Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year

It's been a busy couple of weeks here, and a while since I've written anything.  I guess I should squeeze one more post in before the new year.  I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve.  We went to the evening service at church which started at 6:30.  It's a tradition that the last song (Silent Night) is sung by candle light.  Everyone gets a candle and the lights are turned off and the flame is passed from one person to another starting with the Christ candle.  We decided this year that the girls could each hold a candle.  Ginny did fine (surprisingly), but Jorja had a bit of a mishap.  She was getting into things and decided to hold the candle above her head.  The only problem with that was that she didn't keep it very level and dripped hot wax onto her head.  Ouch!  It wasn't a very silent night after that, but we made it through and combed some wax out of her hair when we got home. 

We then opened presents Christmas eve when we got home from church.  (Except for CeCe - she had had enough and was ready for bed)  The girls were pretty excited and had a lot of fun.  We got them a doll house this year.  It's funny, one doesn't realize the scale of a doll house when it is set up in Toys R Us.  It didn't look that big, but once it was home and set up, it is a real presence in the room.  Oh well, it will only be around for a few more years, and the shade of hot pink looks great in the family room.

Christmas toes

Jorja and Ginny in their new PJs opening presents

CeCe in front of the aftermath

Christmas day the weather was beautiful and I took the older two girls to the park to go sledding.  Jorja had mentioned once that a friend of hers brought a sled to school one day and they went sliding down the 'biggest hill ever'.  I've seen the playground and I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but I thought we'd see.  Her 'hill' was basically a large trench through the park - pretty lame.  Across the field at the public school, there is a bit of an actual hill, so that's where we went.  We had a lot of fun.  The hill wasn't too big, and for the first few runs, I ended up being the chair lift and pulled the two of them in the sled up the hill.  I came to my senses and made them walk up.  Then we all piled in and went down a few times.  Here's the view heading down.

Not the biggest hill, but we had fun.

On boxing day, we set out for Julie's parent's place where we feasted that evening.  We had another Christmas and the girls had fun again.  CeCe wasn't too into the presents yet this year, but she did have fun with a bow for a while.  The weather there was nice, and we went sledding in some hills in the field.  This was considerably bigger than the school hill, and I think the adults had more fun than the kids.  The girls had fun playing with their aunt and uncle and Nanny and Poppa.  They also got to spend some time with both great-grannies, so that was nice. 

Jorja must have been hearing some politically correct greeting this year, because one afternoon out of the blue she said to me, "Seasons ingredients!"  I smiled and said "Seasons ingredients" back to her.  (Yes, I did correct her after a while.)  Another afternoon she was helping Poppa in his office punching some holes in some papers.  She proudly came up afterward and declared she was his 'secondtary'.  So close on both occasions.

We came home on the 29th, and now it seems like the crunch is really on.  Julie goes back to work on Monday, the girls start at the sitter full time and Jorja goes back to school.  I'm back at work too.  It seems like this January back-to-work date for Julie has just sort of been looming in the distance, but now it's here and there seems like there is so much to do.  We went on a big shopping excursion yesterday to buy all the supplies for the sitter - diapers, wipes, zinc cream.  Plus we needed all that stuff for ourselves.  Julie needed some new shoes and uniforms for work, so we got that taken care of as well.  It was rather draining by the time we were done - physically, mentally and financially.  But we're getting there.

Now we are having some friends over tonight, my parents tomorrow for one last Christmas and then it's back to reality.  Have a good New Year's and try to stay warm.  Later.

Dirt

What a gorgeous day out today - warm and not even windy. After Ginny's nap, we went out to the backyard. The girls each have a special water bottle for outside - Jorja's has hearts on it, Ginny's has 'rainbow' (stripes). It's amazing how good water can taste from a water bottle outside - Ginny will basically sit there and drink till all 500 ml are gone. Anyway, Jorja was digging in the flower bed. Her mission is to fill up the flower pots with dirt. Whatever, it keeps her amused. She is taking this tsk fairly seriously though, and was upset that Ginny wasn't helping, she was just sitting and drinking her water. "Ginny, you should help me. This is hard work for just one person. Dad, are you going to help me? Dad, Ginny's not helping me." I was busy pruning some bushes. Eventually, she decided she had to pee and that she was NOT coming back out. Diva.

We were coming home from church this morning, and someone was mowing their lawn. It was nice, so we had some windows down. Ginny says, "What's that noise. It's annoying to me." Diva.

Killing things

It was finally nice enough to go outside today. We went for a walk around the crescent, Jorja rode her bike and I pulled Ginny and CeCe in the wagon. Jorja is getting pretty good - no where near losing the training wheels, but all right. She calls her bike Jasmine, and talks to it as she rides, chastises it when it takes a wrong turn, or falls over.

Then we played outside in the back yard for a while. I was holding CeCe when Jorja came running over saying there was a beetle in the wagon. "Ginny, stay away from the beetle, they can sting sometimes." I'm not sure where she got that from, but oh well. Anyway, I tell her that she should kill it. No way, she says. I then remind her how she killed an ant a couple of days earlier. This gives her a new sense of courage and she says, "Watch out Ginny, I've got to go kill something." Ahh, the brave hunter.

I'm now watching the late showing of Survivor. Gotta run.