I only have a couple of pictures, but here are some of the Christmas festivities.  A couple of weeks ahead of time, Craig made a gingerbread house.  It never did get decorated!

Christmas was two days after I got out of the hospital from the original bleeding episode, so no pics of me!  But here are the girls, dressed and ready for mass.

We had Christmas morning at our house, and the Craig’s family came over later since I couldn’t go out.  Mom and John had planned to be with us, which worked out great since they were also able to watch Lucy and Samantha most of the time we were in the hospital.  And that was pretty much it.  I was just really glad to be home and not in the hospital.

The mini-guitar has made a reappearance the last couple of days, and Samantha has been handling it well enough that I don’t have to fear too much for its safety now.  Funny things that go with the guitar:  Lucy used to call it a hot-tar, and the pick a pickle.  Samantha has the pick right (although Craig now calls it a pickle…) but she says “but-tar”.  It’s held Samantha’s attention better than anything else I can think of recently, and today she was strumming and making up songs.  One included monsters, and I think she sang, “Monster, monster, don’t come get me!”  Another repeated, “Grandpa died, Grandpa died, now in Heaven” over and over.  I’m waiting to hear tomorrow’s songs…

Craig brought his guitar home, too, and we had a musical evening with Justin, Theresa, and Ebbie.

And, as you can see, Clare is now big (I should say BIG) enough for the Bumbo.  She is a chunk.  And, finally, the results of Craig’s music: (she’s asleep, if you can’t tell).

So the pictures are a little late.  But we made the cakes ourselves.  Lucy wanted pink and purple and cake and cupcakes.  So the guests could choose what they liked best, of course.  : )

Papa Ben and Samantha (and Mary Lou’s famous Jello in the foreground.)

Uncle Sean with the Birthday Girl.

Mimi, B-Bob and Nana helped celebrate.

It takes a lot of concentration to blow out those candles!

Lucy got a little more help than she really wanted blowing out the candles.

Lucy dictated the messages for her thank-you notes, and signed her name to some of them herself!

Homeschooling journal:

We had a good trip to the zoo with Katie, Cylis, and Micah this morning.  Lucy told Cylis about the Spanish moss, and we saw the tiger and black bears moving around and the white alligators up close.  Most of the time we let the kids play in the water at Monkey Hill, then the thunder started and we had to make a run for the shelter in the swamp exhibit.  Lucy panicked at the thunder.  We finally walked back in the rain after lunch, and got to the gates just as the sun was coming back out.

This afternoon has been melt-down city.

Lucy and Samantha tell the story:

At this point the girls were distracted by Craig making chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes and the story ended.

Let’s see how far I get with this – we’ve been too busy living to spend time writing about living lately!  So here’s what I’ve got saved up…

According to my camera, this is from last June.  But I think the date is wrong, and it was actually October.  Either way, it’s been a while since I went through the pics on the camera!

Here is the little altar I put together for the Day of the Dead.  Mom’s only in the picture because it was the best/most easily accessible one I had of Dad.  The had and cookbook are my grandmothers (Eva Krivanek), gum drops were one of my other grandmother’s favorite treats (Margaret Courtney).  The box and frog puzzle my dad made, and the peanuts were one of his favorite snacks.  The rosary was also Grandma Krivanek’s, and the little pictures on the right are of me with my grandmothers.  That was all I could dig up at the last minute when I did this, but I’ll be a little more prepared this year (if the things aren’t still in storage!  More on that in a later post…)

This was in November.  One of them was confused about the weather forecast.  If I remember right, it was Samantha.

They take good care of each other…

…and Pooh Bear.

The nativity set the girls played with.  They’re taking a nap while they wait for baby Jesus.

The meltdowns have begun, so I’ll have to finish this later.

Craig: Did you know your Mom is 28 years old?

Lucy: She’s so large!

Lucy turned the rocking horse on its side since it was sick, and was looking at its tummy.  “It’s a girl,” she announced.  “How can you tell?” asked Grandma.  Lucy: “It has eyelashes.”

A little late, as she is now two weeks old!  I thought I had already posted this.

I just wish I could remember them all…the girls have been on a roll!

Samantha: “Why your bottom is scary?” (“Scary” is how I described my incision.  I don’t know why she thinks it’s on my bottom.)

*****

Grandma: “What we need is a yardstick.” exits toward room where yardsticks live.

Lucy: runs for the back yard to get a stick.

*****

Samantha (chalkboard eraser in hand): “I don’t want Lucy on there anymore.”  (She tried to remove her drawing from the calendar.)

*****

Samantha (looking at children’s song book):  “I don’t want that!  I want God!  I like God!”

In the space of an hour tonight, the girls’ imaginative play included two hilarious and touching games.  The first was “Mass”, complete with Goldfish and water intincture for communion, the girls taking turns as priest, and a fantastic version of “Hosanna to Jesus the King” of Lucy’s own creation.

When that was finished, Lucy announced that we were going to do what the man on the computer was doing (Craig was watching the State of the Union): she would stand up and talk, and we would all clap.  The speech sounded roughly like this: “Blah, goobdy-glah, ookie jimbas.”  It was quite hilarious.

Homeschooling Journal:

Visited the Farmer’s Market and Whole Foods.  The girls are getting to meet lots of new vegetables since Craig has decided we’re going to try to eat as “raw” as possible.  Yesterday I brought in the last bell peppers from the garden and each of the girls ate a whole one like an apple.  (They were small.)  That made us really happy.  Lucy also was chewing on cabbage like a dinosaur.

This afternoon we went with the Justice Walking group to the nursing home and the girls got to watch us sing Christmas carols and talk to the residents.  Lucy barely said a word, but when we left she said she liked it and wanted to go again.

We also cleaned the living room and they played dress-up all evening.  I think that covers it.