Holidays

In the past couple of weeks we've gotten to spend some time in the grand city of (Christmas) lights - Richmond, VA - for a visit with Memaw ...

saw my old high school bud, Robin, and her daughter, Elena, who'll be one next month.

Then back to DC where we had Hanukkah dinner with Grandma Jackie and the Schwartzes.

And the boys got to visit Santa. This year there were no tears - Owen looked polite yet concerned, Jacob smiled the whole time, telling Santa he wanted a belt and sunglasses. Charlotte and Bill were also able to fit in a quick visit to see us all on their way down to Richmond from New York. (Jacob looks a little distressed here, we soon learned, because his finger was stuck in a toy, oops. No permanent damage.)

On Christmas day Jacob woke up and had completely forgotten it was Christmas (see LONG and probably boring to others video below, sorry in advance). Then, to sum up the day, Owen wanted what Jacob got and Jacob wanted what Owen got (see long video again - with Owen in the background admiring Jacob's bike for the majority of it).

And finally, a Christmas day picture with Memaw and her boys.

Oh wait... here's that video - warning it's over 2 minutes long and for some reason Jacob kept answering "Sam and Anderson" in response to several of my important questions. We apparently did a good job of confusing the poor kid this holiday season.


HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2012!
I'll be partying way too much tomorrow night to be able to update the blog, so see you in 2012.

Tape

Tape: the. best. gift. ever.

"Rest" time has been a piece of cake this week thanks to a roll of tape Jacob got in his Christmas stocking this year. I don't hear a peep for a full HOUR each day. Today he even fell asleep (for a change) clutching the roll of tape if you look real close.

We wish YOU a merry Christmas

Jacob's preschool class had their holiday show today (then we spent the rest of the day vacuuming ;). He practiced the songs for weeks and it showed. You could hear his voice over the others on many occasions and he was very animated when pointing to the audience to wish "YOU" a merry Christmas. Later I was telling Mike about it and he says, oh yeah, we worked on that song last night. Aha.

"Where's Waldo?"

Aunt Nancy came to watch!!!

... and a happy new year!

Chrismakuh 2011

The 2011 Sherman Christmas Tree

Cousins

(Avery 14 mos, Jacob 3, Heath 2, Owen 18 mos)

We celebrated our third annual Chrismakuh this past weekend with the Wulfows and Shermans. With four children age three and under this year, the fact that the Christmas tree was still up on Sunday night with all of its ornaments still on means it was a success.

Faster than a Roomba

Today we spent the day vacuuming the house.

Okay, not the whole day, but at the time it felt like it.

Thanksgiving, etc.

Working backwards since that's how the pictures uploaded:

Hello mud.
I've always thought I'd encourage my kids to play in the mud and rain puddles without a care in the world; just watch as they discover nature, that kind of thing. But man, cleaning up the aftermath is not fun. I think in the future this will be more of a spring/summer activity where I can just hose them off out back. But they loved it and I do believe they would have stayed out there all day long in the cold if I had let them.

Thanksgiving up on Long Island - The boys and their cousins Heath 2 and Avery 13 mos.

Pajama party with Nana, Papa and Heath

We took Jacob into Manhattan for the day and saw FAO Schwarz, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square. He did so well and said his top three favorite things were: 1) riding the subway, 2) riding the train in from Nana and Papa's house, 3) and going on the escalator at Penn Station. Yep, in summary, we could have just gone on the metro at home. He did mention Santa ice-skating at Rockefeller Plaza as his fourth thing.

Superman

Memaw stayed with us for a few days before Thanksgiving.