Oh no what did you do?

Ok now I’m happy!

Here’s two helpful tips I thought I’d share that I did with baby Celia that I found very helpful.

1. Diaper changing bucket – I picked up a cleaning bucket like this one and keep diapers, changing pad, wipes, wet bag and some extra clothes in it. I can move it around in the house to change anywhere, important when Josie sleeps in the room with the changing table and diapers. I took it to bed with us each night for the first many weeks until she stopped needing to be changed at night because then I didn’t have to get out of bed. (Note to first time moms: limit getting out of bed at night as much as you can)
2. Extra freezer – This isn’t entirely novel but I would recommend this to anyone who is willing to do some cooking ahead and wants to save money. I stuffed mine full and lived from it for two and a half months without having to cook dinner and some breakfasts. Even if you stuffed it full of things from costco, there’s nothing like knowing that every day you can just go downstairs and grab something for dinner rather than having to go to the store. Then when people asked me if there was something I needed from the store I could list one or two things most of the time (like eggs, milk, or bread) and we’d be pretty set. It was serious relaxation, home cooking that my toddler would eat and good nutrition to keep us relaxed for the early months of the new baby.

(Works for me Wednesday is a concept I’ve found on other blogs for ideas for how you do things that others might find useful, like here’s one)

Christmas day itself was more quiet as we opened gifts in the morning and ate a yummy mid-day meal. The next day we got to visit family and friends, the Bailets and Mr and Mrs. Walker. The girls sported their matching pjs, who knows how much longer Josie will let me get away with it so I better do it while I can! Later in the day we went back to Sue’s house for yet more eating and playing with Zeke.

Somehow Jordi dodged a lot of photos. Seems he must have been behind the camera some.

On Sunday we sat down and us kids decorated a gingerbread house with Josie. She enjoyed it, but the whole thing is so messy and imprecise you sure can’t tell who decorated which side, the teenagers or the two year old.

And finally we did our traditional good-bye picture a day early, and inside, because it was cold, and everyone was there for once. Although we actually ended up staying an extra day though because of a snow-storm in Boston, we didn’t bother driving back in it since we all were lucky enough not to have to be back immediately.

This year we had Christmas day at my aunt’s house in Harrisburg, PA where my dad grew up. We rented a minivan to get all six of us to fit, put the x-cargo on top too and made the trip in one day, but arrived at about 10:30 at night after Josie had a major meltdown in the car to fall asleep. She had refused to nap too, my kids are not good car sleepers. Celia at least had figured it out for the trip home and slept most of that which helped make it all more pleasant. I had thankfully pre-mapped out some places to eat (i.e. Panera) so that Josie could move around some and we could all find food that suited us. It was still a long trip.

Christmas eve took us to my cousin Sue’s house for presents which were quickly distributed and opened, Josie is very much into helping with all aspects now. Then we went to church, where Ally sang in the service and Josie did a good job of not asking too many loud questions during the quiet parts. Celia slept through the whole thing too. Then back to Sue’s house for the annual eating of the yummy Christmas appetizers.

Since we spent most of the night chasing Josie around we didn’t get many pictures. She liked Zeke but was a little afraid of him (not unreasonable with a 100+lb dog).

Lorraine also brought some cute reindeer cupcakes she had made and everyone got a kick out of seeing Josie eating one.

It was near impossible to get Josie to wind down that night finally, she just couldn’t turn herself off. Definitely a skill we’ll have to work on with her.

So every six months we go to the dentist. Every six months I put in my next dentist appointment into Google Calendar. And every six months I get a call from my dentist’s office two days beforehand reminding me that I have an appointment that I have to reschedule because we booked something else, because somehow the appointment mysteriously disappears from my calendar.

Can I sue google for my cavities since I went too long between visits?

Since we went to Pennsylvania this year for Christmas we opened all our gifts between us and my parents here in Boston rather than lug them back and forth, because it’s just too much these days. We started early on a Sunday, following the video I posted about a week ago having some more cinnamon rolls that I had made (see Thanksgiving food post). Here’s what it looked like before Josie woke up and my parents brought their gifts too.

We had a fun morning opening gifts. It was nice to have everything be so leisurely and let Josie just open a gift and play with it if she wanted to right then and there, as compared with birthdays when it’s often a big string of presents to just keep opening in a row. Josie also offered to help everyone else open their gifts quite nicely and also accepted help opening up her own. Here she opens up Celia’s gift of silverware (hey how much does a second kid of the same gender who can’t even manipulate toys yet need?).

Here Celia looked like she was more ready to get in on the action when Josie opened up her wall decoration stickers.

Lest you think Celia got all the gifts, Josie got a few too. Including an easel for her learning tower which is great for her to use while I cook, the cardboard kitchen I made, a big towel since her baby towels were leaving her uncovered and cold, and a doctors dress up kit.

Then we took it easy on ourselves and ordered Chinese takeout. I had enough to do already without planning and executing another feast!

Throughout the month of December I worked on baking the Christmas cookies. My plan which worked pretty well considering I have two small children was to make the dough, freeze it, and then bake everything off in the week before Christmas. This year I made peanut butter blossoms, forgotten cookies, candy cane cookies, and sandtarts. Josie helped make some of the doughs and she also helped fashion the candy cane cookies and sandtarts. Playdoh worms help her practice the candy cane shape. The candy cane ones were new this year although my aunt thinks that my grandmother used to make them. I got the recipe from a magazine.

Somehow the art of the forgotten cookies has been lost in our family. They are meringue cookies with chocolate chips and mine and my cousins both turned out chewy rather than crisp and dry. I remember my grandmothers used to break into a ton of pieces (wait is that good?) and melt into the tongue. Our theories are two fold. One is that my oven does not stay hot long enough, these weird cookies go into the oven when it is hot, and you turn it off and leave them there overnight (hence forgotten). Alternatively, my cookies seemed kinda crisp when they were first done and my grandmother always kept hers out on the unheated porch where it would be much dryer than in our houses, so perhaps ours are pulling moisture out of the air?

I’m going to try them again using my bread stone. I’m going to heat the stone up along with my oven at the bottom and that will help retain heat and keep the oven warmer to hopefully cook the cookies more, but very gently. I’ll report on how that goes.

Plus since I’ve been having crazy mint and chocolate cravings, I also just made some chocolate chocolate mint cookies that I can’t stop eating. I used this recipe and added in 1 tsp of peppermint extract too. They’re really good. We’ll have to make them before Christmas for next year, or maybe not, because then I’d have to share.

So somewhere in there, we had my birthday and corresponding cake (chocolate with mocha buttercream inside and whipped cream frosting). Made my dad said he’d reconsider having this cake for birthdays for himself now instead of only pies!

We went to Full Moon Restaurant for dinner which is known for being a somewhat upscale food place, with room for the kids to play. So the atmosphere isn’t great but the food was pretty good, ok the apps and salad were great (nachos may be the best ever), the main course wasn’t anything special. Since they had a kids play area, of course Josie pretty much stayed seated for the entire meal. We went there because for breakfast we went to Flora restaurant and enjoyed a hearty brunch buffet. We didn’t think Josie would want to sit for another big meal that evening. Josie enjoyed major amounts of strawberries with whipped cream for breakfast and was very pleased to get to go to the fancy place that I had gone to with my girlfriends for a baby shower a few weeks earlier.

One idea I stole from another mom in the blog-o-sphere is to have a sand party in the winter! Josie loves her sand table outside but that’s not so much fun in 30 degree weather. So I made an indoor sandbox with a big bin from target and a big bag of rice from costco. It’s a great sensory activity and the mess wasn’t too bad when I kept the sheet under it by holding it down with chairs. Makes me vacuum which I generally always need to do anyway. She played for almost two hours straight which is a very very long time for Josie to do anything.

What’s a beach without digging your toes in the sand? It feels really good.

Another fun activity we did this year with Jordi’s side of the family while visiting was make some ornaments for our Christmas tree. We picked up some air drying clay from the art store and rolled it out and cut it out with cookie cutters into fun shapes. Pipita is an accomplished artist in this area so she helped us and Josie learn how to work with the clay and showed off her exemplary skills. Josie was hard to convince to put the string hole at the top of, not directly in the middle of all the ornaments.

The next day when they were dry, we painted them. We traded in and out for places at the table and Celia got some good holding time with various people.

All together we had a nice visit and spent a lot of time eating!