Words to Cry By...

So as I am loading the dishwasher this morning Jack looks at me and says:

"I am going to wish for a maid for you Mom and she can put the dishes in the dishwasher and let the dog out."

Made my heart boil over to be sure but just when I thought it could get any sweeter I walk by the bathroom and hear Jack talking to himself.  He catches me catching him and says:

"I was just talking to Santa about your maid."

I love love love you Jackie.  Thank you for my Christmas wish.

Letter to Ben and Jack Re:Christmas Crazies

Dear Ben and Jack,

Have you noticed the house is buzzing right now?  Oh yes it is Christmas and well...your parents have some of the most interesting luck in the world.  My Mom always said you pay for the good with the bad.  Very true right now.

As I sit here waiting for the two of you to wake up I feel so very blessed in life.  Two awesome little boys, a good husband, a lovely home and we are all healthy and happy.  Quite a bit to be appreciative and happy for and I am!

The part that has made the past few weeks crazy is:

*Broken furnace
*Lost cell phone
*Mommy's flu
*Jack's flu
*Ben's flu x2
*broken vacuum
*the dog got fleas
*Car accident which may or may not have written off the car (everyone is ok so we will add that to the blessing list x10)

So please understand that if we seem a little crazy right now it has to do with dealing with copious amounts of vomit, cleaning the house top to bottom for fleas and negotiating the best price for a car all in the same morning and nothing to do with you guys.  However, and most important here is to maintain perspective because these are the little curves life throws at us and they pale in comparison to all the good things we have going for us.  It just sometimes takes us...ok maybe more your mother a bit of time to absorb it all and move on.

One promise I will make is that by Christmas eve it will all be settled and sorted so we are ready to suck in your joy on Christmas morning.

I love you both more than you will ever know.
Your Mom

The Melding of New and Old

For me Christmas traditions are what make the holiday.  This could in part be due to my Type A issues.   Truth be told I am a bit of a list maniac and so sometime in November you will see me planning my daily lists almost a month in advance and on this list you will find that I have carefully planned each tradition ensuring that all necessary materials are available with which to complete the tradition.

For example, on November 26th I purchased the foam Christmas houses that we make each year and I planned 4 days throughout December on which we would have time to complete them.  The same goes for paper snowflake making, cookie baking, Christmas cards, decorating, gift buying....well you get the picture.

My husband will tell you that I get Christmas crazy!!!!  Pretty sure I drive him crazy too but also I know he appreciates it because it makes the boys happy to do all of these Christmas things.  

This year we mixed an old tradition with something new and the result was nothing short of fabulous!  A true success all around, one I didn't anticipate would make everyone sooo happy.

We have our little neighborhood crowd which you might remember from Halloween and this year we had a Christmas cookie decorating party.  Yesterday 8 children piled in to decorate gingerbread and have a little gift exchange and it was a little piece of heaven.

The kids were all so excited (I even got a lovely handmade card from one thanking us for having them).  My boys were just thrilled they were having this event.  The Moms all brought Christmas snacks so the counter was loaded with treats.  Kids ran around the house playing until it was time for the decorating to begin.

You know those moments in life when you are just totally happy?  When all worries fade away and you are just in the moment?  Well I had one yesterday and it rocked-literally!  All the kiddies were working away on their cookies and a song came on the radio that all the kids knew.  It was turned up and there were little girls dancing in their seats and little boys singing in their chairs.  I took a moment and looked around and saw these wonderful women who have become like family and all of our children so happy together and I was overjoyed.  My heart swelled because I knew that everyone would carry this moment with them forever and it was a moment worth carrying around for years to come.

Then came the gift exchange which again was just awesome.  There were silly bands and McDonald's gift cards, beads, paints, cool balloon cars for the boys, and Christmas ornaments.  And so the play continued while Moms chit chatted about the things Moms chit chat about and at the end of the day things just felt nice. It was the kind of day that make Christmas awesome.  Which means that next year we have a date...don't worry I will mark it on the calendar.

The Power of Little Girls

A lady I worked with who is now a very close friend had two little girls around the same time I had two little boys.  From day one jokes were made about how they would end up marrying one another.  Strangely enough the first time Ben and Georgia met they were dressed in the same outfit except one pink and one blue.

One day when they were maybe three years old we even had a play wedding with food and cake and dancing.  The thing you must understand is that my boys sort of crumble when it comes to these girls and pretty much fall all over themselves when they know they will be hanging out.

In September at Jack's birthday party an about face occurred and I thought it had all come to an end.  The boys were all of the sudden anti girl and the girls were hurt.  Well tonight my girlfriend asked if the girls could come over while Mom and Dad were at a Christmas party and I have been assured that the girls still have their hold over the boys.  As proven by the following conversation between Ben and Jack:

"Come on Jack, let's go brush our teeth and fix our hair to get ready for the girls..."
"OK, but I am NOT brushing my teeth"

So off they went and got all spruced up in anticipation of the girls arrival.  Ben must have checked the window five times during dinner alone to see if they had arrived.

I also got to experience a glimpse into the future myself as Ben and Georgia took off into the basement which right now is under construction so all of the toys are upstairs.  After they had been down there for about 5 minutes I looked at Don and said:

"Don, what do you think they are doing down there?  There aren't any toys for them to play with"

Don laughed and said one day I would be asking the same question and telling Don to go get food from the freezer as an excuse to check on the activities going on in the basement.  A bit too soon for that!

Not sure if they will end up married but they sure are sweet to watch!  I shall spend the evening watching my little boys offer cookies to the girls, offering to dance with them, opening their juice boxes and being little tiny gentlemen.

Santa Could You Bring Me...

                   Tried to get a shot of Jack under the tree but the little poop kept scurrying away on me!


Some kids write a letter to Santa but not Jack.  He talks to him all the time.  Here are a selection of things I have heard this Christmas season.  The cutest is when he is alone in a room by himself and I hear start talking:

"Santa, could you please bring me a Playmobil train"

"Santa, could you please bring me a Wimpy Kid Book"

"Santa, could you please bring me a pack of Might Beans with this (points to a picture) Mighty Bean in the package"

Too Cute!!!!!!!!!

What The Hecka is This?

Our big plan is to finish the basement in the New Year so that the boys have a hangout spot for them and their friends.  So I have been preparing the basement.

Step 1:  Remove six years of artwork from the walls.  I was so sad when I did this.  I look at it all the time when I am on my treadmill and had no idea I was so attached to it.  Some of it will have to be framed and brought back into the basement when it is done.

Step 2: Say goodbye to the race track on the floor.  Don and I painted this on the floor about four years ago and many a child has whizzed around our basement on a tricycle or plasma car or whatever vehicle was popular at the time.  You can see how worn the paint is on the sharpest corner.  It is proof of the traffic this race track has seen.  Don told Ben the paint fairy came and made it for Ben and Jack.  Ben has asked me if the paint fairy was real, haven't told him about that one yet either...  So hard to say good bye, more for me than the boys of course.

Lots of trouble letting go lately...hope I get better at it because at some point the boys are going to be irritated with me...like when I try to go on their first date with them...

A Bad Day For Gingerbread!

I spent a few years wishing both of you were older at Christmas time.  Looking back I see now that that was the single most silly thing I could have wished for because now that I have my wish I want to take it back!!!  I wished you both were old enough to be crazy excited for Santa to come, old enough to absorb some of our Christmas traditions, old enough to really participate in all that is Christmas at this house.

I got my wish but what I din't count on was all the side effects of my wish.  For example, a neighbor reported the following statement from her son the other day...

"Ben and Jack are getting rocks for Christmas because they don't believe in Santa"

"WHAT" I asked?  How could this be.  However it is true, my Benny boy at 7 years old (soon to be eight) heard the nasty rumors on the playground.  You know the ones that go around every year around this time and then again at Easter.  The only thing is that this year he has given them some consideration.

I spoke with him and asked him if he believed and he looked at me and asked in a most serious tone,  one that made me feel he really needed the truth and he trusted me to give it to him,

"Well Mom, is there a Santa"

It was an awful moment because generally I try to be quite honest with my boys and if the question had been about anything else in the world I would have told him the truth.  

I didn't though.  I lied.  I lied so he could have one more year of magic.  So I could have one more year of magic.  I had no idea this might very well be the last year both of my boys believe.  I know that Christmas will still be super fun even if they don't believe but I just wasn't ready for it to be over.

So I have vowed this year will be Christmas overload!!!!

And so this week-end we indulged in some gingerbread cookie ornament decorating.  Oddly enough it really didn't go to plan.  I blew up the mixer before the frosting really got mixed which resulted in thick lumpy glue that the boys had a hard time piping onto the cookies.  Then after we hung the cookies on the tree they kept breaking on falling off the tree.  Blamed this on our little dog for the longest time until I realized what was happening because it has never happened before.

Despite these little setbacks the boys had fun and I had fun doing it with them.  You know one day they will be teenagers and likely not so excited to decorate gingerbread so until that day comes I am going to absorb these moments, commit them to memory and take them with me into tomorrow and all the other days to come.

Found Treasure!

One package of water pencils equals lots of creativity.  Nice work guys!

Daddy Adventures, The Dinner Edition

Now that the Christmas tree is up we can no longer see the television from the kitchen table...oh the horror!!!!

Never fear because Daddy is here!  This was the setup at our house last Saturday afternoon after the distress call came,

"We can't see the TV!"

Daddy knows how to make the boys happy.