Hanukah Ham

Last night was Christmas Eve and today is Christmas Day. Yay. However, it is also the middle of Hanukah! We’ve been lighting candles for days now. On the first night Fiona got a xylophone as a gift from me. I decided that every year Fiona, and whatever other children we eventually have, will get one small gift on the first night of Hanukah, and the rest on Christmas morning. I decided this because it seems that Christmas is all about gifts and Hanukah is not, and I don’t want to make it about gifts either.

John got some stuff today, but the big thing was last night’s dinner. A week ago we were talking about dinners and I asked him if he wanted anything special because he was not going to spend Christmas with his family in Canada. He requested ham. So we went to Honeybaked and bought the smallest ham they had – almost nine pounds – and ate some of it for dinner last night. We also had peas and carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, and salad, and we were joined by my parents. It was a really pleasant dinner. We all joked that the ham was as Hanukah ham because we are not supposed to eat pork in the first place and yet here we were, eating it in the middle of a major holiday. I think God will forgive us because in this crazy age we live in, who has time to worry about what someone eats for dinner?

For Christmas we gave Fiona a play kitchen. This is what it looked like after she saw it:

My kitchen looks a little like that too.

We also gave her wooden “fridge food” so she would have something to put in the kitchen. Right now she likes to open and close the doors and pretend she is drinking the orange juice.

Speaking of the little Miss, we took her tide pooling again and saw some really big sea stars. I did not have my camera so no photos :( We also saw a turret shell (that she pulled off the rock) and chitins, gooseneck barnacles, and lots of different types of birds, including ducks on the shore! Fiona had a blast poking at the anemones, pulling on the mussels, and running in the very shallow water on the beach. The tide was so low that we were able to walk around the jetty (a daytime rarity I’m told).

We are enjoying our time together as a family, taking daily walks around the neighborhood, visiting our favorite coffee shops, and teaching Fiona to use a fork and spoon. With yogurt, she starts out enthusiastically, then gives up and uses her hands. Here is the result:

 

Very messy.

Fiona’s latest love is Snoopy. She loves playing with him, carrying him around the house, and diapering him. She plays with and cuddles her other dolls as well, but Snoopy is definitely her Number One. It is not surprising because this very Snoopy was my very first doll.

She continues to be very affectionate toward us and other children, hugging them and trying to kiss them, even when they don’t want her to. She knocked down a very large little boy at the park the other day, and he ran away from her eventually. We are trying to teach her to be gentle and to hug us and her dolls, but she just wants to hug everything. Really, it’s no wonder she is like this, considering how much we hug and kiss her.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Bought Our Tree Today

We went to a farm that has trees today. It is a regular farm that sells tree at this time of year, not a farm that grows the trees. Coincidentally, it turns out that the man who owns the farm is the brother of the man who owns a restaurant that we really like, a restaurant that had a music festival we went to a few months ago. And the man’s father is the guy that let us use the shade from his tent at the music festival and gave us water for Fiona. Small world.

Fiona had fun trying to get the goats to talk to her or at least come closer so she could pet them. She tried talking to them, but they were not cooperating:

They also had chickens and the owner gave us some eggs that we ate for dinner tonight. YUMMY!

Fiona was intrigued by the chickens but did not want to get too close. I repeated lines from “Mr. Gumpy’s Outing” to her so she would have something familiar to associate with the chickens.

Here she is eating cheese while we wait for John to tie the tree to the roof of the car.

Here is our tree:

And stockings:

Yes, those are Stars of David. The blue decoration behind the tree is also a Chanukah decoration, dradles.

We also put our cards up. We are missing one. Fiona took it off the fridge and I cannot find it anywhere in the house :(

Last, here is Fiona reading in the car:

We did a lot of other stuff today, finished buying things for the house that we need, and I bought the NICU gifts so I can deliver them some time this week, Saturday at the latest. I’m so glad I don’t have to go to work this week. I really need the break! Happy Week to everyone!

Our Latest Adventures

A couple of weeks ago we discovered that Fiona really likes running up and down hill. We took her to a park where her favorite thing was just to run up and down an embankment.

Friday afternoon I went for a run at the beach with my friend Nicole. After the run we took the kids to play in the sand. It happened to be low tide and there were some interesting tide pools. We saw a crab, and some shrimp, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and lots of anemones. Fiona and her friend Caz had a blast running around in the shallow water, pulling on the poor mussels who make the rocks their homes, and poking the anemones to make them squirt and close up. All in all, it was a perfectly wonderful afternoon.

Here are some photos of the afternoon:

 

 

  

 

Fiona’s pants at the end of the afternoon:

She ate a great dinner that night and slept really well.

Saturday we decided to take her on a little hike. We went to a place along the coast where we used to go running. Fiona had a fabulous time picking up rocks and throwing them back down again.

She marched uphill like a trooper and even climbed some stairs along the trail:

 

 

At one point, we lost a shoe:

 

Water break:

We saw green birds that look like parrots:

The only drawback to the day, the free parking we used to take advantage of is gone due to rock fall. This little baby cost us $12 (insert expletive):

Darn budget cuts.

I mentioned in my last post that I was off to address holiday cards. I am almost finished. I have 50 cards. I started with the first page of my address book and went through letter by letter. Next year I think I will pay the extra money to have them pre-addressed by Shutterfly.