Okay, it’s official, December is just the busiest, craziest month of the year and if you have found a way to keep from getting sick during the holidays, then you’ve probably got the world’s best immune system or you live in some kind of bubble. This month’s activities included:
- My mom’s birthday and Cathy’s birthday (with weekend getaway in Las Vegas)
- Get togethers of all kinds — friends, work, family, you name it
- School shows and recitals
- Christmas tree chopping
- And of course all the regular shopping you normally do X 10 when you factor in gift buying
- Kidding aside, we did manage to have a lot of fun in December and the only side affects were minor colds for all four of us.
The Gifts
Sometimes December feels like one big countdown to Christmas day — at least it does when your kids constantly ask you when Christmas is coming and tell you what kind of presents they want. Mind you, Cathy is the one who deals with most of harassment from the kids as I get to stay a safe distance for most of the day while I’m at work. She also stays on top of the gift buying, Christmas letter/card writing, and indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations and lighting. Sure, I hang up a few strings of light above the garage and front window, but Cathy handles putting up all the other outdoor decorations and lights as well as running all the extension cords through the appropriate areas so the kids can “oooh and aaaah” over the final results. Yes, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Cathy ;-).
As in previous years, the kids received more than a fair share of presents, but amongst the standout presents were Lilah’s new Casio keyboard and Luke’s Transformer robots and helmet. I think we bought Lilah her keyboard at just the right time because she was starting to get bored of the piano and piano lessons. Now that she has a keyboard in her room we constantly hear her playing and recording her songs. It’s such a nice change.
Luke, on the other hand, has been very much into the Transformers so getting his Transformer robots and helmet has been more than a dream come true. I swear, I have now transformed his robots back and forth into airplanes, robots or cars more times than I can remember — but when you see your child get a face like this after receiving a gift he wants, it makes it all worthwhile.
The Shows
This month, both kids performed in their respective school holiday shows and memorized all the familiar Christmas songs, as well as some that I didn’t know like “I am a Latke,” a Jewish song that Lilah sang to us several times in preparation for her performance. Lilah also danced in the Nutcracker ballet again and had her own little solo moment where she executed a pirouette. When we asked her why she hadn’t told us about “the spin” in her performance, she simply stated that she wanted it to be a surprise. Very sweet.
Another sweet moment was watching Lilah play at her second piano recital where she appeared much more relaxed than last year, playing two songs: “The Quiet Song,” and a nice rendition of “Jingle Bells.” Her piano teacher had insisted on Lilah coming to her house for a practice session before the show so that she could get the songs down just right — even though Lilah did not want to go, in the end I think going paid off for her and she was happy after it was all over.
Luke did a lot of singing in his show. No solo singing or anything, but he sang loud enough for us to hear his voice distinctly amongst all his peers. It was cool to see him get into the spirit of things by participating and being vocal. He also did well banging his sticks together in the opening number which featured a choreographed instrumental performance of sorts.
The Get Togethers
There were so many gatherings this year that it would take me way too long to describe them all — we attended the open house at my work, we got together with some old friends from Xircom (a previous employer) we hadn’t see in years, we met with Cathy’s side of the family, my side of the family, etc. etc.
Of course, this led to lots of late nights for the kids, which I think they enjoyed as demonstrated by all the giggling and screaming as they took turns playing and running around with different sets of kids.
Sure, it took a toll on us, but the good news is we got a chance to see and share stories with a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while and that is definitely something to be thankful for. Now it’s on to some much needed quiet time in January.
Happy New Year everyone!
P.S. Here’s a link to the annual recap letter Cathy sends out just in case you missed it.