The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yippeee!! It's officially the Christmas season and the Grodack household couldn't be any happier about it. We love Christmas so much - - something that has been instilled in me since childhood and now I'm passing it down to my children. I think Calleigh nailed it on the head this afternoon as we pulled into our neighborhood from church. She said, "It's the most important thing that you love Christmas, Daddy." Somehow she's gotten on this kick with saying "the most important thing...." and she put it to very good use this time.

We had a great Thanksgiving up in Pennsylvania. The weather was chilly but not terribly so. Calleigh really had a blast with her three cousins and was able to hold her own despite them being older boys. One one occasion they had built a castle out of giant blocks and Calleigh ended up taking the blocks off one at a time and running into the other room with them with the sole purpose of having the boys chase her - - which they did. She giggled the whole time even though they were a little ticked off that she was dismantling the castle. After a little bit, Jake accidentally destroyed half the castle himself. Tyler had his back turned at the time but when he turned around and saw what had happened he burst into tears and shouted "It's all Calleigh's fault!" The adults tried not to laugh. The next day Tyler still talked about Calleigh wrecking the castle even though we kept telling him it was Jake. At any rate, he didn't hold it against her and in fact, was a really great sport about playing with her. They all were really. It was also interesting in that Jake's mannerisms reminded Duncan and I a lot of Calleigh - - even though they had never even met. I guess those kinds of things happen when you're related.








The only drawback of the trip was the sleeping situation with the girls, mainly Aubree. I never did get her to sleep in the Pack and Play the entire time. She would fall asleep in it some of the nights but then wake up a little later. So she and I ended up sleeping together on the pullout. I don't do well with co-sleeping so it wasn't the best five nights of sleep I've ever had but I managed. Since Aubree would eventually fall asleep at first in the bedroom, we quickly realized that we couldn't have Calleigh's Pack and Play in there because would be awake for a LONG time talking and I was paranoid about waking Aubree up. So Calleigh was moved to the kitchen/living room. That meant once Aubree and I were on the pullout, we were in the same room as Calleigh. The last night this was a very bad idea because one of them would wake up and make a noise and then the other one would wake up. At like 4:30 in the morning, Calleigh yelled out (of nowhere), "My teeth are sore." We realized later that she had a canker sore on her tongue.

Our flight home was fairly non-eventful although Aubree didn't sleep much of it and got a bit cranky at times. When the plane landed at 6:30 pm, we were all relieved to be home...but not so fast. Duncan went to retrieve the car from long term parking while we got the luggage. As we sat and waited for his return, he calls me to report that the van is dead. Ahhhh! Not what we wanted to hear as the time gets closer to 7:30, the girls' bedtimes, and we're tired and hungry. Elaine and I brainstormed about ways to get home but fortunately Duncan was able to get the van jump started. I guess we must have left a light on in there or something. Who knows. We finally got home and I had this vision of relaxing in the living room in the glow of the Christmas lights while watching the Patriots game. Well, that quickly went up in smoke. Aubree had several crying spells, wouldn't go to sleep, and the Pats stunk up the joint like you wouldn't believe. Fortunately, while the Pats may still stink, Aubree has finally re-adjusted to her own crib and happily is falling asleep right away again and staying asleep for the duration of the night.

Several pieces of big news happened during the holiday. The first is that David and Yully are engaged! We knew it was inevitable especially since we love Yully so much but of course, we didn't know when so we were surprised and excited when Dave called us Thanksgiving morning to share the news. We couldn't be happier! Not only that but I do feel like we get partial credit. Afterall, if I hadn't moved here 11 years ago, I'm certain David would not have moved here last year and this would never have happened. And no matter where we all end living in the future, either here or eventually up north again, Florida will always hold a special spot for Dave and I since we both met our spouses here. The wedding will be here in Orlando on June 20 and Calleigh will be a flower girl! Dave is the second of the cousins to get married next year as Devin (Shannon's brother) and Leigh will be getting married in New Hampshire on May 16.

The second news is that Allen and Tangie are having a baby girl and boy. We already knew they were having twins, due May 2, but they just found out the sexes. It will be neat adding a boy to the mix of all the girls. Now we're anticipating the names. Hopefully it won't take as long as naming Aubree!

We've settled back into our routine after getting back Monday night. We were so glad that we got our Christmas tree BEFORE Thanksgiving so that it was all done and waiting for us upon our return. Barely a needle has dropped so it looks like we picked a good one again this year. Duncan should be getting the outside lights up tomorrow. The one thing that was out of routine was that we weren't able to go yard sale-ing yesterday due to terrible rain. Of course, I didn't have the smarts to stay home so we ventured out to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Publix. With the two of them, it was impossible for me to maneuver an umbrella so I gave it to Calleigh, pulled Aubree's top over her car seat to keep her dry and made a mad dash for it. I'm happy to report that both times I came out of the stores, a stranger came up to me and offered to hold their umbrella over me while they walked with me to my car. First it was a woman and then a man the second time. That really impressed me. Maybe people are extra nice because of Christmas but I like to think that people are just kind like that in general.

It rained some more this morning but thankfully it cleared up this afternoon so that we could go to Crane's Roost in Altamonte for a tree lighting ceremony, music, and fireworks. It was actually cold (mid-50's) so that added to the festive spirit. All was going just ducky until the fireworks started and then Calleigh lost it. Apparently she forgot that she actually likes fireworks (she didn't stop talking- - in a good way - - about the ones at Florida Hospital in November 2008 for months) and they really scared her. I'll admit that they were pretty close to us and VERY loud. At any rate, that was the end of that and we hightailed it into the mall. But we still had a good time. Incidentally, Aubree seemed to quite enjoy the display.



So that is that. I think that catches us up on all the news from here. Not that he reads this but I do want to see congrats to my bro Rick for landing an internship next semester in northern Georgia. He'll be graduating from Andrews in May with his Master's in Architecture. Any one out there know where he could get a job??

As usual, we are enjoying our conversations with Calleigh. And I'm definitely getting to the point of trying to figure out how to tell her certain things. I can't even remember how it came up but we got to talking about some event that happened a number of years and she asked me if she was there. I told her that she wasn't. So she asked if she was in my belly then. I said, nope you weren't. Then she proceeds to say incredulously, "Where I was?" I told her that she was nowhere. She continues on saying "I was at Gigi's?" I started mumbling to myself about how I was going to explain it and finally just ended with "Mommy and Daddy hadn't made you yet." Clearly trying to get a two year old to understand that she previously did not exist is a monumental task.

Oh boy, I just remembered some other stuff. I guess when you don't write in a while this is what happens. I started feeding Aubree solids this week. started off with three days of rice cereal. She ate it but only a tiny bit (as expected). Yesterday I gave her Green Beans, her first non-cereal item. The faces she made! It was SO funny. She did eat some of it but the entertainment was the best part. She's also doing really well with sitting up. I still put the Boppy behind her when she's the floor but she only gets wobbly when Calleigh tries to kiss her (something that Calleigh is obsessed with doing). She's also graduated to sitting in the front seat of the grocery cart and highchairs at restaurants. Yay!




I love this picture above. Doesn't it look like they're actually playing together?