Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, it was a whirlwind around here. In the morning Zoe opened gifts here, then at Grandma and Grandpa's, and then went to Uncle Brian and Aunt Anne's for more gifts. She got piles of stuff (while she was out I cleaned out her room of old toys and clothes that don't fit her to make room for the new). Our house is in it's Post-WWIII (er, Christmas Day)-State still.

And yes, that is a bottle of Jager in the middle of the mess ... that one's for Mama.
Hope your holidays are enjoyable. Catch you on the flip side.

"Mommy, it's dancing time"

Oh my goodness, Christmas is almost upon us. What a frightening thought. We usually end up going down to my Step Brother's house and have breakfast with him, his wife, their daughter and my Step Father's until recently estranged daughter from his ... perhaps second marriage? It's an uncomfortable situation for Jonathan and myself. Zoe loves it. It's uncomfortable because these are people we see once a year, maybe twice. We are not big Christmas Present people (don't enjoy receiving and abhor the feeling of obligation to give, we prefer to give thoughtful things to people and not on Christmas, just throughout the year). We've been contemplating not going, I think it'll have to wait until the day of or perhaps the night before for us to decide.

School is over for the semester, which is a wonderful thing. It's nice to be able to relax and just enjoy nothing. Jon is working more hours during the break, but work is nothing compared to the stress of school. I've done both, and while it may look like school is easier let me assure you it most definitely is not.

Alright, the child is asking me to go in the living room and dance a little.

I hate to break it to you but, Santa isn't real.

Christmas is right around the corner and Jon and I are having a difficult time knowing what to tell the Lil'un. You see, Jon and myself aren't religious people, we are extremely spiritual, but not religious. We do not celebrate the Christian aspect of Christmas and we are also pretty heavily anti-commercial when it comes to the whole Have To Buy So Much Shit To Show People You Love Them thing. So, what to do? We have an artificial Christmas Tree that was given to us by Jon's father because we weren't going to have one at all (I'm SO not down with people cutting down millions of trees to set them up in their living room to die for a Bullshit Holiday). We set up the tree each year, and tell The Girly the story of the real St. Nicholas and that Santa Claus is all a part of the disgusting consumerist "make believe" world. She doesn't fully get it, but she knows that Santa Claus isn't real. Actually, I think she was relieved he isn't real, the thought of a weird man in a bright red suit breaking into your house every year is kind of freaky ... I mean if I were a four year old it might freak me out. So, we have a few gifts, mostly stuff we've made. Last year we did buy her gifts, she got the set of Shel Silverstein's works. We don't go overboard and buy as much crap as we can, because in the end that's all it is ... crap.

The Girly is getting outside information, though. Her grandparents tend to tell her about Santa (of course they also tell her about Heaven and all that jazz, so there is constant re-programming going on *rolleyes*) and she is kind of confused that these adults in her life believe in something she clearly knows to be make believe. I have observed that the affect is that she thinks they are all off their rocker for believing such nonsense.

That-a-girl, Sweetheart!

Finals & Term Papers & Stress, Oh My!

It's finals week and so Ma and Pa are spending every waking hour finishing out term papers and cramming for finals. Poor Lil'un is not getting very much attention, and has actually spent much of the week at her grandparent's house so we can study. She's dying for attention, we're giving her all we can - only three more days of this and we have FIVE WEEKS of nothing, so she'll get plenty of spoiling and lovin' then.
Ma and the Lil'un were planning on trying to make it to the West Coast to visit family this winter break, but it's just not working out this year. We will all be piling in the car and heading up for a long weekend in Chicago to visit some friends.
Short and sweet today ... I know ... but I'M BUSY with nothing particularly interesting, so this must suffice.

When they go rough and low ...

A few weeks back I was driving my mom around on some errands and I made Lil'un come with me. She had been pretty patient and quiet during the whole trip, sitting in her pink throne of a car seat (or "seat car" as she calls it). We were listening to the regular music I do (dark, depressing folk-ish junk with a little Tool, REM, Muse and Gogol Bordello mixed in) but grew tired of the music, I listen to this music all the time since I live with my iPod glued to me. I turned on the radio and just kind of let it go, until this song came on and the Lil'un started singing it. I have no idea where she heard the song enough to know it and sing it, but she did and even more she was trying to adapt her voice to fit that of the lead singer of the band. The song was "Photograph" by Nickelback (yes, I know Nickelback sucks). If you've heard the song you'll know the singer has this deep and rough voice, "Look at this photograph, everytime I do it makes me laugh" he sings, and as he did she did also. It was cute listening to her try to be rough and low, especially because she has this really soft and high angelic type voice. It just tickled me.

Trogdor was a man ...

When I asked The Lil'un what kind of birthday cake we should make for 'Pa she quickly yelled, "TROGDOR!" And so ... without further delay ...

Cold/Flu Season

With the cold/flu season coming up I thought this would be a good thing to post ... since this is the way it is around here. Yes, I stole this from Dooce. Read her if you've got time, I do daily and it's always a pleasure.
For your viewing pleasure ...

Walking in a Winter Wonderland ...

The Lil'un has gotten old enough that all of the Holiday Hoopla has been a non-stop toddlergasm. It was no different this morning when she awoke to see SNOW all over the ground. In her brain the equation is: snow=Christmas!=PRESENTS!!! While it did take some gentle verbal maneuvering to convince her that it was not Christmas, just really effing cold, I was successful. No harm, no foul. She did want to go outside and eat some of the snow, an odd request but who am I to argue? It's new snow so it's all good. I did grab my camera, here a a few shots of the Little Imp in the cold white stuff:

This one makes me wonder what she's contemplating...

Happy Birthday Pa!

Today was Jon-Daddy's birthday! He is twenty-six years old now. We have yet to actually celebrate yet, but we will be doing so shortly. We did get a visit from his (mostly) estranged mother who brought a few gifts and spent a few uncomfortable minutes at our house.
As a gift from me and the Lil'un he got that 80 GB iPod he's been dying for. We may have made a mistake in not getting the warranty plan since Pa has a wild knack of breaking everything. It's actually quite convenient because if I happen to break anything I can usually pass it off as one of his accidents ... because the mom doesn't break stuff, she fixes stuff! DUH!

We do have the ingredients to make him his cake. The Lil'un has decided that we should make Pa a Tragdor cake, and if you don't know who Tragdor is I believe your life isn't as rich and full as it should be. Here is a link to the wonder that is TROGDOR!

So, here's the Jon-Daddy at a recent Free Slam we attended. Happy Birthday, Love!

And so ... IT BEGINS

Hello! We are just getting started here so please excuse the (most likely continuing) changes and junk. This is a place we'll try to keep up as a family update space that will include:

• Photos
• Current family events
• Struggles
• Funny happenings
• All the other boring stuff

Hope you enjoy!