And god bless us every one...

My favorite memories from this Christmas season:

• Going to the same store in the East Bay where my mother got us our stocking stuffers when we were kids, and realizing that I was now playing Santa for my children.
  
• Taking C and Do to see the Christmas tree in Union Square and the Macy's windows, and remembering doing the same thing with my dad.


• C, as we strolled down the main shopping street near our apartment, pointing out every Christmas tree in every store and saying "ANOTHER Kissmas Tree"


• My disastrous attempt to make a gingerbread house with C/D. They kept saying "Kaboom" and "Mommy messed up" when the house I was trying to glue together kept imploding on itself.
  
• Taking C and D to see Santa. They were SO excited to see him, until we tried to put them on his lap. You saw the video. Afterwards they kept saying "Accident" like "We know you didn't MEAN to do that to us" and "Little scared" when anyone asked them if they met Santa.


• The three margaritas I had while Andrew and I 'played' Santa on Christmas Eve, setting up the kitchen, wrapping stockings, etc.


• C talking quite loudly in church. At least she endeared herself to the crowd by yelling "Baby Jesus, where are you???" many times over. (I told her we were going to celebrate Baby Jesus' birthday and she must have wondered why he didn't bother to show up). She also danced to all the music and said "Bye bye music" at the conclusion of each song.


• D's face when she stopped examining the half eaten cookies left for Santa long enough to look up at the stockings. She got this look of awe and whispered "Elmo" when she saw the Elmos sticking out of their stockings. If my life flashes in front of my eyes someday, I want that to be one of the images.


• The look on their faces when we opened the dining room doors to reveal the kitchen Gram and Sam had bought them. Pure determination (as in "How quickly can I start playing"). I don't think D spoke for 30 minutes she was so busy shuffling pots and pans and wooden food from one drawer to another.


• D, when she pulled a little ball out of her stocking, saying "shoot hoops" and running over to throw it in the basketball hoop (in our front hall, yes, our FRONT HALL).


• The look on their faces when they saw the Kettler tricycles my wonderful, sweet, and alzheimers suffering Gumma 'bought' them. Remembering what a huge part of Christmas Gumma was for me growing up.


• Hanging out with my FAMILY, and realizing I now had a FAMILY of four. Patting myself on the back for getting Andrew to marry me. Marveling at how funny and silly my little monkeys are becoming.

And all I want for my birthday is a post from ACD. :

Here are some pics of Christmas and our current trip in Utah. Videos and more on Utah to come. (note: I'm way behind on posts and I know I do a weird post delay thing. My goal on this blog is first and foremost to keep a record for my kids someday to have, so if I can't get to a full post I often put in a 'bookmark' to finish later. I'm particularly behind now because I think my nanny drank from the kookaid the Prices give their nannies and ditched w/o warning. AFTER BEING GONE A MONTH. Ugh)