Gifting

Okay, so I had to post pix of Ben having fun with his new toys. All the lovely, moral, responsible parents I know often complain that the holidays have become too commercial, and they aren't buying their kids a bunch of presents because they don't want to send the wrong message. I nod agreeably, but secretly I'm thinking: Presents rock!!! If I was rich I would buy people presents all the time, and I love getting them! It's exciting seeing them under the tree and telling Santa stories and making a big mess with wrapping paper and playing with your new loot in your jammies and finding candy in your stocking, and I have a little boy who is going to get some fun, fun stuff. My parents always gave my sis and I gads of presents, and we didn't grow up to be godless degenerate bankrupt shopaholics. Presents are super fun. They are just one small part of what makes Christmas great, and whereas they do not reduce me to tears like carols and stories and midnight mass, I love them!

Feliz Navidad

December

This will probably be my one post this month, so I'll just toss in a random assortment of photos. Advent is slipping through our fingers so quickly this year. Tomorrow we are going to have "Christmas at home" by waking up and opening our gifts to each other in our pajamas, having pigs in a blanket and mulled cider for breakfast, lazily playing with our new things (i.e., Ben's new toys), and then having Beef Bourguignon for dinner (Ok, I'll be making that, so I won't be quite as lazy as the boys). Thus far Advent has been enjoyable, despite a preponderance of new baby molars: Ben is taking wary steps without support now and then, and we've had a couple of big snows and eaten way too many cookies. The frigid weather has held off until this week (it was 2 degrees when we woke up this morning), and as a result I purchased a pair of mittens for Ben today. As soon as I got them on his chubby paws in the store, he held out his hands to me, beseeching removal.

Here are a selection of recent photos: hanging out with George in the reading chair, probing a mouth full of new teeth with his tongue, developing a 5 o'clock blueberry shadow, and exercising restraint by not destroying the tree.