Christmas Collage

Elliot sporting her newly fitting Patriot's Sweatsito.

Sam making Christmas Egg strata and Ben making Christmas  Eve Lobsta Corn Chowda

Shepherd cousin and the flock at the church pageant.

And the stockings were laid on the presents with care.

And, just showing you, still pregnant ;-) 

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

The aftermath

Grandma, the first aid kit was a surprising hit, for not really being a toy,  and the girls have mostly burned through the bandaids already. 

New Doll house.  

Sam has decided the picture of grandma and grandpa is hers and she put it in the doll house on her own.  And then put her little ponies down for a nap!

I love that the Critters of Calico Corner bunnies are riding on the Tech Deck skateboards.

And then, the next day, it snowed about 18 inches here.  We all went outside.  I couldn't/wouldn't shovel,  but my primary job was to lift Sammy out of the snow every 2 steps she took, "I need help!  I can't get up!" 

This is our Christmas Card

Maybe there will even be some commentary or holiday letter posted here ... but for now this is our Christmas card.  And if you did not see it here, you won't see it anywhere else either, so don't go checking your mailboxes this year and feeling left out.  Everybody was.

Pregnant Me + 60s Style

Okay, so I was asked by the 3rd person this week to please send some photos of my belly.  Somehow, Mindy had a whole pregnancy without one tiny glimpse of her being pregnant, but I am caving in.  After all, this blog was started over 4 years ago (yeesh!) basically to chronicle my growing belly and morphed into so much more.  But now, who has time for the monthly photo.  You can scroll through the Disney post to see how pregnant I was in October.  These beauties were taken recently.  I am currently 31 weeks along (and don't remember how many weeks pregnancy is), though we are due on Feb 9th.  You know its funny, I have less knowledge about this pregnancy than the other 2.  People (doctors) keep brushing by things and saying, "well, its your 3rd, its old hat, you know whats up..."  when really, nothing could be further from the truth.  I've forgotten all the words and the things to watch out for, and to prepare for (like, oh yeah, we should probably find the car seat?) and worse, is I am not consulting any of the books.  I was waaaay more prepared for Elliot, and then with Sam, it was right away so I remembered most things and still consulted books...but now, ha!

So, here I am.  And, that is my husband Ben.  We went to a YPO Holiday party with a 60s theme/costume flare.  And I was way nervous after these get-ups that we would get there find out that by 60s they meant "Mad Men" 60s.  Oh, thank goodness they did not...

This last photo is with the girls when we went through our house for the last time once the movers came...I am sure I will get around to posting about that someday.  Enjoy!

Disneyland (October 2010)

 Switching to Santa Monica Pier with Noah, William, Benjamin, Samantha, Elliot & Adam

Copacabana Gone Horribly Wrong

There is no denying I am pregnant when I started crying listening to Copacabana today.  I chalked it up to hormones, but maybe it was something else.

Elliot & Sammy's Ami &Papa just came back from a trip to Brazil and brought the girls t-shirts that have sparkles that say Copacabana Rio De Janiero.  The girls like the sparkly bits.   I like the Copacabana bits.

Of course when they put them on this morning they asked me to sing the song again.  They remembered "Lola was a dancer with yellow feathers".

I remember very distinctly being about Elliot's age (??) at my Aunt Linda's house walking into my cousin Tami's room and singing every lyric to Copacabana.  She thought it was fantastic that I could sing it and made a really big deal out of it - so big that when she put me up to perform it in front of the family, I fell mute and refused to sing anything at all or even acknowledge that I had heard the song before.       Man those grown-ups would have loved my rendition of Copacabana, and I still regret not performing it at 4.  But, apparently my memory of this song is only for the fun parts.

I mean, her name was Lola, she was a show girl!   His name was Rico!  He taught the cha cha - they were young and they had each other, who could ask for more?  They were dance teachers at the Copa!  Awesome.  Just like Dirty Dancing!  I remembered there was some small bit about a fight, but it was AT THE COPA!  They fell in Love.  And we love to dance!  Elliot & Sam have been singing the bits we remembered for days.

This morning, I bribed the girls with iTunes:  after they were all ready for school, I'd buy the song and we could dance and learn all the words we have been making up.  Well, let's just say that we can now add "Tony" to the list with Uncle Stephen and Barbaro that makes Elliot melt down with uncontrollable sadness.  And let's just say that mommy should REALLY preview songs before getting our dance party on.

Rico was NOT a dancer.   He wore a diamond.  Tony was the BARTENDER.  Punches were thrown, chairs were thrown, there was a single gunshot.  But who shot who?  I think you know how this one ends. Lola lost her love, Tony, and is now an old drunk wearing her beat up dress sitting at the Copa disco 30 years later missing Tony.  And now, Elliot is crying her way to school about to tell her whole class about it - it is show and tell day after all and she is wearing the bloody Copa t-shirt to remind her.  Samantha is asking me if Tony punched Rico, and I have to find Lola's address today to send her the picture of Tony that Elliot made me draw (instructing me through tears).

And dammit, that song is still really a fun one to dance to, but I think we are going to have to shelve it for a while.  Curse you, Rico!!!

Editor's note:  Barry Manilow won the Grammy for Copacabana song of the year 1976...so I was only 3 when I remember singing it...thought maybe I had one of those time warps and facts would prove I was 8 or something.  

Head of the Charles

5 Years in Cambridge and this is the first time we made it to the big event.  It is a collegiate rowing competition.  Wow, did Sammy really love it!  She cheered all the boats and would only let us hang by the water's edge to see everything.  Oh, and she is dressing herself these days.  Which most days makes me cringe, but i happen to love her little hound dog look here.

Halloween and Spooky Toast!

Snow White and the "Magical" Madrigal Princess

Waiting to Trick or Treat

Cinderella and her friend Benjamin (who borrowed her giraffe from last year) at the school parade. 

Hello, I'm Cinderella.  At least that is what her necklace says when you press the button 100 gazillion times.

Blue Fairy and Cinderella at the school parade.  

Pumpkin Carving party at Kate & Jack's house.

Which actually turned into an adult competition, while the kids tormented the rest of the uber-decorated house.

Elliot's Veggie Pumpkin

Putting out pumpkins on all Hallows Eve.

Did you know there are many days of Halloween?  One would think I would have better pictures of it.  But the truth is, our house was struck by some kind of plague this week and we all seemed to recover in time for the 4 parties, and trick or treating, but we all really should have just been at home in bed for the past 4 days.  Each time, we would rally to go somewhere and I would think the plague had passed only for us to be driving home saying "that was a bad idea...we should not have gone out!"

Halloween started with my first office work kids trick or treating on Thursday.  Elliot was a blue fairy and Sam, Cinderella.  Then Friday, we had their school parade followed by a kid party at Ben's office.   Saturday we went to Kate's house for the pumpkin carving party, which we totally missed the boat on that we should have come in costume!  Duh.  The night before Halloween and we go to a party as ourselves?  Ooops, but we BYOpumpkins as instructed and voila!  At least we carved them in time.  FINALLY actual Halloween arrives.  And it is 40 degrees and blustery.  And the girls are sick of their costumes.  So we find costumes that can support layers underneath and that is how we had a Magical Princess and Snow White for the actual celebration.  And Samantha, frozen and coughing, croaks out: "More twick or tweeting!!  Go back out!!"  Elliot begged us to go off of our street (unheard of!) and to the coffee shop street, Springfield.  Its just around the corner from us and WOW! was it cool - all the houses were really decked out in scary (Modern Family) style - it even had a police detail working the traffic.  We had no idea it was right around the corner.  I mean, we see the decorations on our usual drive from Target, but who knew it was Halloween central?  We might have to come back next year from our new suburban location ... which we still haven't found.  Which is why all of my spare web time goes to house hunting and not blogging....  but alas, Happy November!