City Sidewalks

(Jenn)
Amy and Dave came yesterday from CT for a little Christmas visit. We are so glad they came, because they are the closest "family" we have here! We spent the day mostly exploring the Christmas sights of the city. We had plans to go ice skating, but apparently we didn't want to skate badly enough to wait in the horrific lines we saw. Instead, we just visited the skating rinks at Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center, seeing the other sights and shops along the way. We had lunch at Cosi and then dropped Amy and Dave off at their theater for Les Misérables.

When they got home from the show, we had a nice dinner at home and then spent the rest of the evening talking, laughing, singing duets, and playing games. Dave is a trooper for enduring all of our crazy reminiscing about high school, and adding what he could here and there. We really love Dave and are so glad Amy married him! We can't think of a couple we'd rather have living so close to us!

We were up until 1:00 in the morning playing Ticket to Ride, the Europe version, which was an awesome game (a gift from Ben's parents). This morning was pretty leisurely -- just talking in our pajamas for a long time before Amy and Dave left around 10:30. I'm really not ready to get back to real life. It has been so nice just to have Ben off work and home for a couple of days (it doesn't happen very often!). I have laundry waiting to be sorted and started in the bedroom, and I'm just trying to think of more things I can do instead of laundry right now. I always dread seeing the end of the holidays. I guess it's a good thing we still have this weekend at Kara's house and then New Year's Eve next week!

A Full Sleigh

(Jenn)

This was our first year having Christmas completely away from family. We definitely missed the traditions we are used to, but it was still a great Christmas for us. We had a rather calm Christmas Eve, just talking about the birth of Jesus with Henry, then singing songs and getting ready for bed. While we were asleep, Santa arrived with a pretty full sleigh!

Really, we were amazed at the stack of gifts we had this year. We're used to only having a few presents under our tree, and then going to visit family and receiving a few more gifts at each house. This year we had EVERYTHING under our tree -- lots of it was sent in packages in the mail! It took 2 full hours to open everything, party because there was so much (thanks everybody!), and partly because Henry wanted to open, play with, or read every gift before moving on to the next one. We had a great Christmas morning.

Apparently Henry was good enough for Santa this year. He ended up getting what he REALLY REALLY wanted -- train tracks! We love this table with the built-in car and train tracks. Henry has already devoted several hours to playing here. Now we just have to figure out where we're going to keep this thing!

Christmas Carols by Henry

(Jenn)
Come on . . . just watch it! It's only 4 minutes long. You should at least watch the first 30 seconds or so, just to get an idea.

Enjoy!


Carols by Henry from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Pretty Things

(Jenn)

Henry has been watching me put on makeup for a couple of days now -- he's pretty interested. Today, he coached me on what to put on next at each point in the process. He was especially excited about the "little pencil" and wanted me to put the lipliner on without delay. Here he is, a few minutes later, trying his own masterpiece with a purple pencil. I guess he knew we were going to get his pictures taken today, and he wanted to look especially handsome.

6 Things that Make Me Happy

(Jenn)

1. The sound of lots of laughing kids. This week, they were teenagers. We had a really fun Young Men/Young Women Christmas party at the church. We played the candy bar game and "Christmas Cranium." In both games, it was great to hear 15 kids laughing and having a merry time.

2. Seeing Henry's face in the rearview mirror. When we're dropping Ben off at the train station, if we time it just right, we're leaving the station just as the train pulls in. I like to peek in the mirror and catch Henry's face as he nearly shrieks with delight and yells "Train's coming!" Same reaction every time.

3. The rare moments when Henry stops running and will just sit with me. Today he sat with me on the rocking chair and we just reviewed the morning's events together. I love his sweet little voice chiming in what he remembers ("Ate fruit snacks").



4. Our advent calendar. This was a miraculous buy for our home this year (I looked ALL over for it, and one day it suddenly appeared on a shelf of Target where it hadn't been before!). It makes me happy every time I see it. The candy inside every door makes Henry and Ben happy too!



5. Our Christmas card wall. I'm proud of my ribbon-and-clothespin-invention, my own spin on a Martha Stewart idea. I also love seeing how loved we are by looking at the cards and the wonderful people they represent. Thanks for the cards everybody!

6. Our Christmas tree. Of course.

Chocolate Swirls

(Jenn) As you may know, Henry loves library books! He especially loves them when he has read them enough times to recite his favorite words from them. Usually it's just the important words at the end of each sentence ("Left foot, left foot, left foot, right. Feet in the morning, feet at . . . NIGHT!"). Today he shocked me while we were reading Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory (a real winner). The book shows how to identify each kind of chocolate by the swirls on top of them. Today, Henry piped in and recited all 7 different kinds of chocolate (fudge, caramel, marshmallow, truffle, nougat, orange fluff, and "George's favorite: banana cream"). I never realized he was listening so closely, or that he could say the words "nougat" and "truffle." I guess he pays attention when it comes to candy (I'm teaching him well)!


Untitled from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Santa Pics

(Jenn) It's a miracle that we were able to get a non-screaming picture of Henry on Santa's lap this year. At the branch party, we had a Tongan Santa, and Henry was terrified of him! He ran out of the room crying and wouldn't go back into the party for the rest of the night. So this is the picture of Henry and Santa at the Moms' Club party. He hesitated, but then he sat on Santa's lap for a few seconds -- long enough to get a present from Santa and put in his order for this year: train tracks.

Here is Elder Sopu, the Tongan Santa. I don't know if Henry was more scared of Santa himself, or all the cheering and clapping that went on when Santa showed up.

Let it Snow Baby . . . Let it Reindeer

(Jenn)

My Christmas music pick of the year: Relient K's "Let it Snow Baby . . . Let it Reindeer." I must admit that I was skeptical at first when my brother Tanner gave me the CD, but I absolutely love it! It's got a lot of great Christmas favorites performed in their upbeat "pop-punk" style, and then a few amazing originals about Christ (the band is considered by some to be in the Christian rock genre). Anyway, it has been a refreshingly different-yet-not-too-different option for the Christmas music this year. Just trust me on this one. Buy it, ask me (or Tanner) for a copy of it, or at least listen to some samples (for your convenience, I've linked the Amazon page. Just click the link and then scroll down to the samples).

Enjoy!

Potty Time!

(Jenn) Henry has been seriously fascinated with the toilet recently. He loves talking about potty, watching people go potty, and putting toilet paper in the potty and flushing it. So on his birthday, I set up a potty station in his room with the potty we bought from a garage sale and a basket of books. Since then he has LOVED sitting on the potty and reading books (of course, I have to read them to him).

I was pretty sure he was just taking advantage of a chance to talk Mom into reading to him several times a day. And I was pretty sure he was probably NEVER going to actually "go potty," but on Monday he did it! It was a miracle! He actually said, "Needa go potty" instead of just "Go potty," so I was a little hopeful. Then, after a few books, I did a few water-pouring motivational tactics (I'll spare you the details), and it worked! Henry got 5 M&M's as a potty treat! Yesterday he went potty twice and was perfectly happy with only 3 M&M's. I guess I need to go buy some more. We weren't planning on potty training Henry for at least another six months or a year. I still probably won't push it, at least until the holidays are over. But for now it's kind of cool that he knows what's going on and is excited about it. If you have any suggestions or notice any grave mistakes with my method of potty training (I have no idea what I'm doing), please let me know!

Do you think it looks official?

(Jenn) Henry's been helping with Ben's grad school applications. I found him yesterday helping with the "official transcript" that Ben had all ready to mail to Duke. It's supposed to be sealed, stamped, and signed by the registrar. So cast your votes, ladies and gentlemen: do you think they'll go for this one? It looks pretty official to me.