Christmas Time Happy Times

Taking the Neglect-a-Saucer to a whole new level. 

Oy vey, my blogging skills are foggy - these are all out of order and I'm not fixing 'em. 

The tree shortly after Santa arrived. 

During presents, we must stop and play with everything.  Their rules, not ours.  I personally like Ben's necklace as he reads Fancy Nancy to Elliot, dying in the chair (and Santa was bamboozled by the pink chair, which is not heartily advertised as inflatable rather than plush...though Elliot does not mind one little bit.) 

 aftermath. 

Samantha emerging from the fun that is wrapping paper.  Then Elliot, Zoe and the Christmas tarantula joined her in the pile.  

Cousins slogging through Oyster (cracker) stew.  

And then for Boxing Day, it was on to Disney on Ice!  I felt a little bad, like I was leading my baby to an addiction when in preparation for the ice show, I had her watching OnDemand Clubhouse Disney in order to familiarize her with Mickey Mouse et al.  Nothing against Mickey, its just that we somehow forgot we had the Disney Channel, so wind up on PBS Sprout a bunch. Curious George rules our roost.  Well, ruled.  We were only able to squeeze in about 2-3 episodes, but that is all it took.  Now she is singing along and recognizing all the characters, and will soon be begging for a trip to Disney World.

We arrived plenty early for our first family trip to the Boston Garden.And when you pre-order the tickets from some Mayor Mumbles Menino holiday special, they don't exactly seat you up close.  No worries for us though, we weren't sure if we would have to leave early like the Mary Poppins sing along debacle. 
Yeah, we were like 6 rows from the top.   And there so early, we got to have a little private muchos nachos picnic in the stands.  This is before Samantha melted down, froze and caught her death of a fever cold during the performance, before I kicked the grandpa in front of me trying to catch Elliot from falling down the stairs (I apologized, but still go the glare), and the girl behind us tossed her $10 snow cone onto the woman next to me, who was incidentally wearing a waterproof coat and still gave that 4 year old the New England huff & glare (a stiffer version of the one I got).  

Never has the bottom of a Christmas tree been so lovely and adorned .  This is only 1 branch of course.  When you decorate with a 2 year old, they all look nicer closer together.  I was having flashbacks of my mom harping on me to space out the ornaments and to stop hanging them from the wires instead of the branches.

And before Christmas, it snowed.  A lot.  Not as much as you midwesterners got, so I am not complaining.  Elliot got a treat to crawl through our neighbor's ice castle.

We built our first snowman.  
Samantha's first snow.  She loved it.  She hated being suited up, but loved being outside.  Elliot was the complete opposite at this time last year.

Santa and the Good Day

We try to ask Elliot every night what was her favorite part of her day. She almost always says "Pizza!", even when its not Pizza Day, unless we prompt her with reminders. Last weekend was almost overwhelming with too many good options to choose from. So, I asked her, was it

getting to spend the entire day with cousin Zoe?
when we went to visit SANTA CLAUS and see all the decorations?!
when we ate lunch with the elephants at the Rainforest Cafe?!!
when we picked out our Christmas tree?!!!
when we decorated our Christmas tree and had hot cocoa in grown up cups?!!!!
Or when you swung on the flying trapeze in Zoe's living room studio and were adorned in jingly belts and scarves while world renowned belly dancers taught you to shimmy?!!!!

Don't ask where our camera was for all of these things, but believe you me. It happened. Any one of these would cause Elliot to be excited for days. And we promptly took the next weekend off. And will the next one, and the next one...




Cousin Zoe showed us the ways of the world in the Burlington Mall. And We went hog wild at the Rain Forest Cafe - even ordered a Volcano for dessert! One for each of us (j/k).


Howdy y'all! They put me in the neglect-a-saucer again. Maybe that's why this crawling thing continues to confound me. First, I was stuck under a stool in the kitchen and then under a chair in the dining room. Help!

I meant to be here. Really.

Samantha says Elliot

She says lots of things now:  "Daddy" was first.  Then "Hi".  Then "Elliot".  Then "Skyler" at school.  She clucks and blows raspberries on demand and back and forth.  But no, no Mommy - yet!

Its December Already?

I hope you all had as much fun at Thanksgiving as we did. A house full of people and lots of fun all around ... at least for us, but we did not have to travel 24 hours to get here. Its been a while since we last checked in here, and I am choosing to blog over doing the dishes tonight - I don't want to regret that in the morning, so someone should leave a comment as a reward for choosing the right thing.

Hi Samantha! I heard you just woke up upstairs. Why? Why? Why won't you sleep through the night? Is Daddy going to bring you to me before I can write all these captions? Oh, but you are just so cute and quite a snuggler, you are hard to resist.


Elliot, you can Flamenco dance like no other 2 year old I have ever seen. This dress is going to be making many appearances in the upcoming year. Ami & Papa brought it to you all the way from Spain with a matching one for Zoe. Look out talent show, here we come!


Candle Pin Bowling is a New England thing. And Seanie, you may have great form, but this was nothing like the regular bowling you are so used to and so good at. You played with great enthusiasm and showmanship!

Seanie, that does not look like a bowling ball, it looks like a skeeball. And, Alex, my my, are those Marc Jacobs fingerless gloves you are wearing? Ooh la la, you are quite the fashionista. And thanks to the Improper Bostonian for giving us the tip on the gloves. Our whole crew decked out in them for the weekend. And, bummer, mine got a hole the first time I wore them!

Elliot, you and Seanie keep score like nobody's business. No really it was nobody's business. You blacked out the whole page. Several of them in fact. Seanie, I like your audacity to go and ask the scowling counter-man to sharpen the pencil after you two tore through a deck of score sheets.

The documentarian in me posted this picture because its the only one I have that showcases the candle pins down the lane. The gooey mommy in me posted this picture because it is adorable to watch Ben teach Elliot to roll the ball like that.


Okay, so sue me. We all know that Elliot & Emily are only 5 months apart. (Happy Birthday Emily!!) - but I love to see them next to each other. For 2 year olds, Elliot is in like the 95-100th percentile in size and Emily is in the 5th, so to see these baby dolls together is adorable. Ellie's dress is size 4T, Emmy is in 12 mos...and not pictured here is Samantha, who is 9 mos, but got the 18 month dress...you following this? Why??


Grandma, how did you do it? All that adorable plaid fit in your carry-on? And all those cousins sat for their photo like that? Take that, Sears Portrait Studio!


Really? The turkey is still not done? And you won't let people in the kitchen? And you refuse to put out the boar sausage until the last guest arrives? What is with you people? Who is hosting this shindig?

Ooops! More Candle Pin Bowling. Alex was by far the natural amongst us. He bowled a great game with little effort and Samantha adored his entertaining.


Samantha! my little pookie bear, Daddy needs to lower your crib finally. You have never before attemped to pull yourself up - and look at you. I caught it on film right before you collapsed your are through the slat and your face down in the crib. You look like you are going to be trouble.


What happened? I was just going to read Elliot a story before bed and then Samantha was going to join her. But, what do I find? My adorable others sacked out on the couch waiting for my return. Silly sleepies slept through the whole photo-shoot. When did Sammy J get so big?


Yeah - we are THOSE parents. Everybody looks so cute in sports gear, we couldn't resist. Elliot's cheerleader outfit is a slap in the face to the tomboy look she usually sports, but she's just so darn good in it. And Samantha, Daddy veto'd 2 cheerleader outfits, so you look like a little smiley linebacker. Are you both really wearing matching Boston Red Sox Shoes? It's nice that mommy works with those nice folks at Reebok sometimes. BTW, Elliot is saying "Touchdown" and Sammy is laughing, of course.


Samantha, I have to say you rock those black checkered pants better than Elliot ever did. I declare them yours. Its funny how some of the hand-me-downs seem like she is wearing Elliot's old stuff and others seem like they were meant to be hers all along. And, yes, Samantha is a waving bandit now. And she is waving to you from the comfort of her new big-girl waterbed. Its all the rage for babies to sleep in the natural womb-environment. Well, it might be, but really she is just playing around in the baby pit at the Boston Children's Museum.


How on earth did you fit 17 people for dinner you wondered? Well, there you go. Quite quaintly they say. And those place cards are divine! Thanks to the turkey crew who made them!


And when Chris said to kiss the turkey, I immediately obliged. Then they told me I missed ... and was supposed to kiss the tall turkey next to me. Har har. I did that too.

Bag of Fun

Catching Up

Some old some new, no real theme to this entry.

Samantha bath time fun continues.

Sammy with her class mates lining up for the costume parade. What a happy bunch!


Our little buzzy bee leads the pack in the baby buggy.


Pumpkin Carving is fun because they get to sit on the table.


The wet eyelid on the pumpkin is from Samantha kissing it.


Elliot helps Sam get dressed.

And then, who took away their candy? Check out these faces. Note to self: Girls in matching black shirts make for excellent posed pictures...if only someone would pose and someone else could take good pictures ...


Above is a few weeks old when Charlie was visiting.
Below is Elliot, ready to climb in the great fall weekend weather.


Elliot climbs heart attack hill. Heart attack because, she is only 2 after all, and she likes ladders, a lot. Thus far she has proven to be more agile than our cat (which is not saying much).

Finally, this is a long video (almost a minute) of Elliot singing her entire Take Me Out to the Ballgame. She sometimes gets stuck, like a broken record, and needs a boost out of the rut, but usually, she cruises right through! Root Root Root for the ... sorry, but apparently, she is a New Englander after all.