Holiday Finest

// 12.26.06 // 4 Comments » // My Daughter, My Son, Parenting, Thriving

Christmas Eve

We had four days of traveling and bacchanalian celebrations, and I am now home, feeling bloated and spent. Here are the cliff notes:

1. We exchanged wonderful gifts. C’s high score went to Sing & Spin Pablo, while L was psyched to get more spy gear and the game Heroscape.
2. We enjoyed an Italian feast on Christmas Eve at my cousin’s house and I discovered a new cocktail: Navan vanilla cognac and Coke. Yum! I discovered this cocktail many times, taking my turn as the drunken fool of the family. There’s one every year.
3. I hadn’t been to my cousin’s Christmas Eve party for several years and I enjoyed seeing many relatives I had not seen in a long while. One had been serving in Iraq. Others had been in college or just living far away. The “kids” were now wearing makeup and accompanied by boyfriends/girlfriends. I felt really old, but in a good way. It was wonderful enjoying their company, joking and laughing.
4. We revived what I hope will become a new tradition with my children: the drive around town to check out the most outrageous displays of Christmas decorations. I remember doing this every year with my parents. C loved seeing all the lights and inflatables – no longer reserved to Santa, Frosty and Rudolph, everyone from Mickey Mouse to Scooby Doo now qualifies as Christmas decor.
5. Christmas Day was a smaller, more relaxed gathering. We watched a re-run of the 2004 National Spelling Bee with Superbowl-like fervor. L played PS2 (oh, finally, something that’s NOT boooorrrring) with PHAT Daddy and my cousins. And we ate some more. My aunts made an awesome ham and all my favorite sides: mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, sweet gravy and rolls.
6. Then it started to snow! Big fluffy flakes that floated down and lingered on your coat and hair. It was just a dusting, but so beautiful on Christmas night.
7. The only low point was the fact that my grandmother went into the hospital with pneumonia. I missed seeing her this year.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Toys With Longevity

// 12.22.06 // 12 Comments » // Parenting

My son pulled out some old-ish toys this evening and got me thinking about how some toys have so much longevity. Kids can use them in different ways as they grow, and they can all be educational. So if you have some last-minute shopping to do, here are my recommendations:

1. Cash register
2. Play kitchen or play food
3. Art supplies
4. Doctor’s kit
5. Classic board games, such as chess, checkers, backgammon, pachesi
6. Yahtzee!
7. Blocks of any kind
8. Action figures, animals, dolls, or anything that can be categorized as “playing with the guys”

How about you? What toys do your kids come back to again and again?

Snot, but Not Stitches

// 12.22.06 // 3 Comments » // My Daughter, Thriving

Amalah over at Mom’s Daily Dose was talking about all the snot that’s going around this time of year. I left a comment on her post and then thought it might be a nice update for my own blog.

My daughter has a cold of the thick yellow snot gooped around her nostrils type, accompanied by coughing until she gags. I woke up yesterday feeling like a truck hit me head-on. THEN my husband smacked his head on the sharp edge of the molding in a doorway and put a gash in his forehead that needed to be surgically glued. Luckily, no stitches. Yeah, Merry Christmas.