December 24, 2009: Christmas Eve! Most of the extended family who were in town came over to my parents’ house for appetizers and conversation. We bought the boys matching jammies and had them put them on. Then Wyatt picked out a few of the prettiest cookies and filled a shot glass with milk for Santa and we wrestled the kids into bed.

December 25, 2009: I hardly took any pictures on Christmas day because I was spending the time enjoying myself, my kids and my family. These photos were of Augie investigating what Santa put in his stocking and of Wyatt opening one of his very favorite gifts from his grandparents. Merry Christmas!

December 26, 2009: We all gathered around the dining room table to work on our various “projects” while Augie took his nap. My mom and I goofed around on our laptops and shared a snack. Zach played with his iPhone. And my Dad and Wyatt worked on assembling Wyatt’s big Power Miner set that he got from Santa.

December 27, 2009: This was a really big day for us! Everyone on my Dad’s side of the family — four generations — gathered at my Grandma’s house for the day. (My Uncle Bill and cousin Emily’s family were the only ones who couldn’t make it.) We took about a million photos of everyone and this is the whole gang all together. The last time we got even close to this many of us together was over 10 years ago and none of the great-grandkids had been born yet.

December 28, 2009: One of the ways I know it’s Christmas is that I’m drinking a warm beverage out of one of my mom’s Christmas tree mugs. My brother and I bought her pieces of this set for Christmas every year over a 4 or 5 year period so she has a pretty good selection. She doesn’t bring all of it out every year, but these mugs always make an appearance.

December 29, 2009: My mom took Wyatt and his cousin to the park to go sledding and as they were leaving she called me so I could start making them hot chocolate. I always try to make hot chocolate from scratch because it’s sooooo much better than the instant kind. And see — they’re using the Christmas mugs!

December 30, 2009: My mom, Augie and I cut out for our annual post-Christmas shopping trip. We took a break after lunch in the family room at the mall and August rocked out playing with the toddler toys.

December 31, 2009: My parents had a New Year’s Eve party that involved drunken sledding down their driveway at 2 a.m. but I didn’t get any pictures of that (and technically it happened in 2010). So my photo of the day is of Wyatt drawing pictures in the ice and steam on their living room windows. Happy New Year!

December 17, 2009: Putting the kids to bed all by myself is always a bit of a challenge and doing it every day for a week required quite a bit of strategy on my part. My basic strategy was to give the kids baths together, put on jammies and then set Wyatt up on the couch with some books to read while I nursed and rocked Augie. He was a really good cooperator through this whole process and every night I promised him that he could have a little special time playing Legos or Webkinz with me after Augie was asleep. Unfortunately, he fell asleep before Augie did almost every single night! (Well…technically that wasn’t unfortunate for me, but I did feel bad that he kept missing out on his treat.) On this night, when I came out to the living room, I found him tucked between the couch cushions. Awwww…

December 18, 2009: Wyatt is encourage to do a book report as part o his homework every week. A kindergarten book report requires that the kids write the name of the book, the author and draw a picture about the book. This week he chose Skippyjon Jones for his topic and I think that the likeness he drew is excellent.

December 19, 2009: Augie is obsessed with plugging and unplugging cords — a past time I find quite nerve-wracking because of the danger involved. When we rearranged our living room to put up the Christmas tree he suddenly had access to the sub-woofer which has a veritable bonanza of cords. I finally got tired to trying to keep him away from it and just unplugged it so he could go to town with it.

December 20, 2009: My happy boy!

December 21, 2009: This is a photo Zach took while he was on his trip: flaming sugar cubes over glasses of absinthe! Ooh la la!

December 22, 2009: Off to Iowa to see Grandma and Grandpa! We had to get up at 2:30 am to make our 6:00 am flight. The kids were great on the flights though — we couldn’t have asked for better behavior.

December 23, 2009: Wyatt was super excited to play in the snow this year and we tried to let him go out to play every day. On this first day, my mom and I returned from a trip to Target to find him playing out in the yard. Luckily, I’d bought him a pair of snow pants while we were there which turned out to be a good move as you can see by how wet his pants were.

December 10, 2009: I took a picture of myself while I was playing with Augie in his room.

December 11, 2009: And here I am again, giving Augie a smooch-a-rooni on his head. Man, that kid has really blue eyes.

December 12, 2009: My beloved sister-in-law, Erin, is due with her first baby in February and I helped throw her a baby shower along with our friend MLE and Erin’s mother-in-law, Sara. (Hi guys!)

December 13, 2009: This is the other of the two advent calendars Wyatt had this year. I got this for more than half off on clearance after Christmas last year. This year I put chocolates behind each door, but what I really wanted to do was put a little slip of paper with a fun holiday activity for the boys in each cubby. I even got as far as making a list of 25 things we could do on the computer, but I never managed to find the time to figure out which activities were best for which days. We ended up doing most of the activities anyway though. Next year, I’m going to make this happen.

December 14, 2009: This is what Augie’s hair looks like after he eats an avocado and I attempt to wipe it out with a washcloth.

December 15, 2009: We were up bright and early to take Zach to the airport for a business trip to Montreal. Wyatt and I assembled this astronaut costume out of grocery bags later that evening. We got the idea from one of his early reader books that he brought home from school

December 16, 2009: Augie got new kicks! It had been raining on and off for a few days and his little leather slipper shoes weren’t cutting it for walking around outside, so he got his first pair of big boy shoes. Wyatt screamed and screamed the first time we put rubber-soled shoes on him, but Augie barely even noticed.

December 3, 2009: Wyatt drank hot chocolate from a Santa cup while he did his homework after school. He had to make room at the table amongst the Christmas decorations and craft supplies for the different projects I was working on.

December 4, 2009: Poor Zach! Wyatt insisted he read a video game catalog for bedtime stories.

December 5, 2009: Zach took the boys out for the day and I embarked on an epic toy purge and reorganization project. It took me something like 4 or 5 hours to get it done, but the boys’ room was so nice and clean afterwards that it was totally worth it.

December 6, 2009: And here is the room all organized the next day. The kids were extremely excited to play in their room.

December 7, 2009: This is one of the two advent calendars we had this year. I got this Playmobil set years and years ago when I was still single. It’s been in storage for quite a while, but I decided Wyatt was old enough for it this year. He loved it and would run straight to it to open each day’s box first thing in the morning.

December 8, 2009: Woot! I met up with Lisa from Help a Mother Out as SadieDey’s Cafe to deliver the diapers from the diaper drive. It was really fun to meet her and talk to her about how her organization came to be.

December 9, 2009: Little Augie looked out the front window at the rain.

November 25, 2009: Ta da! New hair!

November 26, 2009:  The boys rousted Daddy up out of bed by jumping all over him. It’s quite an effective alarm clock.

November 27, 2009: Here’s our little climber in action. He so obsessed with climbing onto the kitchen table that we have to move the chairs into the closet in the back hallway when he’s in there.

November 28, 2009: I printed out this R2D2 mask and added some string to it so Wyatt could wear it.

November 29, 2009: Christmas preparations officially begin with our first session of cookie baking. We started out with a double batch of cream cheese spritz cookies.

November 30, 2009: Ha ha! Augie was the victim of some static electricity when he was tooling around in his cozy coupe.

December 1, 2009: Another high chair photo! But wait — there’s a story behind this one! See those bananas on the counter behind Augie? Well, one morning while I was starting breakfast he managed to pull one off the counter. I figured there was no harm in letting him walk around with it for a few minutes while I made a cup of tea, but after just a few seconds, I looked over at him and he had gnawed a chunk of the peel off and was sucking out the mushy banana inside. I wrestled it away from him and then peeled it and gave him a half banana. Up to that point, I’d been chopping his bananas up for him. He did so well with the half banana that I started trying all sorts of bigger chunks of food on him. Augie was so late getting his teeth that chopping all his food was an ingrained habit, but now that he has some chompers we’re both liking how much less time it takes to make his food.

December 2, 2009: Decorating the Christmas tree! The boys had a great time checking out the ornaments, untangling lights, and sticking everything in their mouths. (OK — maybe it was just Augie who stuck everything in his mouth.)

November 19, 2009: I made a big batch of breakfast burritos to put in the freezer for easier morning. They were chock full of eggs, ham, potatoes and jack cheese and super yummy.

November 20, 2009: And then today I made a Better Than Sex Cake as part of the Cakes of My Youth series for this very blog you’re reading right now. Crazy, caramely, sugary over-load.

November 21, 2009: Ah yes — look how clean and lovely the boys’ room is. I like how they carefully piled everything in a big heap so I could walk through there.

November 22, 2009: A big pile of craft supplies at the wreath-making party the Rookie Moms threw for Safety at Home.

November 23, 2009: Wyatt cleared all the stuff off the bottom shelf of the lazy susan in our kitchen and crawled inside. This first time he did this, I thought it was cute. The 27 times he’s done it since then have started to grate on my nerves.

November 24, 2009: In line for groceries at Lucky. I’m not exactly sure why I took this photo, but it was the only one I had for this particular day.

November 25, 2009: Ah, yes — my basket of bento boxes! This sits on the top shelf of the lazy susan Wyatt climbed into earlier in the week. It was extremely well-organized for a few months, but once Augie started to walk, he targeted this shelf and this basket in particular as the object of his investigative curiosity. I can’t really blame him, of course — the boxes are quite pretty and very interesting with all of their colors and parts. He likes to pick up various pieces of my boxes, carry them around the house and deposit them in unexpected places, so I’m constantly finding bento box lids peeking out from below my bed side table or in the bathtub. It makes lunch prep a wee bit more challenging in the mornings.