Christmas? Only ok.

I hate to say that it wasn't a great Christmas, but it really wasn't. My husband and youngest daughter are still suffering from the flu and neither was in any kind of mood to open gifts yesterday. In fact, all Raya really wanted to do was vomit and poop all over everything.

Petra, on the other hand, had a great day. She got her Disney Princess castle and Mix Max and spent the bulk of the day taking and playing with Raya's baby toys because, you know, a Little Einstein's guitar is much cooler than a life-sized Disney castle replete with elevator and dressing room.

Raya? Perfectly happy with styrofoam and tissue paper. Couldn't give a shit about her toys, clothes or food. Actually, she did give a shit. Quite a bit: I went through three outfits yesterday.

Now that Christmas is over, the Bs need to focus on getting and staying healthy. I'm not sure I can take another few weeks of the evil sickness.

Let me add (before I sound like a total Grinch), thank you Natche for the lovely gifts. The long, down puffy coat is EXACTLY what I wanted and lord knows I needed a new coffee maker. 8 1/2 years is just a bit too long for an appliance that gets used more than any other in this house. And thank you for the Pottery Barn recharge station. As you can see, I've organized all of my gadgets and have them all charging from a single outlet. It's really wonderful.

Gotta Run. Think the baby is going to blow chunks.

Hanukkah with the pre-school set

I just spent an hour at Petra's school teaching the children in her class about the meaning of Hanukkah and celebrating the holiday with dreidel games and snacks. A few observations:

1. The story of Hanukkah is complex. And violent. And very difficult to tell to four and five-year olds. I found the story online at the Jewish Publication Society's Children's Corner and I *still* had to modify. Seriously, the last thing I wanted was for children to walk out of the classroom saying, "Petra's mommy told us that the Greeks tried to kill the Jews and so the Jews fought back and won against an evil Greek king and killed lots of people." Um. No.
2. Dreidel game = gambling. There are no two ways about it. It's a lot like dice. You put money in the pot and spin the dreidel. If it comes up Gimel, you win the pot. And yes, I just taught the children how to play.
3. The whole peanut-free thing? Difficult with the bringing-the-snacks-to-school thing. There are no stores in the area that sell baked goods that cannot say with absolute certainty that their products have not in some way touched or come in close contact with a peanut. And that means I had to bake. And we know how much I love that.
4. Petra doesn't want to share. Yeah, she wasn't too keen on sharing her mommy with her friends. Nor did she like the idea that every child in the class came up and hugged me after my presentation (and I can't say that I was too keen on it too). She grabbed me as if to say, this is my mommy and the rest of you need to go out and get a cool mommy who reads to us and brings us snacks...just. like. mine.

All in all, it was fun but I should've been better prepared. And I should've decorated the classroom. And I should've frosted the cookies. But the kids seemed to enjoy themselves; and let's face it, they're only four.

So to all of my Jewish friends (and non-Jewish friends who choose to celebrate), Happy Hanukkah!

It's been awhile...

Yes, I realize that I've neglected my blog, but I have a darn good excuse, two actually: sick children. Raya came down with the roseola virus on Tuesday while I was traveling on business; Petra came down with it last night. Roseola is a nasty little viral bug that causes a very high (some might call it wicked high) fever...try 103.5.

Anyhoo, Natche and I've been juggling work, sick kids, travel, holiday shopping and decorating all at the same time.

But we did have time for a bit of fun. In between the illnesses we took the kids to the North Pole via the Polar Express. Petra *loved* it. Absolutely adored everything about it and can't wait to go back. Raya? Notsomuch. She's teething and doesn't seem to like much of anything these days.

Here are a few photos of the polar adventure.

Lessons learned from this weekend's party

1. Evite directions suck. It's easy as pie to get to my house unless you use Evite Maps. Seriously, if I wanted my guests to take a tour of the nearest inner city, I'd have sent them there myself.
2. You can never have too much food...even if the menu is a bit of a mish mash. Guests *loved* the fact that we had Tupperware all ready to go so they could take home bits of everything.
3. Everyone will end up in the kitchen...whether you like it or not. It doesn't matter if you have a great room the size of an airplane hangar ...people are attracted to the kitchen like moths to a flame.
4. Cousins ROCK! Petra didn't say "boo!" to me once. She was so busy playing with her cousins--chasing after them, bossing them around--it was FANTASTIC.
5. Parties are exhausting. Especially when you're pregnant.

Don't get me wrong, a good time was had by all, but I'm glad we're done for another year.