More Holiday Fun

We went bowling the day before New Year's -- a belated Festivus observance. The girls really enjoyed it. Fer was ahead for most of the game until the final frame, when, true to form, Papi pulled ahead to win!

Blizzard 2010 -- Wendy and Fer's First Big Snow

The blizzard hit Tivoli on Festivus so unfortunately Chris's family cancelled their trip to come see us. We were very sad to miss them, but the snow was substantial and it wouldn't have have been safe to drive. It was, thankfully, safe to play in the snow, so we made the best of our changed plans by getting Wendy and Fer snow gear before the storm really hit, and once it was over, let the sledding begin!

Christmas 2010!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve with Gigi and Grandad -- first ever 5 p.m. Lessons and Carols service at St. John's, followed by dinner and reading of the Polar Express at our house. We thought it would be festive to let the girls stay up late, but paid for it with a meltdown at 9 p.m. from our younger one. As she herself would say, "you need to learn!" Thank God for Chris's perspective -- I was ready to cancel the whole Christmas thing, and he calmly pointed out that we had let her stay up an hour and a half past her bedtime, when we know she often is fried by an hour before. Add in the excitement of pre-Christmas energy, and, well . . . let's just say we really should have stuck to our usual bedtime.






On Christmas morning we opened stockings and presents. Chris unfortunately by then had caught a version of whatever I had, so he was a bit out of it, but gamely did as much as he could.















After presents we went over to Christine and Matt's to see them and Jack. The girls brought their new American Girl dolls, of course!



Christmas afternoon we had a family dinner at Gigi and Grandad's. Sadly Chris was not well enough to be there and was much missed. The girls enjoyed seeing all the family, and, of course, opening more presents!

A Difficult Evening

For the first time in a long while, I'm battling a fever. It used to be that I would pretty regularly get very sick for at least a week or so in the wintertime (one of the worst bouts was actually for 3 weeks after our wedding in 2001, complete with ongoing high fever and painful mouth sores), but somehow, since coming to KIPP, I have managed to avoid a real winter illness. Until now, apparently. I started to come down with a painful cough on Sunday night, and by last night, my fever was up to 101 as the girls were going to bed. I made the mistake of telling Chris in front of them, and they both were very concerned. "What's a fever? What does that mean? Are you really sick Mami?" We then didn't hew exactly to the usual bedtime routine, because I was trying to finish up cleaning the kitchen and feeling more feverish by the minute, and unfortunately our inconsistency bought us 2 hours (!) of Wendy not wanting to go to bed. She didn't express it directly, but I'm sure my being sick made her anxious. After an hour and a half of her following me from our bedroom to the living room, with no reasoning or cajoling working at all (I even sunk to the depths of saying that Santa wouldn't be able to come if anyone in the house was sick, me or her! Chalk it up to a rising fever and rising frustration.), finally I went into her room and lay on the bed next to Fer who had already fallen asleep and pretended to fall asleep there, perched on the edge of their bed and shaking with fever. Wendy followed me there a few minutes later, and after about 30 minutes and one false alarm, finally fell asleep. The one image that helped me last through the wait was that of the cholera victims in Haiti -- I had just been reading a blog of a family that runs a clinic there and they have cots and cots crowded with desperately ill people coming for medical care. Even though I was very sick and uncomfortable, obviously it doesn't compare to the situation there, and I did have my own comfortable bed to go back to eventually. Once Wendy was safely asleep, I went back to bed and shivered under 4 blankets with my fever up to 103 until it finally broke and I was able to go to sleep.

Today, more of the same as far as the fever, unfortunately, but we did get the girls to bed tonight with no incident. I pretended better health in front of them, and that seemed to help them feel calmer. Hopefully I won't be pretending for long and will actually be better soon!

Countdown to Christmas

Friday afternoon we attended the Brownie Girl Scout Christmas party. While I was very sad to miss the KIPP festivities which were scheduled for the same time, it was wonderful to see how proud both girls were of the patches that they had earned this fall with the Brownies. Wendy had earned more than 10 patches and badges between the meetings and community service activities, and Fer had earned 4 because of volunteering with Wendy on some of the weekend activities. Fer will earn more badges from her activities with her Juniors troop in January when they have their ceremony.

On Saturday we headed up to Tivoli -- and I forgot my recipes for all the cooking I intended to do to get ready for the holidays! So, I wrapped presents instead while Chris played with the girls. It was so wonderful to hear the sound of them all laughing and having fun while I wrapped and organized upstairs, the girls under strict orders not to come into our room. Then, we met up with Gigi and Grandad and went over to Clermont State Park to see the decorations at the old house. The theme was "The Night Before Christmas" and they had excerpts from the poem in each room, and even more exciting, hidden mice! (Stuffed ones.) The girls were so excited to find the mice -- 14 in all -- and Wendy especially enjoyed reading the poem as we went though the rooms.

This morning was the Christmas pageant at St. John's. The girls were angels, Chris was Shepherd #2, and I was the mama dog -- not a character you may remember from the story, but this was the Animals' Christmas, a somewhat beast-centric reinterpretation. As it happened, the children all wanted to be the traditional parts of angels, shepherds, kings, so it ironically ended up with almost all the animal parts (dog, cat, cow, duck, owl, and so on) played by the parents! But it was a lot of fun and the singing was great. Afterwards, there were lots of goodies and snacks for the kids, and we even got started on selling our Girl Scout cookies.





Then we had our final Advent lunch with Gigi and Grandad -- thanks to Gigi, I haven't had to worry about an Advent wreath because it's happened that we've been able to have a meal with them each Sunday of Advent. After a lovely time and a chance to skype with Hugo and Leidy in California, we headed home, where the big excitement awaited of opening presents from KIPPTias Alaina and Blanca. The girls were thrilled with their gifts, and immediately wanted to play with them. With our house the pre-Christmas chaos that it is, we prevailed on them to wait to make jewelry til we go on vacation, but we all joined in for Twister, which Fer won and then Trouble, won by Wendy. I think a re-match will be in order soon!

Christmas Preparations in Tivoli

After Henry's birthday party, we went to the Tivoli town Christmas celebration, complete with horse-drawn wagon rides. The girls also got to tell Santa what they want for Christmas, and though they seemed to understand that it was not the real Santa, "they all work together," Wendy said confidently. Saturday night, we decorated our Christmas tree, and then on Sunday, Apple and Millie came over and helped Fer and Wendy decorate the tree at Gigi and Grandad's!