The Christmas season: Part 1

The Christmas season began with a fun concert given by the local symphony orchestra. During intermission any children in the audience are invited to come on stage and play/sing Jingle Bells. Last year Paul was a bit freaked out and didn't really participate. This year went much better, although I only managed to capture the tail end of his performance.


The following weekend we went caroling with friends. Paul enjoyed playing the drums (what else?) Back at the homestead, we were busy making cookies and decorating the house. The Italian-American side of our family was finally honored with the official launching of The Guido Tree. Sadly the lights do not blink, but they are multi-colored and tacky. Paul enjoyed putting blue candy canes in a clump at the bottom and we had a lovely evening making popcorn chains. I look forward to adding more homemade ornaments each year. Our annual craft project was the creation of John's stocking (last one on the right). Paul & I helped with the design and colors, and CJ did the sewing. Now our mantel is complete!Paul participated children's program at church a week before Christmas. He practiced his singing and I got the cameras ready. Unfortunately he had a bit of a meltdown right before the performance and was refusing to go on. Thankfully his Sunday school teacher convinced him to join the show and he sang a lovely "Away in a Manger"(video to follow once I have downloaded it from the video camera). However he refused to wear the shepherd costume and was heard throughout church saying, "I DO NOT WANT TO!!!" My boy. He did, however, thouroughly enjoy his fame following the performance. We'll make a star out of him yet!

The latest projects

It has been a while since I posted pics of our house projects, and CJ accomplished two biggies this year. His summer project was installing a new deck. He did it all by himself (Paul helped by dropping screws between the boards and providing moral support) and it made all of our neighbors jealous. We became "The people with the big deck". Very cool. We hosted some great get-togethers over the summer (including one that got rained out - but people still hung out on the deck!) and Paul enjoyed playing in his pool and sandbox. We can't wait to get back out there in the spring!!

Over Thanksgiving break CJ decided he had had enough of the ugly carpet in the den, ripped it all out and put down hardwood floors. It was hard work, but the result is certainly worth it. We can't wait to show it off during the holidays!! Next on the agenda... the upstairs bathrooms!! We were going to start this fall, but the referral put things on hold for a few months. Stay tuned.

Drowning in a sea of bureaucracy

I suppose now that we are on the "home stretch" to becoming a family of four, I should start blogging more often. Honestly things just get so crazy around here! And yes, all you mothers-of-more-than-one who are currently chuckling to yourselves, I do realize that it will only get crazier. But today P was playing superheroes and I thought, "Gosh, won't it be great when he makes his little brother play Robin instead of me." (Why he won't let me be something cooler and more gender appropriate, like Catwoman, I don't know.) Okay, so in my delusional mind my two boys are always playing peacefully and no one is calling anyone a name or poking anything or touching any toys that are not theirs to touch. (Insert "Maaaaaaahhhhhhhmmm" here)
I digress. Progress update on J: We have sent in all the paperwork, and then resent it a week later when they realized our name was misspelled. As luck would have it, our fingerprints for immigration expired eight days after we got our referral. We had sent in a request for re-prints a few weeks back and they happily cashed our check and sent us a note saying they were "processing our paperwork". Which was great since, well, there was nothing to process!! All we need is a letter saying we can get reprinted, aka the fingerprint permission slip (our social worker called it the FPs - I mean, what else could it stand for?) I finally got in touch with someone over at immigration, got the permission slip, & now need to figure out how we are both going to get downtown before three M-F to get re-fingerprinted. I seriously have lost count as to how many times my prints have been taken; let's just say it's a really high number.