Christmas Week

Ah, we're back home again, and David is also home from Israel. Back to "normal" (HA!)

The rest of the time down in CT was nice. On Monday, we just hung out at my sister's house so the kids could all play together. Laura brought the baby over, too. At the end of the day, my parents took the boys home, and Laura and I (along with sleeping Lilie and sleeping Sofia) stopped for a quick "hi" at Grandma Ruth's house.

Tuesday, we went to my uncle's house in Stamford for Christmas. See, my dad's father was not Jewish (although he grew up in the Garment District in NYC and spoke better Yiddish than anyone I know!), and my uncle's wife (and therefore my cousins) are all Catholic. When I was a kid, we always spent Christmas with my grandparents (before my aunt came along, generally everyone there was Jewish except Grandpa!). Once my grandparents moved to Florida (25 years ago), my uncle took over.

However, when Sam was a baby, I took him to my uncle's, and my mother put all of Sammy's Hanukah presents under the Christmas tree! It freaked me out. She did it because she hadn't seen us since Thanksgiving, and granted Sam was only 6 months old, BUT I really wanted him to be able to understand the difference.

So this was the first year we've been back for Christmas. It was really nice. My grandmother is up from Florida, and my twin cousins are both in from college, their older brother was there, their parents (of course - it's their house!), my folks, my brother-in-law and the twins, and me and my kids. My sister was on-call (sucks to be the only Jew in her Cardiology practice!), and of course David was working in Israel.

The kids had a blast. Sofia had fallen asleep in the car on the way in, and was very shy and clingy when we got there, but she perked up soon enough. They have a little dog, which at first Sofia was terrified of, but by the end of the evening, she was trying to drag the dog around by its leash. My cousin P took the kids outside to play soccer (he teaches at a school for kids with Autism, in NYC, and he's really terrific with kids!).

At one point, my grandmother made a very tactless and uncalled-for comment about my weight. I took a little walk and called David, and then, I'm proud to say, I pulled Grandma aside to tell her she'd hurt my feelings. We had a nice chat, and she did apologize (actually, she started crying, which my BIL saw, but since he had not heard her comment, he thought something else was wrong, so I got a phone call from my mom last night...)

Anyway, it was a really nice day. I'm so glad we got to go and help them celebrate "their" holiday. It's a really pretty time. And my uncle is a FANTASTIC cook (learned from my grandfather). YUM. It's worth the migraine I get when I eat the fried eggplant he makes.

Some photos:
Sofia with my cousin Kara:


Sofia with my dad:


Paul and Kara with the 4 kids:


Sam with my grandma:


My dad (with the camera) and his brother (with the scarf):


Miss Sofia investigates the jingle bells:


Paul and Micah (ok, I DO have to explain - Paul gave the kids those plastic blow-up bubbles, and he was teaching Micah how to do it...but from that angle, it just looked...uh...suspicious...):


Me and my grandma:


Wednesday, Mom and I took my kids and met my nieces and their nanny at the children's museum in Bristol, then out for pizza. Then I took a brief nap, and carted my gang back up to MA. Sofia slept the whole ride up, and Micah fell asleep halfway. Well, Micah stayed asleep the rest of the evening, but Sofia woke up, and stayed watching TV with me and Sam ('tween Disney shows, yippie). Sam went to sleep aroud 8:30, but Miss Sofia was still up at 11:00 - at which time she puked all over my bedspread and then went to sleep. It stinks; I have to take it to the drycleaners now.

Today, Sam had a playdate, but the kid lives 45 minutes away. So after we dropped him off, I took Micah and Sofia to the local arcade, then for lunch, then we had to pick up David, then back to pick up Sam, then back home (LOTS of driving!). David had to go to work and do the payroll, so he didn't get home until nearly 8 pm. Then I went out again (grocery shopping). He's asleep now.