We Wish You A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

So, I've been on vacation for the past two weeks. I don't know about you, but we've had Christmas and New Year's around these parts, so these two weeks have been pretty busy. Before I jump back into work and the 154 voicemails and 642 emails that will await me on Monday, I thought I'd take a moment to show you what we've been up to.

There was cookie baking and fudge making. I conquered gingerbread cookies...finally. They had me beat until this year.


My taste-tester was satisfied with the fudge so it was taken to the annual Christmas Eve Eve bash hosted by this gal. That party was awesome, per usual, with the added bonus of the whole house singing Jingle Bells with my G, to her extreme delight, not once, not twice, but three or four times through.

We wrapped and wrapped presents. Giuliana adorned her handmade wrapping paper with glittery Christmas stickers and together we finished her gifts to her favorite people.

Christmas Eve was spent at Nana's house with family and the traditional seafood dinner.


Obviously, there was also the formal Christmas Eve Tea Party. Later, those two cuties in plaid gave a caroling concert at the piano as well.

There was also a candle-light service at church...our church this year, which was a nice switch, though I did miss seeing my nieces and nephew in their Christmas pageant.

After church it was bedtime for our little Christmas star and time for Mommy and "Santa" to get to work. "Santa" put together G's trampoline while I wrapped the rest of her gifts and spread the Christmas joy out under the tree.

Hmmm....maybe that makes me "Santa", but that wouldn't fit the song ("Iiiiiii saw Mommy kisssssing Saaaaaaaaaaanta Claus...") Oh, and I also discovered that I had inadvertently left my camera at my mother-in-law's. On Christmas Eve. Perfect. So, it was cell-phone pictures to capture those magical Christmas morn moments.


Christmas was indeed magical this year. Giuliana "got" the concept of Santa bringing her gifts. We sang Santa Claus is Coming To Town about 4,000 times and she walked around saying "Santa Claus, Ho ho ho!" for a week. But she also "got", at least a little bit, the significance of that little baby Jesus in the nativity scene. She pointed out Baby Jesus in every creche she saw. I think we balanced the two pretty well.

And Christmas morning? Once the grogginess of being dragged out of bed by two over-excited parents wore off, she had a pretty good time. She adored her "Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan" coloring book and her Dora, Boots, and Swiper figurines (it was totally a Nick Jr. Christmas at our house.) And she loved, loved, loved her trampoline. She got into the reggae spirit by jumping and bouncing to the "B is for Bob" CD early Christmas morning.

We packed up and headed back to Nana's for the rest of the day. We had a fabo brunch and much more gift exchanging.

Five gorgeous Giglio/Duvinsky kids on Christmas morning.

And, of course, there was a Jingle Bell concert, given by my little Jingle Beller herself...and anyone she forced the microphone upon.

There were other events I didn't bring a camera to. We had a great time celebrating Christmas again with Nick and Kate, and our friends most recently from Vermont, Jeff and Sarah and their two boys, as well as some of John's old high school buddies. John and I babysat for our nieces and nephew while his sister and her husband finally moved into their new house the day after Christmas (yes, they are that crazy.) And there was also a trip down to NYC for another doctor's appointment and a chance for Nick and Kate to spend all day with an energetic two year old (too late now, guys, you're already 6 months committed...you'll have your own two year old before you know it!) John got the news that he will be having surgery next week to implant a neuro-stimulator on his spine to try to relieve his chronic pain. Keep fingers and toes crossed that this works.


New Year's Eve brought the annual kid's sleepover party at Nana's with hats, horns and confetti at 8pm (that's 12am somewhere, right?) while we parents celebrated in a low-key fashion with dinner and a movie. BTW, Avatar 3D...awesome, but it totally killed me. My brain is not ready for 3D. I had a hang over all day on New Year's and it wasn't from the one margarita I had with dinner.

The snow on New Year's Eve/Day made perfect sledding conditions and that's exactly how we spent NYD. We drove over to my parents' house (who have been in Georgia this whole time visiting my brother's family) to feed their cats and sled on their super-duper hills.


And that, my friends, is how I spent my vacation. I promised it would be busy, but I also predicted it would be fun. I think I was right on both accounts. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa and a Peaceful New Year.

I'm feeling surprisingly and happily optimistic for 2010. I feel it's going to be a good year for my little family. So far, two days in, it's been pretty swell. Here's hoping that trend continues. For you, too!

Peace and Blessings!
XOXO
Kami

Let Christmas Begin

Every year, our Christmas week begins with decorating Christmas cookies at Nana's house and "Breakfast with Santa" at the Binghamton Club, courtesy of John's step-father. We brunch, we sit with Santa, there's balloon animals, and this year...dancing. Cute, enthusiastic Toddler Dancing.

I have to work tomorrow. Bummer, but it promises to be an easy day. My computer went completely ca-put the other day, and since I basically do 90% of my job on the computer...well, I'll be the one standing around the kitchen snarfing cookies. I will come back from break to a new computer, though. I'll take it.

I am off of work as of Tuesday until Monday, January 4th. The days are filling up with family celebrations, trips out of town and to three different doctors, helping my husband complete his letter of application to grad school, etc, etc. It will be busy, but it will be fun.

I'm looking forward the most (well, almost the most. I'm looking forward to Christmas morning with my daughter the most!) to those three days before Christmas. I'll be spending those days wrapping, baking, watching Christmas movies with G, and just generally getting holiday cozy with my girl and my man. I'm sure I'll be blogging some of our holiday moments with you.

Here's the beginning.


Quite a cookie artist, we have here.

Giuliana was not getting too close to Santa, no matter what promises of Christmas joys were made. We've been prepping her all week, too. No dice.

Rudolph the Orange Balloon Reindeer was a hit, though.


Four very adorable kids.

Our happy Christmas family.

And....I'll leave you with this: Merry Christmas from Us!

Bits of our Week

Monday evening we put up the Christmas tree. Giuliana played with the ornaments and danced and sang to Christmas carols.



Wednesday we had a snow day. G brightened up the snowy driveway while Daddy shoveled.




She was in awe of the snow on her slide. Wet slide and snowpants make for one fast ride, however.


And with the help of Mommy and Daddy, G made her first little snowman. Later she decorated it with necklaces. Then the dog came along and ate it's head. Also, while I was busy helping G craft a fine snowman my husband came along and put snow down my pants. There will be retaliation.


And this morning our little artist painted some homemade wrapping paper for her special Christmas gifts. Stickers and possibly glitter will be added at a later date.

How has your family been spending this holiday season so far?

A Better Day

Today was a better day than yesterday. Here are the highlights:

• I woke up to a snow day! Work was canceled. I love STIC.
• Our neighbor snow-blew (snow-blowed?) our front walk and sidewalk. Awesome.
• G was in a great mood all day. I think she really wanted to stay home today, and she got her wish. We played all day. She even gave John a break and they had a great time.
• Speaking of G and Daddy, they played dress up! I gave her some jewelry and a hat to play with. She had tons of fun having Daddy help her accessorize and then looking at herself in the mirror to check out the effect. I just stood back and watched, all smiles. Here are the results:
  

• I made blueberry/ginger thumbprint cookies (first try, they turned out! yay!) and they were popular house-wide. G had 4 of them.
• We took some cookies over to our neighbors to thank them for snow-blowing. It felt good.
• I got my car back! They drained the transmission fluid and refilled it and maybe did something with a belt? That fixed the problem. The absolute best part? NO CHARGE! Apparently there is some sort of class action suit related to my transmission and the problem was related to that. So Saturn fixed it for free. And if it happens again, they will give me a new transmission, FOR FREE. Awesome.

So, all in all, I am feeling better about things today. I am still feeling overwhelmed with John's health issues and the effects it is having on our family life. But. Today was a better day.

January Can Just Bite It

Fed-up-ed-ness (nice, huh? I am in love with making up words lately) and hatred of winter seem to be a recurring theme on my blog roll the last few days. See here, here, here, here,and here. I am about to trampoline right onto this bandwagon.

Yesterday was just another sucky day. It was a long-ass day at work, another day when I didn't see Giuliana for more than 30 minutes, John and I had an argument (we made up) and I got a pounding headache. The topper happened at the end of my last appointment for the day. I was already not happy about going to this appointment. It was at 4:30pm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out in Vestal Center. I am always there at least an hour. That means that the absolute earliest I could have picked Giuliana up from my parents' house out in Conklin was 6pm. Then trek back to Endicott=6:30pm by the time we get home. Earliest possible scenario. YUCK! But, it was not to work out that way. Oh no, it got way worse.

The family I was visiting, as I stated, lives far, far out there, almost to Pennsylvania (you measure the distance to PA in feet, not miles). I have been working with them for at least 2 years. That equals at least 24 visits to their house, ok. They have this driveway that goes down pretty steeply from the road, for about 200ft to their house. I have driven down, and then up, this driveway at least 24 times. Never before have I gotten stuck. Not until last night. Last night I got soooooooooo stuck. I could not get my car (my SUV! that does not have 4WD) anywhere close to up that driveway. In fact, not only would my car not go up, it kept sliding back down, when it was in DRIVE! I tried and I tried, coming at it from every possible angle, rocking back and forth (luckily it is a wide drive) but no go.

Finally, at 5:30 I called John, who was on his way to his own appointment. He canceled that and drove out to rescue me. Meanwhile, I went back into the house to let them know I was stuck. They had not heard me spinning my wheels for the last 10 minutes in their driveway. Now, this family has some issues that I won't get into for the sake of privacy. But, let me just tell you that this single mom has had me pretty freaked out in the past about how far out in the country she lives and how crazy her ex husband is, and how many guns he has, and stuff like that. Good times. So anyway, she tells me that she has gotten stuck many times in the driveway, but she can usually get out using cat litter for traction. But, she and her daughter have to leave soon to go to a swim practice. So she comes out and helps me spread cat litter under my wheels, and allllllllllllllllllll the way up this 200ft driveway. I try again, and again, and again.....still stuck.

Finally, my knight shows up to save me (I love him so). He tries to get the car unstuck. And, wait for it....the TRANSMISSION DECIDES TO BLOW! So, now, not only am I well and truly stuck in this driveway, but now my car is not going anywhere because the wheels don't turn. At all. And it is f*ing freezing. And this mom is leaving. And we are supposed to get a huge snow storm that will bury my car even further.

The good news of the evening came when I realized that, thank God, we have been paying for roadside assistance with our car insurance (I promised Liberty Mutual I would pimp them to my friends in a survey I took post-tow truck.) So, I called LM and they told me that I was covered and they would send a tow truck out ASAP. Which turned out to be an hour later. And I had to stay with my car because of some NYS law that says I have to be there when the tow comes because I have to prove that it is in fact my car and this is not all some grand scheme to steal this stuck, dead car.

Thankfully, thankfully, my loving, cute, funny husband was there, too. He really did make it all better. We sat in his car to stay warm. Then he went down the road to the gas station (the one in PA, yeah, I'm telling you, we were out there) to get some dinner. I (who can't drive John's car, because it is a f*ing standard) had to stand by the road in case the tow truck came. That part was not fun. At all. It was very dark. And, remember how I mentioned the crazy ex-husband, with guns, and we are out in the middle of nowhere, and now I am really freaking out!! But, nothing happened, and John came back, with delicious (so not delicious) gas station pizza, chips, and cotton candy in a bag :) We sat and ate and talked about silly shit and laughed for the next 1/2 hour.

Finally the tow truck came. And the guy got out of the truck at the top of the driveway, looked down at my car, and said, "There's no way I'm taking my truck down there, I'll never get it out." Oh, yeah. That's what he said. But, after he inspected the situation and John buttered him up with his nice guyness, the tow guy hooked up about 4 chains and pulled my car allllllllllllllllllllll the way up that driveway to his truck. That took about an hour. Then he loaded it on the back and drove it off to Saturn. Where it is now. Our warrenty should (please GOD) cover what ever happened to the transmission. We are still waiting to hear. We did have to pay $54 for the tow because the roadside assistance only covers a tow up to 6 miles. And we were at least 10 miles just to get back to RT434. But, all in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Then we got home. My parents' had brought G home for us and kept her up till we got there (at 8pm!) She was happy to see me. Not so happy with John. Which broke his heart, and consequently mine. She has been going through this "phase" lately where she is not quite a fan of Daddy. It is really killing John. She picked a particularly bad time for this phase, given all the shit January has thrown at John already.

I am so sick of this month. I'm cold, stressed, broke, heartbroken, frustrated, and not in a good mood. And, honestly, I just need a break. So, too all my friends out there, just to let you know, John and I could really use some help here. We are just drowning in it. Anyone who wants to come and make dinner, walk the dog, vacuum my house, watch my daughter, or just make us laugh is so welcome. We love you all. Thank you in advance.

Happy New Year!

The Six Days of Christmas (with one breather day)

Oh yeah. Six full days. Giuliana is aaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllll stocked up for toys. And new clothes (All the right size! yay!) and jammies, and socks. She's good to go. And, thanks to Ryan, her new sneaker that I lost on Christmas Eve Eve was found and is safe and sound in her closet.

So, here was our holiday agenda:

The First Day of Christmas: Christmas Eve Eve at our friends' (Kate and Nick) house. Great Party! G loved the cookies that Kate slaved over. She went to sleep pretty early, but mommy and daddy had a lot of fun.

The Second Day of Christmas: Christmas Eve. Blogged about already. See below.

The Third Day of Christmas: Christmas Day. G doesn't know that you are supposed to wake up EARLY on Christmas. I, however, was awake at 5am because I was soooooo excited for G to open her stocking and to see what Santa brought her!! I contained myself until 7am when I just had to go in and wake her up!

Here's the morning festivities.



Next it was off to John's mom's house. We were there all day. It was craziness. I had a Kitchen Aid Christmas! I am the proud owner of a new, black, Artisan series mixer. With a wisk!, and a bread hook! and a mixing paddle! and a splatter guard! yippee!! And, Gina's fiance (ooo la la), Jerry, bought us this wonderful Italian cookbook that I am in love with. John got his loop pedal that he had been wishing and hoping for. And G? Toys. Lots and lots of Toys. Her favorite from this day, I think, is her Singing Elmo and the Talking Pizza. It's cute, but it only sings ONE SONG. Over and over. It was a love fest of family and food and G survived without melting. It was a good day.


The Fourth Day of Christmas: The Day After Christmas, or Boxing Day if you want to be all chi-chi British. This is the day we have decided to traditionally celebrate Christmas with my parents. More kitchen madness on my part in the morning. Not too bad, just a cheese and cracker tray and deviled eggs. Only I discovered that I don't own a deviled egg tray. I thought I did. I had this vision of this white tray with a gold border that I inherited when my grandmother passed away and I got a lot of her entertaining ware. Turns out my vision was of my mother's deviled egg tray that she still very much owns and is in possession of. So, there was a slight (major) deviled egg landslide on the drive over and we had a deviled mess. Luckily, I was very bright and wrapped the whole plate, so it was contained within the saran wrap. Hey, they still taste good.

So, anyway, we had a leisurely lunch and then got to the present-fest. John and I both were given digital picture frame keychains so we can annoy everyone we meet with many, many pictures of G. My parent's bought us a nice new rocking chair for G's bedroom, as the one we have in there is falling apart. And Miss G, her favorite toy of the day is a tie between the dinosaur drop and roar and a huge bag of mega-blocks. Oh, and my mom loved her birdhouses.


Unfortunately, the evening ended badly for John. He had a major attack and was in horrible pain for about an hour. We decided to call the ambulance several times, but then changed our minds because after 14 months of this, 3 hospitalizations, and about a dozen ER trips we know that absolutely nothing will be accomplished by heading to the ER. They will make us wait for hours. They will draw blood. They may order an ultrasound or CT scan. And they will find nothing other than slightly elevated liver enzymes. And they will "be kind" and give him something for the pain, only it will be fentanyl, which we will tell them doesn't work for John. And they will insist that that is what he should get. And it won't work. And then we will go home with instructions to call his doctor in the morning. Or something like that. So, though he couldn't even walk from my parent's living room to the car without collapsing to the floor, we went home. My parent's followed us home to make sure that John got inside ok and to help me carry in gifts. They really love us.

The Fifth Day of Christmas: The Day After The Day After Christmas. This day was spent with John's extended family downstate in Rock Hill (Monticello area). We drove John's dad down with us and that was fun. He really is a funny guy. There was more food, more gifts, a visit from Santa (after Santa had a few shots of Scotch and I helped him disguise his eyebrows with baby powder and a makeup brush) and lots of family. Again, no major melts on G's part, so, all good. She is not a fan of Santa so far, though. Hmmmm...she didn't like Grandpa for a long time either. Coincidence?




The Sixth Day of Christmas: The Day After we took a break for a day and just stayed home and played with toys and took a walk The Day After The Day After Christmas. Today was a pretty low-key Christmas. John and G and I went to Target this morning to spend too much money. We were seriously low on diapers and milk, and by seriously low I mean G was wearing her very last diaper and there was no milk in the house. And I needed a few grocery things. And I wanted to get a tub for G's mega-blocks and a couple of laundry baskets to store all those toys in. And she needed some more 18 month jammies. And some baby wash cause we were out. And we decided to pick up a few movies to enjoy on our break. And I needed a new book. Thank god for gift cards.

Later in the day some friends of ours came over for lunch and to give G a Christmas present. She got a book and a fun sled, along with a couple of other things. She loves that sled. We had to drag her around the house in it because there is no snow. She also sat in it for, like, 10 minutes, which is much longer than she willingly sits anywhere. It, too, was a really good day.


And that, my friends, was our insane holiday, full of tons of love and family. Just as it should be. Oh, and great food! That never hurts. How was yours?

Christmas Eve

Today was spent in the kitchen. I got everything done about 20 minutes before we walked out the door to go to John's mom's house for Christmas Eve dinner. No pictures, I didn't have time or a free hand.

Highlights of the day:
-G seems to like raw eggplant slices. She kept asking for them while I was slicing them to grill. That was one item prepared...grilled eggplant, asparagus, yellow squash, zucchini, red peppers, and crimini mushrooms.
-G also liked the biscotti (bisqwuatti for Kate) that I made. She had it before it was drizzled with white chocolate and crushed red hots. 3 things: I had to run to the grocery store today JUST to buy white chocolate chips. I forgot them in my marathon shopping trip Monday night. Sigh. Also, I am not a good drizzler. See next item. And, I think maybe G didn't eat anything but cookies and eggplant today. hmm...
-Recipes routinely lie about how much produce you need. I waaaaay over bought for the grilled veggies, based on my cookbook's advice for serving 6. I could serve 15. I didn't grill it all up. And the Apple Pear Tart that I made called for 2 apples and 2 pears. I could have easily done with 1 of each. Is there a produce conspiracy to make me buy/cut up more than I need?? If I were Kristina I could make succatash or something with all my left over squash and zucchini and eggplant. That's what I said I would do with it as I put it in the fridge. I can guarentee you that it will not happen. I also used my drizzle technique on the tart. I was instructed to drizzle caramel ice cream topping over the whole thing. After the second gloppy drizzle attempt of the day I decided that my techinique needs improving.
-I am eternally glad that I married an Italian. John specifically. But, I love, love, love Christmas Eve dinner! Mussels, clams, breaded smelt, spaghetti with calamari sauce, shrimp cocktail. And lots of wine. I didn't eat all day in anticipation.
-I also love champagne! I had a wee bit last night and a weeeeeeeeeee bit more today. We were celebrating Gina and Jerry's engagement today! I'm gonna have a new brother-in-law! It makes me a little teary. We really like Jerry. Gina-GLOWING!! You could say she is happy. It would be a major understatement. Jerry is also giddily happy. And now I can joke with him about marrying into this crazy, wonderful family. I think he is happy for Christmas Eve dinner, too.
-I finished the birdhouses! They are drying with the first coat of mod podge right now.


I just have to mod podge them all one more time tomorrow night. The will dry overnight and then I can wrap them up, just in time for Christmas with my parent's on Friday.
-G is sleeping right now in the dress she wore for dinner and to church after. She fell asleep in the car and I carried her up to bed, asleep. I was able to get her coat off, but not her dress, she kept rolling over. She has no idea Santa has already been here!! Her stocking is full. And her jungle gym is put together waiting for her in the dining room.


She can come downstairs tomorrow morning and start climbing immediately. The cats have already explored the cubby holes in it, too.
-I am so freaking excited for Christmas this year!! G is gonna love it!! Yippee!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Did Somebody Say It's Christmas?

Already??


That would explain this VERY BUSY TABLE today. Tomorrow, it will be the kitchen....all day long. And maybe more on those birdhouses if I can't wrap it up in the next hour or so. I am assuming everyone would appreciate it if I took a shower before Christmas Eve Eve.

A Lovely Christmas Gift

My friend Marci surprised me with this picture she took of me and G a few months ago. Her partner made the frame by hand. And that little pot is called a "Mommy Pot" for holding all the little short stemmed flowers picked for you by little hands. AWWWW! That Marci is one great girl :)