Merry Christmas, 2010!

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Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you all for your generous gifts and phone calls and love in general. We're sorry we missed the call from Houston, but we hope to catch up tomorrow. Here's a little pictorial to describe the last two days.

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This is the fairy puzzle Aunt Catherine sent to Josephine. (I let the kids open Cath's presents on Christmas eve.) I would say Josephine helped with 5% of this, Rudy with maybe 15%, and mama did the rest. I always forget how relaxing it can be to put puzzles together...

 

So when Rudy said, "Is it time to smash it yet?" I was not especially enthusiastic.

We made classic cut-out cookies on Christmas Eve and painted them with tinted royal icing.

Serious work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serious yum.

In which Josephine, once again, licks all the frosting off a cookie and throws the rest away.

Mama's tired. And there are still all the presents to wrap.

Christmas morning chaos.

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The kids were beyond thrilled this morning. The play tents from Uncle Stephen and Auntie Laurie were a huge hit, and Josephine really wanted to sleep in hers tonight. (we convinced her the bed would be comfier.) They got a ton of books, courtesy of Oma & Opa, a racetrack and a doctor's kit from grandma, a fun knitted snake-scarf and a dress-up hat from Auntie Marie and Uncle Jan, more books, movies, pjs and candy nd umbrellas from "Mema"...it was quite a haul! (and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff; forgive me!) Santa brought the asked-for dress-up clothes, still more books, a Playmobil catapult, and polar bear.

He also brought two "extra, special" presents: a set of Star Wars light sabers for Rudy as a reward for being so generous in asking for a toy for our cat Simon, and a bag of Zoob building toys for Jose as a reward for insisting that her brother get a dolphin Pillow Pet. (she gave him the Pillow Pet and he gave her a "Kitty Hello" --yes, she says it backwards-- backpack.)

Anyway, a lovely day. Blueberry pancakes for breakfast, "stinky cheese" (what Rudy calls triple-creme brie), olives, stuffed grape leaves and hard salami for lunch, and then Paul blessed us (well, me) with his spaghetti carbonara for dinner. So delicious. (Since I started my healthy living regimen back in Sept., I've not had a lot of really decadent food, so this was a marvelous day of treats for me!)

Now, the kids are down--they were exhausted, understandably--and we are sitting on the couch (also exhausted) with glasses of red wine, watching something terribly schmatlzy on the Hallmark channel (but thinking of tuning in to Sci Fi channel's classic "Swarm of Sharks"--that sounds Christmasy, doesn't it?), contemplating some popcorn.

We love you all and hope your own Christmases were peaceful and happy and filled with delicious treats (and not too many sugar-meltdowns).

S, P, R & J