Family Christmas

After church on Christmas Eve.

I'm back at work, still so happy about our Christmas break. I love Christmas because we spend so much time together as a family. A few weeks ago, Maya and I flew to Denver for a Mother/Daughter party that my sister hosted. (It's not really a tea party; more like a cocktail party with juice for the kids). Maya wore a shiny silver outfit for the occasion, an outfit, like most of her others, that came from Lily. My sister said it brought tears to her eyes to see Maya in the outfit as she remembered Lily in it just a few years ago.

Dad and Maya at Julie's

Ya Ya and Maya

Then, on Christmas Eve, my parents flew in for the week and we had a great visit. Guillermo shared with them his e-mail from Santa on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, they watched as the kids opened their presents and then helped set up everyone's Mii and helped decorate our train cake. The rest of the week, we went shopping, played a lot of Wii bowling and just hung out. My parents watched Maya and Guillermo while Will and I spent an evening away at the King's Daughters Inn in Durham. It's a beautiful bed and breakfast across from Duke University.

And when my parents left, it was the four of us and we had such a nice few days together. I wasn't ready for it to end, but I was happy that each of us went back to our daily non-vacation routine happy that we spent it together. Next year, we need to get Jen and William here to celebrate with us as well!

Maya, Will and Guillermo

It was a Wii Christmas

Merry Christmas!

At last, we have a Wii. And Guillermo couldn't be more happy. It was a Christmas present to him and Maya from my parents and Guillermo is over the moon. He's had non-stop Lego Star Wars and Super Mario Galaxy 2 on our television since Christmas. Yes, he's had breaks and my parents have been especially good about making him take a break so we could have family bowling tournaments. Last night, we attempted wake boarding, table tennis (Will is really good at that), and fencing. Maya's game is Just Dance Kids, but she isn't totally into yet. She loves bowling though. After she throws the ball, she runs up to the tv and watches and when the pins fall down, she jumps around as happy as can be. It's adorable!

Guillermo bowling

Maya's big gift this year from Santa was a box _ a giant white card board box shaped like a castle. It's too big for our living room, but she likes it and so do her friends. Today, she and Guillermo started coloring it in and they named it the "Princess Yellow Striped Castle." Santa also delivered a package of princess dolls for her. My parents also gave her a silky pink nightgown and robe that she adores (she calls it her pinks!).

In her pinks!

Guillermo's big gift from Santa was a new bicycle, one that shifts. It's awesome!

Guillermo and his new bike!

Gingerbread/Cannon House

Adding the cannons to the house

We made a Gingerbread house the other day. Guillermo picked the theme of our house: Cannons. He convinced Maya to decorate the house like it was a military house, which was pretty hard since we were using a bunch of candy in primary colors. Nonetheless, he clued cannon launchers and cannon balls all over the house. Later, Maya decorated the Santa gingerbread man with red frosting. He looked like he had been torn apart by cannons. I think it turned out pretty good and, more importantly, so did they.

Girls Weekend

Julie, Lily, Me, mom & my mom at the Mother's Tea.

Julie, Maya & me

Lily and Maya every morning during our stay in Denver.

Maya and I just returned from a girls weekend. We flew to Denver to attend the Mother/Daughter tea that my sister hosts every year before Christmas. It was such a fun trip, except poor Maya was sick the whole time. She had a fever one day and the rest of the days, she had a pretty bad cold that swiped most of her energy.

The trip marked the first airplane ride in years for Maya. She couldn't even remember the last time she had been on the plane. She was so excited and she did great, despite the fact that I forgot headphones for her video player, hadn't changed the batteries for her Leapster and kept falling asleep on her every time she opened up her I-Spy book.

My friend Michelle picked us up from the airport. We hadn't seen each other in two years. We spent the afternoon catching up and then picked up her kids from school. It was so fun watching Maya and Michelle's daughter play together. The last time they saw each other was when they were 2. But, they got along famously.

The tea was Saturday and we went to see Christmas lights and How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Sunday. By these two days, Maya definitely wasn't feeling well. She clung to me most of the tea until her motrin kicked in. She wanted to leave the lights early on Sunday because she was tired. But, when she was feeling well, she had a great time. And, so did I.

Santa and Tears

Guillermo has been hinting to me for a few days that he isn't sure Santa Claus is real. "Is Santa Claus real, mom?" "You would tell me the truth, right?"

I pretend I don't hear him.

He and one of his friends say they are going to stay up all night to see if it's Santa or the parents who set out gifts.

Yesterday, he told me one of his friends said his mom gives him presents, not Santa. I followed quickly with "of course we give you presents. I still need to wrap them before I put them under the tree."

Well, today, he decided he wanted to go see Santa at the mall so I told him I would take him tonight.

"I'm not going to tell him what I want because he's not the real Santa," he said matter-of-factly.

"We don't have to go," I said.

"I want to," he answered.

But Maya interjected.

"I don't want to see Santa."

"Why not?"

"I just don't."

"Ok," I said, hoping she would change her mind.

We were the only ones in line when we arrived. Guillermo skipped right over to Santa and sat on his lap. He seemed pretty happy. Maya clung to me. (She's never been scared of Santa before).

The Santa was really nice and friendly. He kept trying to get Maya to talk to him or come sit with him but she wasn't having it. I even walked her over to him but when I tried to get her to stand next to Guillermo, she started crying. I felt awful. She was really upset and it took awhile for her to calm down.

But, when she did, she helped make Guillermo smile a perfect smile for the photograph and then as we were leaving, she even gave Santa a high-five. Maybe next year.

Snow Days

It snowed! It snowed a lot, for us, and especially for December. As one young neighbor said, "this is like January snow!"