Star Wars

Legos, Jedi Starfighters, Books, Shirt, Action Figures, Movie, and on and on...This kid is so easy to please. I drew the line at a Nerf Machine Gun. Although, his birthday is coming up on Tuesday so here we go again. Nerf gun or no Nerf gun. I will surely regret it as he pops me in the eye-ball with foam pellets over and over. But, he's so cute, right????

Joe, the Baker

He was just in the mood for fresh cookies...

I came downstairs from putting the kids to bed to this...

They were pretty good! And, he was so proud of himself. Now he can just whip up a batch whenever he's in the mood.

Evening Disasters

Tried to do some things last night upstairs after dinner while the kids were playing around downstairs. I'm just at that stage where I think I can leave Kelly alone for a bit b/c Shelagh is usually all over her - playing with her, leading her around, taking care of her (She's like a little Mother Hen!). I ended up having to fly back downstairs at full speed when Kelly figured out the child locks on the sink cabinet (yes, she did) and managed to dump out a whole canister of Bon Ami (ie Comet) on the floor and herself before I heard Shelagh yell (Thank God).

While I was on the phone with Poison Control and simultaneously washing her hands and splashing water at her eyes (which was no easy feat), Rory spilled his plate with ketchup all over the rug. Seriously. Joe walked in just after I stripped Kelly down to onesie, had Rory pick up his potatoes and scoop up the ketchup, and I sat them both down to watch Clone Wars. I escaped to get a quick hair cut and am just realizing that I never went back to the ketchup stain. This is why I don't spend much effort on house decoration. Also b/c I hate house decoration and am overwhelmed by just the idea of it.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve


Chocolate Mousse face ("All DONE MOMMY!") & Optimus Prime doing a Move


Shelagh, her American Girl Doll (still unnamed) & her Dad


The girls playing dolls - Kelly looks so grown up I could scream. Can't she just stay pre-2 forever??????

First 2010-2011 Winter Snow Storm

We got almost 2 feet, were out of work, out of school/day care, and went for a sled on Monday. Too windy for Shelagh, Rory went the fastest and Kelly cried when we left despite having snow packed directly on her lower legs from shitty-fitting boots. "More play, mommy. More PLAY!" Nope, sorry.

Foot Heaven

I still don't like how they look, but DAMN they are cozy. I wore them all Xmas day. The &^%$-ing snow is keeping me from wearing them right now. DAMN!

Just had to change the title of this post from Heaven to Foot Heaven. I was looking at my posts and realized that the Heaven post about my shoes was next to the post about my Dad. It felt all wrong. I'm so screwy in the head, I'm telling ya. Coffee - KICK IN!

Long Month - Looking Forward to 2011

Don't even know how to start... When something bad happens, I guess I back off the blog and then there is whole burden of how to start back up. Then time passes and it's easier just not to. Then I have funny little anecdotes and cute pictures and it seems inappropriate to put those on and ignore the elephant in the room. I went through the same thing when we lost the baby this past April. Now, however, it's my Dad that we've lost. He was quite ill, so it was not unexpected. His decline was fast, but his exit was peaceful and presumably pain-free. It's been difficult to juggle my feelings, the feelings of those around me in my family, and all the sticky stuff that goes along with loss and family dynamics. But, I'm coming through and so onward we go. That's all I'm going to say about that.





Rory and his Boppy (his special name for Grampy)




Update: Then I read Orangette today and Molly wrote about her recent family crisis so beautifully and briefly. It made me think of my struggle wanting to post and not knowing what to write. Here it is.

Wonder Pets

Kelly's Wonder Pets Xmas gift from my sister was a big hit with all the kids!

A Long Couple of Weeks

There has been so much going on over the last 2 weeks...I feel like I'm just catching my breath.

As usual, Thanksgiving was held at our house for 19 (1/2 are kids). I was pretty unprepared this year...waited until the last minute to decide on the menu. I was able to start some stuff on Tuesday, do most of it on Wednesday, and have a mostly stress-free Thursday. My mom came up on Tuesday night - it was nice to have help and company for this years prep. Thursday was a really nice day with kids running around, lots of food and drink, and good conversation. We ended up having:

• Butternut Squash Soup
• Brined, Roasted Turkey w/ Sausage, Fennel, & Sage stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes (I hosed the potatoes for the first time ever and had to send Joe out to get 7 more pounds of potatoes. Nice.)
• Roasted Vegetables - Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, and Parsnips
• Brussel Sprout hash w/ Lemon and Poppy seeds
• Cranberry Orange Sauce
• Brioche Rolls
• Green Bean Almondine (my sister in law brought this)

For dessert we had Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, cake, and Chocolate Pecan Pie.

Friday, Shelagh and I drove to NJ with my mom for my 20th High School reunion. We drove by way of NYC and stopped in to Eataly, Mario Batali's new market/restaurant extravaganza. It was overwhelming, tothe say the least. Beautiful bread, meat, pasta, gelato, etc. I did think it would have more bite-sized eats for noshing on, but it was more sit down restaurant and goods. WAY expensive too, I might add - like Whole Foods x 3 expensive. We also stopped by Mom's cooking school to show Shelagh where Grammy teaches. She was very impressed.

High school reunion was cool. Everyone looked pretty much the same...maybe a little more lbs and a little less hair, but mostly the same. It was nice to see people, but I really feel like I had lots of partial conversations. Glad I went though and great night with my best friend from h.s. and her husband. Joe's was the same night in MA so he couldn't come with me, unfortunately.

Also stopped in to see my Dad, who is ill and not doing so well. It was tough but I was so glad to see him at least. Shelagh and I took the train back from NJ to Boston, which was a fun adventure for her.

Last week was nuts. We had stuff every night plus I had 8 loads of laundry piled up. Monday night I had to go to the mall to get all the cousin swap gifts. 8-10pm at the mall is a good time to go - not that crowded, good parking - I got all the gifts done in one swoop. Tuesday we had a safety curriculum review at Rory's pre-school - the kids thought it was cool to be at school at night with their friends. I had all the Hanukkah wrapping to do also. Wednesday was the 1st night of Hanukkah and the rest of the wrapping for the Xmas party we had this past weekend. Thursday Shelagh and Joe had a CCD event at church and my cards arrived (without my kids name or the year - glad I was paying attention when I ordered them!), so I got started on those - we are sending 140 this year - why the hell don't I figure out how to do labels???? Friday we left for NJ, dropped by a friends house in CT and arrived in NJ for the family Xmas weekend.

Family Xmas weekend is always the 1st weekend in December - I love that. Most of my holiday craziness is done now! My aunt arranged for a horse-drawn carriage so that my Dad could ride around the neighborhood with all his grandkids. It was just what he needed - the fresh air rejuvenated him a bit and we all had a very wonderful day. Joe, the kids and I had 2 awesome diner breakfasts this weekend- diners in NJ are like Dunkin Donuts in MA - there is one on every corner. And, they are all good! I love diners.

We are back home and settled back in. Continuing to enjoy Hanukkah...Joe's work Xmas dinner is tonight at a beautiful restaurant in the North End in Boston. I get my winter veg share from the Food co-op (which I'll have to pick up in heels!!).

Off to skating with Rory and Kelly now. Let's hope Rory doesn't decide to lay down on the ice and flop around like a dying fish. I keep telling him that Superman always tries his hardest and so should Rory. Let's hope it works.

Happy Hanukkah

Kelly's first time reciting the Hanukkah prayer with me and the big kids. She's totally into it...it's way cute.