Monday, December 25, 2006

Glee happens


For an extra-special holiday treat, we were invited to a “cookie exchange” this year. We are not really the cookie exchange kind of family (or maybe we are, who knows), so I didn’t really know what to expect. We made peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips. I really liked them, but was surprised to see that we brought the “plain” cookie. How embarrassing. One family brought “church windows” (see above), and another brought “baby Jesus” cookies (really I’m not making this up), which kind of looked like crescent rolls (but tasted better) with almond paste in the middle. If the cookies weren’t over-the-top, they were at the very least festive in their food coloring. Ours looked so brown. I was later told by a mom in Joseph’s playgroup that when you go to a Christmas cookie exchange you are supposed to bring your “best cookie”. I’ll keep that in mind for next year. I guess the purpose of a cookie exchange is that when you have big holiday gatherings, you can pull out an assortment of unique, homemade cookies for your guests. Instead, we ate all of the best ones before anyone even got a chance to see them.

We did have guests, though. And we had plenty of cookies and desserts and other food. Joseph had a great time seeing family and opening presents. Renée, on the other hand, doesn’t understand presents too much, and is going through a phase where she really only wants to be held by her mommy or her daddy (which can get tiresome at times). But Joseph gets it. And as each day passes with more family gatherings, and more presents trickling in, he looks more and more like a little boy. Even now, I can hear the sound effects coming from his room as he plays with his new train. This year was so simple. Joseph was super excited to get a kid-sized shovel, and we were easily able to side-step the whole “Santa” thing. I’m not really into it. Actually, any time Joseph was exposed to the Santa concept he seemed afraid. And I don’t blame him: noises on the roof, strange boots sitting in your house, flying forest animals, men who know about your day-to-day life. It is a bit weird. It has even caused Joseph to make bizarre abstract associations. He has this Elmo Christmas book that changes the words from “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to fit some Sesame Street story with a moral and forced rhymes. Anyway, one of the lines reads “As Elmo grew sleepy waiting next to his tree, he heard a loud noise that filled him with glee.” Of course in Joseph’s mind, “glee” must not be a good thing. He has used it on several occasions, trying to figure out what it is. One time it was something sticky on the table, and another time, he told me that he needed a diaper change because his diaper had “some glee in there.” And he wasn't kidding.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Monday, December 11, 2006

A congratulations is in order

My little brother got engaged last week! And for those of you who haven’t met April, his fiancée, she is a wonderful, smart, and beautiful girl who will make a wonderful addition to our crazy family. And if you’re wondering, the wedding won’t be until the summer of 2008, so they have plenty of time to go completely insane planning the event. Wish them luck!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

All I want for Christmas

I would just love to watch a movie from start to finish in a clean house.