Winter Break used to mean the chance to sleep in, an opportunity to read a good book, more time to see family and catch up with friends, the hope for snow, and two weeks without having to write the date on the board or grade papers. The anticipation of Winter Break this year still comes with some of the same hopes(though in place of writing the date and grading papers, I'm hoping for fewer diaper changes!).
Though I am usually bringing in bags full of goodies in the afternoon on the first day of Christmas Break, this year I was putting shoes on my little ones so that we could help Daddy with his bags of goodies as we welcomed him home. Since we were already outside, we took advantage of the mild afternoon and played a little.
Hagan and Ian, our neighbors across the street, joined us. At first, Anabella wasn't real warm to the idea of Hagan playing with her car, but then when he offered to push her, she warmed up pretty quickly!
After playing outside, we came in to open a few presents from Mommy and Daddy. Anabella and Daniel each got a Santa ornament with their 2011 Christmas pictures for their trees. Cliff's parents got him an ornament each year for Christmas starting the year he was born. He now has a tree with a wide range of ornaments that is a unique timeline of his thirty plus (plus) years of life. I thought the idea was such a good one, that we've decided to continue the tradition. So, besides their Santa ornaments, Daniel and Anabella also got ornaments that reflect their interests right now- Daniel got a Cookie Monster and Anabella got Big Bird. Daniel loves cookies about as much as his Daddy does. Now that he's been introduced to real cookies, as opposed to animal crackers, which we used to pass off as cookies, "cookie" is his new favorite word (and request) second to "eat". And that is why he got a Cookie Monster for his 2011 ornament. Anabella got Big Bird because her favorite book right now is Big Bird's Busy Day. I must read it four/five times a day. Then, when Cliff gets home, he reads it at least twice. Big Bird is busy and so are we!
They also got new hats and mittens. Daniel LOVED his frog hat. In fact, he loved it so much he wore it all evening until we made him remove it when it was time for dinner. Daniel loves frogs in general. Now that he has started watching Sesame Street, he gets so excited when Kermit the frog gets his turn in front of the camera. "Frog," he shouts, as Anabella tries to tell him it's "Kermee."
Anabella was indifferent to her owl hat, which is unusual since she usually loves hats. This summer we couldn't get her to take off hats; she wanted one on the moment she went outside. Instead, she was amused by the mittens and wanted to make sure that Daniel was too. When he showed little interest (i.e. didn't try to take them from her), she dropped the mittens and entertained herself by putting everything back in the box.
A few weeks ago we put up these holiday window clings. It was their first set, though they'd had some practice with them at Granny's. They had fun putting them up, but hadn't really bothered with them much since besides the occasional trip to the door to point out Ho Ho. I was surprised when, after opening gifts, Daniel walked to the door, took off the holly, brought it to me and said "holly." Holly! I didn't know they knew about holly- you'll see my amazement (some of which is over exaggerated for their amusement) as they point out the items. They went on to name the rest of the clings, including Frosty, though at first I thought Anabella said holly but after watching the video I think she did say Frosty. They surprise me everyday with their blossoming vocabulary!
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