4 days after Christmas...

The following is a conversation I had with Micah yesterday... His responses were all made in a whiny, sing-songy voice...

Micah: I'm bored. There is nothing to do.
Me: You just got a whole bunch of new things! Why don't you play with your aquadoodle?
Micah: Too boring
Me: why don't you play with your new yellow transformer?
Micah: Can't transform it
Me: why don't you play your v-smile?
Micah: No new games.
Me: why don't you look at a book?
Micah: No fun
Me: Why don't you watch the movie with Emmy (she was watching Annie)?
Micah: Girl movie
Me: Why don't you play with your trains?
Micah: Track broken, too hard to fix
Me: Why don't you put on your new Spiderman slippers?
Micah: not fun, that's not even doing something
Me: (thinking)
Micah: I just want to do what I want to do!
Me: what is that?
Micah: go to my room and listen to my new cd player
Me: You can't do that right now because Lily is napping. Why don't you play with your new super heroes?
Micah: Boring
Me: Then I guess there is nothing for you to do.
Micah: (starting to cry) I just want to watch tv! And not that movie! It's too long!

At which point I brought him into the family room, laid him on the couch, and told him to just lay there and relax. He ended up taking a 2-hour nap, and probably would have slept longer if Lily hadn't woken up and punched him in the face, laughing... she's a monster!

After all that...

...Christmas is over. All those weeks of preparation - buying and wrapping gifts for everyone from the family to the mailman, baking, cleaning (not too much, in my case...), attending parties, and just like that (poof!), it's over! And what do we have to show for it? A bunch of nice gifts, a few extra pounds, and a TON of wrapping paper and boxes in the recycle bin! And of course, another year of Christmas memories.

The kids had a fun Christmas. Emmalee was very worried that she might not have behaved well enough to get the presents she had asked Santa for, so she left him a note on Christmas Eve, placed next to the plate of cookies and milk, that said "Dear Santa, please leave me as many gifts as I deserve". Her prayers that night included "Dear God, I know sometimes I misbehave, because it is too hard to behave all the time, but please let me get at least one present tomorrow. I don't even care if I don't get a lot, all I want is just one!" Well, she must have been very good, because she got almost everything she asked for! Her favorite gift from Santa was her Cheetah Girls Tour Bus. Micah was thrilled with all of his gifts, too. He was funny. Steve and I got him a scooter. He hadn't asked for one, but we thought it was cool and got him one. Well, Emmalee kept playing on it and they were arguing over it. Finally, I told her to keep off the scooter because it wasn't hers. Micah said "well actually, she can have it, because I didn't want one anyway. I didn't even ask for it!" He later changed his mind and decided he did want it after all. Micah's favorite gift from Santa was the yellow Transformer. Lily had fun this year too. She opened her presents, and enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper. Santa brought her a grocery cart and my dad gave her a doll that she put in the cart and enjoyed pushing around the house.

The biggest hit, by far, was Steve's present from me. Here's a little background information - Steve has a problem with video games. He is a video game addict. Last year my sister's family got the Wii. When we visited, Steve played the Wii the whole time we were there. Through dinner, till about 3am. No one else could play, and everyone else was ignored while Steve played the Wii. The same thing happened last Christmas when our nephew Bryson got the PS2. He brought it down here when they came to visit at New Years. Steve took over the game system, hardly even letting Bryson play it, and stayed up all night playing. It's a little bit annoying. I have always said we will NOT have a game system in this house. Anyway, I caved this year and bought him a Wii. I kept it a secret from the kids, and kept telling Steve things to throw him off , because he had guessed that that was what I was getting him. I decided I could not wrap up the Wii system because once he saw the package, he would know. So I wrote a note, saying "You wiire (were) right", put it in a little jewelry box and wrapped that up for him. He had no idea. It was the last gift he opened, and he was SO excited. I warned him that if he got out of control with it, I was returning it. So far, he hasn't been too bad. The kids love it!

After opening presents at home, we went to Aunt Sharon and Uncle Mike's house to join the rest of the family for dinner. We all ate too much - when you are surrounded by delicious food, it's hard to not overeat.


Andrea and Michael and their 3 kids are now staying at our house for a couple days, and Steve's parents and grandmother will be coming down sometime this or next week, and his brother and wife and their kids will be coming next Thursday!

All in all, it has been a fun whirlwind of a holiday! Always fun to spend time with family and good food!

4 Christmas Parties, 2 Sad Girls, and 1 Wise Guy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The tree is up, the lights are on the house, the interior is as decorated as it's going to get, the mistletoe scented candles are burning - yay! Today I am going into Emmalee's school to her holiday party to help out - that ought to be fun! Tomorrow we are anticipating a huge snowstorm - I wonder if the schools will be proactive and cancel for the day, or have an early dismissal? It's supposed to start sometime in the late morning. Micah and Lily and I are supposed to be going to Micah's playgroup's holiday party in the morning, but we will have to wait and see what the weather does. Steve has his company holiday party tonight in Boston - dinner and a hotel room - fun times! My work Christmas party is Monday night. All these festivities - so much fun!

Some sad news - Emmalee's best friend Quinn is moving to Kentucky on Saturday. It was a very quick, unexpected move. She came home from school on Monday crying and said "Quinn is moving this week to Kentucky". I was thinking "What?" Who moves a week before Christmas - with no warning!? I didn't even know they were looking to move at all! So I called Jenn, Quinn's mother, and asked what is going on. "We're moving to Kentucky - on Saturday morning". Jenn's family lives out there. Mike, Jenn's husband, has been out of work, so there was nothing really holding them here in CT, and in the course of 4 days, started looking, found, and bought a house out there. Jenn said Quinn is a mess. Emmalee is a mess. We didn't know Quinn before this year, but on the first day of school Emmalee came home asking for a playdate with her new best friend. They live right around the corner from us, and the girls have spent several afternoons playing either here or there, having sleepovers, and doing all kinds of fun stuff together. Em's teacher told me they are inseparable even at school too. I know Em will recover from it, but I have a feeling this is going to be hard for a while. They will keep in touch, though.

On a lighter note, we all went out Christmas shopping on Tuesday night. We were at Target and Em had wandered into a different aisle. I asked "Where's Emmalee?" (to no one in particular), to which Micah responded, "How should I know? I'm not the mom, you are!" What a wise-guy he is!

Chopped Liver and Ugly Trees

That's me - chopped liver. Seriously - the kids like Steve best. Micah always tells me he likes Daddy better. He and I will do something fun together, and I'll say "that was fun, Micah", and he'll say "Yeah, but I still like Daddy better". All 3 of the kids would rather snuggle up on the couch with Steve to watch tv than to sit with me. I always say "What am I, chopped liver?" Now, this doesn't upset me - I'm not really offended - it is funny. The other night, however - now that's another story! Steve was out at a meeting and I was giving the kids dinner. It seems that anytime Steve is not home for dinner, the kids (Emmalee and Micah, that is) act like absolute wackos. They giggle and goof off and torment each other, and take forever to eat. So they were doing this the other night and I was going insane. They had each already lost dessert. I was about to resort to sending them both to bed without finishing dinner when Steve walked in. Emmalee promptly finished her dinner and went to the other room. I was spoon-feeding Micah because he WOULD NOT finish on his own. Steve fixed his plate and sat at the table with us. And I started complaining. "They always misbehave when you're not here at dinner-time. They act like completely different crazy kids!" Micah swallowed his food, looks at me with his big brown eyes, and in his sweet little voice says "That's because we just don't like you." Steve and I were both floored and had to fight to keep from laughing. Steve told Micah that wasn't very nice, and he made Micah apologize. We could NOT believe he said that!

So, to get back at them, we made them put the ornaments on our tree. Huh? Let me explain. Our neighbor knows this woman who's husband planted a field of Christmas trees years and years and years ago. Well, he died a couple of years ago, and she does not want the trees. So she told our neighbor that he could come cut down a tree for just $10, and she gives the money to charity. She's been doing this for a year or so. So our neighbor told us, and we decided to go get a tree there instead of paying $30+ for a tree this year. And we like the idea of the money going to charity. So we bundled up on Saturday and went to this woman's house. We should have immediately turned around and gone to a real tree place. It was slim pickings, and most of the trees were too big or too small (think Charlie Brown). I wouldn't have minded a small cute Charlie Brown tree, but Steve did not want one. So he found one that didn't look too horrible (in relation to the others) and cut it down. After taking several inches off the bottom , it looked pretty decent. Until we got it home and in the stand. Really, it's ugly. AND - the pine needles are SO sharp. They really hurt. As we decorated yesterday, I wished we were videotaping - both Micah and Emmalee were crying as we made them put the ornaments on because every time they touched the tree it hurt them! Emmalee put gloves on, but Micah wanted nothing to do with it, and Steve ended up putting most of the ornaments on. On the bright side, Lily has not gotten too close to the tree and taken any ornaments off! So - this will be remembered as being the year of the ugly, ouchy tree! And I think we'll spend the extra $20 next year to get a nicer one...

Clean Santa??

My kids believe in Santa. I have no problem with that - it is fun. And at this time of year, I can hold the whole "Santa knows if you're good or bad and will bring you gifts accordingly, so SHAPE UP!" thing over their heads when they are getting on my nerves. Will I insist that Santa is real if they have doubts? No. As far as I'm concerned, for as long as they want to believe, if Santa is real *to them*, then they can believe for as long as they want. It is all a part of the magic of Christmas. And it is fun to send letters to the North Pole and leave out cookies and milk and carrots and see the amazement on their face on Christmas morning when they discover they have been eaten. Which brings me to the second part of this blog...
Recently, our (former) babysitter, a 6th grade girl who rides Emmalee's bus and comes over on Wednesday afternoons to watch Lily and Micah until Steve gets home from work while I bring Em to dance lessons, told Emmalee and her friend Quinn that Santa (and the tooth fairy) is not real. Em said that Julia told them it is just their parents, and they wait till the kids are asleep and then put all the gifts under the tree. As Emmalee was telling me this, I was thinking combinations of "That little brat!" and "How am I going to keep Em from ruining it for Micah and Lily?"
Then, Emmalee said to me,"But I told Julia she's wrong, Santa IS real."
"Oh?" I said, "And how do you know that?"
Emmalee answered, matter of factly, "Because Santa always leaves cookie crumbs and you would NEVER leave crumbs."

Now I better go sweep...

Free Preschool!

Bloomfield, CT has built a new school, called Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School. It is primarily a preschool, and within the next couple of years will also include Kindergarten. My friend, Sandy, told me about this new school, and said that they would be holding a lottery to get kids from surrounding towns to go to this school in Bloomfield for free! Steve and I looked into the school; it is a brand new facility with a great curriculum, and we liked the free part too. So we signed Micah up to be put in the lottery. Yesterday, we received a thick envelope from the school, with the great news that Micah had been chosen! We are SO thankful that he has been given this opportunity, and that we will not be paying the $3k+ for him to go to preschool next year! He will go every day, from 8:40am-2:40pm. We will be attending an information session next week to learn more about the school. If you want to take a look at the website, here is the link: www.wintonburymagnet.org

What a Week!

We are finally back and recovered from our holiday travels! Another thing to be thankful for - travelling safety!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Steve and Micah drove down to Delaware to Steve's brother Jeff's house to attend his cousin Bud's wedding. Steve brought Micah with him for travelling companionship, and because his other brother, Pete, and his wife Rachael and 2 sons Bryson (7) and Riley (4) were going to be there as well, and Micah would have fun playing with them. Well, considering that all of us were going to be BACK down in Delaware for Thanksgiving, Pete & Rachael and Steve's parents all decided to just stay down there for the week. And Micah stayed there with them. I was concerned that, when it came down to Steve leaving to drive back here last Sunday, Micah would decide he wanted to come home after all. Silly me - there he was surrounded by cousins - he stayed! And according to him, he didn't miss us one bit! Rachael shared a funny story with me about Micah while he was down there. Apparently, he decided he needed some privacy while he went to the bathroom, so he locked the door. And then, of course, he needed some help, and Rachael could not get in, and he would not get off the toilet to unlock the door, so she finally found a screwdriver and got the door unlocked and he said "I wish my dad was here - he would have gotten in much faster than you did" Funny kid.

So, after Emmalee got out of school on Tuesday, Steve and I and Em and Lily packed into the car and drove to Jeff's house. What should have been a 4 1/2 hour drive turned into about a 6 hour drive due to traffic near the George Washington Bridge. And of course we had to stop at McDonald's for dinner. Lily is not a very good traveller - she was yelling "OUT" 45 minutes into our drive! As an aside, the McDonald's we stopped at in Danbury, CT was probably the nicest one I have ever been into. There was a fireplace in the middle, with booths on either side (think Panera or Starbucks) for fireside dining (which we did), and the booths lining the walls all had individual flat screen tvs on the walls! The food still tasted the same though... :-)

So we finally get to Jeff's and of course there is the whole family there, so the kids were all very excited to see each other. Emmalee LOVES hanging out with her "big girl cousins" - Jeff's daughters Heather (22), Tabitha (19), Kaitlyn (16) & Chelsea(14), and trying on their clothes and looking at their shoes and purses!

Wednesday was spent preparing for the meal! Caroline, Rachael & I had some last minute items to pick up at the grocery store (Super Walmart). I decided I was going to make chocolate cream pies. I've never made them before, but there was a recipe on the chocolate pudding box, so I went with it. I didn't want to use a graham cracker crust, though, so I bought pre-made real crusts (to avoid having to roll dough with a bottle, although I am sure Caroline has a rolling pin!) Steve's grandmother was down also, and she is an amazing cook, so we were sure our meal would be just perfect! That night I whipped up the chocolate pudding, poured it into the ready-made crusts, threw them into the refrigerator - easy as... well... pie.

Thursday morning the turkeys were cooked, the side dishes prepared, I mashed potatoes for the first time ever, and we were good to go for dinner at about 2pm. Steve's Uncle Mike and Aunt Irene and their sons Jamie and Justin came over also. That put every living person in the Richards family in one place all at the same time! And can you believe we did not get a picture to document that!?! What were we thinking?? The meal was delicious, food was in abundance! We stuffed ourselves and retired to various places in the house to relax. An hour or so later, the pies came out. There were 10 pies - 3 pumpkin, 2 apple, 2 peanut butter, 1 pecan, and my 2 chocolate cream. I wasn't hungry for dessert, so did not go out to the kitchen. When I did finally decide to dig into some pie, I noticed my pies were not on the counter. I was just about to ask, when Rachael pulled me aside and said something along the lines of "I didn't want to say anything out loud and make a big deal about it and hurt your feelings, but we left your pies in the refrigerator, because - the crusts are not cooked." You know - when I was preparing those pies the night before, I had thought that it all seemed too easy. DUH - I did not cook the crusts - I poured the pudding into RAW crusts! I thought if they were pre-made, they must have been ready to go! Now, my feelings were not at all hurt- I thought it was hilarious and SO typical of me! And it was an easy fix - I scooped out the pudding, cooked the crusts, replaced the pudding, and they were delicious!

Now for the exciting part of the evening - Jeff & Caroline, Pete & Rachael, and Steve & I all bundled ourselves up and drove to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to attend the Eagles football game! Rachael had gotten 2 free tickets from her work, and at the last minute, the rest of us decided we wanted to go to the game too, so we found (actually Tabitha found them) 4 tickets on Craigslist for a great price, and off we went. And we had really good seats. Now, I am not a football fan AT ALL, and the Eagles stink this year (I only know that because Steve is a die-hard fan), but it was a fun time. Any sport live is fun. And I discovered Stewart Bradley, #55, middle line-backer for the Eagles - take a look at his picture and you'll become a fan too!

Anyway, we got back from the game around 1am, and then Rachael and I were up at 4:30am to get to the doorbuster deals at Walmart for 5am! Walmart was a madhouse. It was not even fun, or really even worth it to be there that early, in my opinion. There were SO many people, you could not even maneuver a cart around the store. I didn't really find anything that I had gone for, except for some of the $2 and $4 dvds! We then hit Toys R Us and TJ Maxx and were home by 11am! I promptly went to bed!

The rest of Friday was pretty low-key, aside from Micah nearly getting his finger chopped off in the bathroom door. Of course, if someone was going to get hurt, it was going to be Micah. And when Micah gets hurt, it's not a minor thing! I exaggerated a little - he didn't really get his finger nearly chopped off, but it did get shut in the door, and scraped a big chunk of skin off it, and he cried like crazy. For a little while, Steve thought it might be broken, and the fingernail was all black and blue and we thought for sure he was going to lose it, but today the black and blue is gone and it seems to be healing up just fine!

We left Saturday morning, and again, the drive took a little over 6 hours due to an accident on the New Jersey Tpke, which closed all the lanes, and we had to find an alternate route, and then there was traffic on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Again, Lily was a punk in the car. We couldn't figure out why she was continuosly whining and NOT falling asleep. Well, about 5 minutes over the bridge, she started vomiting. And it just kept coming. She was absolutely covered, and there was nowhere to pull over. I mean, we could have pulled over on the shoulder, but we needed a place with water, so that we could clean her up, and there were no rest stops or exits with facilities! Windows were down, Micah and Emmalee were holding their noses, Lily was covered in chunks and screaming, and COLD, and I was praying there would not be a chain reaction with the other kids! We finally get off an exit that had a burger king, and by this time, Lily has fallen asleep. So I had to wake her, dig out clean clothes, and take her to the bathroom. I stripped her and bathed her in the sink (which got stopped up from the chunks! Oops!) while Steve took care of the car seat. Thankfully, we had an extra car seat in the car - Steve had left Micah's seat from Steve's car in Delaware when he was there the weekend before, and we didn't think to take out Micah's seat that stays in my car, so we had the extra, and were able to put Lily in that one for the rest of the ride home. Which she thankfully slept for. Of course, the car still reeked of sour milk vomit, but at least she didn't have to sit in it!

We spent all day Sunday in our PJ's, lounging around the house. Everyone has a bit of a cold, so we didn't go to church. I had to work last night, and now it is Monday morning and we are back on schedule! Whew! What a week!