Santa, I can explain

You see, Santa, when I first got my glasses, I was fine with them. I did not really attempt to take them off other than when I was tired.

A few months ago that changed. For some reason unknown to me I did not want those things on my nose anymore. I kept feeling this urge to grab a hold of them and yank them off my face the instant they came on. Next thing mama and daddy knew my glasses were under my bouncy seat. I would also throw them as far as I could, or hide them by sitting on them...
Mama and daddy thought my eyes had gotten miraculously better and believed my glasses must be too strong for me now. An appointment with the opthalmologist was made, and they usually are WAY in the future. For a while they kind of gave up on putting the glasses on my nose because they certainly did not want me to get a headache or otherwise suffer!

Finally the appointment came. Surprise: my eyes had not improved at all! The opthalmologist told mama and daddy that sometimes kids will do that for no apparent reason. I had just decided that I wanted to take my glasses off because I could. I made mama laugh out loud when daddy and I showed her my trick: daddy would put my glasses on and I would do nothing, just watch him. He would walk away and disappear from sight, and I would promptly grab my glasses and throw them away! That was fun for a while, but daddy was on to me. He became the glasses nazi! He seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and knew instantly when I just THOUGHT about reaching for them...Mama and Ama were pretty close seconds and my own sister Kaitlyn (we call her Sissy) ratted me out all the time!

I knew I had to do something. My time had come when daddy and I went downtown to meet Ama, mama, and Sissy. They had been to see the Nutcracker and were meeting us at the Melting Pot restaurant, where mama and daddy were going for dinner. Ama would take Sissy and me to her house. Daddy was in a hurry and after parking the car, putting me in the stroller and making sure my glasses were on, we rushed over to meet the others. It was very cold that day and I looked like a little snowman, all bundled up. Quite cute actually, even though I say so myself!
Daddy went really fast and was not paying attention to me. There was my chance! I yanked off my glasses, held them over the side of the stroller, and opened my hand...
When we arrived at the restaurant, mama and daddy had to rush inside and Ama whisked us off to her house. Mama did notice that I was not wearing my glasses, but she thought daddy had stuck them inside the diaper bag.
Honestly, Santa, I did not mean any harm to anyone. Even though those glasses look really cute on me, they annoy the heck out of me and I just had to do it!

All this happened just a few days before Christmas and I think you might not have gotten the message about this incident in time to stop my presents from being delivered...thank you very much for all the cool stuff; I love each and every one of my presents and promise to play with them a lot!
I thought I should write you a little explanation just in case this would count against me next year... Another pair of glasses have already been ordered and I bought myself only a tiny bit of glasses-free time, so I think I have been punished enough.
Please remember that I was not thinking clearly before I did it, something very common with babies and little kids as you know. I promise to do a better job of keeping them on my nose! (Did you also know, that babies have something called infantile amnesia? Just keep it in mind in case I forget my promise...)
Thank you for listening to me, Santa.
I love you very much and we will have cookies and milk out for you again next Christmas Eve,

Alexander

p.s. Say Hi to all the reindeer for me - I will make sure mama leaves out a treat for them next year, too!

It's Christmas!

We have the most beautiful mailbox in our neighborhood!

Apart from Hootie, everyone is enjoying Christmas.

Zander showing off his chocolate letter; KK and Zander visit Santa; KK and Aaron show their Christmas Eve present!

Twas the morn after Christmas

't Was the morn after Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring but the teeth chattering in Hootie's mouth.
The birds keep teasing him and I smile, sipping my coffee,
they know the cat is safely inside; they twitter with glee.

The stockings that were hung by the chimney with care,
are now draped on the couch, discarded and bare.
Presents plentiful, adorned with ribbons and bows, were all unwrapped.
Scores of pictures taken to help remember Christmas 2008, now past.

Christmas dinner with goose, ham, wine and family,
oh and of course apple pie...sigh...is now a delicious memory.
Aunt Betsy's antlers stayed on KK's head as a permanent adornment today,
that's all right, since after all, at Oma's in Holland it's second Christmas Day!

A well-deserved vacation is awaiting Ama and Poppi with umbrella drinks, sea and sun.
Hopefully "grandkids withdrawal" will not spoil their St. Maarten fun...
I am filled with gratitude, God, for everything You have blessed me with this year:
my family, our new home, and especially our baby home with us is filling me with cheer!

Now, the task of preparing dinner awaits and for the future as well as tonight,
along with joy, peace and blessings I wish I may, I wish I might

wish you all a Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

and a Happy New Year too...

Fa la la la

What a wonderful time of the year! The Christmas music has been playing for a couple of weeks now and the move is behind us. Jim and I are still both alive (we have not killed eachother during the move) and we are still married. Yay! We have survived what is going to be the last move in a long, long, long time.
The kids' rooms and the kitchen are pretty much all done. The rest of the house can wait until after the holidays. The Christmas tree is all decorated and so is the deck. Even though many of the boxes are still packed in the garage, it feels great to be home. I love waking up in the morning and watching the sky turn red as the sun gets ready to rise.

After reading "The littlest Christmas Tree", Kaitlyn decided she wanted her own little tree in her room. So, when we went to pick out our tree for the living room, we found a cute little tree for KK. I found mini lights which flashed, to my horror and Kaitlyn's delight, and yesterday I discovered a whole section of mini ornaments at Michael's. Her little tree is beautiful, complete with a star on top!

Last night I tried to take pictures for our Christmas card. Jim bathed the kids, so when I came home all I had to do was set up the place for them to sit and pose. I took a whole bunch of pictures with my regular camera, so I hope we can find at least one that will work for our card.

While we were decorating the tree, Jim found one of the santa hats from the ferrets and put it on Hootie's ear. Poor thing started to get so upset! I took it off him and he did not leave my side all evening. He just knew I would protect him from Evil Daddy!

Did I mention that I love our house? I love our house!
This Christmas will be the best ever...especially since all our babies will be here. The biggest one, Aaron, will arrive on December 21st. The littlest one, Zander, will spend his first Christmas home, with us. Just thinking about that makes me tear up.
It is a simple reminder that we should not take anything for granted, but appreciate all we have and enjoy every second of being together.
That's what I will be doing this Christmas!