Ho Ho Ho

Although I don’t particularly identify with Christmas, we celebrate over here.  When we got pregnant last year I thought we’d never get another Christmas alone again.  In fact, it has turned out to be exactly the opposite.  Last year, we celebrated the eve at a high-end Southern cuisine restaurant, held hands in the snow and welcomed in the year quietly over breakfast, coffee and presents, carols playing in the background.  I knew it would be our last Very Adult Christmas for a while and even though we traded in shrimp, cheesy grits and cocktails for oven pizza and juice, we still got to spend Christmas day alone with RR and presents, carols playing in the background.

After a chaotic visit with my family earlier in the month, holding them at telephonic arms length was fantastic.  Fortunately, we were able to appease her family with the promise of a visit over New Years.  We’re incredibly relaxed as a result, despite an undercurrent of bickering – gift of a relatively stressful fall.  I expect that as we ease into 2011 things will start looking up.  After all, days are already getting longer and spring holds the promise of plants, breezes, toddling, rain, grilled vegetables and summer.

As for RR, on the 26^th we handled the toy situation by buying a plastic toy container to stash all of her toys.  The chaos they cause by lighting up, rolling, blinking, and chattering can be neatly contained in a box and withdrawn one at a time.  As for our contributions to that mess, we bought her a book (That’s Not My Dragon!), a jumper, some stackable cups and socks.  Suffice to say, she has plenty to play with and she likes the cups the very best.

And hey, congratulations RR on celebrating 6 months with sweet potatoes, pears and rice cereal!