Christmas 2010

Hurray! Everyone was healthy by Christmas Eve.  We had a great weekend.  It was nice to have a lot of time, there were a lot of people to see.

There was a lot of playing with new stuff and running around outside.  Milena hasn't liked winter weather from the beginning.  Hopefully she comes around, or I'll have a lot of pictures of her crying in the snow.  Maybe she'll see the light when she gets on skis.  

Holiday weekends are wonderful, but they can be so exhausting.  

Christmas is Coming, So Stop Puking Already.

Three or four years ago, Mike, Claire and I had a terrible flu that peaked in its awfulness right on Christmas morning.  It was the worst flu I've ever had, and the timing could not have been worse.  I think my brother is still angry we had to break tradition and wait to open gifts until later that night.  This year, Claire seems to have come down with a bug, though not anywhere near as terrible as the flu, and she just can't shake it.  Its so up and down. She'll be in the bathroom crying about how awful she feels, the stomach pains and nausea!  And then 20 minutes later she's jumping on the couch.  Last night, I would have bet some big money that she turned the corner.  This morning at 5AM, she was yelling for me from the bathroom floor.  I'm kind of over it, and I know she is too.  Hopefully she's back on her feet tomorrow.  

We have started to celebrate Christmas, though.  Claire and Milena both got their big gifts from us since we'll be out of town Christmas morning.  We're planning bringing most of their gifts with us, but that just wasn't possible for a few of them.  Claire "got" a piano.  Jim and Monnie let us long-term-borrow theirs (thanks!), and Claire loves it.  She and Mike played for a while last night, and then Milena got into it as well.

Milena got a train table.  She loves it, and I was kind of surprised that Claire was pretty into it as well.  At least she is now, when its new.

Three more days until Christmas, and nine left in the year.  

Snowing

I found some more pictures from the first snowfall.

These two pictures of Claire are fun.  I like to think she's trying to decide who to hit with her handful of snow.   Her father, who has definitely thrown his fair share of snowballs at Claire and deserves some retaliation,

or her unsuspecting, attention getting little sister, heh.  

But she must have been thinking something else, because no one ended up with a face full of snow.

We were hit with a big storm this weekend.  The girls and I were visiting my parents, and I made what was probably a bad decision that thankfully turned out fine: driving home right at the beginning of it all.  I figured I could beat most of the storm by leaving early, and if I stayed, I'd probably be there until Monday.  The trip started out fine, but quickly got bad, and then worse.  The slower I went, the longer I was out there, and the worse the roads got.  I believe in the end, it was probably a four hour drive that usually takes two.  It would have been fine if there were a plow or two out, but in the four hours I was on the highways, I only saw one, and it was on the other side of the highway.  On the positive side, the new Pilot handles really well in terrible conditions, and after logging all those hours behind the wheel, I am now at least twice as good at driving in the snow than I was a few days ago.  

Today I was more than happy to stay in the house, so although its beautiful outside with all the snow in the tree branches, I don't have any pictures.  Maybe tomorrow.

On to Christmas

This time of year I can not post for a few weeks and it seems like so much as happened.  Last time I posted was Halloween.  Thats like two holidays ago already.

Milena has started in on the pretend play.  She likes to feed her animals.  It was like she realized one day that you could pretend to feed the stuffed animals, that pretending was a thing.  A lightbulb went off, and she pretends all the time now.  Its really fun.

  

And she discovered painting on herself is also a thing you can do. There are many discoveries to make at this age.  

Claire got a fish, which she named Gordon.  He's a lovely, even-tempered beta fish.  She likes to feed him a lot.

Went to Green Bay.  Claire likes to hold Mason.  Mason still likes to sleep.  

The first snowfall happened between the last post and this one.  Milena was pretty excited about it, until I got her all dressed to go out and play in it.  Most of her winter gear is too big, and that kind of keeps her from moving around much.  But the major problem was that she didn't have boots that fit.  I figured a pair of Claire's old ones would be fine until we got around to getting her some that fit, but not two steps out the door and she crashed forehead first into the garage floor.  So the first experience was kind of a bust, but she has new boots now so next time will be better.  

I remember Claire at this age, figuring out what snow was.  Its kind of fun that next year Milena will probably see snow again for the first time.