Winter Whirlwind

If you're like Sean and I, you have multiple sets of family that you want to spend time with for Christmas, which means either someone is unhappy or you commit yourself to a whirlwind of activity and barely get to truly enjoy any of it. How come there isn't a carol about that?

This year, instead of going to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas Eve (where last year we announced our pregnancy and, really, how could we top that?) Sean and I decided to spend a quiet evening at home, having a little quality time, resting up for the upcoming flurry of activity, and preparing food and gifts to bring with us the next day. The main reason for this decision was that the girls start to get fussy around 5:30 and go down to bed within an hour after that. We could have kept them in their car seats to sleep while we mingled, but we risked disrupting their schedule and having angry babies (picture Godzilla attacking Tokyo, but smaller) during Christmas Day. And we needed them to be cooperative for Christmas. So we stayed home and I made Crispy Black Bean Tacos for dinner (see recipe in earlier post), cheesecake for Christmas Day dinner, coffee cake blueberry muffins for brunch (another outstanding recipe soon to be added to "Cooking with Britt") and Sean made chocolate chip walnut cookies while we watched Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. It was a great night.

The next day, Sean and I opened our presents to each other and the girls. Although, while I was making muffins the night before, Sean looked at his present and asked, "Is it the IPod cable for the Highlander?" Nailed it. Totally took the wind out of my sails. (Price is Right overbid sound here.) I tried to cover up my shock, but I'm not good at lying to Sean, so he knew. It sounds like an odd gift, but it has to be installed in the car and allows us to see the IPod options over the navigation system screen, so is safer for when we play "keep it or skip it" and has to be bought at the dealer, so is definitely a luxury item. Sean got me a pair of pearl earrings he remembered me mentioning (so sweet) and proved how well he knows me by getting me Alton Brown's cookbook, which I've been fascinated by ever since, opening at every spare moment to read the next tidbit. For those who don't know, Alton Brown teaches the science behind cooking and spices (ha!) it up with trivia and fun facts about food origins. Totally up my alley.

We hustled out the door bright and early to my parents for brunch and present opening with the rest of my family. My brother and his fiancée were over an hour late, which is pretty much how they roll these days, so we started without them. I dressed the girls in frilly, poofy party dresses and little white tights, since my mom wanted them to be in "something nice" for the holidays and, while it was cute, these were not sensible outfits. The girls kept getting scratched by the tulle under the skirts, everything kept riding up since they wiggle so much, and the skirt itself wound up in their mouths most of the time. I changed them to some red onsie tops and bottoms that said, "Daddy's favorite present", complete with matching Santa hats, courtesy of our fantastic neighbors who are like another set of grandparents for the ladybugs, and this was a much more sensible outfit.

We spent two hours there, which wasn't nearly enough time to sit, relax, catch up with everyone, and enjoy the morning, but we had places to be, things to do, people to see!

Our next stop was a slightly longer visit with Sean's dad, Rod, his wife Gayle, and Sean's sister, Tanya, her husband, Scott, and kids Curtis and Darian, who all came over from Sequim. Rod was diagnosed last year with multiple myeloma and completed chemo and a stem cell transplant this month, so his immune system is practically non-existent at this point. What we didn't realize until the week before is that he's not supposed to be around anyone who had a live immunization within the last 30 days. Like...say... Charlotte and Lilah, who had their 6 month shots on the 15th. Whoops. But all we knew how important it was to bring them to spend their first Christmas with the whole family, so we had to make sure that anyone who held the girls had to wash their hands after and could no longer come in contact with Rod (sad face), and we all had to try to contain the girls' possible contamination, which is easier said than done with little ones who wiggle this much and are currently fascinated with blowing raspberries and forming swimming pools of drool. I think we did ok - no reports from Rod of any problems.

Sean then took his Dad's car back to our house to feed the dog and pick up our dessert. The car needed to be driven and have the fluids checked since it's been sitting around most of the winter. I went ahead to my grandma's house with the girls and Sean wasn't far behind - but missing the cheesecake. Wah?! Bummer. But I guess that means more for me! We ate, again, shared some laughs, and headed home, exhausted and stuffed to our ears with holiday goodies.

On Saturday, my parents took the girls for their very first sleep-over so Sean and I could have our first real date since the girls came home and even get some sleep. I had been looking forward to this for WEEKS. I carried about 40 pounds of gear into their house, gave some quick instructions, and then hit the road. We went to the Main Street Ale House and had some beers and dinner and did our best not to make the ladybugs our sole topic of conversation. We started looking at movie times on Sean's phone and you could feel the enthusiasm hit the floor with a thunk. We decided to just go home and go to bed, and were there by 9 p.m. Yup, we're officially lame-o parents. But it was so nice get away, just the two of us and focus on each other for a change. Good beer didn't hurt either.

And thus was our weekend. Phew.

From Charlotte and Lilah together