Christmas is mostly over (we just have one more family thing and then it is really done). It went pretty well. Only a few hang-ups. First, Ellie got a Nancy Drew game from Santa that had two discs in it. Unfortunately, the elves made a mistake and both discs said "Disk 2 of 2" on them. So I emailed the North Pole (aka Amazon.com) and they said they are sending a new game!! The other hang-up was that whatever Genie opened Rémi wanted, and a bit vice-versa. I think next year they will get matching everything! There was also the cabbage patch doll that I had gotten for Rémi that I was SURE she was going to love. It has curly hair just like Rémi and a beautiful blue and silver dress. When Rémi opened it, however, she acted like it was clothing. She was totally uninterested in it. I was crushed. I am sure I will get over it but I really thought I had a winner. At least Ellie liked her games and new stereo and Genie liked her Aqua Doodle and Fridge Phonics.

Our Christmas morning was fun, opening gifts in our jammies. Then Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Rick, and Aunt Lauren came for more gift opening, ham sandwiches, and holiday fun. We had a wonderful time, including having a bit of a talent show where Ellie played Christmas music on her flute, Lauren played her clarinet, Grandma read some prose, and Rick played his guitar and the rest of us sang along. definitely something we should do again.

After the others left we got all our Hanukkah stuff together and went to Janette and Lisa's house for Hanukkah and a bit of Christmas. We had latkes and ham (good Jewish meal) which was very yummy, then we opened gifts and played.

We had a really good day, but boy were we tired when we got home. I like that Hanukkah lasts 8 days so you can spread out the exhaustion!!

First Blog

I guess I am not really new to blogging... I have been keeping an online journal for years now, but this is the first one that I am actually calling a blog. The kids are slowing down in their development -- it isn't a new thing every week -- so I need other things to talk about and I have decided that life tends to give us lots of things to mull over. I have thought a lot about it and I am not going to bother being politically correct or politically neutral. Since this is my blog I am going to allow myself to be as opinionated as I really am and if people don't like it then I guess they don't have to read it. I will try to point out potentially controversial stuff.

The holidays are fast approaching. Remi has learned to sing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer really well and has a good start on We wish You a Merry Christmas. Of course she has had the Dreidle song down for a year. She picks up on songs quick. Genie is still giving us trouble with eating vegetables, but I have been sending her away from the table if she doesn't eat and that is starting to have an affect. The last several meals she has eaten at least a bite of vegetables willingly, and even swallowed them.

We won't be seeing Ellie until Christmas. Unfortunately this year she really didn't get to pick out any gifts because we didn't have her very much before Christmas and when we did we had other family committments.