Happiest season of all!

Well, the lights have been unstrung, the ornaments tucked away, the stocking and all the Christmas decorations have been boxed up until next year and we've bid our perfect tree farewell. And though a part of me is sad to let go of the holiday season, a bigger part of me is excited about the new year to come. We made so many new Christmas memories. This holiday season has definitely been one of the best yet. Here are some of our holiday memories this year...

Christmas songs

Growing up in my family, we always put on the Christmas songs after Thanksgiving. Dan however could listen to Christmas music year round (in fact he sneaks Christmas music in year round), so we have compromised at turning on the Christmas tunes after Halloween. The boys really enjoyed the Christmas music this year. Daniel and even Sammy could sing parts of many of the songs. I don't think there is anything better than the sweet voices of your children singing 'Jingle Bells' or 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.

Daniel and his classmates making music
and singing Christmas songs in preschool.

Wrapping presents

This year I decided to get some wrapping done with the boys. I still haven't decided if that was a big mistake or not. While Daniel was my elf helper placing wrapped presents on a cutting board and carrying them to the Christmas tree, Sammy threw ribbon around and walked all over the wrapping paper. Besides the crumpled paper and fuzzy, wrinkled tape the presents didn't turn out too bad, and my elves definitely had a blast.

Gingerbread houses

This year I knew I wanted to do gingerbread houses with the boys, it was just a matter of making it easy enough for them to participate. Last year I ended up buying a kit and I had to do it by myself because it was too hard for Daniel or Sammy to help. This year we made gingerbread houses out of graham cracker and it worked great. The boys loved decorating and eating their little houses.

Daniel working meticulously on his house.

Mostly Sammy just licked

the frosting and ate the candy.

Cookie decorating

My Dad passed down the tradition of making Christmas cutout cookies. It is a time involved process of making the dough, letting it chill, rolling and cutting it out, baking and finally decorating the cookies with a special frosting. I don't think we got around to making our Christmas cookies last year, so this year I was determined to do it. The boys and I pulled out the mixer and made the dough. This wasn't as much as a disaster as I thought it might be, although I only put in 4 cups of flour instead of 6 and I had to keep yelling at the boys to keep their paws out of the batter. Daniel helped me roll and cut out the cookies and on Christmas Eve we decorated. This was the first year Daniel got to decorate cookies and he did so well. He was able to do it all by himself and didn't even make a huge mess. He made a plateful of cookies for Santa which tasted as good as they looked.

Cookies for Santa made by Daniel.

Here comes Santa

And to top it off I got to watch my boys experience the wonder and magic of waking up to presents brought by Santa himself. I will cherish the moment Daniel came out of his room Christmas morning and ran to the top of the stairs to see if Santa really came. And the excitement and wonder in his voice as he told me, 'Santa came!'

So we say goodbye to Christmas, but hello to the new year. I wonder what it holds in store for me and my family.

Christmas morning highlights

Merry Christmas! I just thought I would post a couple of pictures of our Christmas morning.

Daniel was a very good boy this year and Santa brought him a spiderman command center (which took Santa over an hour to assemble last night!)


Sammy was thrilled to see Santa had brought him a basket of candles, and he immediately started stacking them.


Dan got lots of good books to read, but I think my favorite was a t-shirt given to him by Kevin, my wonderful brother-in-law.

Nana also stopped by before church and will be coming back over for dinner.

I got so many wonderful presents, but my two favorites presents weren't wrapped up in paper and under the Christmas tree. Unless you count the t-shirt Kevin gave me.

Spread the Word

I hate to write this just in case I might jinx it, but this is too good not to share with the world. I think I have found the solution for the constant flood of whys.

Sammy loves to make a mad dash for the carpet whenever he enters the house with his shoes on. He knows he is not allowed to wear shoes in the house, but thinks it is a game when I run after, tackle and pry his chubby feet out of his dirty shoes. Today when he came in from playing outside I said, 'Sammy don't forget to take your shoes off'. Of course Sammy just looked at me and said 'Why?' Instead of saying 'We don't wear shoes in the house' which would have lead to a long conversation of why exactly we don't wear shoes in the house I posed a question to Sammy. 'Is is ok to wear shoes in the house?' 'Nooooo,' (he does a funny voice inflection on this) Sammy says. We take off his shoes and he goes merrily on his way and I am amazed at my new found wisdom.

Now you have to test a theory out to make sure it holds true, so for the rest of the morning whenever Sammy asked me why I posed the question back to him and sure enough it worked. It is like a miracle cure. I wonder why no one has shared this amazing piece of wisdom with me and other why sufferers like me. Have child and parenting experts failed to discover this technique? Or maybe by doing this I am somehow limiting Sammy's intellectual growth and stimulation. Maybe letting your child ask why two hundred times a day is healthy and necessary for a little two year old to grow and learn. I don't know, but I am going to milk this technique for all it's worth. Why? Why do you think?

Why?

Sammy has hit the why? stage. I don't know if he has hit this stage early or late, but it is definitely here and in prime form. Here is a conversation I had with Sammy the other day:

Me: Sammy, we need to take off your shoes and clothes before you come inside.

Sammy: Why?

Me: Because you're dirty.

Sammy: Why?

Me: Because it's muddy outside.

Sammy: Why?

Me: Because it's wet out.

Sammy: Why?

Me: Because it's winter.

End of conversation. Luckily that time I was able to satisfy his question, but probably 8 times out of 10 I have to end the whys with 'Because!' or pretending I didn't hear his last 'Why?'.

I think the why phase is so hard because it is so mentally exhausting. Now that I am a mother of two I have very limited brain capacity. I have a hard time remembering why I went up or downstairs to get something. I forget words like 'pantry', 'blinds' or 'mantle'. If I need to get something done and it is not written down on my body someplace, there is a good chance I will forget. So being pounding by question after question all day is extremely taxing. And because Sammy seems genuinely curious about the questions he's asking I don't want to just blow off his questions.

I talked to my sister the other day and it turns out Leina, her daughter, is also going through this phase. While I have been trying to end the stream of whys by explaining in simple terms, my sister's solution has been to give an extremely complex answer. Since it appears to work with Leina, the next day I gave it a try.

(Sammy is pounding on the wall with his new Home Depot play hammer.)

Me: Sammy, don't pound on the wall.

Sammy: Why?

Me: (Trying Chrissie's technique) Because if you pound too hard and make a dent or hole I will have to get spackel and patch it up and then paint over it and it will be lots of work and make me grumpy. (I hold my breath and await Sammy's reply)

Sammy: (Pauses and looks at me a little concerned) Why?

Even Daniel has noticed Sammy's constant questioning. I have heard Sammy asking Daniel why? and Daniel trying to come up with answers. The other day Daniel made the comment, 'Sammy says why a lot.' and yesterday when Sammy asked 'Why?' Daniel said in an exasperated voice 'Oh no, not why again.'

Although Daniel and I would be more than happy to see the why phase phase out already, Dan really enjoys this phase. Dan loves explaining things and loves the challenge and satisfaction of satisfying Sammy's questions. In our family Dan is the master of ending the streams of whys. Sometimes he gets just one or two whys before Sammy is satisfied.

Dan: We can't light a fire on Christmas Eve.

Sammy: Why?

Dan: Because Santa would get burned.

(Sammy thinks for a second and then wanders off to play). I guess enough said.

Christmas Pictures

After putting it off for a while, this morning I was determined to get pictures of the boys for our Christmas cards. I had cut out big letters that spelled ‘joy’ and my plan was to have the boys hold the letters while looking adorably cute in their Christmas clothes. But as we all know the words plans and children do not mix well.

They boys actually seemed excited about doing the photo shoot, so I was pretty optimist about getting some good shots. I decided to start with Daniel so he would be a good example for Sammy. After getting a shot of Daniel squinting his eyes, looking down and throwing the J, I decided maybe Sammy would be an example for Daniel.

Amazingly enough Sammy did not chuck the O, but when I told him to hold the O up he would put it over his face and when I told him to put it down lower he would just squat down with the O still covering his face.

Since I could tell that the boys were quickly fading and I wasn’t having much luck with the J and O, I tried having the boys hold the Y together. I didn’t have much luck with one kid in the picture, I don’t know why I thought putting them together would be much better. One would look up the other down, next shot one would look straight and the other away. I got one great picture of the word joy, but Sammy looked like he was crying and Daniel looked anything but joyous.

By now, I had about a dozen shots and not a one was worthy of our Christmas card. It was so frustrating that it was hilarious. And instead of getting mad I burst out laughing.

As the boys played Frisbee with the letters an idea came to me, actually two. One, I promised lollipops if they posed for a couple more pictures. That quickly got them back in line. And two, I told them to love the letters.

Bingo! Bam, bam, bam. I got my shots in less than one minute.

If you want to see them you'll have to check your mail.

Just Call Me Mom

When I had Daniel, my firstborn, I became a mother. When Daniel was around 12 months old I became ‘Mama’. Around the time Daniel was three I was occasionally ‘Mommy’. Last week I became ‘Mom’ and it wasn’t Daniel who elevated me to Mom status.

It all started last Friday. Nana, awesome and wonderful person that she is, took Sammy for the morning. Since Daniel had preschool I got to have the morning all to myself. Very, very nice. After I picked up Daniel from school and got home, Sammy ran up to me and said ‘Hi Mom!’ I was very surprised to have my two year old refer to me as Mom and not quite sure if I was ready to be ‘Mom’. I mean I haven’t even been ‘Mama’ or ‘Mommy’ for very long and ‘Mom’ sounds like such a teenager thing to say.

I think Sammy picked it up from Nana when they were leaving that morning and she said, ‘Bye Mom!’ Well, I thought he would probably just forget about it the next day, but now a week later I am still ‘Mom’.

‘Whatcha doing, Mom?’

‘Miss Mom.’

‘Look, Mom, look!’

‘Come on, Mom.’

But I am still ‘Mama’ whenever Sammy is hurt, tired, crabby or needs comforting. Then it’s, ‘Need Mama’, ‘Mama, are you?’ or ‘Carry me Mama’.

So it appears I have prematurely become a Mom. I guess it’s better than Daniel’s phase of calling me ‘Little old Mama’.