Coming up for air!

We survived Christmas 2006 in grand style. The girls received more presents than 2 children should ever be allowed! Santa was very good - as were 4 very doting grandparents and 2 aunts and an uncle. Unbelieveable. Brenna was thrilled with her Polly Pocket Cruise ship (and a gazillion more Pollys), several board games, a pair of Heelys, an Irish step tote bag and personalized shirt, and a ton of new clothes. Molly was more than pleased with her Rescue Pet Wake Up dog, Moon Sand, board games, Littlest Pet Shop playsets and a new CD/karaoke radio for her room. And that was the tip of the iceberg. We also got a keyboard which has turned into a fun family gift as we've all had fun playing with the demo songs. Now if only someone could actually play!

My parents were here for nearly a week and we were all sad to see them go. Hopefully they'll use the JetBlue giftcards we gave them to come back again soon! In the meantime, I'm still finding shreds of wrapping paper under furniture and trying to put things away and eat my way from under all of the food in the house. All in all - it's exactly how a holiday should be!!

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Christmas Eve

Off to bed before Santa gets here! Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Gingerbread Houses

Lots of candy, lots of icing, lots of mess but lots of fun!

Fa La La La La !

Last night Brenna and I went caroling with 4 of the Girl Scout troops at her school. Picture more than 70 girls and families trooping through the neighborhood behind the school! After all of the gorgeous days we've had, we of course got the first chilly night in a long time. First stops were the convent and the rectory (that's Brenna in the Brownie vest right in the middle of the group) but the best part was that the faculty of the school was having their Christmas Party in the neighborhood we were caroling in. The girls really enjoyed performing, but the hot chocolate and cookies afterwards were even better. This was the first time we've been caroling and it really helped to put us in the Christmas spirit!

Ready for School!

Don't bother rubbing the sleep out of your own eyes because you are seeing correctly - Brenna and Molly wore their pajamas to school today! No they didn't dawdle too long or just simply forget to get dressed - it was Pajama Spirit Day. Let's just say that there was a level of excitement in that school that I've never seen. Even the teachers got in the spirit and wore jammies and robes. It was a cute sight - especially at morning arrival!

In the afternoon they were having an event in the gym to culminate in a huge team pillow fight. The Reds vs. Whites (school colors) tossing dozens and dozens of pillows back and forth across the gym and when the timer stops, the team with the fewest number of pillows on their side wins. I'm sure it was hilarious to see all these kids - big and little together, having fun. No matter what, these two girls were excited to go in today!

Christmas in Killarney . . .

well, it was actually Arlington, VA but it felt a bit like good ol' Ireland at least! Brenna's Irish dance school held their Christmas Pageant tonight and she was wonderful. It was their first time performing and only 8 of the girls were able to attend. Not to mention that they haven't had class in 2 weeks so they weren't exactly well-rehearsed. Nevertheless, they did a great job and we couldn't be prouder. Baby, take a bow!

Hair

Molly did my hair for me last night. Putting all of those clips away reminded me that I needed to pick up some hair accessories for stocking stuffers.

Or do I? The girls do have quite a few hair things already . . .

A big basket of headbands . . .

Not one but TWO racks of hair bows and ribbons . . .

Many baggies of clips and barrettes sorted by color (there's more -I notice you can't see the orange, black or white bags!) and don't forget the bigger bags of scrunchies and one devoted to navy and plaid hair things that match their school uniform . . .

But believe it or not Brenna still needs some brown things to match her scout uniform. Boy, do I love being the mom of hair-obsessed girls!

Tough Day Evidently

Molly's unflappable teacher bring the kids out to the main school door every day at dismissal as the parents wait outside. She'll go to the bottom of the steps and one by one she'll say "I see Cathy's mom, you may go." and she helps the kid down the steps before she dismisses the next person. Today was different though. The poor woman stood at the top of the steps and said "If you see your mom, your babysitter, your carpool driver or anyone who looks even remotely familiar to you, just go with them!"

Molly didn't have any comments but clearly it was not a good day.

Unlucky Coincidence?

The girls have a older nun, Sr. Jeanne, for music class at school. She's not particularly patient with the fidgety little ones and thus some of them don't really enjoy her class as much as they should because she spends so much time correcting them. Molly's best little friend has been crying about going to school on music days. Finally last Thursday her father went in and talked to the PreK teacher about it. Nothing the teacher said or did was reassuring to the poor kid so the teacher finally said they didn't have to go. Since PreK doesn't perform in the Christmas Concert (this Friday) and the rest of the school was having extra rehearsals in preparation, the teacher decided to take a break. So she cancelled their music class that day and said she would talk to the kids and to Sr. Jeanne the next day (Friday) about how to make things better.

Didn't they announce in church today that Sr. Jeanne died yesterday! YIKES! Yes, she was older but she seemed in decent enough health. After all, she taught all last week and took part in the Immaculate Conception holy day Mass with the kids on Friday. What a shock to everyone. Now this poor kid's mother calls me feeling guilty. Lesson to all: Stay on this kid's good side! Dean said to make sure we get her a really nice Christmas present so she doesn't decide to dislike us! I hate to joke about it, but it really is an unfortunate coincidence. Brenna was sad but mentioned that many kids didn't like Sr. I really didn't want to leave her with the idea that she was always irritable so I explained that perhaps Sr. hadn't been feeling well for a long time and that's why she may have seemed so grouchy. Brenna seemed to feel better about that so I'm glad. I feel peaceful about her passing also because Friday was a major feast day for our Sisters at school. At Mass that day all 10 of them (can you believe we have 10 nuns!?!) renewed their vows andsang a beautiful song in Latin. It was very touching and powerful to see them all together in such a prayerful way. It's nice to know she passed just after making such a profession. It will be a big loss to the school and naturally the concert this week is cancelled. School will be closed Thursday for the funeral. Brenna wants to go but Molly (who I wasn't planning to bring anyway) says she will only go if her friend is going. Uhhhh . . . I doubt that.

Last practice

Brenna's Irish Dance class had their last practice this week. Next Sunday they will be dancing in her teacher's Irish Christmas pageant. She is so excited! This is the first time these kids will have performed. The teacher has a studio in Virginia so most of the dancers come from there. Since this is just an afterschool class, Brenna won't need a school costume for this so that helps. We did finally get her official Irish dance shoes (ghillies) though. She's convinced she dances much better wearing them!

So now she's just counting the days until the pageant and begging me to curl her hair for it. Oh Lord!

Christmas Tree Assembly

Despite our regular trips to the farm and other such nature excursions (did I ever tell you about that Girl Scout hike? You know, the one where I volunteered to be the one who drove the snack to the end spot? Let me just tell you how broken up I am that our Scout Unit's big Encampment is on First Communion weekend!) anyway, despite our family's love of the great outdoors, we have generally resorted to having a fake tree each Christmas. This is due in large part to A) the fact that Dean and I had a real tree our first Christmas together but the stupid thing leaked and ruined the hardwood floor underneath and then fell over on Christmas morning breaking what few ornaments we had and B) the fact that Dean likes to leave the tree up until . . . February practically and a real tree gets pretty darn spindley by then.

So the assembly of our Christmas tree is a big tradition here. Here you see Brenna lending a hand and Molly lending an opinion as she (and the festively-attired elephant again) watches while snuggled under the Christmas tree skirt. Clearly manual labor isn't her thing.

Elephant

Molly and Elephant 2003

If you've met Molly, then you've met her elephant. The once soft, pink critter is now far more floppy and worn (despite being one of 2 that rotate through the wash. There were 3 but one went missing long ago - exactly why I bought 2 spares when it became clear she loved this little thing!) but it far and away the favorite of all her "friends" (that's what we call her gazillion stuffed animals - she's an addict! Brenna always had a doll and Molly always has an animal friend)

Anyway, she was helping me unpack some more Christmas decorations today when she suddenly scooted off to her room and that was the end of her help. I didn't think any more of it until later when I saw Elephant on the coffeetable. Clearly, as part of the family, he too must get decked out for the holidays. She must have found the little hat in the decorations and claimed it for her best buddy. She's just as pleased as punch with it. I particularly like that it's big ears are stuffed up inside that teeny hat!

December?

Where is the time going? It seems like I just flipped a calendar page, and then here it goes again.

We've had a busy week with school and scouts and dance and everything in between. Dean was away the whole week (nothing like coming in Sunday evening and heading out again Monday morning!) so the girls are happy to have him back now. They are getting antsy to put up all the Christmas decorations so I guess it's time to face the facts and get everything put up. With temperatures in the 70's last week it was impossible to think about then! Of course once the decorations are up all I'll think about is all the shopping I still have left to do!

More Christmas Party

Cousins galore!

Partly because I'm still unloading the gazillion things the girls got in their multiple party bags and tripping over stuffed animals (I wish someone had taken a photo of Auntie Dottie buying a cart full of 60 stuffed penguins!) but I have a few more party pics to share. I actually have 200 pics but I'll only share a few!

Some of the best are of the kids' faces when the characters came in. Our wonderful party planners (my mom and aunts!) rented costumes of Rudolph, Frosty, Spongebob, an elf, and a penguin and some of the "big cousins" were willing to sneak out and dress up (I think they enjoyed it actually. Especially Diane who as the penguin learned the Happy Feet dance and donned her tap shoes to dance for the kids. It was fabulous!) for the little ones. Earlier there were games for the kids and plenty of music for singing and dancing. How could we not have fun?

Our family did this type of party over 30 years ago when we "big cousins" were small. Few of us remember it though and the photos actually show some rather frightening characters (phew, good to see how much the costume industry has improved in those years!) and it has become a bit of a family joke. Did that party really happen? We see the pictures but funny none of us remember it . . . So it was decided last year that the new generation of Coleman cousins (31 families have descended from the 10 Coleman siblings. Only some of them were able to attend else we would have had to rent a convention center!) needed to recreate the event.

My girls really enjoyed the whole thing start to finish and I was thrilled to see them playing so well with cousins they don't often see or some they had never met before! The only disappointing part was tearing them away from it all. Brenna loves being with Nolan and Johnny and also discovered a great friendship with Jenna. Molly and Ariel were tearing up the dance floor and couldn't understand why they couldn't have a playdate the next day. The nearly 500 miles between us is really a problem. I hope as the girls get older, they can use email and phones to stay close to their cousins. I was blessed to grow up near mine (geographically and emotionally and nearly a dozen of us were born between 1970-1972) and I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. I can only hope the same for my girls . . .

Molly and Rudolph (Shhh! It's really cousin Lisa's boyfriend Angelo. She wouldn't pose for pictures with any characters so we had to tell her who this one really was. Can you tell she's excited? She has a big 'ol crush on him. :) (see the 8/22 entry)

Then there's Brenna and Santa

and then the girls with the ever-popular Uncle Don and Auntie Kristin


Cutie Cousins!

Thanksgiving

Backtracking a bit . . .

"A Freeman Thanksgiving" takes shape at Auntie Dottie's each year. At a mere 37 people this year it didn't seem overly crowded! Here you see the 4 tables being assembled - though we have parted ways with the custom tables that Uncle Al used to build to accommodate the yearly gathering! We won't even discuss the year that Auntie Dottie decided we all needed to eat at one table - picture folding tables snaking end to end throughout the house. We weren't necessarily in the same rooms, but we were at one table!! And in our family it's okay that at 40 yrs old, cousins still have to sit at the kids' table because after all - there's a kids' kids' table!

Every time I start to think that the 10 hr. drive north is becoming too much with the kids in school and such, I think about how much fun we have and I can't imagine missing it. Dean and I actually flew in from our Australian honeymoon the night before Thanksgiving 1996 and still made it to the dinner table, albeit bleary and very jetlagged, because I just couldn't bear to break tradition. The day may come when we do have to miss the festivities but until then . . . pass the potatoes, pass the dirty carrots (after all, what is a yam?), pass the broccoli, pass the peas and onions (who even eats those things!) . . .

Family Christmas Party

I need to rest before I can adequately describe today's festivities! So many of the children and grandchildren of the 10 Coleman siblings (my grandmother) gathered to usher in the holidays together. What a great time. Family everywhere, food everywhere and fun everywhere!!!

The girls had a ball with their cousins (first photo but they all didn't fit!), I had a ball with my cousins (second photo), and the "grownups" (third photo) had a ball watching the cousins enjoy the cousins!

I cannot thank my mom and all of my aunts for arranging today. I know they had fun with it but it clearly was a great deal of work too. We will not wait so many years before we do this again though - it was too much fun!

Gobble Gobble!

We're off tomorrow to enjoy the holiday in Boston and stuff ourselves silly!

The girls are excited to see all of their cousins both at Turkey Day

and at the Mega-Christmas party on Saturday.

Molly's turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Picky Eaters

More and more lately I find the girls becoming pickier in what they will and will not eat. In an effort to get them to eat new things we made a chart for the fridge and they get a check mark if they try (which means 2 bites - one to taste and one to decide) a new food. After 10 checks they can pick a special treat.

Molly got her 10 checks last night and so we started discussing her treat. Brenna suggested that a lollipop which Lord knows is no special treat for these kids but if Molly was willing I was okay with it! Nope, Molly says the lollipop isn't what she wanted.

"I was thinking maybe a ride in a limo," she says.

WHAT?! Where on earth did that come from and how does she even know what a limo is?! And did she really think that's what I had in mind as a treat for ingesting maybe a whopping total of 2 oz. of food? This kid is insane. I could see her getting limo on the brain if our teenage neighbor just had a limo for a dance or something but no, we haven't seen or mentioned a limo in ages! I never know what's going on in that Molly-brain!

Investiture

Which is a fancy way of saying Brenna is officially a Girl Scout Brownie now. There was a little ceremony at school last night for parents to present the girls with their pins. Brenna was chosen to carry the Brownie flag during the procession so that made her quite proud. As you can see from her vest, she's been working hard and already has earned 5 "Try-It" patches. Nearly all of the girls in her class participate in scouts so it's a great activity for her.

Eek!

You know the news isn't good when the PreK teacher leads the kids out the door and seeing all the parents clustered together to claim their little darlings says pseudo-brightly (and with a very audible sigh), "Well, tomorrow will be new day!"

That can only mean things didn't go well today. I however didn't get called over to the steps for "a chat" so whatever the ruckus was, I guess Molly wasn't involved (too much anyway)!

That said, Miss Molly was standing to the side with the class' #1 alpha-male (who is ALWAYS in the time-out red chair according to Molly) and before I know it, they have planned a playdate at my house, for today, and his mother was asking me if it was okay. Mind you I had not 2, not 4, not 5 but SEVEN children here yesterday so I'm still not thinking straight! With the teacher's words ringing in my ears, I nodded blindly and home we came. Actually Molly and Quinn played very well and his mom picked him up after 1.5 hrs so it was fine.

Now Brenna is playing with his sister at their house so the process will repeat when I go to pick her up in an hour. I hope they're behaving!