Mud magnet

I have heard that there are children out there who don't get baths for days on end in the wintertime. That's not my kids. We had a weird weather front that led to record highs in the 60s yesterday. That led me to let the boys play outside without big coats for a little while. Michael made a beeline for the gravel box and, half an hour later, that led to 11am baths. Today it was a bit cooler, but sunny, so we went for a walk at Innis Woods. Michael found the muddiest spot and did a faceplant. Thus, we ended up back at home for a 4pm bath. Ah, the joys of boys!

Lukism of the day

We're so used to ordering pizza in or going to Cici's buffet that I've forgotten the simple joy of sharing a pizza as a family at a pizza joint. We had so much fun sitting together at Donato's tonight, although our hopes of feeding all 4 of us on a medium pizza were unrealistic. Both Luke and Michael love pepperoni and, as he kept repeating, Luke was also a big fan of "crapped pepper" on his pizza. He means "cracked" pepper.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great day yesterday. I didn't get a chance to post the pictures because Matt spent most of the day trying to figure out our new webcam and Skype, so we can talk to Poppy and Nan. Still a few bugs to work out on that front. But the kids had a wonderful Christmas. Since they opened a fair number of gifts in Canada, there wasn't an overwhelming number of gifts yesterday. It felt just right. Luke was very equitable, giving each gift individual attention and playing with them all in rotation yesterday. Michael was a bit more single-minded. Although he enjoyed all of his gifts, he's a bit obsessed with his new airplane ride-on. I think the batteries are already dying.

These are the gifts that Santa left.

He filled the stockings, too. Luke picked out a tiger for Gavin, unaware that Santa was also bringing a much requested tiger for him. Now we have to keep the tigers straight.

The picture doesn't capture how loud or obnoxious the plane is.

The angler fish was a true surprise, something Luke had not requested or ever seen before. He's been obsessed with the "flashlight fish" from Nemo since he was 18-months-old. Sorry Santa, Mommy and Daddy took the credit for this gift.

Michael took a break to read his new Thomas book from Poppy and Nan.

Michael has become rich in Little People. He scored a bus, ark and zoo!

Grandma Carole sent this amazing trampoline. It wins the prize for being the most complicated assembly this year, but we did it and Luke loves it. It counts your jumps and Luke always jumps to 100 before he gets off. Michael will be all over it soon, too, I bet.

Here Luke is playing with several things at once, the angler fish, a transformer toy video camera and his Mega Rigs Space set from Poppy and Nan. The astronaut was quickly eaten by the fish and it was all caught on pretend video.

Joined by his new friends "Tigery" and "Catty" (we need to work on his naming creativity) and Lenny the Wonderpet, Luke took a break to watch the scary Nemo fish with the scary Nemo fish.

Hooray for Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

We got back late yesterday after a long drive. The morning started very early with a call from Sheryl, my grandfather Jimbo's wife, saying that Jimbo had a bad fall as the result of a fainting spell and is in the hospital. It was quite serious, but he is doing better and he was hoping to get home today or tomorrow. He will have to go back for a series of tests to figure out why he is fainting. Jimbo is 75 and otherwise in good health, so we are thinking positive and keeping him in our prayers.

We spent the morning running errands--buying last minute groceries and stocking stuffers. Then it was time to nap, cook and run off to church. Despite running late, somehow we scored two chairs at the 4pm children's mass--talk about a Christmas miracle! Then home for the Ponesse traditional Christmas Eve meal of gnocchi, cheese and olives. They boys were in bed by 7:15, but not without putting out cookies for Santa and reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Getting ready for church.

Eating gnocchi.

Reading with daddy.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Cousins!!!!

We had a fast and wild trip to Toronto. There were two family parties on Sunday--one at Granddad's and one at Great Auntie Judy's. The kids got too many presents, not enough rest and nothing but chips and chocolate to eat all day. Both boys had a great time at Granddad's and survived the second party fairly well. Luke had a meltdown over a disputed hockey stick, Michael apparently threw a lit tealight across the room (who has tealights on coffee tables when half a dozen toddlers are in attendance?) and Luke woke up that night with a major night terror experience from the overstimulation. But overall, a successful event. We wished Nanny, Matt's grandmother, a happy 96th birthday. Best of all, Luke and Michael got to spend some time with their uncles, aunts and cousins.

Luke and Claire hit it off right away. Here they are jumping around like maniacs in Granddad's pristine living room for no good reason.

Later, at party #2, Claire met the newest second cousin, Baby Elisa. Luke was more interested in his new Doctor Octopus action figure.

Nanny looked well and the boys were very excited about the giant birthday cake.

Luke and Claire spent a lot of time running up and down the stairs so they could touch the top of the giant tree.

Michael enjoyed the stairs at Auntie Judy's, too.

Here is our niece Jacinta (not quite 2) impressing her Uncle Chris with her perfect diction and 4-year-old's vocabulary. She was astonishingly cute.

Our eldest niece Talia is 7 now and she did a great job chasing after the little ones, but they finally wore her out!

We had a more low-key playdate on Monday. The kids had fun, but we were clearly pushing our luck in trying to take a group picture.

Holiday Travels

We are leaving for Toronto tomorrow morning. The kids are excited to see Granddad and Grandma Sylvia. They get to see all of the uncles and aunties--including the now-engaged Chris and Katie (yippee!!) and, best of all, they will get to see their cousins! Luke has been practicing his cousins' names, repeating "Talia, Claire and Jacinta" over and over again. They'll probably run into some second-cousins at the big Ponesse party on Sunday, too. It is unlikely that I will be able to access the blog, but we'll be back on Tuesday.

caped crusader

I can't believe it took my superhero-obsessed kid this long to ask for a cape! He liked the blue pillowcase model best and slept in it last night.

How big is a blog?

Well, if I had remembered to take a picture of it, I could show you. The blog printing process was thoroughly frustrating for my husband. We went through many cartridges of ink and about 100 pages of photo paper. Add spiral binding and priority shipping and my Grandpa S.T. 's "simple" 102nd birthday gift quickly became the most complicated and expensive of the season--at least on my side of the family. But that's ok. I love my Grandpa. He just sent the four of us $10 each for xmas with express instructions that it be spent at Kmart. My dad managed a Kmart for nearly 30 years and since he died, I can hardly bring myself to go in one as I harbor quite a bit of resentment towards the company. But Grandpa is more open-hearted than I am, so today we made the pilgrimage across town to Kmart, stopping on the way to mail Grandpa his hard copy of the blog. Hope he enjoys it. This picture is from his 100th birthday celebration two years ago--I was pregnant with Michael at the time.

Train morning

We had to send daddy off to the office for one more day of work before the long holiday break. With no school for Luke and a chilly rain outside, we broke out the GeoTrax trains. This is a set that I love in theory, but it is so big that we can't have it up all of the time and it is almost impossible to store because the pieces don't break down very small. It takes up a giant storage container in the crawl space. However, because the kids don't see it all that often, they really enjoy it when we bring it out. I am track-retarded and can't seem to get all of the pieces together, but somehow today I managed to make a pretty big track. They sat dead silent and completely mesmerized with their remote controls for over an hour. It was kind of scary, actually.

Christmas Party #2

Today the moms' group had its Christmas party. Our friend Ali is gracious enough to host us each year. The boys looked cute, but neither would pose for me, so you have to settle for a picture of Michael from the back, but at least you can see the sweater vest that Nan bought him. Don't worry, he'll be in the same outfit in Toronto next week and I'll take better pictures. Last year during the moms' requisite pic, Ali and Shelly announced their pregnancies to gaurantee that we would all smile. No announcements this time, but thanks to Kendra, Steph, Jennie and Allanya, there will be no lack of new babies in the group in 2009.

Christmas Party #1

Last night we celebrated with our ODU friends. Amazing to think that when we moved here, none of us had kids. Now, of the original 3 couples, there are 5 kids and 1 on the way. And this year we added a new colleague and his wife who have 4 kids and are expecting their fifth. Needless to say, our get togethers are a little more chaotic than they used to be, but still lots of fun and the food is tasty. Michael thinks "Auntie" Joyce makes the best chili ever!

Maria, Thomas and the boys thought the fridge was the place to be!

Luke told everyone the story of Jesus and the Octopus.

Catherine and her sister Isabel are two of Luke's favorite new friends.

Gavin vs. Chef Boyardee

Does Gavin have some horrible injury? Is that some kind of a rash on his head? Nope. It's pasta. I left Michael sitting in his chair for 30 seconds too long and came back to find the carpet and dog covered. Serves Gavin right for begging, serves us right for buying a house with carpeting under the only eating area. Sigh.

Lukism of the day

On the way to school . . .

Luke: I'm a teacher and I teach all of my students.
Me: What do you teach them
Luke: About Spiderman and that he shoots webs and castles and how to drive batmobiles.

If the blog looks strange . . .

over the next couple of days, it's because we are trying various versions of printing it out from oldest to newest, with and without sidebars, etc. We are going to bind it and then mail it to my Grandpa S.T. who turns 102 next week!!

Trying to take the Christmas card photo

That time of year again, the dreaded Christmas card photo. Here are a few attempts. Did we ever succeed? Watch your mailboxes to find out.

Our Elfyourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

ODU Christmas Party

ODU had its tree-lighting ceremony and Christmas party tonight. My pictures suck. It was kind of crazy with a choir concert inside, then outside for the lighting, then back in for snacks and Santa. It was freezing outside and boiling inside. I felt like all I did was repeatedly put on and take off coats, gloves and hats, which is hard to do while taking pictures! I think the kids enjoyed the McDonalds stop on the way to campus more than anything else. Neither one cared about Santa--really glad we didn't wait in line at a mall!

Looking at the big Nativity "action figures."

Luke only got close enough to grab the candy cane Santa offered.

Michael just liked climbing on the furniture.

The girls

Driving home from work yesterday, I remembered the box in the crawl space mysteriously marked "GIRLS." When I was in college, I dated a guy who was into collecting Star Wars and other action figures, so I started my own collection. In case my friend Kendra (whose husband is an avid collector) reads this, I had them out on display in my dorm room and they were never mint-in-box, so they are not at all valuable. Many of you may think that's geeky, but my recently-obsessed-with-superheroes three-year-old thinks I am the coolest mom ever. He did not care that all of the action figures are female. In fact, he now claims that Poison Ivy is the "best mean hero" of them all.

Painting trees

I actually let Luke break out the paint yesterday. He made some Christmas trees. He put so much paint on them that some of them are still drying 24 hours later.

Christmas decorations

The inside Christmas decorations have been up for a few days now, although the weather has not cooperated with Matt's schedule for the outside lights yet. We were able to move our huge entertainment center over enough so that we could squeeze the tree in the corner. B.C. (Before Children)--Matt and I started collecting Fontanini nativity figures and we have a quite a collection. It requires bringing up an extra table. I love having it out, especially now that Luke is old enough to play with the figures, but I will also be ready to put it away at the end of December. It always feels like I get a brand new huge house!