shopping or play at the park with just Manny before arriving breathless and one or two minutes late for pick-up. For the last day of class, there was party (of sorts) at which the kids could play with toys and ride-on cars and tricycles in the big gym, eat way too much sugar and meet Santa. Jonah was totally enthusiastic about the first two, but unsure about the third choice. After he saw a couple other kids walk away from Santa with a toy, he decided to give it a try.

Mr. Tom, Jonah's teacher for play class, is on the left. Jonah really liked him. You may notice somebody fixing Santa's beard in the back. Because he knew Santa wasn't "real," Jonah wasn't bothered by the fiddling around.
Can you see the green beard Jonah's wearing? Store-bought cupcakes with (what I consider) nasty frosting.

Apparently, this defective-beard Santa only brings cellophane stockings filled with cheap plastic toys from China that Mama throws in the garbage within fifteen minutes of arriving home. I wish my kids realized how lame that is.

In case you're wondering, Manny did not like Santa at all. He was concerned when I went near Santa to take a picture of Jonah. When Santa left and shouted "Merry Christmas!" while waving at the kids, Manny almost burst into tears; he only didn't cry because someone distracted him with a cellophane stocking of his own. Apparently he's not crafty enough to avoid being suckered in my cheap toys, just like his brother.

belated

Manny just wanted to say, "Happy Valentine's Day". Yes, I know he's late, but, c'mon, you don't expect babies to run on schedule, do you? One as cute as this can do whatever he wants (at least, that's what Manny thinks).