Happy New Year (and Merry Christmas too)

Happy New Year!! Last night was very low key for us (and I loved every minute of it!). We again streamed LIVE from Edinburgh for the Scottish Hogmany party. Fireworks over the castle, bagpipes, Auld Lang Syne with a brogue, great music and accents in general. The best part? Their midnight is our 7pm ;)


Why yes, we ARE still celebrating Christmas here. Well, sort of. Normally we plan fun stuff all the way through Epiphany, but for the sake of sanity Jim has packed up the tree and most decorations as I type. We still have a few crafts and, ah, cards to finish-- plus we'll do something on Jan 6th, like dinner at the park and a small gift ;)

Our genius packing idea this year? We marked one box "early" to hold the DVDs, candles, music, advent books and nativity toys for kaden... so we can get that one after Turkey day but leave the full decorating for later. Which is what we'd like to do, but have never separated the stuff out before :)

At Kaden's preschool, the Christmas season is synonymous with "send home a craft every single day." Seriously. Some are keepers (like the photo and frame above) and others are very temporary (like the paper angel he insisted on playing with until it was shredded). I think his preK crafts are a lot like childhood in general- meant to be fully played with now, and maybe a few things will carry over as mementos. But the stuff is for the experience now, not a museum later.

Our Christmas celebrations were nice. Also low key. We've been more focused on house and immediate (local) family than journeying out to visit friends or parties. We also skipped the Visit with Santa and other holiday-ish events because Kaden's been battling a cold the last few weeks. Today was his first morning out- gorgeous day too- where we went to Mass and then the playground with some other families. He was totally tuckered out, poor guy. We did visit the doc and are currently in day 4 of the 10 day Medicine War. But that's a whole other post.

so Happy New Year, folks! We'll enjoy the weather, the football, the black bean and pork loin dinner, and our family :) Hope you will too... may your year be filled with many blessings !

happy new year!

I blinked, and now it's 2010. Can you imagine the audacity of time?

We celebrated a "Scottish New Year", which mostly consisted of having a few folks over for dinner, then firing up the internet and watching the Hogmany Live from Edinburgh. It was a tad more restrained than the Times Square Rocking parties (though a few friends assure me the unofficial celebrations are just as rowdy). Anywho, with a minute to midnight, they focused in on a single bagpiper next to a cool fire... and then massive fireworks lit the sky precisely as the New Year began.

Which was 7pm our time, folks. Does it get any sweeter than that? We shared a bit of champagne, then sent our tall, dark haired man out the back door and to the front for the First Footing. A bit of tea and Hobnobs, a bit of Columba blended whisky, a bit (more) juice and cookies for the kiddos... and then friends & kiddos happily left for home (well, the parentals anyway). Before 9pm. Brilliant!

And now on to 2010... which already seems a very cool year indeed!

It's only just begun...

Kaden and friends up above. The twins are about a year and a half older, and have much fun figuring him out. Generally, they're getting the hang of "gentle" and have quit poking him the eye! What's much fun now is that Kaden is aware of them, and starting to try and join them in their play. We'll see how excited/tolerant they are when he's mobile enough to mess their stuff up!

And because I forgot to post it two weeks ago, here's Kaden at 5 months. He's now a bit more reachy, grabby, and generally more squirmy than ever before! Church is a bit less of a long reflective time and more of snatched prayers between bouncing him away from the hymnals.

Kaden's Christmas gift to us last week? TWO - yes, one and then another, TWO nights of 12 straight hours of sleep. We'll take 'em, because the rest of the time he's a bit more fussy about going to bed or being t-i-r-e-d in general. We're thinking a tooth or two might make an appearance soon.

And here's to 2009! May we all be blessed with health, happiness, and the courage to widen our circle of friends :)