Christmas 2016

This Christmas break is exactly that: a break. We are being extremely lazy on most days.

Christmas was a big success all around. Christmas Eve we made a seafood pasta dish – delicious. The boys laid out cookies, carrots and milk for Santa and his helpers, and Julian wrote him a note.

Excitement definitely filled the air! The boys were adorable and also went right to sleep. This has also been a wonderful added bonus to our lazy days: an early bedtime, no complaints. A chapter or two of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will put Arthur straight to sleep, cozily cuddled up next to me, and it’s lovely. Also, we’re almost done with the book, and it’s been such fun for me to have someone else read to me! I just love it. (The boys do, too.)

Back to Santa. Jeff and I watched Love Actually on Christmas Eve, because duh. We’ve been on a movie roll this break – anything from Die Hard to Say Anything to Elf (with kids who pretty much pee themselves from laughing so hard).

Anyway, back to Santa. He came! He brought the boys the much desired Gup X and Gup S from the hit series Octonauts, and it was pretty much all they cared about for the next 10 hours and actually pretty much every hour since then. They also got new bike helmets, a new train bridge, a small drum for Arthur (per request), swords (because I’m an idiot), and some Playmobil pirate stuff. From Opa they received their first Flik Flak watches and from Grammy a math game, pirate game and bingo. Uncle Brian brought books (that was my wish). So of course, PLENTY of new things. Everyone is so happy and busy.

I got my wish: my very own boxing gloves!

My other very favorite gift this year is a book that Julian conceptualized and made all by himself, front to back. It’s called “The Police and the Children.”

Kids climb up a tree, fall down, police helicopter comes and catches them, they go home, eat dinner, play trains, read a book, brush teeth, use mouth wash, climb into their bunk beds and zzzzzzz. Real life stuff. I will treasure this forever.

On Christmas Day we had Jeff’s brother, his wife, and her parents over for dinner. On the menu: butternut squash soup, roasted whole cauliflower, carrots, mashed potatoes, green beans with roasted almonds, salad, and Jeff’s Holy Meatloaf. Also: an enormous amount of wine.

It was a happy night – and the kids had their own tiny table!

Monday we hit the train show at the New York Botanical Gardens.

These faces say it all. It was ridiculously overcrowded. Kids kept getting hit in the head with strangers’ bags, and it was all around too much.

The Coney Island exhibit was neat, though.

The highlights were overpriced beers at the Gingerbread Cafe and a realtime narrative by this kid about his favorite Octonauts episode.

Yesterday and today we basically laid around, except quick trips outside to keep our kids from killing each other with their new swords. Also, hair cuts. Now excuse me while I get back to doing nothing.

Here’s a look back: Christmas 2015 and Christmas 2014.

Christmas 2015

This Christmas was wonderful. I think I might go as far as to say this was my favorite Christmas ever.

Here’s why:

We stayed in pajamas for days, literally. It might be gross, if you think about it too much, but don’t. Just think that we loved being together inside, playing with our new toys.

Yup. Picking his nose.

New toys! Santa was so on target this year. Julian got his much desired Lego high speed train, and Arthur got the Staten Island Ferry he had hoped for. Other highlights were German streetcars from Opa & Oma, and Playmobil airplane and helicopter from the grandparents. Also, space obsession has begun!

But seriously, that Lego train, all 600+ pieces of it, is solid gold.

Julian is great at playing independently, but never have I ever seen him so completely entranced by a toy. He has played with this train for hours, literally. Hours. We didn’t see him all day yesterday. It gave me a glimpse into the future where my kids won’t want to spend every waking minute of their day with me. It was kind of beautiful and sad at the same time.

Christmas magic. The kids are sold on Santa. All of it. The reindeer, the Polar Express, the magic.

Did I mention reindeer? Arthur just calls Rudolph “shiny nose,” and Santa left us this little gem:

Arthur can’t stop kissing him.

Food. We’ve been eating non-stop. Christmas ham, cinnamon rolls, croissants, bacon, eggs, bloody marys. Also, sadly, a roast chicken that I ruined, so that was sad, but yay for leftover ham, so whatever.

The weather. I don’t even know if I mean it. The weather has been so weird! But I guess it doesn’t even matter, since we didn’t leave the house for days. But that one time when we did, on Thursday I think? It was nice to run around in t-shirts. In December. And to jump in puddles.

Star Wars. Not totally Christmas-themed, you say? Well, maybe. But Jeff and I have been re-watching all of the episodes in anticipation of the new release, and today – on a whim – we watched Episode IV with the kids. We’d been discussing the right time to introduce them to it for a while, and we agreed that the kids are too young. Julian is super sensitive and gets scared easily, and blablabla we watched it today with the kids. It was such a big moment for Jeff – he may or may not have cried (spoiler alert: he totally cried).

The boys loved it. All of it. No one got scared, no one complained and begged for a “kid’s show.” None of that. They were so into it; it was great. Arthur mostly asked the following, “What’s his name? Who is this man? Is he mean? Where is Princess Leia?” and then promptly decided to be Darth Vader for the rest of the day. Julian asked slightly more questions:

Family. It was so lovely for all of us to be together, happy, and healthy. Today we got to see the cousins, and when cousin Ben walked in with a Millennium Falcon toy in hand, we knew the kids would have a great day together. Here they are, looking angelic while waiting for their BBQ dinner, but needless to say that looks are deceiving.

All in all, I wouldn’t change one thing about this Christmas. Other than perhaps the cooking time of that roast chicken, but who cares. Julian liked his “roast chicken” (= leftover ham) much better than the ham the night before (= original ham) anyway.

 

For kicks, here is last year’s Christmas.

Thanks, Santy.

Santa did good this year. We wanted to make sure he had received the boys’ Christmas letters, so we checked in with him in person the day before Christmas Eve.

Julian and Arthur were both a little bit timid, which I think is understandable because holy Santa! Weeks of build-up. Your fate depends on him. Will he bring you the desired garbage truck? The NYC sanitation one with the buttons? Julian made sure Santa knew specifically which one he wanted. And Arthur warmed up enough to give Santa a goodbye hug.

After Macy’s Santaland we visited the train show at Grand Central and spent 127 hours watching the trains go around in loops. It was magical the best thing ever pretty cool.

Riding the actual train got me faces like this:

Just kidding. The boys were tired. They love the train. So much. I could have never predicted how much I would learn about the NYC subway system through my kids. Julian actually knows more than me. The other day he explained the differences of number and letter train cars to me. That was a day after he once again prevented us from getting on the wrong train.

We had grand plans for Christmas Eve (mainly cooking and eating our favorite thing, FOOD), but I was struck by a crazy 24 hour bug that prevented me from doing essential things, such as moving. I stayed in bed all day with body aches, nausea, and a fever. I’ve dreamed about a day in bed for a long time, but when it happens like this, I don’t want it anymore, thank you very much. Christmas Eve dinner consisted of canned chicken noodle soup for the boys.

The next morning I was all better, and more importantly!!!! Santa had come. He brought the holy garbage truck for Julian and a fire truck for Arthur. They were in heaven. Also lots of puzzles, books, and the 2014 Hess truck from Grammy.

This Christmas Jeff really perfected the Bloody Mary. It’s amazing how it goes so well with breakfast, but if you want – amazingly!! – it is also dinner in and of itself! Lots of servings of vegetables! Also, I got back into reading books. Reading is so wonderful.

The day after Christmas we headed into the city and checked out the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum.

Julian is really into them and wants to know what it says on the signs; whereas Arthur has the attention span of a goldfish and was also slightly intimidated by the dinos. But it was fun. Then we walked around Central Park on what turned out to be most unwinter-like day. It was gorgeous.

Christmas was a huge success. It was so nice to be home with nowhere else we had to be. The boys are busy with their new and old toys. Everyone is getting along.

Santa brought me some cool stuff, too. He was very on target this year. But all in all, I have to say: thanks for trying, Santa. I love everything I got. But really, I already had everything I could have ever asked for: