My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

I try not to let Jimmy watch any TV, but every once in a while he finds a way to sneak under the radar.

Or under the table. 

Four out of the five of us are currently battling a cold. 

Susie is the lone hold-out, and I’m doing my best to keep her separate from the rest of us. 

I don’t think it’s working.  Of all the times for the girls to get cuddly!

Okay.  I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit.  The kids have been into it as soon as they started spotting Christmas lights on neighboring houses (“girl” lights, according to Becky.  I think because they’re rainbow colored?).  They happily screech “CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the top of their lungs every time we pass a brightly-lit home, which startles me while I’m driving but also makes me chuckle. 

This is our first year with an artificial tree and I expected to have some regret about not taking the kids into the woods to cut down their very own tree (you can see our past adventures from 2010 and 2009)…but nope.  No regret here.  I’m so thankful I don’t have to worry about Jimmy trying to eat all the needles off the floor.  And because our freshly-cut trees of recent years never seemed to have that special Christmas smell anyway, I’m not even mourning its absence.  

So although our tree now lacks the homey, misshapen, prickly all-naturalness that characterized our past trees, it still warms my heart.  This was the first year that the girls truly helped to decorate it.  They took great pleasure in withdrawing each ornament from its tissue paper wrap, and even handled the delicate ones gently. 

They then hung them, often by themselves, on the “perfect spot” on the tree (Jimmy gave his silent approval).

I didn’t have the heart to point out that their “perfect spots” were all about eye-level for them, so we now have an ornament cluster about three feet off the ground.  The girls exclaimed over each ornament as they hung it up, bringing back wonderful memories of my sister and I doing the same thing when we were young.  I’m so glad my parents were willing to part with so many of my childhood ornaments, so I could pass on the memories to my kids! 

Like last year, the girls were especially fond of any ornament with moving parts, but I think the one that got the most ecstatic reaction was a miniature “Dunkin Donuts” cup! 

So whether our tree is prickly or plastic this Christmas season, some things never change.  In this family, we’re all about the food! 

Earlier this week, we experienced what was probably the last of the 60-degree weather for the year.  In honor of those last few moments of warmth, I treated the kids to ice cream at an outdoor stand.  As the girls happily dug into their sundaes (“choco-yat” for Susie, “banilla” for Becky), the cashier offered me a free tiny cone for Jimmy.  I gratefully accepted, figuring I’d just eat it up on his behalf.  But as I started licking away, Jimmy began to wiggle in my arms in an effort to reach the cone.  He kept straining toward that scoop and I was worried I was going to drop him or the ice cream.  I didn’t really want to lose either one of them, so I brought the cone to his lips and told him to go for it.  He opened his mouth, pressed his lips into the scoop and then drew back slightly, startled at the taste and temperature.  But it only took a second before he leaned in for another bite.  And another.  And another.   

He only has six teeth, but he already has a sweet tooth! 

I just can’t get enough of the pictures of the girls with their little cousins.  They just make me happy.  I hope they do the same for you!

(Nothing says cousin-love like eating off each other’s Thanksgiving plates!)