Way back in April, before Josie turned 3 the four of us went on a weekday outing to the Big Apple Circus when it came to town. We were in the third row right near the front. Celia was only about 6 months old at this time so she still napped pretty frequently (unlike today, where she napped only once). It was a great show with horses, clowns, stunts, trapeze, contortionists, dogs, and goats.

We all took public transportation downtown to Park Street where I waited with the kids and played while Jordi dropped his stuff off at work. We walked over to government center and quickly found our seats. We learned very quickly what Josie does and does not like. She loves the animals and the tricks. She did not like the clown that pretended to cry. She could sense the insincerity and just kept asking us to make him go away. I’m not a huge clown fan either so I can see where she’s coming from. The contortionists made me cringe, especially when hang all of their weight on the roof of their mouth. The animals were graceful and beautiful. The climbers were amazing, a group of men from Africa that could climb straight up a vertical pole.

Celia refused to face me. Instead she faced out away from me, and fell asleep. Somehow in the middle of all the flashing lights and crazy things going on in front of us. Now I have to get the timing just right to get this kid to fall asleep, ahh the good old days.

After we had lunch at quincy market and I took the girls to the aquarium while Jordi went back to work.

This weekend my parents (with some help from us and my aunt and family) moved my grandmother up to Boston from Florida to live nearby in assisted living. It was an intense many days both in Florida and up here, but she’s now in her new home and will hopefully decide to like it eventually. Some beautiful weather let me take some bright pictures.

We’ve been on vacation, so that’s why the photos have stopped. But I’ve got tons. Here’s a funny one from Josie’s birthday. Someone is enjoying playing with Josie’s new presents.

Caught a family cobra pose during morning yoga! Don’t get many of Celia on her belly, she does not like it. Horrid lighting, but sometimes that’s all you can get in the moment.

To get away from the winter and have some quality time with our friends and neighbors we went to the Cape Codder Resort on Cape Cod the weekend before last. We first went two years ago for our anniversary. Last year we invited Christina, Chanh, Zach and Ethan and had another great time. This year we all drove down on a Friday and had a really bad trip for some reason, traffic had just been awful around Boston with the snowstorms and despite leaving at 2:30 we sat in a ton of traffic until we got far south of Boston, not arriving until after 5pm. This year we had one extra family member, or at least one more family body as I was actually just barely pregnant at that point last year.

I wonder how old Celia will be when she wonders why she doesn’t have a doggy like the rest of the kids? It was a great weekend away. We spent a fair amount of time in the pool but each of the kids at various times just weren’t feeling it and ended up sitting in chairs while the rest of us enjoyed the water. Josie was enthusiastic at first and then her interest dwindled each time. Hopefully she’ll be more excited next year. Celia liked the water fair enough and tolerated us bringing her in and out and getting splashed.

We had some nice meals and rode the merry go round at the Cape Cod Mall a few times. Most importantly we got a little grown up time to whisper to ourselves while the kids slept and we played a board game at night. We had ice cream sundae’s, fruity blended drinks, and yummy fried food (not all in one meal) to make it all really feel like a vacation. We stopped by the beach on the way home and got a few pictures that I’ve already published, and capped it off with lunch on the way home at Panera, Josie’s favorite. On the way back through Boston we actually hopped off 93 and went to the aquarium quickly since we have a membership now. Both girls really enjoyed it and we liked having an easy quick visit without the extra effort of schlepping downtown. A rare moment of spontaneity from this planner!

Next year we need to remember to bring smore’s supplies for the nightly bonfire.

This assignment was to photograph the generations of the family nearby. Celia was napping or fussy for the photos and so she didn’t join in. In the second photo you can see Josie enjoying control of the remote control, that often helps her get into taking the photos when she gets to keep pushing the button!

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.

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!

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!