'Twas the Season

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted. I'm going to have to try to do a really brief summary of the entire holiday season. Wish me luck.

First, it was one of the best yet, because for the first time in 8+ years of marriage, we didn't travel. I loved it. We even hosted Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas dinner here at our house for my parents and Bryce and Cathi...so I mean, we really didn't travel. It was so relaxing! In spite of our homebound state, we still got to see lots of family. My younger brother Bryce and his wife and my younger sister Erin and her husband and her cute pregnant belly came from Utah to visit, and Grammy, Papa, Jared, Kelli, and Scarlett came from New York and Budapest for a very brief but fun visit. It was so great to spend time with everyone. Santa brought Ethan a train table and some track. He got lots of trains, [including the beloved and much-prayed for recycling train (see below)] from us, Jason's parents, and his cousins (here and here). His reaction to his gifts is something I'll remember about him the rest of my life. It was priceless. When he saw the train table, he said, "Oh my. That is amazing. That is amazing," in a kind of serious voice. Then later, "This is the coolest train table I ever met." Colin got a peacock (Jacques) that he loves, along with some cute board books, one of which my mom is reading to him. Jason got a class in bike maintenance (I know it sounds lame, but he's really excited). I was, apparently, a very good girl last year, because "Santa" gave me an iPhone. I am in love with it. It's beautiful and fun and everything a girl could ever want in a piece of mobile technology. Jason, on the other hand, was very bad and completely ignored the spending limit to which we had solemnly sworn to adhere. (I'm not complaining, trust me.) We had a great New Year's Eve party that my brother Mark and his wife hosted. I played Cranium while Jason played Scene It (the XBox 360 version) until he was banned from playing anymore because he kept doubling (tripling?) everyone else's score. He's seen a lot of movies. He then moved on to Rock Band. If you haven't played it, you must. He spent a lot of time on drums. My brother even took some video of it. It was fun. I heard he took over the mike at one point around 2:00 am. I guess fatigue will ultimately make up for a lack of alcohol in your system.

Jason had the week of New Year's off, so I lined up some contract writing projects while Jason took the kids. He was great with them. He got them up and out of the house every day, explaining to Ethan the "plan" for the day, and didn't bring them home until dinner (or later). I got so much work done. We have also spent a lot of time looking at neighborhoods/houses trying to decide where we want to end up. On Jason's 8th day home, Ethan came in to wake us up one morning. He climbed up next to me on the bed and said, "Mom, get up. Here's the plan. We're going to go downstairs, have some breakfast, play a little, get dressed, and go look at houses." He had clearly been spending too much time with his father. And househunting. On Jason's first day back at work, Ethan woke up and saw I was alone. He said, "Mom, what's the plan for today? Or....no plan?" Yes, that's right...no plan. And he's learning the difference between his parents. Jason was a little sad to head back to work, but admitted "I could never do your job" (ie, kids all day every day). I could never do his, either, so we have concluded that we are both doing what suits us best in life. It works.

Here are the boys playing in Ethan's room...Ethan with his train table and Colin in the Exersaucer that Grammy and Papa gave him. Both presents were a huge hit!

Happy '08!