Thursday, January 3, 2013

Happy New Year - 2013

Woo Hoo, Madeline! STRIKE!! (Playing Wii)
New Years Eve always seems to be the wind down of the Christmas chaos, the Christmas festivities as well as the overindulgence in goodies of all kinds.  Before children, David and I often rang in the new year by celebrating with friends at overnight hotel package galas in Niagara Falls.  We have been know to fly through the hotel hallways (at God only knows what hour) riding on luggage carts and have slow danced with a blow up doll that was being thrown around a dance floor, in the manor that beach balls are tossed around the crowd at a concert or sporting event.  We've had our share of dancing the night away and partying into the wee hours of the morning.  Since children, life has slowed considerably and we are also greatly enjoying this change of pace as well.

Appetizer night
What's THIS??  A noise maker?!?!?!
David and I love our kids to pieces, yet we also thoroughly enjoy kissing them good night, tucking them in and enjoying our own quiet time.  We had a laid back kind of celebration, starting with an evening of Wii (a Santa family gift).  If I do say so myself, my Buffalo roots shine through when it comes to playing Wii Bowling.  For dinner, Madeline and I had gone out shopping earlier in the day and picked out a number of goodies for an "appetizer night".  Although David is not a huge fan of appetizer nights, I enjoy (way too much) the ability to "graze" and Madeline was super excited about being able to stand (because of the type of dinner) while eating.  Anyone who knows Madeline well, knows that she is a ball of energy that seems to run on a motor. And so, Madeline being excited about being able to move as she eats is kind of comical.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (Notice the time).  Looking at this picture,  I can just hear Jonathan yelling, "yeaah!"
As I previously stated, I love my children to pieces, yet I am of the belief that there is absolutely no reason they need to stay up until midnight.  Why try to have them hold out on their bedtime when, most likely they will not make it until midnight??  The only thing I would be doing is having my children (who would still get up at their normal time) be sleep deprived both late on the 31st and be grumpy munchkins on the 1st.  We opt to celebrate New Year's Eve early and send the kids to bed, maybe only just a tad late.

Party overload!! Bedtime to begin in 10..9..8..7..6..5.....
With the rest of the evening to claim as our own, you would think that David and I would find an exciting way to ring in the new year.  Well....I guess we "old timers" just aren't as exciting as we used to be.  Despite the lack of excitement, our evening was still enjoyable.  We sat on the couch and watched the ball drop in Times Square.  What the heck....good enough for us!  We stayed awake until the East Coast New Year......and so we went to sleep shortly after 11pm.

Getting ready to ride "Diego's Rescue Rider"
New Years Day was another low key day.  We decided that we should do some sort of activity with the kids but, due to the holiday, our options were limited.  David and I would've loved to take the kids to a movie, but Jonathan is still too young for that.  We decided the good ole standby - the Mall of America.  The kids were as happy as could be to go on some rides and David & I were happy to snag (unknowingly) a "Kids Eat Free" deal for dinner.

Merry-Go-Round time!
Wednesday morning came and the 12 day stretch of having David home from work came to an end.  In the morning I got David off to work and Madeline off to school as I tried to (with little success) make some sense out of the tornado that hit our house during the Christmas season. Yet, unbeknownst to me, there was one more New Year event awaiting me.  After the kids were in their PJs and ready to watch a nighttime TV show, I decided to hop into the shower before I changed into my own pajamas.  As I settle into the warmth of my relaxing shower, from the glass shower door in my bathroom I could see Jonathan toddling in.  I knew David wasn't far behind.  Sure enough, David comes into the bathroom with the unopened bottle of champagne from the night before.  "How nice", I thought. We can put the kids to bed and share some of the champagne that was not touched on New Years Eve.  David pops the cork and.....here is where time began to stand still.  I see David shake the bottle, open the shower door and spray chilled champagne all over. I am fairly certain that the neighbors heard me screaming as I ducked and dodged the cold champagne that was spraying into the shower.  I was screaming, Jonathan starts mimicking my scream, Madeline comes tearing through the house to see what is going on and she starts screaming as well.  As the champagne bottle stops exploding, David merely says, "Happy New Year!", gathers up the kids and walks out of the bathroom.  Nothing like causing a raucous before bedtime!!!  Some people might have been ticked off at that entire exchange, however, I decided that was a great way to kick off 2013.  In fact, I look at that and hope that our (and your) entire new year is like that - fun, playful, exciting, spontaneous and full of laughter.  Happy New Year!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Christmas 2012

THE reason for the season - at Nativity scene in St. Paul Cathedral
Yes, the end of Thanksgiving weekend and the arrival of my sisters was the "kickoff" to the Christmas season for us, however, our true "nitty gritty" came in a whirlwind of preparations once the 6 nights of the sisters' Christmas extravaganza ended. Christmas shopping, cookie baking, gingerbread house decorating, Christmas party attending, school function attending, Santa prep, wrapping, cooking, waiting..... all ensued at a frantic pace.  Every year I say I want to be ready for Christmas early so that I can leisurely enjoy the season and yet, every year, I seem to fail miserably at this goal.  Hmmmm.....maybe that should be on my list of New Years Resolutions (again) for 2013.

Goodies from Buffalo and Canada
OF COURSE hair dye is part of the preparations!
"Rhinestone Cowboy" on the way to David's work party
The kids with Santa - Mall of America
All this Christmas hustle and bustle started off with some more work travel for David (grrr).  David actually left the same day that my sisters did.  This time he was off to Toronto (via Buffalo).  Thankfully it was a short trip, only two days - but an early Christmas present for me was all the goodies David brought back from our old stomping grounds.  Not only did his morning flight arrived back in Minnesota with him carrying along donuts for breakfast from Tim Horton's but David also came with many of the goodies needed to feed a WNY food fix - sponge candy, pastry hearts, some Wegmans couscous blends and Coffee Crisp candy bars (from Canada).  David's mom had also requested some Polish food for our Indiana Christmas dinner.  Unfortunately, the day that David's schedule allowed him to visit Redlinski's for kielbasa & pierogi, Redlinski's was closed.  The good news, however, is that I was forced to find a local alternative (not so easy to do here).  I am pleased to say that the kielbasa (Kramarczuk's) and pierogi (Ziach's) that I found here was a not so bad, in a pinch, alternative - and was "taste tested" during our Indiana Christmas.

Our family with Santa
Shhhhh...don't tell Santa!
Of course *only* after a trip to the salon for a much need hair dye AND a *painful* day of shopping for an outfit....which I STILL wasn't 100% happy with (not sure if I looked like the Rhinestone Cowboy or a Cheektowaga (NY) granny heading to Vegas), I was prepped and ready to attend David's work Christmas party.  The party this year was at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis.  Cocktail hour, and a dinner while watching the jazz performance was an enjoyable night out for David and me.

Dinner at Rainforest Cafe after seeing Santa
Proud author at school's "author share"
Kitchen linens with Mom's & Grandma's handwriting


Madeline making a pot holder for Uncle Marty
I was super, super, busy organizing and managing all our last minute details, however, I was also extremely excited about one of the gifts I was giving.  For my family's "Kris Kringle" gift exchange, David and I had my sisters, Marysia and Margaret.  Our family has purposely set a low price budget on our exchange to (a) continue with the spirit of giving between us siblings and spouses and (b) this helps to focus our gift purchases to be more personalized (a fun challenge with a small budget).  For my sisters (got the idea from Pintrest), David and I scanned in some hand written recipes - one in my mom's handwriting and one in my grandmother's handwriting.  David helped me upload the images to a website that creates custom fabric from your scanned images.  With the very skilled helped of my cousin, Judy, the fabric was cut, hemmed and sewn to create custom kitchen linen towels with my mother's and grandmother's handwriting.  The only thing I regret is not ordering enough fabric to make some for myself!!  Nothing is better than having a gift to give that you are excited about giving. (Thanks Judy!)

As the weekend before Christmas arrived, I still hadn't baked any Christmas cookies.  Before children I used to enjoy baking cookies.  In fact, when David and I where still living in our apartment (mid to late 90's) I used to take a day off of work and turn the kitchen into Amy's bakery, making numerous types of cookies.  Now, cookie making is one of my least favorite things to do because it is so time consuming.....and at this time of year I usually have so little time.  Besides, although cookies are one of my favorite treats in the world, we ALL know who would end up eating the majority of these cookies.  Yep, me - the one who needs it the least!  Thank God for Super-Dad, David!!  Since Madeline was bugging out about making cookies for Santa, David took the time to bake with Madeline as I finished our last minute Christmas shopping.
Madeline starting the cookie making

Licking the beaters clean from frosting
Cookie decorating
Madeline as gingerbread house architect
Madeline and I are ready to tackle the mall
Finally, Christmas Eve arrived!  I managed to prepare a traditional Polish Wigilia dinner, which we enjoyed after attending a 4pm Mass.  Why do I mention this???  To be able to say that with two over excited and, although only 4pm, probably two overtired kids at Mass, "issues" are bound to arise.  Mass was pretty hysterical.  Jonathan was pretty good for the beginning, yet he decided that he wanted to get down and wander.  I carried Jonathan to the side entrance so as to not disturb people around us.  Since it was a Christmas Mass the church had temporary overflow seating all the way down the side corridor.  I spied the glassed in entrance foyer and tested out the temperature....heated, yeah!  I decided to take Jonathan in there so that he could run around a little. As Jonathan pulled on the glass doors, but could not open them, I was proud of my problem solving ability - that is until Jonathan figured out that he just needed to hit the handicap door button.  I tried to stand guard in front of the button but either my butt would hit the button and/or my crazed son would somehow get a hand behind me.  UGH!  Finally, I decided that I needed a moment of prayer time too and it was David's shift with the little man.  David found his way with Jonathan to the church's "crying room' (huh?! who knew?!....obviously, we have yet to find a "home parish")  Jonathan's behavior was not much better and so David has now renamed the crying room to be "the penalty box". 

A break from shopping to visit with friends
More mall silliness
We got home, I finished cooking up our meal and we sat down to enjoy our Christmas Eve celebration.  Madeline LOVES this meal.  It certainly helps that she loves fish.  In fact, between *only* Madeline and I, the two of us polished off a jar of herring!  Yet Madeline also enjoys the tradition of the oplatki, or sharing of the Christmas wafer.......or shall I say, what Madeline calls the "special chips".  By the time dinner was over, Mama and Papa were exhausted!  We put out the cookies and milk for Santa and a treat for the reindeer and shuffled the kids off to bed as quickly as possible so that Santa would be able to arrive. 

Sharing Opletki for the first time - Christmas Eve
Madeline showing Jonathan the ropes of getting ready for Santa
Our Christmas tree
Christmas morning is always a very laid back, stay in your PJs until late afternoon kind of day.  A present explosion, followed by taking lots of time, playing and exploring our new toys, together as a family.  Santa was very good to us this year.....we really are truly blessed by God - family, friends, health, a job, a home.....the list goes on and on.  So, so blessed!

Santa arrived!!!
Opening some gifts.....so fun!
A Christmas explosion!
Our Christmas dinner was a quicker recipe than the Beef Wellington that I have made in years past.  This year we had a Roast (beef) Tenderloin.  Such an easy recipe and so good (thanks Wegmans.com).  Christmas Day ended with Madeline coming to the dinner table with chills.  Madeline barely ate two bites and headed to bed with a 104 fever.  Poor gal....  Thankfully Madeline fought the fever overnight.  We weren't sure if we were still going to travel to Indiana that day, however after assessing the situation when Madeline awoke and monitoring the situation during the morning, we decided that we would still leave for Indiana that afternoon (we figured that Madeline would actually rest *more* with a day in the car than if we were home).

By Wednesday evening we were in Indiana and ready for round two of our Christmas celebrations.  Madeline and Jonathan enjoy spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Yet, Jonathan is not as good of a traveler as Madeline was as a toddler.  Therefore, Jonathan's sleeping is very much disturbed when we travel.  David and I slept worse on this trip (due to Jonathan getting up during the night) than when Jonathan was a newborn!  Although I am sure David's dad enjoyed our visit, I am also certain that he was ready for us to leave too, so that he could also get some sleep!  Our "Indiana Christmas" involved arranging a meal to be brought in and shared at David's mom's nursing home.  A private conference room was reserved and thanks to David's sister, Carolyn, the room was transformed into a Christmas Wonderland.  Each of the siblings contributed a piece of the celebration and we had a very nice celebration together at the nursing home.  Unfortunately, I have a very bad habit of taking very few pictures while in Indiana.  As a result,  I do not have much to share, in terms of photos, from our trip to Indiana.

SCOOOORRREEEEE!
Madeline playing with her new My Little Pony wedding Castle
Aunt Lynn playing with Jonathan - in Indiana
We were on the road again on Saturday (29th).  We were ready to have a few relaxing days at home before David headed back to work, therefore, we were pleased to make the near 500 mile trip - with two kids and a dog, with only one stop!  We made record time at 7 hours.....woo hoo!

David took Jonathan to Lake Michigan in his home town - in Indiana
Hustle, bustle, shopping, wrapping, traveling......they can all be fun, however, the absolute best gift I was given is the extra quality time with David and the kids.  The love of those that are dear to you is what makes this time of year special.  THIS is my gift.  THIS I cherish.