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A Christmas Story

All Athena wanted for Christmas was a rainbow ball. A rainbow ball. Like the one in her counting book. The one that is her favorite. Seems like a very sweet and simple request...too simple, in fact.

Of course, Walmart didn't have it, it's a summer item, and I found nothing at Target, KBToys, or Kmart. I thought for sure Toys R Us would have a whole wall of balls and at least one of them would be rainbow striped, but no. I considered getting a plain ball and painting the stripes myself. Instead I just asked her again. Each of the 17 times I asked she said she wanted Santa to bring her "a rainbow ball."

This dream of her opening a box on Christmas morning with the perfect rainbow ball filled my head, until I forgot about it in the last minute Christmas Hub Bub. Luckily, when it was time to talk to Santa, she was too terrified to approach him. And, that was my "out." See, she never technically asked him, so how would he know?

And then, the day after Christmas we all went to Chuck-E-Cheese. Unca Stu, because he has super human powers, accumulated 487 tickets. When the time came for Athena to choose what she wanted, she select one item from the 10 ticket box, one item from the 20 ticket box (you see where I'm going). The annoyed 16 year old at the counter hoping to speed us along said: "How about one of these" and guess what she was holding? The perfect "rainbow ball" with Chuck's head right in the middle of it. I hope I always remember the look on Athena's face at that precise moment.

So, what is the lesson learned here? Is Chuck-E-Cheese actually Santa? Have they ever been seen in the same room together? Or does Santa work in very, very mysterious ways? Hmmm.

Athena Eye View

Athena's number one gift this year, or maybe number two (the dollhouse was pretty cool), is the Little Tikes digital camera. Yes, that's right, a digital camera. It's primary colors with big buttons and fairly indestructible. The quality is not great but there's an artistry to these fuzzy over exposed photos that I kind of like.

Snowball Fight!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

This great video brought to you by Uncle Stu (I don't have the patience).

And the reaction...

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Merry Christmas

Thinking of Grandma and Katie today. Much love to our family and friends who we can't be around. We hope to see you soon in the next year.

Julie, Chris, Athena and Zoe

For Photos, click here:
http://gallery.mac.com/stuart.steene/100050

Woohoo! A Christmas Cheer post

My friend AJ tagged me to answer a Christmas meme started by the lovely Kyla. I've never been tagged before, woohoo!!! Okay, so here goes.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Oh, wrapping paper, absolutely, with beautiful fabric or wire ribbons. My Mom always saves all the ribbons I buy so we tend to use them year after year with a few new ones thrown in.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Real tree...although I *do* see the benefits of a pre-lit artificial tree.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Well, we actually don't have a tree this year, just a small festive bush. We're celebrating Christmas at my Mom's house, money is tight and Zoe is so small (er, destructive) that it just seemed like a good idea to skip it this year. When we do have a tree, we typically have it up sometime before Christmas...

4. When do you take the tree down?
Oh, when we get around to it. Usually right around the time I get tired of sweeping up all the pine needles.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Mmmm. Yum. Yes the alcoholic recipe.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
That's a tie between my custom made wooden doll house, that I still have in storage waiting for the day the girls are big enough to appreciate it. Or, perhaps it was the Donny & Marie dolls with an accompanying "TV Studio" play set.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
No.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Usually it's my Father-in-Law (aka "Grandaddio") but with the advent of grandchildren and all the things you can get to commemorate their early years that has changed. This year it seems to be Zoe! She's too little to be "in" to anything and has a ton of age appropriate hand-me-down toys from her sister. Plus, the thing she loves most is electronic gadgets, cell phones, calculators, label makers, digital cameras...so I may just end up getting her a bunch of cheap things with buttons for her to push.

9. Easiest person to buy for? This year it is definitely Athena. She loves dress up and Pixar movies and anything with Little Einsteins and coloring and nightgowns and puzzles, etc. Christmas is going to be so fun this year.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I have no clue. Whatever it was I completely forgot about it. Isn't that the real opposite of "love"..."disinterest"?

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Usually we mail a CD of Christmas music with handmade "cover art" (usually a photo) and a particular theme (i.e. "Merry Christmas Baby" which was compilation of jazz Christmas music). This year (sorry guys) we are not doing that. It is a meager Christmas, we are short on money and time this year. We promise to pick it up next year, however!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love It's a Wonderful Life, it never gets old. Plus all the clay-mation specials: Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Year Without a Santa Claus.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Um...today.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course, but never to anyone who may be reading this...

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mince meat pie with vanilla ice cream and anything my Mom cooks.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear non-blinking lights.

17. What is your favorite Christmas song? Do They Know It's Christmas (by a 80's artists) love that song, can't wait to hear it again.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Spending Christmas eve and Christmas day at my Mom's house, which is only 30 minutes away. We need to plan a Christmas in California soon.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Rudolph, of course, then there's Prancer, Donner, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid.....and that is all I got...

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My family tradition is midnight on Christmas Eve, but with the babies we split it between both. We give some presents for children on Christmas Eve and all the presents for the adults, and then the bulk of the children's presents in the morning. Once the babies are older, we'll do Christmas Eve.

22. What I love most about Christmas? Christmas socks!

And now I need to tag someone. Everyone I know who has a blog and may be reading this has already gotten this post, except for Shannon.

Athena in NYC

On Mimi's actual birthday-day, we had a lovely birthday breakfast, as per our family tradition, and then a day trip to NYC. Athena had a blast at FAO Schwartz, especially dancing on the piano floor, unfortunately her preferred method of travel was in the arms of either Baba, Unca Stu or me...ugh, my back aches.

"Can't I please get a life-sized stuffed pony for Christmas???"

In her Baba's arms (and breaking his back)
Zoe was home with YiaYia and stayed in her pajamas all day.

Mimi 4.0

We actually pulled it off and surprised Mimi for her birthday. Although she did not totally buy the plan that we were only having a "quiet family dinner" for her 40th birthday, she was very surprised by the guests who showed up...

Lisa flew in all the way from La-La Land

Riley was there, even though he was only
discharged from the hospital last week...

...with the lovely Anna,
here hiding in the background
Stu was the life of the party (as always)

And the surprize guest of the night...after two canceled flights
and an airplane with technical difficulties
Daddy made it and Mimi cried.

A rare family photo...Mimi, Daddy, Mom and Me

Zoe got all decked out in her holiday best.

So did Athena, and she even got to wear "pearls" (not real ones)

Alex was there

Ty, Lynette and Sarah (in the background)

I can't believe we actually kept a secret!Mimi had fun and any evening that ends
with a little robin's egg blue box can't be bad!

Let it snow!

Wow! It is really coming down. It started snowing this morning and it has not stopped. Athena's school was closed today for threat of snow, which ended up being a good thing because by noon it would have been very difficult for me to pick her up. Chris left the house to work at Starbucks and may end up sleeping there. Mimi is snowed in with Mom, so it's just me and my girls, watching the snow pile up outside our the window.

After lunch we bundled in snow suits and went outside. Athena loved walking in the untouched snow, making snow angels and catching snow flakes with her tongue. Zoe was not happy standing by herself (couldn't move with the boots) but was quite content to laugh at her sister's antics from the comfort of my arms.

The view from outside our window.

Zoe laughing in the snow.

All bundled up.

Take Two

What do you think about these?
Or should I keep trying?

Zoe looks a little fed up.

I like this one in b&w, but is it Christmassy enough?

You can't see Athena, but I just love this photo.

The Rejected Christmas Photos

*sigh*

Stupid Gingerbread House!

Tragedy occurred today when the roof of a gingerbread house collapsed. The cause of the collapse is as yet unknown, but officials suspect a faulty foundation and possibly the wrong consistency of frosting. No gingerbread men were hurt in the accident.

This doesn't exactly look like the picture on the box. Perhaps I should have read the directions more carefully. An hour and a half spent on this disaster, and all we accomplished was a child hyped up from licking the frosting and eating gumdrops, a thin coating of gooey powdered sugar everywhere and a very frustrated Mommy. It wasn't even much fun for Athena because it was so precarious I wouldn't let her touch it for the first hour. Then I gave up and let her decorate as she saw fit, still trying to attach the roof as she stuck little sugary choking hazards all over. When she was upstairs playing in her room, I threw the whole thing away. When she came downstairs she said "Mommy, I want to build the gingerbread house again!" How long do you think until she stops asking about it?

Dinner Hour

Here's a handful of pieced together videos trying to capture some of the cuteness that goes on during the dinner hour. Beware, it's a long, indulgent video that includes: Zoe walking around in my apron with a vegetable scrubber looking quite special; Athena lassoing the moon for Zoe (as her Daddy does for her); typical dinner conversation from our little chatterbox; ending with a satisfied belch from Zoe.

Primarily, this is for my Christopher who is away for a whole week. I know you must be missing us as much as we miss you, so pull up a chair and your room service dinner and turn this on for a little taste of home.

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Dreaming of you

Athena woke up at 1:38 am calling "I want my ..., I want my ...", I bolted out of bed as I thought she was saying "I want my Mommy!" But when I got to her, she was still sleeping. I asked her quietly if she was okay, and she told me "I want my star! Daddy put my star in the snow! I want my star!"

Snow Daze

Some days wouldn't you rather just lie on the floor and color all day in your pajamas. Especially when it's chilly and gray outside with a fresh layer of pure white snow on the ground. And isn't it awful when your mother convinces you that you must go to school, then proceeds to dress you like a sausage in way too many layers, cram you into your car seat only to drive by your school and realize there isn't one car in the parking lot, the lights are off and no one is around? You would cry too, wouldn't you? Bawl your head off all the way home? After all, she deserves it for disturbing your perfect morning plans and not checking with the school district first. Humph.

Big Girl Bed

Finally! Athena is sleeping in her "big girl bed!" We initially introduced this bed way back in the early Spring and Athena wanted nothing to do with it. At that point, Zoe was in the cosleeper and getting bigger and bigger everyday. Our plan was to transition Athena into her toddler bed and then have Zoe sleep in the crib in Athena's room once she was sleeping through the night.

Well, as all parents know, toddlers rarely go by your plan. She enjoyed playing in the bed, but refused to sleep in it. She would freak out when we tried to put her down for the night and even said it was "scawee." After a couple of months of resistance, and a final ultimatum that we would take the bed away if she did not sleep in it, we lived up to our promise and removed the offending bed. Athena was happy to see it go.

Luckily a very nice mother of triplets gave me one of her cribs and we've had two cribs in the nursery since August. And then, over the Thanksgiving holiday, Athena slept in a hotel bed all by herself every single night. We made such a big deal over her sleeping in "the big bed" we thought we would try her "big girl bed" again.

We included her in the whole process of the transition. We talked to her about it. She helped Daddy dismantle and remove Zoe's crib (it didn't match the other nursery furniture). We let her choose where she wanted the bed to go and she helped her Daddy build it. And she's been sleeping there for two nights now! No problems.

Happy Birthday Daddy

We almost didn't make it to celebrate Chris' birthday. In all the craziness of our travels, the overwhelming amount of work work, the chaos of this house and YiaYia's battery dying, we almost threw in the towel and said we would celebrate another day. But we pressed on, a little stressed out and an hour late, and ended up having a great time at the Japanese Hibachi restaurant, even making friends with the others at our table who were also celebrating a birthday. Hibachi is like dinner and a show for toddlers, totally engrossing, although both Athena and Zoe screamed a bit when he lit the grill on fire.
The birthday boy requested handmade gifts this year and I think he received presents more precious than anything we could have bought. A collection of child care coupons from Mimi and a handmade ornament, beautiful framed collage from Athena, a special photo from Zoe and from me, a handmade calendar with a reason why I love him on each day, YiaYia took care of the bill (thanks Mom!)

Athena ate everything. Miso soup, noodles, chicken, broccoli. All with
children's chopsticks and even fishing out the wiggly bits of
tofu in her soup. She did better with her chopsticks than YiaYia did.

Zoe charmed the waitstaff and enjoyed the show.

Well worth the trip

We started our travels at exactly 6:17 this morning - plucked the little girls from their warm beds and poured them into car seats still in pajamas. It was a gray overcast morning and they peacefully slept for the first 200 miles leaving Chris and I to ramble along quietly listening to NPR. We stopped for breakfast, lunch, a couple of potty breaks and Mimi and Stu (who left at 8) easily caught up so we met up for lunch. We finally made it home just before 10pm. Poor Zoe had a total meltdown the last half an hour, I have promised her I will not take her on any long errands in the car for a couple of days. Besides the final breakdown, the girls traveled so well. We think for Athena, the car trip represents a fabulous time: endless tv, cookies on demand and staying in her pajamas for most of the day (why it's somewhat like YiaYia's house).

All in all our travels were well worth the trip, and special memories were created, like Baba reading with Athena happily cuddled up next to him...my heart melts.

Arts and crafts

A full day of visiting and arts and crafts. First at my good friend Caragh's house where we made fantastic Christmas ornaments with the girls and her sweet little guy, Joseph (hmm...what will grandparents be getting for Christmas this year??). Then on to MorMor's studio for some more fun. Athena made something special for someone special whose birthday it is soon. I cannot say anymore. I am sworn to secrecy.
Zoe occupied her time roaming the hallways of this massive old mansion turned into artists gallery and studios. She walked from room to room with me following closely behind, stopping occasionally to look at the artwork.
She found one artists sculpture in a corner of the house that she took quite a liking to it as you can see from the photo.