year in review

2008 was certainly great. I can't wait to see what new adventures 2009 holds.

 

Happy New Year!

christmas by the numbers

Number of family members sleeping at the Slacker Hotel: 5
Number of family members stopping in for a visit: 4
Number of friends just passing through: 10

Number of hours I spent putting that damn kitchen together: 3
Number of seconds John spent helping: 12

Number of presents wrapped: 16
Number of times I patted myself on the back for perpetuating the "Santa doesn't wrap" tradition: 8

Number of times we forgot to move the Elf on the Shelf: 6
Number of times the girls noticed: 5

Number of calories consumed during Gluttony Week 2008: infinity
Number of pounds gained: 2 (at least)

Number of days the Slacker Family Christmas tree was up: 22
Number of days the Slacker Family Christmas tree was totally dead and shedding needles if you even thought about touching it: 20
Number of needles left in the Slacker house immediately after tree removal: 10,000,000
Number of needles remaining after several passes with the vacuum: 100,000

Number of days until Christmas 2009: 360 (I can't wait!)

in a nutshell

We had a fantastic Christmas filled with family and friends. We're (somewhat) back to reality today ... John and I are working, the girls are at school and the Christmas tree (which died sometime around December 18) is already on it's way to the local landfill.

More to come once we recover but we hope your holidays were as half as merry as ours!

Click to Enlarge 

while visions of blog posts dance in my head...

The Slackers have been busy busy busy in the days leading up to Christmas. We've had John's family come into town, my sister come into town, a good friend's Christening, some shopping, a set of much needed haircuts, and I'm working today to boot!

So, continuing our theme song this Christmas...I present to you a really cool a capella version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. This actually reminds me a lot of how it goes down in our house.

flashback

On Friday, the girls danced like they never danced before to the sounds of a rocking band. (Well, as rocking as a Mariachi band can get.)

 

 

On Saturday, they spent a good deal of the day flirting with a cute boy.

 

 

This in a nutshell sums up how I spent the '90s. Except they have better dance moves and were much more successful in the flirting department.

the slacker family and the festival of lights

Last night the Slackers returned home from our day out at work or school...and then got back in the car to drive around in the cold, rainy night. And what prompted us to do so? Well, we wanted to head to the Bull Run Festival of Lights, and since the days between now and Christmas are dwindling, we took it upon ourselves to hit them up mid-week.

The lights were pretty cool. They have a lot of lights that go over the road, like toy soilders shooting off cannons and gingerbread men doing cartwheels. They also had little themes going on, including The Twelve Days of Christmas. There was also a Wizard of Oz part, too. But, because my girls have never seen the Wizard of Oz, when they saw the Emerald City they immediately starting shouting things like "Princess!" "Cinderella!" and "Castle!"

As we got closer to the display, we all noticed that there was a witch flying around the top of the castle. Upon seeing the witch, E yelled,

"There's a witch at the castle. I'm going to spit and poop at it!"

And that, my friends, is why parenting is a tough job. Because trying to tell your kid that "We do not say that we are going to poop at someone" with a straight face is damn near impossible.

the things they asked for

As I mentioned yesterday, we are pretty much done with Christmas shopping for the girls. This was the first year that E had definitive opinions on what she wanted...in the years past we were able to influence what she wanted Santa to bring her. Her two big requests this year were a Princess tent ("like the one at Nonna and Pop-pop's") and a baton ("like the baton cheerleaders at the Orange Birginya"). Santa will be bringing both of these items to her.

There have been some bizarre requests from both girls that will not make the sleigh come Christmas Eve. For E, this means she will not be getting a new car seat. Apparently, despite the fact that she has never really ridden in anyone else's car, she has learned that some kids her age get to ride in booster seats, while she's strapped into her barco-lounger Britax Marathon. While we will be getting her a new seat for John's car as she's nearing the upper weight limit...Santa certainly won't be bringing next week.

And then there's A. For those of you that don't know, at 2+ years A still sleeps in a crib. The big-girl bed is one of those milestones that I'd rather not rush, and let's face it...we have enough sleep issues with that child contained. But I know that she loves E's bed and our crib days are numbered. So, imagine my surprise when the girls were poring over the latest PB Kids catalog and A said, "I want that!"Hopefully, she won't channel her disappointment from not gettng a new crib come Christmas day into a sleep strike.

divide and conquer

This weekend, John and I employed two techniques that make parenting much, much easier. On Friday, we did a little Divide and Conquer. A and I had some girl bonding on the homefront. I picked her up from school and she got to choose dinner. We went to McDonald's, where we had Happy Meals and she wowed me with her Playplace climbing abilities. We then spent the majority time hanging out around the house.

John picked E up from school and headed up to Wilmington to see John's Aunt Kathleen and then head on to Philly for the Temple vs. Tennessee game. They met up with John's friend, Jason and his son, Ben. Good times were had. E wore A's cheerleader uniform...which was definitely too short, but she didn't care. John gets bonus points for putting the orange bow I packed for E in.


And here are the little cuties from when they were almost 1 year old.

On Saturday, we all met back up at my parents house where we employed preferred parenting method #2: leaving them in the care of others. John and I headed into Arlington for our friends' annual Christmas party. We had dinner at Faccia Luna prior to going over which was delish as usual. The party was tons of fun, and was great to see everyone.

On Sunday, we stayed over at my parents' house most of the day, and then headed back in the evening. We had dinner at the Chili's that just opened up near us. The girls actually did great -- they ate tons and were well-behaved. The only issue is that both of them wanted to sit by me...so I was squished in the booth with the two of them while John got an entire side to himself.

In other news, we are pretty much done with Christmas shopping for the girls. We've got to get some stocking stuffers and one more thing for A...but otherwise we are done! Now all that's left is putting together the kitchen that they are getting. How much do you want to bet that we wait until the wee hours of Christmas Eve to accomplish that task?

in cahoots

I've often suspected that A and E meet in the dark of night in order to figure out ways to drive their parents insane. Their top strategy to this effect is to play good cop/bad cop. This is where one of them acts relatively normal, while the other goes through some ridiculous phase that...well...drives John and me crazy.

For the past two years month or so, bedtime has been a touchy subject with A. In addition to getting those #&^@&#*&$#* molars, she's been going through a somewhat clingy-for-mama phase. This has translated into a night-time routine that has (more often than not) required me going *back* into her room at least one more time after we've said night-night.

Last night, I tried a new approach with A. We all read stories and sang songs in her room...but after E went into her room to play with all of her toys one last time climb into bed, A and I had a little talk.

Me: A, are you a big girl?
A: Yes.
Me: Well, big girls go to sleep without crying. I'm going to put you in your crib, sing you one last song and then you'll go night-night without crying. And you know what happens to big girls who don't cry?
A: What?
Me: They get a sticker in the morning! Are you going to go night-night without crying so you can get a sticker in the morning?
A: YES!

I put her in the crib, sang her a song, reminded her of the stickers...and off I went without a peep. I'm not going to lie...I was feeling like a bad-ass for pulling that off. And kicking myself for not trying it sooner. I went into E's room, tucked her in and sang her not one, but two, songs. I gave her a kiss, wished her sweet dreams, turned on her music and walked out of the room.

As soon as I closed the door, E went started screaming bloody murder and crying for one more song. So I had to go *back* into her room, tell her that big girls go to bed without crying, threaten that Christopher (that good-for-nothing elf) would tell Santa about her antics and promise a sticker for her in the morning as well before she would calm down.

So, when I finally got downstairs with both of the girls fast asleep in their rooms it hit me...it wasn't the promise of stickers that got A to sleep. It was just E's turn to drive me insane.

what a card

So the Slacker Family Christmas card has been ordered. Another To-do checked off my list. Now, all I have to do is stalk the mailbox for the cards; stuff, address and stamp the cards; and get them mailed so they arrive before Christmas. Wow...when put that way, it doesn't appear that I'm in the home stretch on this one.

I thought it would be cute to go back and look at the cards of Christmas past. So here it goes!

2004

I loved this picture of E because she is smiling so big. It such a beautiful (despite being gummy and toothless) that you overlook the fact that it looks like she has no hair. Rest assured, she had a head full of black(!?!?!?) locks.

2005

This was the first snow of the season, and E was *psyched* to go play. I bundled her up in her winter clothes and out we went. I was able to get this shot because she didn't know how to walk in her snow boots yet...otherwise she would have been running at me! Just like in 2004, we were anti-hair for the card.

2006

I'm not going to lie...we actually didn't send out a Christmas card this year. With a newborn who really didn't sleep, a wild and crazy 2-year-old and an even crazier mama (aka, me), I never got around to sending one. But, this was the shot I planned on using. Isn't it funny how much curly, blond A *also* had black hair in the beginning?

2007

Last year, I built a shrine to the inventer of the collage Christmas card photo. I could not for the life of me get a decent picture of the girls together *and* smiling. So, I used a slightly dazed picture of the two of them on the front...and really cute individual pictures on the back.


 

2008

I tried to get a Christmas shot. I failed. So I settled for the best picture of the girls that I have ever taken in my life. It could have been worse.

a star is born

On Saturday, E and her classmates performed in a holiday show. It was held at a local church and each of the preschool classes got to perform one solo song and one song altogether. E was very excited about the whole thing, so much so that she even put her school uniform on minimal whining without an argument, despite (1) it being a Saturday, and (2) her having two beautiful Christmas outfits that she wanted to show her friends.

The show itself was really cute. E's class were barely audible above the pre-recorded music...but she did get all the hand gestures that went with her song. We took both our real camcorder and the camera for the event. However, the real camcorder only had about 30 seconds worth of batteries in it and promptly died. But we did get some footage from the camera. I won't subject you to it because it's really dark and grainy. But here are a few pics from the event.

Here's E all dressed up and ready to go!

A was not pleased with the waiting prior to the performance. Nothing that a few tic-tacs and some Mardi Gras beads couldn't overcome. That, and waving to all of her friends (aka, younger siblings) in audience. She knew more people than I did!

The Grand Finale. That's her waving with both arms, obiviously suffering from a massive case of stage fright.

The rest of the weekend was spent Christmas-ing up the house. We put up lights and a wreath outside.
We selected and put up the Christmas tree. We decorated the Christmas tree.

We even made (and ate) Rice Krispie Treat houses.

And to top off a fun-filled weekend, we put all the coats that had piled up in the Slacker coat pile on and ran around.


'Cause nothing says "Holidays" like sumo-wrestling your sister in oversized polar fleece!

photo opportunity

This morning, I got the girls dressed in their new winter outfits courtesey of Grandmom. E's is a cute printed t-shirt and skating skirt, with sparkly-farkly snowflakes, with matching tights...A's is a dress with coordinating tights. As soon as they put them on, they started twirling around the room singing their Princess song. I lovingly styled A's unruly mop hair into two piggles, and put E's bedhead into one piggle, with matching elastics. They looked picture perfect, which was the point as today was the day I was taking the Christmas Card picture.

Dun-dun-dun!

Round 1 ended after taking one picture of E making a weird smirky face, and A screaming "Pancake! Pancake! I want PAAAAAANCAAAAAAKE!"

Round 2, after breakfast, ended abruptly with A yelling "I go poop in the potty!"

Round 3 (it was a successful potty trip) ended with E, after I explained that I was trying to take their picture to send to all of our friends, asking

"Why don't you just color some pictures and send that instead?"

So, I might try again this afternoon. But after a day of school the kids definitly look a little ragged. Luckily I have an ace in the hole if I'm unsuccessful.

To cheer myself up, I Elfed the Slacker fam. They have all sorts of new dances available this year...and I actually giggled out loud at the Disco one. I think it's because pretty much every move shown in the video is in my dancing repitoire. Enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

can my true love bring me advil?

Last night, I was feeling a bit in the Christmas spirit. So, instead of singing the girls the old stand-bys during our bedtime routine, I decided to mix it up with a few Christmas carols. But, in my zeal for getting a little yuletide on the girls, I broke two cardinal rules of song selection.

1. Do not pick songs that you do not completely remember the lyrics.
   
2. Do not pick songs containing new and exciting vocabulary.

The result? The song took much, much, much longer than expected. A sampling of what went on.

Me: On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree...
E: Did Grandmom go to a pear tree to get the pears we ate at her house at Thanksgiving?

Me: On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Two Turtledoves...
E: Mama, what are turtleducks?

Me: On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Three French Horns ... uh, I mean French Hens

Me: On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Four Calling Birds...
E: What's a calling bird?
Me: Uh...a bird that goes "coo"?
A: Cawwing birds go "Coooooooo!" Cooooooooo! COOOOOOOOO! COOOOOOOOOO!

Me: On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Five Golden Rings!
E: I want a ring for Christmas, too!

Me: On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ...
E: You mean Santa?
Me: Excuse me?
E: Santa brings the presents.

Me: On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Nine Ladies Dancing...
E: I want to be a dancing lady!
A: COOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My true love also initially gave me six, seven and eight lords-a-leaping. Only when I started singing backwards that I was wrong each time. Luckily, thanks to Detective Google...if I decide to brave this song again I now know the real lyrics.

home for the holidays

Ever since John and I got married, we've alternated holidays. Thanksgiving with one family...Christmas with the other. Next year, switch 'em up! It has been very successful as it allows us to spend quality time with each of our families over the holiday, and since the holidays are known in advance, it allows everyone to plan accordingly.

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with John's family and will do Christmas with mine. Usually, I'm sad to miss our family's Thanksgiving -- it's a rowdy dinner with two other families that involves much wine, boisterous conversation, a few dirty jokes and people (namely, my mom) randomly breaking into song. In contrast our Christmases are much quieter (we see the T-giving crew on Christmas Eve for a more subdued gathering) with just my parents, my sister and Steve, and my family. Christmas is fun, mind you...but we've never played Thumper at the dinner table.

This year, however, I feel so blessed that things worked out the way they did. Since Kiki is due in early March, this will be her last trip to the East Coast for the forseeable future. I plan on going out after Cousin Slacker arrives (and possibly even before)...but my side of the family won't get together again in full until at least next summer...or (heaven forbid!) not until next Thanksgiving. So, this extended time of quality family time over the Christmas break will be just what the doctor ordered in order to get us through this upcoming absence.

As a family, we're all aware of the bittersweetness of this visit. There's a concerted effort to not get caught up in the hype of the holidays -- the adults drew names to cut down on Christmas shopping, my mom is stockpiling meals so that we aren't slaving away in the kitchen. There are no grand plans being made (other than a possible baby shower), and we're all just fine with that. A week or two hunkering down with my favorite people is all we need.

Last night, I had a bout of insomnia and, since I was up, called my sister to chat. We caught up on our respective Thanksgivings, I told her what her crazy nieces were up to and she gave me the low-down of gear she was acquiring. But the theme permeating the call was how excited we were to see each other in a few weeks.

For the girls, the countdown stands at 22 days. For me, I only have to wait 17.

back to life ... back to reality

Thanksgiving is over and so was the pure bliss of having a four-day vacation. The first time I was awoken this morning was in the 4 o'clock hour was by E, who claimed to be afraid of the Dora balloon that has been in her room for a month now. The second time I was awoken it was by A...who then went to the bathroom and puked.

Calgon...take me away!

We recovered after the early morning stumble -- E went off to school with minimal complaining, A remained puke-free and in good spirits for the rest of the day. Nonna watched A, allowing me to get some Christmas shopping work done. In the evening, we played, we ate dinner, and we hailed the arrival of Christopher, our Elf on the Shelf.

Then, things went terribly wrong. A decided that she could not possibly go to sleep without me singing to her. Attempts to leave the room, or send in a suitable alternative (aka, John) were met with blood-curdling screams. In the meantime, E was claiming to be afraid of everything in her room, including (but not limited to): her baby shoes on her bookcase, her UVA baseball cap and her ceiling fan.

Screw the Calgon...I need shots of something!

Hopefully our bedtime shenanigans are just a painful re-adjustment back to our normal routine...after shaking it up the last few days. Otherwise, we may never leave the house again.

gobble gobble

It's Thanksgiving morning and John and I are enjoying a cup of coffee (that may or may not be decaf) while the girls play with 30 year old matchbox cars and a creepy baby borrowed from Grandmom's best friend like it's their job. There might be some parade watching or there might be a turkey trot in our future. Whatever we feel like, we'll do...which is SO, SO nice.

Getting to today has been a rough ride this past week. I was super busy with work (think: 60 hours last week), A has been back to her nocturnal shenanigans and threw up within our of our departure from Chez Slacker yesterday. But we made the trip without any puking...and only two potty breaks. And now it's time to sit back and relax and think of all I'm grateful for.

• I'm grateful for my husband...who in addition to being an all-around great guy...really helped out this last week while I was trapped in work hell. He did outings! He cooked dinner! He made crafts! All without grumbling. He is truly and equal partner and I'm so happy he's mine.
  
• I'm thankful for my two beautiful daughters, who are generous with the kisses, hugs and I love yous. In the past year they have become best of friends, playing side-by-side for hoursminutes on end...which is both heart-warming and allows me to get dinner on the table without stepping on a child.
  
• I'm thankful for grandparents. Nonna, Pop-pop, Grandmom and Granddad are all an presence in our girls lives. As someone who lost all of my grandparents at such an early age, this thrills me to no end. And the fact that they provide free babysitting is always a bonus.
  
• I'm thankful for family. We don't get to see Kiki and Uncle Steve or John's brother and sister-in-law as much as we would like...but it's always good times when we do. And, now that the girls remember them between, it's even better.
  
• I'm thankful for friends. Since lives have inevitably gotten more complicated with jobs and kids and everything else, it's so great to see my friends when I can. And I'm grateful that I've made some new online friends through this blog, too!

Hope your turkey days are happy!

ding dong

A has been a little obsessed with the doorbell ever since Halloween. She insists on ringing it every time we come into the house...even if the door is open and everyone is already inside.

Really, it should be no suprise that this is how she spent a good half-hour today while the rest of the kids in the neighborhood ran around and played in the leaves.

Good times were had by all.

friday photo shoot

It had been a while since I've taken pictures of the girls. Since we had a relaxed morning where we ate breakfast and got a chance to play prior to school, I figured that I'd take a few.

The girls weren't too cooperative. At first they just ignored me.

Then A kept looking up and yelling "Don't take my picture, mommy!" before looking down and continuing to play.

Luckily, E was feeling a little bit of the camera love.

Hope you all have wonderful weekends!