It was Christmas!

Phin almost got it this year. Except for the part where I told him to be good because Santa was coming. He was over that by December third. Pretty sure to him it felt like I was talking about this guy for years and he hadn't showed, so what exactly was the point.

I get that. Santa bribery is for suckers anyway because come December 26th you got nothing in your arsenal. We'll stick with, do what I say kid or I'm going to burn your stuffed animals to dust. Kidding. Phin is all to willing to throw highly flammable creatures into a fire.

Christmas eve was the longest night ever. While I want my kids to do nothing but sleep 364 days of the year, I was so excited for Phinny to wake up and squeal with delight that I was up checking the clock every thirty minutes. There wasn't exactly any squealing, Phin's not a morning person, but it was incredibly sweet. He wanted to do it all over again the next day. Tried to explain to him that we had to wait a year but the concept didn't quite click. This is a guy who adamently believes Santa is two years old, like him. Try to explain limited resources to that. By the way, I hope he believes he and Santa are the same age next year. I don't know where he came up with that, but we couldn't convince him otherwise.

Gray was a sweet little babe who didn't care what day of the year it was as long as he was fed and cuddled. He got plenty of both. And a stocking full of baby socks and teething toys. He also received a plethora of jammies because Santa doesn't waste time on baby toys when big brother still has plenty. Next year baby Gray, you'll get yours.

Batman

You should know that I cried and cursed five minutes into costume making. That’s when Jared took over and I supervised. Either way, we ended up with the coolest little batman.

 Proof?

Gray's costume is, uh, currently under construction. Yeah.  

You know what people say?

I'll tell you.

They say, "Hey, do you know Mel?"

They say, "Oh the patriotic Mel? The one that sings the Star Spangled Banner in perfect pitch and glows red, white and blue while she sleep? (The glow comes from the lovely casino lights down the street and not so much an internal patriotism monitor, but no one is fact checking this sucker.)

Then they say, "Yeah. That Mel."

Oh, you people. You're making me blush.

I do love this country. Sure it has it's faults. But c'mon, what doesn't? Mothers, ice cream, education, one year old babies named Phinny. All things that are near and dear to my heart, none of which are flawless

So we celebrated.

If you live in Reno, you probably hit up water on the 4th. 100+ degrees drives you to it. Tahoe is our choice. 30 minutes for crystal blue water. After a week of Phin not letting go of my leg, floating on my back in that perfect lake for 5 uninterrupted minutes was medicine for the soul. Plus watching him lay face down in the sand was awesome. Guess you know pretty early on if you're not a towel man.

Just wanted to say..

We're at the epicenter of good times over here humans. Hope the holiday weekend is treating you right.

Dear Monster Monster,

Today was your very first Pieday. Before you ever existed your Daddy and I tried to get everyone over for the holidays (when I say holidays, I wasn't picky. I would have taken Flag day!) but no one would come. They all had long standing plans else where. So we did what any logical people would do, we made up our own. Nobody can claim tradition elsewhere on a made up holiday. Well, they can, but we'll talk about liars when your older.

We decided the most important factor in creating a holiday was the food. Obvious, right? We chose pie. Pieday. What do you do on Pieday? You eat. lots and lots and lots more pie. We made 23 this year. Even with a monster rolling around our feet and demanding to fed and cuddled and occasionally wanting a superman to eat. Monster, please learn to respect your superheros. He didn't save our planet just to have a monster eat his head in between Cheerios.

I didn't burn any pies this year. I didn't yell at your daddy until at least 30 hours into the bake fest. And I didn't poison anyone. Total success.



You preferred mac and cheese.