Dan and Em's Blog

I’ve never been much of a cook.  There are a few things I can make pretty well (only a few) but I follow directions really well, so I can fake my way through just about anything with a good recipe (the simpler the better).  It’s always been the eating part of cooking that I enjoy the most, so if someone else volunteers to do the actual cooking part, I’m happy to oblige.  Really, the only time of year I get excited about being in the kitchen is Christmastime.

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A couple of weeks ago, after completely missing that the kindergarten was going to take our child on a trip for the morning, the teachers at the school gave us a detailed and carefully translated list of upcoming school events.  (Which we then promptly misunderstood. . . or thought we did.  It appears that St. Nicolas actually WAS at the school — we’ve seen pictures — but B still says he wasn’t.  He keeps saying, “He wasn’t there, he was just a surprise when we came back in from the garden”, so there’s some nuance we’re missing, but I have no idea what it is.)  For today, there was a note about an excursion to a children’s theater to watch a play.

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Liam got a nasty splinter in the bottom of his foot tonight.  (I actually don’t know when he got it — I found it while he was in the bath tonight.)  He’s walking and running now, and we have wood floors — it was pretty inevitable.  So, after bath time, Dan held him as still as possible, and I removed the splinter from his foot.

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I know, Christmas isn’t (or shouldn’t be) about the gifts.  It’s hard not to fall in to that trap — there’s SO MUCH to shop for, so many gifts to buy.  Most years, my “favorite gift” is one I buy for someone else — one I can’t wait for them to open, to see the look on their face, to see if they’ll smile or laugh or cry like I thought they would.  Sometimes it’s something I’ve had in mind for ages, sometimes it’s a gift that kept me stumped throughout the shopping season, only to occur to me as an “Aha!” at the last minute.

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We miss a lot.  Last week, we missed the fact that Benjamin was going on a field trip with his school, so he had his first outing without us knowing it was going to happen, and without us being able to prepare him at all.  (He did fine.)  As a result, we’ve stepped up our own vigilance and reminded the school, too, that they need to be sure to keep us apprised of what’s going on.

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So, I almost forgot to be St. Nicholas last night.  No, I actually forgot — just before bed, Benjamin asked, “So, does St. Nicholas come tomorrow?”  I’d been talking to him about it for a few days, I’d done all the requisite shopping, but yesterday afternoon it slipped my mind.

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By nature, I love efficiency.  I like to spend a little extra time planning in order to save myself time executing the plan, I like to expend as little energy to be as productive as possible — I like to maximize both my time and energy.  I’m really good at it.  I can pack activities, chores and errands into a day as well as I can pack the back of a car for a vacation.

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I’m still a little under the weather, but I’m not letting it stop me — we’ve only got 3 weeks (eek!) until Christmas, so I had to get stuff done this weekend, regardless.  I crafted an intricate schedule for both Dan & I for the weekend — maximizing time for cleaning the house, getting shopping done, and (hopefully) still having a good time, all while managing both kids.  Of course, by 9:00 Saturday morning, we’d already blown the schedule, but it still got us through the weekend pretty well.  Dan (almost single-handedly . . . or worse, actually, because Liam helped) got the house cleaned up and vacuumed, while I got our Christmas decorations out and got a significant chunk of our Christmas shopping done.

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Shortly after becoming a mom, I inadvertently started a Christmas tradition with my kids.  Every year, I buy them a new set of Christmas pajamas (at least, that’s the idea — I think they’ve each ended up with at least two sets every Christmas so far).  I didn’t set out to create a tradition, I just really love Christmas pajamas (actually Christmas clothes of any kind).  It wasn’t until this year, when I almost didn’t buy them, that I realized I’d been doing it all along without thinking about it.  They’re like Advent pajamas — I get them out after Thanksgiving, and they’re another fun part of anticipating the holiday and enjoying the season.  And, seeing them dressed in their fleece or flannel coziness on Christmas morning is just another warm & fuzzy aspect of the holiday.

This is our fourth year of Christmas pajamas, and I’ve grown really fond of the tradition.  This year, Benjamin helped me pick out the pajamas I got for Liam, which added another nice aspect to it.  I can imagine us continuing this tradition over the years to come, until both boys are old enough to roll their eyes about it (but secretly look forward to it).

With my boys in their Christmas pjs, it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here, even though our decorations aren’t up yet.  We’ve gotten all of our Christmas stories out, too, so bedtime is really becoming quite festive.  This year, we’re going to add yet another set of traditions to our family, with the addition of St. Nicholas and some of the Austrian aspects of celebrating Christmas.  I love our family traditions that we already have, and I can’t wait to see what new pieces we add this year.

A few weeks ago, Benjamin’s class at school went on a field trip.  He was effectively uninvited, which bothered me a little, until I realized that he didn’t want to go.  Their concern was that he was just starting to adjust to school, and they were worried that adding the stress of leaving the school, without us, might undo what progress we had made (and make him have an unpleasant time, too).

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