I'll Be Home for Christmas

We spent a great week in Florida. What fun we had celebrating Christmas with our big family. Kade has adjusted pretty well to traveling back and forth. Flying is like second nature to him and he knows how to navigate an airport and an airplane pretty well.

It is really nice to see how comfortable he is with his family. He has no reservations when it comes to showering everyone with hugs and kisses. He also knows everyone by name now which is great. In fact, he loves to recite the names of all his cousins. He gets busy playing and wrestling and racing them instantly. He no longer requires any warm up time, he just seems to go right from where he left off last time.

Kade did a great job as a lamb in the annual Christmas play. He even sang Away in a Manger by himself. He did a fabulous job, remembered all the words, sang the correct melody and was actually mostly in tune! When he finished, everyone cheered and clapped loudly. He beemed with this huge smiled and jumped up and down, he was so proud. They asked him to sing it again but he suddenly got bashful. Of course, he was ready for an encore a few minutes later! This is a reenactment. Not as good as the original!

Little Avram was a sweet, wiggly, crawling baby Jesus who crawled to the manger. It was fuuny. He was so cute! He was really good while we were there and when we got home, it was really apparent how much practice he got in one week while we were there. All of a sudden, he is pulling himself up on the furniture, can actually crawl up steps and is getting into everything!! He also eats every crumb he finds on the floor, yuck! He has really tired from baby food, it has lost all of it’s appeal and excitement. He wants real food, basically whatever we are eating. He scoops it up with his fat little hands and it goes straight into his open mouth. Here is Avram pacing the airport!

We returned home to a real winter wonderland. Mother nature has been doing her work for sure while we were gone. This morning, driving to the hospital to do rounds, everything was so beautiful. All of the trees, bare of their leaves, were lined with a thick highlighting of fresh, fluffy snow. Branches of bushes lean toward the ground, weighed down by the weight of the heavy, damp snow. Our yard is littered with bunny tracks, their long feet having hopped here and there looking for a sprig of grass under the white. When the snow is everywhere, the scene takes on a visceral, quiet peacefulness. How I wish I could slip on my skis today and slip by the frosty trees! But alas, I have two kids in tow today, so we will have to enjoy the snow from the window today!

FYI- for anyone interested, I have changed the control on the comments so that if you want to add a comment, anyone can without signing in, just hit the comments link at the end of the posts.

The Gang's All here!

We had a fun weekend with my brother Loren, sister in law Karen, their kids and their granddaughter. (gosh, just writing that makes me feel SO old!) They came Saturday around noon, after driving through yet another Madison snow. The wait for them to arrive was just anguish for Kade. It seemed that he either asked where they were or ran to the door to check if they were here about 2x per minute. (which started when he woke up at 7AM).

We mostly took it easy on Saturday (and Sunday for that matter). Goes to show that we really just enjoy being together. We are way beyond needing to be entertained or kept busy. Loren and Seth donned our cross country skis and took a quick ski through our green space while Hannah and Kade sledded down our back hill. I did make a point to send Karen and Loren off to have dinner by themselves. We gave them directions to the Japanese Steakhouse to feast on Hibachi chicken, steak and scallops. It has been a challenging year for them and they really deserve some time to just enjoy themselves. That evening, everyone was content to hang out in front of the fire, sipping the new minty hot chocolate Karen bought on our brief escape to the spice store.

Malia (1yr, 4mo) was funny, keeping herself busy and snacking on everyone's food. She loved Avram ("beebee, beebee") and also loved to kiss him and hug him and unfortunately at times, smoosh him. By the end of the visit, he seemed a bit afraid of her and tightened his grip on my arm when she came near. Yet he still smiled his big, goofy, 2-toothed grin when she kissed his cheek.

Now, we had told Kade last week that Santa was planning to make a special trip to our house this weekend since we would be in Florida on the actual Christmas day. He has been quite concerned that Santa wont come to Florida. 1, because it is not his home and Santa may not know where he has gone and 2, because there is no snow in Florida and how in the world could Santa possibly think it is Christmas there. (Obviously Kade does not remember the global warming Christmases of the last 2 years) Here in Madison, we do have a very white Christmas this year. Last night, I had sent Kade and Seth upstairs just to put on their PJs but they were so tired that they climbed right into his twin bed and fell fast asleep! Everyone was awaken by Kade this morning announcing that Santa had, indeed come. Of course, poor Seth had to get up with him (at 6 AM) until everyone else could be roused after 8.

Kade had a lot of fun opening his presents and the joy was doubled as he had his cousins here to ooo and ah over his toys. Avram just took it all in but did seem quite interested in the wrapping paper on his gifts. Kade went through toy cars, the Candyland game (which he recognized instantly - kind of scary what marketing can do), not so exciting socks and underwear, some beautiful clothes from his Tia and cousins and a new sled. He was also quite patient as other people opened their gifts.

Finally, he came to his last gift, the one we reserved until the end. As he started to tear the paper of the long rectangular box, he caught a glimpse of what was inside. He tore the paper off quickly and his eyes lit up as he beheld his new plastic Winchester hunting rifle. It was just like that scene from a"A Christmas Story" as Ralphy beheld his BB gun in Christmas splendor. His new gun makes noises when you shoot it and pretend to load it. Loren turned on a hunting show and we all yelled "get him Kade!" as he took practice shots on wide racked big bucks darting through the woods, turning every few seconds to be sure we were all watching. I dont know if I have ever seen a bigger smile!

To my many eco-conscious, anti-violence and animal friendly friends this gift and probably this whole scene may have just made you faint. (obviously you have come back to if you are still reading this) Anyway, please know that hunting is just part of our blood. We can't help it. I guess it's a Native thing or a Wisconsin thing or maybe a Native Wisconsin thing! And I really believe that even if we tried to keep our son gun free he would just turn every stick into a gun anyway, just like in ancient times when our children watched our men bring home the dinner and tried to model that behavior with play bows and arrows. So, the best we can do is be sure he is only pointing it at animals and teach him to use it safely. (of course he wont ever put his hands on a real gun for a long time)

This weekend made me again grateful for all the things God has given me - a wonderful family, 2 awesome boys, a fab husband, a meaningful job and a roomy house. I realized at the end that I never had to wait in line for the bathroom. Even with 7 extra people in our house!! What a change from always having only one bathroom! Now things calm down (for about 2 days) and the we are off to Florida!

Little prayers...

Each night, Kade blesses me with a bedtime prayer. He is still picking someone each night to say a little prayer for after I say his usual nightly prayer. He picks his subject by himself. Tonight, his prayer was for his cousin Wyatt. He prayed, "Dear Jesus, please give Wyatt water in his hose" which is a good thing since Wyatt is a firefighter!

The First Snow of the Season

So we had the first big snow yesterday! When we awoke this morning, it was like magic for Kade. A thick, white blanket covered everything. On the drive to church this morning, we saw dozens of people out shoveling and snowblowing and the sort. We were so grateful to just drive right out of our warm garage and down our plowed and salted driveway. (we signed up for a snow removal service this year) In Chicago on a day like this, I would be outside with my shovel, scraping the mountain of plow packed snow and ice away from the tires of my car.

On the way home from Church, which we made out of the parking lot with a push from the men of our church, Kade could not contain his excitement. He made a constant commentary about how "when I get home, I am putting on my snowpants and boots. Where's my mittens. Hey, we can have a snow ball fight! Can we go sledding, can we go now, can we?? You can ride the purple sled and I am riding the green one. I am going to sled in my own backyard! I want to build a snowman! I will give him a carrot nose and sticks for arms.." and on and on and on... Mind you, it is only a 5 minute drive from church to home.

As soon as we got home, he got all suited up and rushed out. We had fun as it was not too cold. In fact, Kade was sad to see that some of the snow was already melting. He said "I might NEVER get to make a snowman" While Dan and Kade had a snowball fight, I grabbed my cross country skis and skied up and down the back lot of our house which stetches down several houses about 150 yards or so. It was fun. I hope the snow sticks around long enough to ski again for real.

Avram's new trick!