Baby! Baby! Baby!

Ha! Fooled you, didn't I?

It wasn't actually on the Christmas list, but when prices on cameras started getting slashed all over the place as Christmas approached, we started getting baby-hungry. Our sweet little Casey Jr. has been all over the world with us, and has done a pretty great job of being ultra-portable and still turning out some pretty decent pictures. We're not putting him up for adoption or anything.

But when this little sugarplum went on sale: Well, let's just say that we were thrilled to welcome little Lucille into our family. It doesn't hurt that she shoots HD video—we've always been partial to gifted children. I'm still working my way through the fraction of her manual that came with her—the rest is online (too long). But just you wait, I see some pretty awesome photos in our future!

An Affair to Remember

Meet Sergio:

After drooling over netbooks for oh, two years, Aaron voluntarily surrendered his position as my number one lover (totally, totally kidding) to this guy. Isn't he hot? And even though I waited patiently (okay not really that patiently—a computer that fits in my purse has sort of been my obsession) for over a year, I am satisfied that Sergio is the absolute best, hottest item out there. How do I know? Because this guy:

doesn't buy anything that isn't the best—best quality, best value, best Consumer Reports reviews, etc. So yeah, my battery life can clear 8 hours no problem. And yeah, this guy:

is going to keep my heart.

A Good Christmas

Simplicity is the thing, when it comes to me and Christmas. Of course there is a part of me (and Aaron too), that wants to go crazy and spoil our children with their every heart's desire. But surpassing that is an impulse to teach them to appreciate the small things, to allow them to grow up with a sense of the difference between a want and a need, and to let them learn the satisfaction that comes with working hard and earning the things they want the most.

There are certain times when it's harder to remember this broader goal. Like when the happy-families-opening-exorbitant-Christmas-gifts-with-sparkling-eyes commercials come on between all the fantastic Christmas movies we love watching this time of year. Or when we read over some of the long Christmas lists that get composed (and we take a few minutes to remind our kids that Santa brings them one Christmas gift and that they should give him a few choices about what it could be).
Other times it's really really easy to remember this goal. Like when we hit December and there's no exploding closet full of special stuff just waiting to be wrapped. Or when we're going shopping for the sixth time in a week and realize that we haven't even started thinking about what will go in the stockings. Then the low expectations standards flood back in a rush of welcome relief.
This year, it was a feat just to pull off a simple Christmas, but it was well worth it. Each child received one nice gift from Santa, a package of books from me (I can't believe I used to wrap these separately—presents take long enough to open as it is!), a package of some special clothing-type item from dad (coveted boots for Addy, a book-bag for Theo), and a gift from one of their siblings (we drew names), purchased with their own hard-earned, hard-saved money. By some people's Christmas standards, this probably seems a bit austere, but once gifts from grandparents are factored in (and they were so generous with us this year--thank you!!), it ended up being just the right amount to keep our morning occupied with gift-opening, our afternoon with enjoying the wonderful gifts, and our evening (and part of the next day) trying to get rid of all the extra boxes and wrapping. Everyone was so pleased with their gifts and so thankful for each of them, that I have a hard time imagining trying to keep up with more than that. And honestly, I'm even beginning to wonder (me!) if it's possible to have too many books. Between a nice fat package for each kid, a few extra separately wrapped book sets, and books from other people, I think we hauled in nearly a hundred new tomes. Jackpot! The only trick now is finding time to read them all—but let's face it, there's not much I'd rather have at the top of my priority list.
Meanwhile, after all that, I got spoiled spoiled spoiled. But we'll talk about my new boyfriend and my new baby in another post.
P.S. We actually tried out that Christmas caroling 'til the mom and dad wake up thing this year, and miracle of miracles, it worked! We started the morning around 7 am (as opposed to 3 am). We also kept the stockings downstairs. I don't think we'll ever go back.

A Swedish Christmas Eve

Since our visit to Sweden a year and a half ago, I've been dying to try out some Swedish traditions during the holiday season. Since last year we actually got to spend the holiday season with my Swedish Grandma Ruthie (which is actually even better), I didn't get a chance then, so this year was the first chance I had. Admittedly it was a little cobbled together, given that there's still plenty of settling in going on, but on Christmas Eve, we went all Swedish. First, Addy dressed up like Santa Lucia early in the morning (in Sweden they celebrate Santa Lucia day on December 13 to kick of the Yule, or the 12 days before Christmas—maybe next year we'll be organized enough to make that happen) and made sweet rolls for the family (from one of the little Pillsbury pop-cans). Then she went to Sera's bedroom and her brothers' bedroom singing Christmas carols. They joined her and went downstairs to wake Aaron with some more carols, and then we all sat down around the table for a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, apple cider (not quite as good as Swedish apple cider, but pretty good all the same), and Swedish eggs (which are really just super-scrambled not quite completely cooked eggs that Aaron is not a fan of, but which is how they served them in Sweden while we were there, and how my dad always prepared them for us growing up). It was a simple tradition, but we all really enjoyed it—the kids went all-out singing Christmas Bells are Ringing in a round, even.

After a fairly chill day (at least I don't really remember what we did during the day—probably more shopping since it seems like that was our main activity almost every day over the break) we had a dinner of Swedish meatballs (there's probably some awesome recipe for this somewhere, but in our house it meant a crockpot of store-bought meatballs and cream of mushroom soup with some sour cream added at the end served over egg noodles), which we followed with a molded rice pudding with raisins and cinnamon—Swedish style, of course!—with one whole almond hidden inside. The tradition goes that whoever gets the almond will have good luck all year long. This year Theo was our lucky winner! We followed dinner with a nativity pageant that featured a little less jumping on the couch than past years. Then we opened Christmas jammies and sang a couple of Christmas carols before bed. I have since learned that we also should have danced around the Christmas Tree singing a Swedish Christmas song. Maybe next year.

How's that for a very dull narration of a rather enjoyable Christmas Eve?