Christmas Holiday Recap

I wanted to take a moment to recap the events of Christmas 2009 for those that weren't here. I'll do my best to remember since it's been over two weeks already!

The Sunday before Christmas, Michael came down with some miserable sickness and suffered all night without me even really being aware of how awful he felt. He said there was only one other time in his life he ever felt so sick. Fortunately the worst of it only lasted about 24 hours and then he had a cold. And then on Christmas morning, he awoke with double pink eye! We think his contacts probably got contaminated when Simon had pink eye a couple weeks prior to that. Fortunately I still had half a bottle of the very expensive antibiotic eye drops that I treated Simon with and Michael cleared up in a few days.

In the days preceding Christmas I was busy cooking and cleaning to get ready for three straight days of festivities. On Christmas Eve, I made dinner for us and Michael's father and his sister, Melissa. I made traditional sauerbraten, a German recipe for pot roast, and it turned out great. The meat marinated for about three and half days and then I cooked it on low heat for four hours. One of the special features of sauerbraten is that the gravy is made with ginger snaps instead of flour. We had traditional accompaniments of red cabbage, mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. Then we exchanged gifts. Michael made a fire and Joseph had a blast opening a lot of presents. He was very eager and wanted to open everything!

On Christmas day, we went to Mass in the morning (sans Michael b/c of the pink eye) and then came home to open the presents from St. Nicholas. Joseph's dream of getting a dragon came true. ...Ever since Thanksgiving when we went to Atlanta to visit Russ, Traci and cousin Russ, Joseph became obsessed with a dragon toy of cousin Russ'. He asked if he was going to get a dragon for Christmas every day, several times a day. I was surprised at how well he understood "what Christmas is all about." In the end, I think the dragon was usurped by an exciting new train set that he received from Saba and Nana. Although he honestly plays with all the new things that he (and Simon!) received.

Joseph's Christmas bliss: playing with dragon and eating goldfish.

Later on Christmas Day, we hosted "Hoffman Family Christmas." In attendance were Dad, Cathy, Daniel, Angela, Dave, Monica, Rachel, Colin and Cindy Molzen. I made "Nana's Rolls" (Great Grandma MacEnaney) Everyone brought food to share and I was so impressed by the spread we had. The kitchen counters were covered, the kitchen table was covered and the dining room table was covered with food! It was a veritable feast! I was really appreciative of everyone's efforts and generosity in the comestible contributions. Gifts were exchanged and a good time was had by all. We also were honored with the announcement of Daniel and Angela's engagement.

The 26th was Wood Family Christmas. We went to Five Guys for burgers and then back to Tom and Kim's house for recreation and gift exchanging. I brought a double batch of white chili which is one of Michael's favorite recipes that he is always telling his brothers they need to try and we also brought some leftover sweets from Hoffman Family Christmas.

Then the 27th was our fifth wedding anniversary which was pretty low key as Russ and his family were still in town visiting. We did manage to leave the kids with Papa and Melissa for about 45 minutes while we had a drink together waiting for take out.

On New Year's Eve I went up to Dad's house with the boys for a few hours. In keeping with tradition, I ate bagel bites and a few other goodies. Dad set up his new Beatles Guitar Legend video game and played with the grandkids. (Aidan and Julianne and Cora were also there.) Shortly after Julianne and Cora arrived, they started running around with great excitement to be reunited with their cousin Aidan and there was just a blitz of commotion all around in the basement great room with Joseph in the middle of it. (He just wanted to play trains - of course.) When the cousin tornado went into the other room for a moment, Joseph looked at me with a puzzled expression and said with a very inquisitive and serious voice, "What is going on here?" It was hilarious.

I came home well before midnight since the kids needed to go to bed and I can hardly make myself stay up until that hour anymore either.

Joseph and Michael got a few small gifts for the feast of the Epiphany and now I am getting ready to celebrate Simon's first birthday on Saturday! Simon, by the way, is pretty much walking now. He really stepped it up (pun intended) on Christmas and ever since then has been at least trying to get on his way by walking 50-75% of the time. Today he was walking along the upstairs hallway to me, and even though he fell about four times, he got right back up to walk every time whereas he was usually switching to crawling after his first or second fall. He raises his arms up high and takes jerky steps, but it is clear that he is very proud of himself and it is fun to witness this new milestone in his life.

In Joseph news, he has become totally fixated on having his shirt tucked in for the past several weeks. Every time he gets dressed he asks one of us to tuck his shirt in and as the day wears on he is usually checking with me to see if it is still tucked in. I think he is emulating Michael since he observes him getting dressed and Michael is always tucking his shirt in. Even on weekends, he usually tucks in an undershirt.

That's all the updates for now! Merry Christmas everyone!