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Introduction
Christmas, Christmas, I do love Christmas. I have to admit that my family has always been one of those case studies in excess that smacks so loudly of consumerism that it is somewhat embarrassing. But I also must say that it is fun fun fun and I just love Christmas at my house. It’s so much fun, in fact, that rather then make it one day we stretch it out into at least two and this year, with the bonus of my lengthy semester break, it practically lasted a week. Every year, for the past twenty years at least, my mom has thrown a Christmas Eve party. It’s like something out of a Christmas Story, with friends coming and going, lots of food, and a visit from Santa Clause, during which he passes out presents to anyone under the age of twenty at the party. Despite being a little tired, overstimulated, and clingy, Ella absolutely came to life when Santa showed up. He came down the stairs “Ho ho hoing” all the way and Ella shrieked in delight and started laughing herself. Thus commenced and absolutely charming few minutes in which Santa would give out a big belly laugh and then Ella would respond with one of her own, clutching her belly and bending over in a perfect mimic of him. By the end of it all the whole room was laughing along and Ella was shreaking with laughter, I know just because everyone else was.
I mentioned the excess of Christmas day and this was no exception. Through a combination of a ka-jillion presents and a little self restraint we manage to spread the present opening throughout the whole day, starting around 8AM and ending around 8PM. Despite my halfhearted attempts to keep Ella from mass merchandising I seem to have dismally failed and the theme of this year’s gifts seemed to be a combination of Disney Princesses and Barbie. What can I say, those merchandisers are doing something well since she is all over them and it’s at a point where if something—anything—is Princesses or Barbie she just loves it, whereas she might not give it the time of day otherwise. Sigh… what’s a mom to do?
Ella’s biggest present was a ‘big girl’ bike, complete with streamers, a water bottle, and, what else, Disney Princesses up and down the sides. Although she is still a little small for it she was thrilled, climbing aboard many times just to smile at everyone and pretend that she was a princess riding a bike. Hopefully by the spring her feet will be able to reach the pedals enough to ride them… I think I also mentioned a while ago that I got her and my mom tickets to go see Dora’s Pirate Adventure in March. Later in the week the two of them rented and watched the production on television so now my mom is all versed in who and what Dora is all about (sometimes I forget everyone doesn’t know this stuff) and Ella was singing the songs from it the rest of the afternoon.
One of MY biggest presents was a new digital camera. Wa-hoo! How exciting! I have been playing with it ever since and the idea of never developing another lousy picture again just leaves me giddy. I don’t think I have all the pieces for linking it directly to the computer, though, so it won’t make it any easier to put them online, so I will have to continue to scan the good ones and intend to do so shortly so you all can see the latest and greatest…
Other then that our time at the Cape was mostly spent relaxing and hanging out doing puzzles, going out to eat, just whatever. We did presents with Jamie’s family on Christmas Eve and then the two of them went over again after Christmas. They are much more subdued in their celebration and, while I really have nothing wrong with that, admire it a bit even, their festivities tend to dwarf in comparison to my families.
One of the days I decided to take Ella ice skating for the first time. That didn’t go so well. She was very excited about the whole concept of going skating, even when I warned her she would probably fall, and was able to walk on dry land but as soon as her skates touched the ice and she started to slip she was petrified and refused to go back out. Finally I bribed her with a snack from the snack bar but even then she would only go for a minute, literally. They wouldn’t let the kids use milk crates or anything, and they also didn’t have the double bladed skates, but I don’t know if that would have made much difference, she was so nervous. I’m not sure if I should try again this year or just hold off and wait until next year. I’d really like her to learn but I don’t want to go shell out a big chunk of cash for another minute of skating (I couldn’t even go myself either, since there was no way I was leaving her alone in the stands while I skated)…. Any ideas out there?
We did have one particularly awful episode during our time on the Cape. I may have mentioned that my mom has three dogs and when myself, my grandmother and my brother all add ours to the mix we are up to six dogs which is definitely a pack. It’s kind of crazy but you get used to it after a while and they actually all get along pretty well. Coco is the oldest of the bunch and will play sometimes but usually prefers to find a quiet spot to get away from all the chaos. In any case I think the holiday excitement was too much for my mom’s dog Jesse, an older Springer that truthfully I have never been too fond of. One night as Ella was getting on my mom’s bed, Jesse decided this was her territory and she was sick of being bugged and she lunged at Ella, biting her in the face. I wasn’t in the room (my mom was) but I heard the whole thing and needless to say there was a very frightened pre-schooler when all was said and done. She had a number of small scratches on her face and one more significant puncture on her left cheek, probably only a half inch or so but it bled plenty. I wonder if it will leave a permanent scar or not. If so, it will be small, but still… Fortunately Ella has not seemed to have taken any fear of dogs away from this experience and is even comfortable around Jesse. She seems empowered by the new (obvious) rule of making sure a grown up gets Jesse off the bed before she gets on it.
Weight worries
Another unfortunate thing I seem to have taken from the holidays are a few extra pounds. I will admit I have been fairly loose about monitoring my weight and my intake for quite some time now and my exercise is next to none. I just lack the discipline necessary but things seemed to be going along fairly well without my vigilance. Lately, however, the numbers had been creeping in a bad direction and the holidays definitely hastened this slide into ‘overweightness’. I have never been a skinny person but have been wearing size 12 pants since college (with a dip down to 10 around my wedding) and was happy to at least maintain this standard. I have to admit, however, that it has been harder and harder to close many jeans and it’s now at a point where my ‘fat pants’ are the only ones that are not yet snug on me.
One of the things that has been keeping me from embarking on an official ‘lose weight’ campaign is that hope that soon I will be growing so much bigger every day with a big healthy baby inside that a few extra pounds won’t matter one way or another. But that’s been my excuse for quite a few months now and the realistic side of me knows that it’s really no excuse, since pounds are pounds and fat is fat… but the real reason is just plain fear. Fear of failure, of my own inability to set a schedule and stick to it. Fear of hunger, fear of chocolate cravings, fear of admitting that I am just fat and getting fatter and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Enough of that, though—I refuse to go buy a whole new set of pants because I am too damn lazy and scared to face myself. So now, effective immediately, I am officially going to try to ‘cut back’. Nothing crazy but no more cookies, chocolate, full fat cheese, all that good stuff. Hopefully I can stave off this creep upwards in the scale enough to keep my pants on, at least until I need maternity pants…
Disney World
As if we haven’t had enough fun lately, next week we are embarking on a quick little jaunt down to Disney World. A friend of mine has a relative who works high up in Disney and the trip was originally going to be a Disney Cruise, which I was really looking forward to, but that fell through so instead we are just doing three nights in Orlando, spending the days at Disney World and the Animal Kingdom. I hate to sound like the most ungrateful person in the world, but I can’t say I’m too excited for the trip. First of all, I wouldn’t have considered it at all except that we were supposed to be getting some great deal but as it turns out we will be getting the hotel for half price but nothing else so we will probably save about $200 and spend about $1200. Furthermore, while I’m sure we will all have fun, and I definitely wanted to take Ella at some point, I still think she’s pretty young to really enjoy, appreciate, and remember all that Disney World has to offer. And finally I have never been a big fan of traveling with another couple. Call me selfish or a control freak but I always feel like I’m not able to do the trip the way I want. I’ve been traveling with my family long enough that we all have systems or patterns that work for us, including the ability to go off on your own when you don’t want to do the same things. I know this couple is being nice, but they don’t seem to feel that way and have already made, then cancelled, dinner reservations when I told them I didn’t want to go where they did. So, bottom line is I’m sure we will have a wonderful time and Ella is thrilled but I’m only lukewarm about the whole thing and embarrassed to feel this way.
On a side note, I’ve noticed that since I’ve been a pretty good stickler about too much TV or movies Ella is not too aware of many of the characters she will be seeing. But wait—didn’t I just say a few paragraphs ago that she loves the princesses? Well, yes she does but, aside from Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty she doesn’t really know their stories or how they relate to each other. So I have thrown caution to the wind and gone to the video store to try to get all this into her head in less then a week. Today, it is Snow White, tomorrow, Peter Pan. On the horizon, Pinocchio and Dumbo….
Other then that I have checked out a couple of web sights about Disney with kids under 6 but would love to hear any tips from those who have been there/done that.
New Year/Last Year
We are planning a very quiet night at home to welcome in 2005. The past year has been a fun one for me, I have enjoyed being back at school and learning about nursing and the last year has really allowed me to watch Ella’s personality grow more and more. We moved into the new house which wasn’t fun but was definitely an investment in our future and worth all the aggravation. Jamie and I had a wonderful (short) vacation alone to the Keys last winter and then the whole family had a nice cruise in the summer. And of course, this was the year that the Red Sox broke The Curse and Won the World Series (this would have been first on Jamie’s list of significant events).
With any luck 2005 should be just as exciting, if not more so. I should be graduating from the first part of my program in May with another Bachelor’s and my RN and then may be entering the work force for the first time in quite a few years. And most importantly I really hope that this will be the year we add another wee one to our little family. I am just itching to have another baby, to hold and love a tiny bundle of joy and to feel my family, my own little circle of love, expand by that much more. Up until now I have mostly kept quiet when talking to family and friends but it’s gotten harder and harder as time goes on and when we were all together over the holidays people were making lots of comments. Ug.
Finally, a silent prayer and a monetary pledge have gone out to all the victims all over the world from the horrible tsunamis in Asia. The kinds of numbers the papers keep churning out are just mind numbing. I have to admit that being so far away from it all, the whole thing feels kind of unreal, but realistically I can compare the 3,000 we lost on 9/11 to the 110,000+ lost throughout Asia and know the grief must be horrible. I just cannot imagine the devastation and just have to thank God over and over for health and good fortune, both my own and my families and friends.
As always, thanks for reading.
Bonnie
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