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!