Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Merry Christmas 2015

Christmas flew by.  I can't believe it's over.  Every year, the fall and Christmas season happen in the blink of an eye, and more and more I feel like I don't enjoy it as much as I want to because of work.  But we still had some great times and made some new traditions and memories.  So all is good.  

A few days before Christmas, we got a call for help from our community service director at Milton.  A local school we work with had over 50 homeless families and needed some used toys.  So we put together a bag and brought it to Milton.  Carlos and the boys went with me, and the boys enjoyed looking around the Student Center.




The particularly liked the artwork hanging from the ceiling, a Rube Goldberg-like contraption.




During the day on Christmas Eve, our neighbors Tony and Joanne came to our rescue--they saw us out walking and called us over.  They had presents for the boys.  They were "decorate-your-own-Stormtrooper" heads.  They kept the boys busy for over an hour.  Their hands were black with marker when they were through, but it was all good.  Well worth the time it kept them busy!  Thanks to our awesome neighbors for thinking of them--so nice!




As usual, Christmas Eve was spent at Auntie Carol and Kitchen's house.  And, as usual, it was fun and festive.  The food was excellent: turkey, squash, green bean casserole, and lobster pie...and tons of desserts, too.

I became Tia Kaka to Baby Alice, who pooped on me about 30 seconds after arriving in her beautiful Christmas dress.  She got to change into her comfy onesie, and I got to wash poop off my arm!  ;-)  Poor girl!



Kitchen was so good with Baby Alice...She didn't cry with him (or poop on him).



On Christmas Day, we opened presents and stockings around 5am...boys were up as usual, despite going to bed around 8:30pm.  Carlos has most of the pictures on his iPhone, so I'll post others once he sends those to me.

Look!  Santa came!


And he left a few presents downstairs, too!


Christmas presents this year (as usual, Santa is very frugal!):
Bob the Builder hat, tool belt, and tool box with real kid-sized tools
Star wars cookie cutters
Star wars clothing (Pjs, sweatshirts, t-shirts) and winter boots (R2D2)
Darth Vader comforters for their beds
Books (including Arthur, Mr. Whiskers, The Stupid Family, and others)
K'Nex
Zoobs
Trio Blocks (like Legos, but different)
construction vehicles
vintage Pez dispensers
Thomas puzzles
vintage pinball machine (table top--small)
vintage matchbox cars and carrying case

Here they are opening stockings.  It took about 3 minutes for them to rip through everything in there!




Can't keep his eyes open!  He's thrilled about Play-Doh and Star Wars "trick-or-treats" (gummies).



Then we moved to the tree...Carlos has those pics.


The Star Wars cookie cutters were a big hit with Adi.  They love making and decorating cookies!




Christmas Day, mom and dad came over for brunch.  It was a mixed bag because my yummy Pioneer Woman french toast casserole didn't cook in time and it was all runny.  It was ready just as everyone left.  :-(  Right after mom and dad left, we did Facetime with David and family and Felipe and Marimy (our Spanish family).  It was the first time we'd done it (not sure why when it's so easy!), and it was so lovely to see them all!

Then, we went to Grumpy's in the evening.


The 26th I brought Carlos to the airport at 4am!  Mom came to the house at that unGodly hour so that I didn't have to wake the boys and take them with us.  Sebastian woke at 4:30 anyway...they were pretty awful the rest of the day, including at my mom's house for our Christmas there.  We stayed about an hour--enough only to open presents and eat a rushed dinner because they were such a pain.  Then we left and the presents stayed at Mini's house until they could behave.

The next day, they were sad and asking to go back to Mini's to get their presents and show us that they know how to behave.  So we went over and they were good.  So they got their presents back (LEGOS!!!!)

I'd say the boys are most excited at this point about their Legos that they got for Christmas from Tío Jim, Grumpy, and Mini.  I'm glad because I love helping them build them!  It's fun for me, too!  They are pretty good at helping me find the right pieces in the instructions and telling me where to put the pieces.  They don't have enough dexterity in their fingers yet to really put the more complicated stuff together, but they get the concept and love helping me put things together.  And they love playing with the stuff after it's assembled.

Yesterday I managed to get most of the Christmas stuff down and put away while the boys were at school.  The trees are still up and I'll probably leave them up until Carlos is home to help with it.  Makes me sad to take the stuff down, but it actually feels better now without all the clutter.  I do hate this time of year, though...after the holidays it's such a let down.  It doesn't help that it's snowing/sleeting right now and freezing after such a mild December.  Yuck.













Friday, December 18, 2015

December!

Note for the future: visit Jordan's Furniture and the Polar Express MOM ride/The Enchanted Village after school (4:30pm) on a weekday the first week of December.  We had the place to ourselves.  It made the experience so much more pleasant.


Sebastian is into Bob the Builder lately.  He puts a fire hat on because he think it looks like a construction hat.  Maybe Santa will bring him a yellow hard hat...



Christmas in Columbian Square (Weymouth, right near Jim's house).


The weather has been RIDICULOUSLY mild this December.  It's almost frightening.  Mid-high 60s some days!


Christmas on the Common in Bridgewater.  Bad photos, but they are playing on the same wooden train Jim and I used to when we were little.



Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived to the common in a fire truck.

Last Sunday we rode the Polar Express on the Greenbush line (Scituate).  It was a long ride, and it was filled with singing, visits from special guests (gingerbread man, Frosty, Rudolph, Mrs. Claus, Santa...), food, and fun.  It's put on by a group at Scituate High School as a fundraiser--they really did a nice job!  I think the boys' favorite part was that they got to wear their jammies in public!




Just some silliness with Christmas hats and antlers!





Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Birthdays and Other Festivities


Work is still too busy.  :-(  I don't have enough energy to write much.  

After the whirlwind of the fall, it was nice to get some much-needed relief after the applications of 11/1 were submitted.  Then it was immediately on to preparing for the boys' birthday party.  But that was fun!

We had a small group, but it was great.  It was just close friends and neighbors.  There were very few kids, but it they all played so nicely together.  The boys had a great time.



Of course, they had a piñata and loved it.  Every year, it's a great way to off load some of the Halloween candy on other kids! ;-)



It was like Christmas morning the day after the party.  The boys woke early and ran into the living room (where the presents were) and played with everything.  They didn't want to go anywhere all day long because they were so busy playing.  They got light sabers, Star Wars PJs and walkie talkies, a fort-building kit, some huge dinosaurs, paint with water and cute shirts, Charlie Brown slippers, remote controlled light-up cars, and lots of other great stuff.




After the party, we decorated for Christmas to have everything up for hosting Thanksgiving (and to enjoy it as long as possible!).  I love hosting Thanksgiving.  Adi was so thrilled to wear his turkey hat! 


The boys have not wanted to take off their Star Wars Halloween costumes since 10/31.  


We made our annual pilgrimage to The Christmas Place in Abington.  The boys love looking at all the stuff.  The tree room was their favorite this year.


They were both wiped on the way.


Just some ridiculousness one morning after breakfast.  We lit a fire and played with toys in the living room.










Then, on the 25th, we had yet ANOTHER birthday celebration for the boys since it was their actual birthday.  Carlos took them to Market Basket and let them pick out a cake and candles.  This year it was Cookie Monster and cupcake candles.  Mini and Grumpy came over to eat cake with us.








Carlos's face seems a little out of proportion with whatever was happening!  ;-)










Here's the outside of the house decorated.  We have a new inflatable Santa we bought for half price after Christmas last year.  The boys love it.  And Papa fixed Frosty so his head doesn't fall off anymore and he lights up all over.  So no more Frosty accidents like last year when his head fell off and the boys saw it and were upset by his decapitation...


About a week ago the weather was SO NICE that it was 70 degrees.  Everyone was out.  That was when we finished the decorating, Carlos mowed the lawn one last time, and I did some major weeding.  The boys helped...




Adi and I built Star Wars cities one day.


We went to see Maria to get our hair cut.  Sebastian insisted on wearing his Darth Vader costume.  He was good about taking off the mask so that Maria could cut his hair.  In fact, both boys were angels.  When they were done, we took a picture of Vader in Maria's chair.




Last Sunday morning, we braved the crowds at Bass Pro Shop for this year's free photo with Santa.  I was too late trying to sign us up for Breakfast with Santa again :-( so we missed that.  Bummer because that was a great time last year.




Adi dressed up in his Vader hat and sweatshirt...the boys are OBSESSED with Star Wars!