We’re still on vacation, which means I’m light on the words and heavy on the lazily edited photos of my kids doing boring stuff. Luckily, my sister is here to do boring stuff with is.

At The Bleu Squid in Mystic – AMAZING grilled cheese and cupcakes

Do I have something on my face?

Tonight the plan is for E and I to do something AWESOME, since it might be our last chance for a loooong time to spend a New Years out alone…but it seems more likely we’ll go out for sushi, get tired, and come home to drink a bottle of champagne on the couch while we watch the last episode of Downton Abbey. Happy New Year’s Eve!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We made it through the busiest weeks of the year unscathed (well, besides Caroline’s pneumonia and double ear infection, which she has recovered from quite nicely) and now we’re doing as little as possible. It’s easy today, since as I type this a snowstorm is blowing in, making a lazy movie day on the couch practically mandatory.

Sunday:

8 am, still in bed. I LOVE YOU DISNEY JUNIOR.

Lunch at Harp & Dragon with Grandpa and Grandma

They rarely allow anyone besides Mommy to read them books, but Grandpa is just so good at it!

Monday:

New million dollar idea: Keurig for toddlers!

Hot cocoa is complicated when you’re 3

Walking to Christmas Eve service

Tuesday (our “Christmas Eve”):

Hide & seek is their favorite game, even though this is their ONLY hiding spot

Cookie decorating

We took Daddy his cookies at work – exhausting!

Wednesday:

I don’t know what this game is, but Evan LOVES it

White(ish) Christmas(ish)!!!

My beautiful whirlpool tub is 100% toddlerfied.

Thursday:

Puzzles that make sounds! The perfect way to make a nice quiet activity LOUDER.

Christmas-recovery nap

Christmas-recovery couch sitting and sweats

Friday:

The last of the cookies for breakfast

Real life financial stuff is hard to get done with a toddler in your lap

Still recovering

Saturday:

Cheeeeeeeese.

The last time we went here for lunch, he stood by the door and screamed he HATED sandwiches. This time he ate all of his and part of Caroline’s happily.

Post-cupcake smiles

E actually gets a few more days off (it’s a MIRACLE) before he starts back up with his crazy schedule again, so we’re doing…not much. Lots of cross-it-off-the-list type stuff. Although we haven’t taken down a single Christmas decoration yet and I’m sort of dreading it. Without all the twinkle lights and glitter to hide the dust and holes in the walls I’ll have a lot of spring-cleaning to do – and spring isn’t for a long, long, loooong time.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Day:

We had an amazing holiday, full of food and family and fun. The kids were – and are – insanely spoiled, both with STUFF and attention.

I made Bacon and Hash Brown Egg Bake and Blueberry French Toast Casserole on Christmas Eve to put in the oven in the morning and both were delicious. My plans for an actual Christmas meal were thwarted by total laziness (and maybe my “holiday style” hot cocoa starting at 11 am) and we just turned the ham into sandwiches instead. They were FANTASTIC.

My sister is here to visit for a few days and the kids are already madly in love with her. She brought champagne and chocolate and volunteered to babysit on New Year’s Eve so she can stay forever if she wants. I mean, I know her plan WAS to go to Hawaii for a couple weeks and then move to Paris, but I’m offering a very nice guest room, free food and the chance to hang out with two crazy ginger toddlers as much as she wants so we’ll see. It might be an offer she can’t refuse.

I hope you and your families had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I’ll be on my couch finishing off this bag of candy Santa “forgot” to put in our stockings and Googling “miracle 48-hour juice fast lose 30 pounds today”.

My friends at How To Be A Dad asked if I had any childhood Christmas photos laying around for a post they were putting together and I tracked down one of me meeting a really bored Santa. I thought I’d share the rest of the photos my mom scanned for me, with apologies to my family. Remember, we all thought we looked AWESOME when these were taken.

I have that hat in the closet and the orange knit reindeer jumper upstairs. Caroline wore it last year.

That dress is in Caroline’s closet

Putting things on babies: Hilarious since 1982

I’m making that face because I know one day this picture will NOT be the height of fashion

Caroline wore the dress my sister is wearing to a party last month and ruined it. SAD FACE. But the red one is still upstairs!

MUFF

Candy cane dress is in Caroline’s closet

This one is my favorite.

This was the year we got our “American Girl” dolls that were just blonde baby dolls. My grandmother actually sewed all the outfits after looking at them in a catalog and my grandfather made the chests & beds. I still have all of it.

 We decided to bump Christmas back to the 26th so we could all enjoy being together, so I’ll be back on the 27th when I can sit and breathe and sort through the epic number of pictures I plan to take over the next 3 days. A Blessed Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and may your pants still fit in January!

Thank you for your texts, phone calls and tweets friends. We’re in the other half of the state from the shooting so we are all OK. A friend on Facebook reposted a status update from a relative who lives in Newtown, Connecticut today, thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers but asking that we stop tuning in to the 24/7 news coverage so the media will leave them alone. I couldn’t agree more. I have no words for what happened and my children are too young (thank God) to be aware of what’s happened, so I’m trying to prevent it from affecting them by tuning out. Caroline’s birthday party was on Saturday and I am so, so thankful her 2-year-old world is untouched.

Sunday:

Party prep

Awesome parenting 101: don’t be afraid to use your sleeping daughter as a mouse pad.

Mr. Sparkles McBear

Monday:

Stretches during Stroller Strides

Because obviously you need a helicopter when you go shopping.

I have no idea why I owned so many creepy dolls as a child

Tuesday:

I woke up to silence & found them like this in Caroline’s room.

Buying Mormor a Christmas present in Mystic

Sharing hugs and a calculator

Wednesday:

Caroline demanded the huge car cart then refused to ride in in. Oh, 2 year olds.

Apparently they think the grocery store is really cold?

Part prep #2

Thursday:

Solo grocery shopping with a peppermint mocha = dream come true.

We’ve never been in this toy store before. We will DEFINITELY be going back.

I kind of want a monkey riding a bicycle for my front yard.

Friday:

Up before the sun, but at least he has a cat to keep him warm.

Bumpa made a joke about putting the children to work. The children insisted on following through. Note the jammies under her coat and boots. Note to Bumpa: Toddlers don’t understand sarcasm.

The last photo I took on Friday was at preschool drop off. The rest of the day I checked out of my phone.

Saturday:

Checking out the candy selection on the Frost Your Own Tree table

Someone please come over and help me eat leftovers.

A bathtub tea party requires your best necklace

For the rest of the day we’re going to eat leftover cookies and cuddle on the couch and watch Disney and play anything the kids want to without complaining. Actually, that’s pretty much the plan for every day for the rest of the year. We’re boring, but at least we are together.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!