And So It Goes

Well, well... remember us? We've been skulking around holiday blogs (like dear Martha and that darn Pinterest) incognito...

so I understand if you didn't even realize that we've been on the internet since Halloween... since that's the last time I got off my duff and posted. 

It's been... busy, sicky, travely, holiday-y, birthday preparation-y, getting someone back on a sleep routine-y, sicky, and more sicky. Since apparently licking plane seat arm rests causes unfortunate outcomes, during and since our quite exciting (new babies!) trip back east for Thanksgiving, our little Jack has had a mother of diaper rash requiring voodoo remedies fix, an episode of puking with his sister close behind him (when I wasn't there and Grandparents had the pleasure of cleaning up that bile. Oopsandthankyou), a nasty stomach bug that I did have the pleasure of seeing from all ends once we returned home (with the peanut gallery hollering out "that makes me gag" every time he upchucked.), and now some monkey disease with hives. He's a beaut. So the little man has had a roller coaster beginning to the holiday season (which has not been improved by his crazy mother and sister's insistence on seeing Christmas carolers, tall lit up Christmas ships, and Costco and his incredibly busy dad and travel. Okay, we can't blame the dad). Despite some short-lived alarm on the part of the same crazy mother and his teacher that we had Jack 2-point-uh-oh on our hands all of a sudden, he has been surprisingly chipper, if not snugglier, during his several bouts of hosting foreign DNA in his little body. 

And now, we're on the mend and in the thick of it all just like every other family with small people. Santa excitement is in full bloom, hopefully tempered by reminders of other important parts of the season. Really, I hope. We've got a little girl ready and eager to join the full finger club of five years old with a party a week before her big day so that she and I can fulfill our yearning to just get that darned tree up already without interfering with any Wonder Woman birthday party plans. And maybe we'll just keep writing run-on sentences for the rest of this post since it is Christmas and all and it's the most wonderful time of the year and there is so much fun stuff to do for the next 19 days. 

Yes, she's already  wearing a Christmas shirt and we might just be painting ornaments. It never hurts to be prepared. 

But, before we get to all this candy cane goodness, we have to back up and acknowledge the lovely Thanksgiving holiday and visits we had. Because, it was great and it's always nice to be home. And Grandparents do fun things with grandkids. 

And the weather was beautiful for at least some of the time and, when in Maine, go the ocean. 

And just generally, we created mayhem...

 made artistic messes... 

and did I mention created mayhem? 

We had a great trip and Thanksgiving day itself and I did not take one picture of my whole family and for that, I'm a big turkey (hardy har har). Hopefully, though, we're back -- on track, on the blog, on the camera, and, most important of all, on the holiday crazy train. Happy December to you all.