Christmas!

We spent Christmas amidst wrapping paper, discarded packaging, and legos. Oh, the legos. Our house is lost among a sea of legos. After the unwrapping frenzy was done, you could barely walk in our family room or living room without stepping on some Christmas package carnage (or a lego.)

We spent the day watching the kids run from opening one toy to another, but all in the comfort of our pjs. In fact, we kept those pjs on right up until it was time to go to dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house. (If we could have gone to dinner in our pjs, we just might have.)

The best gift of the morning was the gift Brennan selected for Griffin, all by himself, at his school's Elves Magic Workshop. We give each boy a set amount to buy small gifts for everyone in the family. They buy them and wrap them at school, so unless they fill us in, we have no idea what they have hidden under the tree.

Griffin's gift from Brennan? Fantastic.

I mean, really, who can possibly top the gift of red felt reindeer antlers with tiny bells? Not even Santa can top that genius. (And if that gift doesn't scream that it was picked by Brennan. I am not sure what gift does.)

The other winner in the gift department was Just Dance 2 for the Wii. It was purchased for Griffin by Seth and Tennille, but quickly became more of a gift for anyone and everyone in the family. While there was a small break in the dancing action for Christmas dinner, everyone was Just Dancing all night long, including my 81 year young grandmother. (I have more pictures. So many more. But as most of them were taken by my husband while I was Just Dancing my foolish, red wine indulged head off, those pictures are going to have to stay stashed on my hard drive. Forever.)

Christmas 2010. We miss you already.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We spent the night before Christmas Eve out to dinner with my mom, my brothers and my sister in law Lynda. I think we ate so much food that we were going to have to be rolled out of the restaurant. (And we were so loud, howling with laughter over our shared genetic quirks, that I am sure the restaurant was tempted to toss out of the restaurant.)

Christmas Eve morning! First things first on Christmas Eve morning, let's look up Santa's coordinates on the NASA website to see exactly where the sleigh and reindeer are visiting.





And then after a morning of sledding and snowboarding in the backyard, (even Griffin got up on his skis!) we headed out to Grandma Jo Jos for round one of presents, appetizers and cocktails. Presents, presents, and more presents, oh my.

Aidan opened up what may be one of his favorite gifts for the season, a brand new kindle thanks to his Aunt Tennille and Uncle Seth.

Seth showed off his spectacular red holiday pants. (We were just grateful he didn't break out the turkey pants.)

I think Griffin's favorite part of Christmas Eve - Part One was the orange soda in wine glasses. He soaked up as much of that as he possibly could.

And then we were off to my grandparents' house for our annual Christmas Eve extravaganza. Christmas Eve dinner is one of my favorite family traditions. My family truly enjoys each other. We chat. We laugh. We drink much wine. And we laugh heartily at the toasts made by our family members after the consumption of much wine. (Travis and Lynda hit it out of the park this year with their toasts at dinner. Lynda did not leave a dry eye in the house.)

What a Difference a Year Makes

At the end of the Christmas hullaballo last year, I realized we spent way too much of the holiday season rushing from one activity to the next, without a whole lot of peaceful, quiet moments. Christmas is my favorite time of year and I want to savor each bit of it, not race through it like we are running to a finish line.

I vowed this year would be different. And so in January, I wrote myself a letter and stapled it to my calendar for December. (Yes, I still use a paper calendar. I love my iphone more than life itself, but there's something about a paper calendar that I just can't do without.)

In my letter, I told myself to do less and to say "no" more. I told myself that last Christmas I had missed doing the simpler things of the holidays, like baking cookies and watching a Christmas special curled up on the couch with the kids. I told myself that the holidays are happier and we are all a happier family when we have more unscheduled time to simply be at home, soaking up the holiday season.

What a difference a year makes. We have said "no" more. We skipped five holiday cocktail shindigs. Five parties that I didn't miss at all. (Well, I missed the wine. That I missed. But otherwise, not missed!) I gave myself a day to bake all the Christmas cookies I could handle. We have had many moments watching Christmas specials, reading holiday books and just watching the lights of the tree.

Last night, instead of rushing around to wrap and bake, Chris and I piled the boys into the car to drive around Whoville and look at Christmas lights.

To me, this is what makes Christmas. The time you spend with the ones you love doing the simple holiday traditions. As I have grown up, I have realized that sometimes to find that time you have to learn to prioritize and say no with comfort and confidence.

I am already composing a letter to myself for 2011. And that letter will say - you did great last year, so please do 2010 all over again. Christmas is but two days away and I am relaxed and joyful. That speaks volumes.

From the Mouth of our Griffin

At seeing how much snow had fallen overnight, Griffin turned to me, smiled and said, "You know Mommy, I am so glad we have all this snow. It is going to make it much easier for Santa to land his sleigh in our backyard."

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After I laughed at some funny comment Griffin shared at a recent grocery shopping trip and said, "G - you are so funny. How did you learn to be so funny?"

Griffin thoughtfully replied, "I learned it all from Brennan. He is the funniest person I know Mommy. He can even make petting the dog funny!"

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One of our favorite holidays books this year has to be Santa Duck. Griffin can not get through it without giggling over the sight of a Duck dressed up as Santa Clause. We have read it a million and one times, but it still brings the funny.

Now, instead of singing Jingle Bells, Griffin roams the house singing "Jingle Quack, Jingle Quack, Jingle Quack, Quack, Quack."

It doesn't get old. Griffin's second favorite holiday song is the Glee version of Jingle Bells. He requests it at least once or twice a day. Ah, his love of all things Glee brings but a tear of pride to my eye. I am hoping Santa brings us the Glee Karaoke game for the Wii. Griffin and I may have to bust out a duet.

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The end of Toy Story 3 is heartbreaking for me. I can't help but cry. Griffin and I were watching it together when he turned to me with his eyes full of tears. He made a face and said, "Mommy, sometimes this movie makes me really cry some tears."

Then he gave me a hug and said, "I don't ever want to go away to college."

Oh, love. I was tempted to tell him he could just move into our finished basement and go to college here in Buffalo. It would save both of us from much tears.

Forgetful

Any mother is already multi-tasking day and night to levels I never knew possible until I had children. Multi-tasking is the center of motherhood. But add in the hustle and bustle of the holidays and well, the multi-tasking and endless to do lists get taken to the extreme.

All the listing and to-doing makes me a bit forgetful of all the regular, every day stuff. Like, say for instance, where my children go to school.

Today, I drove the boys to school. After I passed right on by the entrance to their school, driving to some unknown destination, Brennan yelled out, "Mom, where are you going?"

Oops! I laughed and quickly turned down a side street. Rather than circle back, I decided to save a minute or two by attempting to sneak in the back entrance to the school.

Except - the back entrance is one way. And it is morning drop off time. Which means a whole lot of cars going the right way and me, all alone, trying to go the wrong way. Yes, not a good idea.

I abandon that plan, turn the car around yet again and head back to circle around the school to enter into the proper drop off driveway. As I am driving, I am laughing so hard, I literally have tears in my eyes. Over my chuckling, I mutter, more to myself than the boys, "This is just too funny!"

There is absolute silence in the back seat. After a moment Aidan says, "I do not find anything about this funny at all."

Alrighty then.

Conquering Gingerbread Houses with the Hood

Our little Whoville neighborhood probably already wins the award, hands down, for most involved and most activities. We have some nice families who are generously willing to expend much time and effort to plan lots of fun things for the rest of us (who are generously willing to soak up all the activities planned through others' time and effort.)

We already have the neighborhood picnic with climbing wall and ice cream truck, the halloween party, the neighborhood campout, the ladies' cocktail holiday shin dig, the neighborhood ski club, and now, the children's gingerbread decorating party. (What will they come up with next?) In addition to all that we have actually involved ourselves with, the neighborhood also has monthly bunco for the ladies (I declined), monthly happy hours for couples (we declined) and seasons tickets to Shea's theater (also declined.) Yes, it is quite an involved neighborhood.

We had a great time at the gingerbread house decorating party. The boys split decorating two houses, managing to get a million and one different types of candy onto each house. Cotton candy, candy canes, chiclets, oh my. It was a whole lot of candy. After pizza and juice boxes, each child had their picture taken with their gingerbread creation to take home in a personalized frame and a holiday themed goodie bag. (I could never manage to pull anything like this off. Never.)

The houses are beautifully full of candied goodness and are still standing. Very much unlike the ones we attempted at home last year, that caved into several pieces under the weight of all our decorating.

Brennan's Christmas Concert

First, let me preface this by saying that I adore my children's school. We have many reasons why our children attend the school they do. Many, many reasons. But their music program? Probably not one of those reasons.

The annual Christmas program tops the list of why the music program is not one of the top reasons my boys attend their school. It is, well, not good.

The school has it set up so that the program skips a grade so that every other grade performs some musical numbers each year. As a parent, you get really excited when you are on an off year and therefore, do not have to attend. Unfortunately for Chris and I, the numbers stacked against us and Aidan and Brennan are not in the same "off " years. So essentially, we will be attending this Christmas monstrosity every single year for the next 8 or so years.

Dear Lord help us.

That being said, Brennan's kindergarten class rocked the house. They were the best part of the entire musical program. And they are just so damn cute.

Brennan was so proud of his performance that his chest almost puffed with pride when he walked onto that stage. Afterwards he asked me if I liked it.

"I did B! You did great!" I replied giving him a hug.

"Great? You should say I did EXCELLENT Momma." Brennan said with a sniff.

Hmmmm, we may have a prima donna on our hands.

Creative Forts

The weather outside is frightful. When the boys are done with romping in the snow, they like to find different ways to pass the time. (Forget playing with one of the five million toys littered across our house. Forget that.) Instead, let's pull all the sheets and blankets off our beds and make gigantic forts.

Game On!

You will also note that the boys are all wearing their pjs in these pictures. We take winter as an excuse to basically live in our pjs all the live long day. Snow pants fit right over them and they are warm and comfy. What's not to love about pjs?

Laundry Day!

I have a unique laundry system. I like to wait until all the laundry baskets upstairs are overflowing with dirty laundry and then the boys and I throw it all down into the open foyer downstairs.

It makes a nice size pile of dirty laundry, especially on sheets and blankets days. It can also be a wee bit embarrassing of a spectacle if you happen to be the mailman delivering a package during the big laundry throw down. Just a wee bit.

The boys love it though. In fact, sometimes, they like to jump right on top of those big dirty laundry piles. It's a small price to pay to get the laundry done.

Happy Six to B!

Happy Birthday Brennan! Today, you are six.

At six, you are still our joyful soul, full of laughter and love, brightening the smiles of those around you. The mere sight of you and your impossibly cute grin causes smiles in strangers. You seem to bring out the happy, and we, your family, are so grateful for that happy.

Your love affair for animals continues. You love dogs, all dogs, stuffed or real. Your favorite movies are still the Buddies movies. You sleep with a menagerie of stuffed animals surrounding you every night - each of them precious to you. You love our dog, Chewy and love to lay on top of him, using him as your personal pillow.

You have quite an imagination and love to make up stories and songs. You love music and spend much time making up your own songs on our new piano. Your favorite meal is a chicken burrito from Moe's, mac n cheese at home, or chicken wings, anywhere and anytime. You have a love affair with hot sauce and will dip almost anything it it. Your favorite treat is, always, a giant bowl of ice cream topped with some sort of candy.

Your favorite tv show is Arthur and your favorite book is anything you can read yourself. Yes, you are finally starting to read and it is like a light has been lit from inside of you. The words you are learning are bursting out of you. You spent so much time worried that you would never read like your big brother Aidan and now we can't stop you from reading anything, anywhere.

You are still our ladies' man. Your closest friends at school are all girls. I spent so much time worried before kindergarten about how you would have to sit at a special allergy table at lunch to ensure you were peanut free. I was worried you would end up sitting all alone. I should have known better. Your peanut-free table is the hottest ticket at kindergarten lunch time. And I have heard there are girls who will fight to get the last spot to sit next to you.

You have a whole lot of energy. Your energy level is one of the first things the principal at your school commented on to me. You have a hard time sitting still. You love to be active and enjoy mountain biking or snowboarding with your dad, snow battles with your brothers and swimming like a fish. You just started playing basketball this winter and are having the time of your life soaking it up.

You are a snuggler. You are the first to run over to me when I sit down to grab a cuddle. You love to hug, sit on my lap or even just lay next to me as we hold each other close. You easily show affection to everyone.

You are our B. Our joyful, happy go lucky guy. Happy six, our B. We love you very much.

Brennan - Oh How They Grow

I say it too much. I know I think it all the time. But the years, they do truly go so fast. Words do not do it justice. Pictures paint a better picture.

Brennnan's Birthday - December 16, 2004.

Age One:




Age Two:



Age Three:


Age Four:


Age Five:


Age Six:

B's B-Day Bash!

Amid the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, our B had his sixth birthday party.

We had a tough time with the guest list. For Aidan, we normally invited all the boys from his class. But for Brennan, the majority of his closest friends are girls with a few boys mixed in. Rather than invite only half the class and hurt feelings, we decided to invite all 18 kids. I told Chris not to worry, because I was sure that we would have at least five regrets, if not more.

We had one no from his class. It made for quite a big birthday bash.