Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Happenings


What Child is This?
Yesterday, the kids and I stopped by Ben's work for a surprise lunch. Sy - you know, my three-year-old that's scared of talking to anybody and generally handles this fear by screaming at them things like, "I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU!" - out of the blue asked if we could go find some people to talk to. As he and Ben set off in search of people Sy could socialize with, I stayed behind to feed Taly. When I went to catch up with them, I found Sy laughing his head off in the stairway in a tickle fight with a man that he's met like twice. Then, he said, "Come on, let's find more people I can tickle!!"

We've Arrived
Last night was our "Christmas Eve" as today is our family Christmas celebration before we leave town to see family. I realized that we have finally arrived into ParentLand. At ten o'clock at night we opened the box for the play kitchen we bought the kids, only to discover that the reason we got such a good deal on it was because the toy company saved a lot of money by not only leaving the assembly to us, but also requiring that we cut each plastic piece out of sheets of plastic.

This toy represents everything I have been against this year - it's a piece of made-in-China crap, I'm sure full of all sorts of toxins. It is not simple. It is not home made. It is not beautiful. Actually, it may as well be homemade after we spent 2 hours assembling it. And Simon loves it.

Lucky Girl
My presents were wonderful and thoughtful - a new camera, a Bible to replace the one I lost months ago, and my favorite - a family membership to Boonshoft Museum of Discovery so I don't have to spend any more stir-crazy days cooped up in the house. I plan to take full advantage of this gift, so if anyone wants to join me there to let the kids make a mess we don't have to clean up, just let me know!

And I have to go enjoy another present - free time! Ben took the kids to the store so I could rest or shower or blog or watch tv or read the owner's manual for my camera... so many choices - what to do?! A spoiled mother's work is never done.

So, here are some pictures from Christmas #1. We're psyched and ready for Christmases #2 and #3! 'Tis the Season!




2 comments:

p dub said...

Our boy got that same kitchen from his grandparents on Saturday, and I had the exact same reaction when I pulled out all those sheets of plastic pieces. I got about a half hour into the construction when I realized that a whole sheet of pieces was missing and part of the frame was buckled. So I put it all back in the box, and it's going back to the store today. I think we may exchange it for a different model. Props to Ben for seeing the whole thing through.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas! The photos of putting the kitchen together are great.

We've got the IKEA easel over here too, I love the dry erase side since I don't have to go through reams of paper to indulge in art (and dry erase marker comes off of walls/floors/clothes really easily...)