This is my favorite.

Happy Chanukah!

:)

F

Getting ready for the holidays.

Oh, to be a child again at the holidays...

I snatched a few shots of O this evening after our bath and before bed time in front of our wonderful Christmas tree. I love the way it lights everything up, so much so that it's always so sad to take it down at New Year's.

In planning for this holiday season, and coordinating schedules with siblings, I remember what it was like to celebrate the holidays as a child. Amie texted me today, amidst a discussion about what time we would be over Christmas morning. "Great! Come have nugget (Oliver) wake me up like you and Sarah used to do." I also distinctly remember being able to hear my brother (through the air vents) wrapping our presents with newspaper last minute on Christmas Day.

Sure, I celebrated holidays in Connecticut, New York, California, Louisiana, Colorado, and many places in between... but nonetheless, the excitement that surrounds the entire season is unmatchable. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah this year with Oliver, and next year when he's bit more clued into it all - and we can do Elf on a shelf :)

I'll post sometime soon about a fantastic story we got from my Dad and Candy, about a little boy who celebrates both holidays as well!

Walking man...

I think my "yaaaaay!" may have scared him to fall :)

I'm a Theta, she's a Theta....

Today was like a mini sorority/college reunion in NY. Three friends (Melissa, Melissa, Stacy) and I hung out while semi-watching (?) some football. Melissa #1 lives in Boston (Hi Flem!) and it's been over a year since I've seen her, but we Skype pretty regularly so it never seems like it's been as long as it has. She just got engaged, bought a dress (gah!), set a date, and is in full wedding mode - with an awesome ring too, all three of them ;-) Melissa #2 lives in Pennsylvania and drove up with her adorable two kids (Chloe, 2 1/2, and Avery, 3 weeks younger than Oliver). Stacy and I get to see each other every two weeks or so now that we're so close, but she hadn't seen either of the Melissas in 3 and 4 years! It's always nice when friends get together, we had a blast. Oliver was also pretty infatuated with both Chloe and Avery. He was chatting away with them at lunch, and was so excited about the day in general that he (oops!) forgot to take his afternoon nap. He did snooze for about 10" while we were walking Stella which made for a fun dinner/bedtime. Anyway, here's a self-timer parking lot photo of all of us:

l to r: Avery, Melissa #2, Chloe, Melissa #1, Stacy, O, Moi.

Who's that baby in the mirror? :)

Just took this video, and it's a pretty good summation of what O is like these days :)
VERY mobile... very curious... and very adventurous.

I give the whole walking thing until the end of 2011.... we'll see!

Thankful.

These are some of the things I am thankful for this year:

I've come to the conclusion that my family (the mixed-up assortment of nationalities, religions and even other families, we all are) is more concerned with 'tradition' than 'religion' although some of them overlap.

My favorite tradition (as I put on a friend's Facebook post this week) is about Christmas ornaments. Each year, my thoughtful mother spends hours searching for, or even making, personalized ornaments of something momentous and eventful that has happened in our lives that year. They are almost all easily remembered, like the year Sarah learned to read all by herself, or the year Amie played at MSG during intermission. It's always fun to guess what we're going to have as our ornament each year, and most of the time we are right on with the guesses. Last year, ours was a pregnant couple, and this year, we got an adorable framed picture of O.

After pondering, I've come to the conclusion that this tradition began the year Sarah was born (1992), when we each received a small photo ornament with our picture inside. (Some photos could be used as bribery these days). As we "kids" grow up and have our own Christmas trees (side note: yes, I had a bat mitzvah... that's for another post's explanation), this is absolutely a tradition I plan on keeping with my own family. Since Ben and I have lived together (this will be our fifth (?!?!) Christmas together), we have gotten each other ornaments and I've given him a photo ornament with a picture of us in it. I think it will be cute to look back at these photos years from now, and to show them to Oliver. Just as much fun as we have looking at photos of ourselves from nineteen years ago. (gasp!)


Yep. That WHOLE tree has personalized ornaments on it. Not a single one that one of us doesn't have a story (or ten) about. Talk about a conversation piece. Fam, I love you guys!