Christmas 2005

Where does the time go? I've been meaning to sit down and write this, but it seems like something else is always calling my attention to it. Sometimes, I think I feel like a whirling dervish... a lot of action, but not accomplishing much.

Christmas morning! Santa was the be-all and end-all of the boys, when they looked down the stairs and saw two shiny new guitars sitting by the tree for them.

They picked them up immediately and started joyfully strumming away, as if they had been doing it all of their young lives. Was there anything else under the tree? Did it matter? Who needs a little lamb to follow you everywhere you go (You know... Mary had a little lamb?), when you have a wonderful new guitar to take with you everywhere. The boys never set the guitars down for more than 30 seconds at a time it seemed, and couldn't get enough. Naturally, when we went over to Jim and Judy's for Christmas dinner, and to exchange gifts with Theresa's siblings and significant others, the guitars had to go too.

Before we left, Grayson was holding up his thumb. He appeared to have something on it, and wanted me to wipe it off. I just rubbed it on his pants (that's what dads do... right?) When it didn't come off, I took him into the bathroom so I could see it under better light and discovered that he had already developed a blister on his strumming thumb! I tried to put a band-aid on it, but he would have none of it. Apparently it would interfere with his guitar playing!

Naturally the boys and Mattea all got way too much stuff for Christmas. Auntie Lia was kind enough to ask me about what the boys needed, and offered clothes as a reasonable possibility, to which I agreed. When she asked what size, I thought a moment, remembering that they were growing out of many things in their closet. So I told her the appropriate size. It seems the boys were growing out of their 2T clothing, and starting to wear 3T's. So I guess my suggestion to Lia to get 4T's was perhaps a bit on the overlarge side. The upside is that when they start growing out of their 3T's, we'll already be prepared!

Theresa got the new Photoshop Elements 4.0, which she assured me had all of the latest and greatest stuff for her digital scrapbooking addiction... I mean hobby. If you haven't checked out her stuff lately, you really should. You can find it at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking.

One of our most thoughtful gifts though was from my sister, Edwina, and her new husband Mark, who offered a weekend of house- and baby-sitting so we could go off for a romantic getaway. We are already envisioning Irish Coffees in the Buena Vista in San Francisco. If you've never been, you simply MUST go. And they have a great breakfast as well. One stipulation agreed to, by us, was that our weekend may in fact be sometime during the week. Mark has seen the boys and what they can do, and would rather hand them over to daycare during the day in order to minimize the damage. It still sounds like a great gift to me! Although that does mean that their exposure to the boys serenades will be reduced!