A few of my favorite things...

It's hard to believe Christmas is tomorrow.

I'm usually giddy with excitement by now, but this year has been very hard.  Yesterday marked six months since our little Brigid died, and we're missing her so much.  I am so excited for Christmas, only because I love seeing the look on the boys' faces when they come down that morning.  But I'm just not feeling it so much on the inside.

Still, there are things around us that make me happy when I see them.  These are a few of them:

I'm pretty crazy about paper snowflakes.  Jack is, too.  He decided that he wanted to make one for Santa, since the big guy doesn't really get a lot of presents for Christmas besides the ones from the elves and Mrs. Claus.  So we folded the paper and he carefully cut out a snowflake for him to put on his Christmas tree, writing "To Santa from Jack" on the back.

I just love our Christmas stockings.  Five of them just fit onto our railing and I remember thinking that we needed a new house if we were to add one more.  Or two more.  But now there are still just five.  And that one paper one that Jack made at school and added on the end for Blarney.  But there, over the door.  See that?  That's something that Patrick and I got in Ireland when we got engaged.  That's St. Brigid's cross.  It's like she's in the stocking picture, but in a different way.  When I look down the hallway and see that, it makes me happy.

Sort of.

Finally, there is a house nearby that has several of these Moravian stars hanging outside.  Some of them are over eight feet tall.  They're just beautiful and ethereal.  I love getting the boys in their jammies after dinner one night, giving them some sippy cups of hot chocolate, and driving around to look at Christmas lights.  This house is my favorite.  

And, of course, it's hard not to smile when I look at these three, even if they have been in off-the-wall mode for the past few weeks because Christmas is coming.

For the first time in years, I've gotten all of my wrapping done before Christmas Eve, which means that we can have a relaxing day together today and possibly even get to bed at a decent hour.

And then, in the morning we get to tell the boys that we're going to see this guy:

I can't stinking wait!

photo source:  http://www.americanconsumernews.com/2009/01/disney-announces-military-travel-promotion-for-2009.html

Pumpkin time

This is about how I've been feeling lately.  Just exhausted, drained (or draining, as the case may be), a bit googly-eyed, and hoping that all three of the boys will be able to make it through one night without one of them waking from a bad dream that involves being eaten by some animal - wild or domestic - sometime soon.  It's been a while since that's happened.

Then I remembered that trick-or-treating is tomorrow night, and that I haven't carved our pumpkins yet.  The thought of doing that tonight made me feel, well...

I mean, don't get me wrong.  I love carving a pumpkin.  I love thinking about a design and carrying it out.  I love putting the candle in and watching it glow in a darkened room and then outside at night. I don't even mind gutting a pumpkin, because then I can roast the yummy seeds and munch on them over the next day or two. Anyone who knows me can attest to this.

But it's the combination of multiple pumpkins and multiple little ones that I don't like.  Because we all know what happens when we sit down with three little kids to carve pumpkins.  They start out excited and interested, and then you give them a spoon and ask them to start scraping out the insides and soon they're throwing pumpkin guts everywhere and then they're off and playing with something else (and covering it with pumpkin guts) because that got boring really fast.  And while they love to tell you what face to make on theirs and to watch it glow once it's done, we all know who's doing all the work.  We are.

And I'm pooped.

So riddle me this:  

Who has two thumbs, speaks limited French, and totally cheated on the pumpkins this year?

This moi!

A few years ago, I'd have thought this was sacrilege.  

Who doesn't take the time to actually carve their pumpkins? 

What'd that take, like two minutes?
Come on, where is the challenge in that?  Where's the skill?

This year, I'd like to find the person - probably a mom - who invented these
and give her a big hug.

Trick or treat!

Boo! It's not Halloween, but trick-or-treating took place tonight here in Lancaster County, so we decided to go with the Halloween thing all day, starting with breakfast. Ghost pancakes

and spider pancakes. Sort of. (Octopus, maybe? Sunflower?) Eh, let's stick with ghosts.

I made sure to wear my Halloween finest,

and this guy. . .

(Who, me?)

Yeah, it was time to whip out the Yoda costume again. One of my favorite Halloween traditions. We might have to have one more baby just so we can use it again.

Come on - can you stand it?

Jack and PJ could not wait to don their superhero costumes again, and they had a blast trick-or-treating! Those pumpkin buckets were really heavy by the end - maybe because one neighbor was giving out juice boxes. (Seriously?)

They were actually excited to sit on the porch and pose with their costumes this year, and you might notice that in addition to the muscles in PJ's costume, they're both looking a little buff because I had to put several layers of clothing on them first. It was cold here tonight!

I love these two little guys.

And the way they love on this other little guy.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Easter!

Hey, boys! You all look so handsome in your Easter duds, how about if we get a quick picture before church?

Okay, so I accidentally had the flash on there, but Thomas, dude, it's not that bad!

Maybe we can do this one at a time, then. PJ, look at Mommy. Can you smile?

Hm...not quite. Okay, how about this? Say, "Happy Easter!"
Yeah, you held onto that "r" a little long. But that's okay. You still look cute.

Now Thomas, your turn.

Just sit there.

Nice, now how about a smile? Ah-goo? Thooooomas? Where's Moooooommmmyyyyy?

Eh, good enough.

Jack, you're up. Can you look at Mommy and smile?

Well, sort of. Okay, that'll work.

Whoa - you're down from the couch now, but can you give me a quick, disheveled smile?

Perfect.

Now hop back up there and let's try to get one more of the three of you before Thomas starts crying again.

Bingo.

Have I mentioned how much I love these boys?

Happy Easter, everyone!

Cookie monsters

A few days ago, I made some sugar cookie dough with this, my favorite recipe for rolled cookies. I cut out some hearts and airplanes - they're boys after all - and made white, pink and red(ish) icing.
The boys had a great time decorating them.

The rainbow colored non pareils were the big hit.

And then...someone went a little crazy with the sprinkles, accidentally opening the "Pour" side instead of the "Sprinkle" side.

It was like dropping chum in shark-infested waters.

The boys went crazy licking their fingers, dipping them in the colorful dots, and then licking again.

It was a rainbow-colored frenzy.

Dipping, licking - more frantic now, since they're almost gone.

PJ probably holds the record for the most non pareils adhered to a person at one time


But Jack definitely won the award for the most consumed

and he got the last lick to boot.

Christmas morning 2009

I'm pretty sure this was my most exciting Christmas ever. Jack was old enough to anticipate what was going to happen, and we counted down the days until Santa would come with our paper chain advent calendar.

Christmas morning, I was awake before the boys, making monkey bread and lighting the tree. When I first heard them stirring at around 6 a.m., I went into Jack's room and he said excitedly, "Mommy, I heard Santa!"

I remember getting a few notes from Santa when I was little, so I thought I'd leave a little note and some gumdrops (thanks to Patrick's mom) for the boys from the man in red.

Jack had asked Santa for "Mowwy and some tracks that change wines."

(I just realized I never posted pictures of their visit with Santa...that will be coming next.)

Fortunately, when Santa looked at me curiously, I just nodded and winked knowingly. I knew exactly what that meant, and quietly thanked God that he wasn't asking for something totally new since I'd already finished my Christmas shopping.

So he got lots of tracks that change wines...er, lines. And his beloved yellow engine, Molly...who has gone virtually untouched since Christmas morn, but whatever.

PJ hadn't really asked for anything because, well, he had no idea what was going on, but he got a tricycle that he loves and had to be coaxed off of in order to open the rest of his gifts.

I thought it might be nice to get a picture of each of the boys in his Christmas jammies.

Then I remembered that Jack smiles like this whenever the camera comes out. You'd think the jammies were made of burlap and barbed wire.

PJ spent much of the morning with his tongue between his teeth, exclaiming "Thhhhmmmewwy Christmas!"

Don't ask me why.

He seemed to think it was the funniest thing ever.

We were supposed to have Aunt Devon, Nana and Pop-Pop come for Christmas dinner, but they weren't feeling great and it was freezing rain, so we stayed in our pajamas all day and the boys got to play with their toys. It was the most relaxing holiday ever.

Later, the boys sat on the couch together looking at some of their new (ahem, Usborne) books. Jack is fascinated with telling the time right now, so this one was just perfect for him. It has a little clock with moving hands and he was showing PJ how they go around.

I love moments like these.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and a very happy New Year!