Christmas Pictures

All right, so please indulge me for a bit here. Since none of my own family was with me for Christmas, I'm going to post a ton of pictures of the event. Sorry if that's terribly boring for any of the rest of you.

Having said that, we had a great Christmas. It took Bentley two days to open all his presents, and we finally finished opening Kendra's presents for her on the 27th (they were becoming too big a temptation for Bentley!). Everyone was very generous and kind to us (as you'll be able to see!). Craig's parents spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us and we had a super-fun time. I especially enjoyed kicking back and letting Craig and his mom bake all the pies AND make Christmas dinner. They are too kind to me! One of these days I'm going to need to buckle down and actually learn how
to bake... But not this year!


Kendra looks longingly at the presents.


Looks like Santa came in a big way!


We're happy because the children are nestled all snug in their beds


Kendra thinks that she is a present. (Note that she can still drool more than any other baby...!)


Bentley plays with Kendra's toys while she plays with Bentley's toys. And everyone's happy!


Bentley practices his hammering skills. He wants to help Daddy around the house...




Kendra's presents are routinely bigger than she is!






Ironically, Kendra is practicing standing up on the box of the toy that's supposed to help her stand up...


Kendra looks in awe at her new baby doll.


We proudly sport our new, matching Bay Hay & Feed t-shirts. I miss Bainbridge!

Standards

My Mom is a pro at loading the dishwasher. If there were an Olympic event for cramming every single possible dirty dish into a dishwasher, my Mom would win, no contest. They wouldn't even need judges or scores or anything, she'd just win. When we were kids and we landed “dishes” on the chore chart, we were never allowed to start the dishwasher until Mom had had a chance to inspect and add whatever dishes we’d either missed or didn’t think there was room for. Even this last time my parents visited me here, I was still impressed with how much my Mom managed to put into my tiny dishwasher (I would have just done two loads—- what a waste!).

I don't think I have any hope of ever rising to my mother's level in this department. However, I have discovered my own little quirk when it comes to doing dishes. I HAVE to have the spoons separated. I HATE it when they’re stuck together, because then I just know that they didn’t get clean and I need to wash them all over again. I have this elaborate method of putting silverware into the little silverware pockets so that the spoons are never allowed to find each other and, well, spoon. We all have to have our own standards for these things.

Pictures

I have a hard time getting pictures of Bentley these days. Getting him just to hold still is tricky, and then convincing him to remove his binky and smile is bordering on the impossible. So I was pleased with how well these two pictures turned out. (No, I don't let him watch Cars all day long-- really!) And since I'm posting pictures, I may put up one of Kendra, too. Enjoy!

Writer's Block?!?!?!

So I've been trying to write my Christmas newsletter, and I have to admit, it's not going well. I feel like it's a huge (read: REALLY LONG) list of everything we've done over the last two years (since I never got around to sending one out in 2007) and there's nothing very personal about it and it's boring. So I think I have writer's block over it or something. But every time I think of something personal or funny or whatever that might make the newsletter worth reading, I realize that I put that on the blog. So if I put it in the newsletter, too, it will just be a repeat and THAT would be totally lame. So now I'm leaning more towards just sending out a family photo and calling it good. I don't know. We still haven't managed to take a family picture, either, but at least the black eyes have vanished, so we'll look a bit healthier when we do finally get around to it!

The funny thing is that I love writing this stuff usually! So I'm not sure why it feels so difficult this time around... Anyway, I'll get something done eventually. I promise!

Patriotism (or something)

So I’ve noticed a trend in the various garbage pickup services around here. Their names are American Disposal, Patriot, and USA. What’s up with the garbage market having a monopoly on patriotism??? I don’t see anyone else trying this tactic—-realtors, clothing manufacturers, shoe stores, coffee houses… Nope, only the garbage men are proud to be Americans. What’s up with that?

Black-Eyed Smiths

We are looking very beat up these days. On Thanksgiving, Bentley managed to run into the corner of the table and now he has a big bruise just below his eye. Then on Friday, Craig was breaking sticks for our fire (I LOVE OUR FIREPLACE), and one of them snapped up and scratched him right under his eye. And then this afternoon I was supposed to be watching Kendra on the bed but she managed to fall off it anyway (I did dive across the bed trying to catch her, but to no avail) and somehow she scraped herself right under her eye! I considered asking Craig to punch me so I’d fit in, but I figure I’m klutzy enough that I probably don’t need the help. As if this all weren’t pathetic enough, I was hoping to take a family picture this week to send out for our Christmas cards! I guess we’ll have to wait a bit on that one, or else I’m sure we’ll have some social worker knocking on our door… (If they haven’t already spotted my blog. Maybe they’re on their way now!)