10 Days

It's Saturday night, and I'm on the tail end of a much-needed break. It has been wonderful over the past two weeks to relax, spend time with my kids and husband, knock off a few easy, yet perennially postponed, "to dos" and drink wine in the evenings while not worrying about what needs to be done before morning...because it can ALL wait until morning.

Vacation started a day earlier than planned due to a good ol' Wisconsin snowstorm. It had been in the forecasts the day before, so everyone was prepared that school, work, everything might be called off. And, as it turned out, it was. When I woke up that morning, I could still see the tires on my car. A couple of hours later, not so much.



A day later, it was time to travel to Illinois for our first Christmas. It was co-old that day and the forecast was for blowing and drifting snow. Wonderful. But, we packed the blankets and headed out to see all the cousins. Owen looks a little less-than-happy in this photo because he was liking some of his cousins gifts more than his own.



He perked up later though, and had fun playing fireman with his cousin.



I had fun, too, especially now that Nora is old enough to happily entertain herself. She toodled about, offering drinks from her new tea set, dragging dolls around by their ankles, eating cookies, finding new laps to sit in, eating more cookies...

Oh, and here's a picture for the kitty lovers out there. It's my sister-in-law's cat, Woody, who likes to hang out in the Christmas tree.



Next on our agenda were a couple of days at home. Mother Nature threw some more snowstorms at us, and by the time Christmas Eve came around, we'd had another 10 or so inches and the piles along our driveway were a good 4-5 feet tall. Sigh.

We had our family Christmas on Christmas Eve day. Owen's big gift was an "art box." I'd picked up a ton of different papers, markers, fun pencils, etc. and put them all in this storage box with his name on it. Then, since he'd also been asking for Post-its, I picked up a bunch of those and filled a little box with them. I think he liked it.



Nora got a play kitchen. Later, she was serving us fish and drumsticks...in drinking glasses.



Next stop was my parents' house for Christmas Day. It was a brief visit, since the snow delayed our trip up there by a day, and we missed our traditional "sleigh ride" into the woods, but we did get some nice outdoor time, and Owen enjoyed playing catch with my parents' dog, Duncan. That dog could play catch for hours, I think. Jon and I also had time to sneak out to see a movie, and then have a beer (and feel a tad old) at a local bar.



Nora even let loose a real smile (OK, maybe it was a little goofy for the camera) instead of her typical semi-scowl.



Then it was off to the Eau Claire area to visit the great-grandparents.



We spent two nights at a hotel there, which meant lots of visits to the pool (fun), and also meant the kids stayed up until after 10 both nights (not as fun). Being in one room together, they just goofed around after the lights were out. Nora has discovered the secret to making Owen laugh -- say "poop" a lot. So after a couple rousing renditions of "Old MacDonald Had a Poopy" and "There Was a Farmer Had a Dog and Poopy Was His Name-O," I had to put the kabosh on their shenanigans with the threat of "no swimming tomorrow if you don't be quiet right now!" That worked.

We came home Sunday, in nice weather, and felt like we'd had good visits all around. Jon had to go back to work, but I was still off with the kids. This week has been pretty laid-back. Monday night, we went down to Kenosha for some bowling -- meeting up with an old, good friend from college who was in the area for the holidays.



New Year's Eve, we had a "party" in our computer room, complete with dancing, loud music, flashing lights (courtesy of Owen and his new flashlight) and streamers. It actually was a lot of fun. I had one of those parent moments when you look at your kids and think, this really is the greatest; this is all I need.



This weekend, I'll have to get some chores done to prepare for the inevitable return to work (declaring a war on laundry for starters). It has been fun. And I'm really going to miss sleeping in until 8 and waking up to the sounds of Owen and Nora giggling in her room. Too bad Christmas comes but once a year.