End of Year Festivities

Many of my readers were lucky enough to share either Christmas or New Years with us. We hosted our third year of both families visiting us in Chicago. The boys did awesome and had a ball at Christmas. As per usual they loved having all the family around to play with, read stories with, and generally supplement their already well-loved little lives. Silas has sometimes been overwhelmed with visitors so i was a little apprehensive about the number of visitors.


But actually he did great. Dinners at home were a bit touch and go but blessedly the night out everyone did great. And of course the highlight was Christmas Eve with new Christmas pajamas and Christmas morning with a huge abundance of gifts. We actually got everything opened in one day-- and for the first year ever, before naptime! I think a few highlights of the morning were Silas' new Dora DVD, the dollhouse Silas got and the trucks that you take apart and put back together with tools.


In addition to all the Christmas loot, JT's parents brought with them some toys my parents had saved for me that i thought the boys would appreciate. We've put together the doll bunkbeds and the highchair and along with the new kitchen, these implements seem to have helped the boys imagination take off. I'm trying to stoke the development however i can-- of course without seeming to. Last night they were pretending to go on a trip to see Africa and feeding their baby on the plane.


After we bid adieu to our family we headed out to Michigan City for a New Year's week with 4 other couples and families. The house was absolutely beautiful and the weather was warm enough we pretty easily got the boys out of the house for some gorgeous walks every day but the last day. We also planned art activities each day. This combined with the kids being a year older and generally able to play with each other for at least a bit on their own contributed to a fun and less exhausting trip this year.


As soon as we got to the Michigan house Silas started asking when we were going home. But as opposed to the trauma a trip seemed to stoke in Silas this summer, this time when i just answered "We'll go home on Saturday" he accepted it and seemed satisfied. Now he's been asking about when we'll go back. I bet by next year he'll be a real veteran!