Doug is back at work today. We had a very nice week and a half with him home. The girls were so happy to spend so much time with their daddy. I know I neglected you during that time. I’m sure you understand, though. So here is my rather delayed Christmas post.
We started the morning with present opening at home in the PJs. First we gave the girls their stockings, and they had tons o’ fun!
Kyla reached into her stocking to get some of the goodies out.
Christmas post to come; in the meantime, here are some cute shots of the girls in my jackets.
Last month Doug and I bought ourselves an early Christmas present ~ tickets to see Star Wars in Concert. It was really quite wonderful. We got there early and waited in a VERY large group of fans, anticipating the musical event. There were a lot of children accompanying their parents, many of whom were dressed in costume. It was very adorable. I wanted to get pictures of them, but didn’t want to freak out any parents, so I only got a picture of this one:
Eventually we were allowed in. The concert was taking place in the Izod Center ~ a stadium in the Meadowlands which is also where Giants Stadium is. When we entered we were in the outer ring around the stadium, where the concessions, souvenirs, restrooms and such are located. While walking around we saw one little girl I just had to have a picture of; isn’t she cute? She is on her Daddy’s shoulders, if you are trying to figure out why she is so tall.
I come from a very large Italian family. My mother is the oldest of 11 children. Five of those children and their families live in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The rest are in Florida, Kansas, California, and Japan (my parents travel a lot due to my mom’s job). My brother and his family are in Michigan. I am here, alone, in New Jersey. I get to Massachusetts a few times a year. The holidays always make me miss my family more. This is a happy post, I promise!
You see, my friends, I received a box from my grandparents at the beginning of the week. I didn’t open it right away; I figured it was wrapped presents for Christmas. Then on Wednesday something made me open the box. This is what I found inside.
I’ve notice my last few posts have been woefully lacking in snaps of cute little girls. I also seem to have missed sharing Thanksgiving with you. So let me remedy both of those now with a (rather late) Thanksgiving post.
It was the smallest Thanksgiving I have been to in many years. Doug, the girls and I went over to Doug’s mothers. It was us, Doug’s mother, stepfather, grandmother, uncle Tom, older brother David and younger brother Tim. His sister Alyson was not there, but she lives a few states away and had just been up the week before and is coming up again for Christmas.
Once we got there, the girls felt right at home. Vada ran in circles around the house, Christmas toys popped around her wrist for a ride.
Kyla was up to her latest game, pretending to be a cat. Isn’t she a cute little kitty? She even meows and likes to have her head scratched. It’s very amusing. The best is when she crawls up to her sister and meows, and then Vada pets her head. So cute!
So let me tell you a story. A while back there was this incredibly talented woman named Vada. She was an artist of every sort. Her main creations were jewelry, but she was amazing at everything. In her youth she even danced with Martha Graham. She was quite beautiful, too. She met a wonderful man named Alexander, and they married. They had a son, Christopher, but when his son was only 2 weeks old, Alex was killed by a drunk driver. Eventually, Vada married again, and had two more sons. She had always wanted a little girl, but it wasn’t in the cards for her. Unfortunately, this marriage did not last. Even worse, her youngest son was also killed by a drunk driver when he was just a teenager. Through all of this Vada keep creating her art. I imagine it is what kept her going. Eventually her sons grew up and moved away.
By popular demand – here is the recipe I use to make Chai tea. I found a few recipes on the internet, and tweaked them to come up with one I love.
This week we have had guests every morning! My dear friend Jenn has dropped her girls Katrina (almost 5) and Dot (almost 4) off for a few hours each morning so she can get some things done. The girls have had tons of fun together. However, my girls are a little rougher/crazier then Jenn’s. They play monster and chase Dot and Katrina. On Monday morning, Katrina decided to build a fort to protect her little sister from the monsters. At first there were just 3 pillows, and Kyla was not fooled!
So Katrina started adding more pillows.
My sister-in-law’s little girl just turned one. There was a birthday party for her on the 14th at my mother-in-law’s house. There were quite a few people Doug and I didn’t know – we are guessing they were Madison’s father’s family. No one introduced anyone, so I still don’t even know their names. It always seems odd to me that my husband’s family never bothers to introduce people. Anyway, there were some new toys at Nana’s house to play with.
Kyla fell in love with this toy cat that moved and purred. I thought it was a bit freaky, but Kyla was happy!
In an attempt to save some money, and satisfy my creative side, I have lots of homemade happenings for that day a week before the New Year; the day of the Big Round Guy. For now it is mostly jar gifts. This was my table a few weeks ago making 72 cups of banana bread mix.
Of course I didn’t have all the jars yet, so then I had to stash all that mix, and all the ingredients I had for other mixes, somewhere. Yeah for those new bookshelves!
