Christmas with the cousins in Pittsburgh

We hit the road this weekend, off to Pittsburgh to visit my family to celebrate Christmas. Now that we're back home and all is quiet because my exhausted children passed out hours ago, I have some thoughts:

1. We don't bring nearly as much crap along as we used to, back when we were carting babies around.
2. While babies may cry endlessly during the car ride (srsly - William cried for 4 hours non-stop on his first Christmas trip to Pittsburgh at 4 months old), Sarah can beat that by a mile with her whining. If there were a crown awarded for whining, Sarah would be wearing it. And it's harder to tune out the whining when she's actually whining your name.
3. Bedtimes away from home aren't nearly the hassle they used to be, and we can actually stay up late and chat with my sisters, and not have to get up at 6am with the babies!  
4. It is next to impossible to take pictures while the kids are opening presents and have any turn out decent. They move too fast, or someone's head pops in the way at the last minute, or the dog manages to not have his best face forward when the shot is taken.

So things are getting easier in some ways - we don't worry about naps for babies anymore, and we're almost done with diapers. No one needs a portable crip to sleep in, and everyone is so tired at bedtime they just pass out. Things are getting more difficult in that the little ones are now big enough to fight and argue about toys, and also not big enough not to fight and argue about toys any more. Jason was so excited to see his cousin John, and then they spent the entire weekend arguing over the blue Duplo car, or the red ball, or the ride-on rocket, or...you get the picture. That said, we really had a very, very nice weekend, and it was so good to get away - I don't think Matt and I scowled at each other once, all weekend - imagine that!



We celebrated my niece's 10th birthday and my dad's 60-somethingish, ate lots of good food and cake, and came home fat and happy.



Jason may or may not have fallen asleep at the table - I'm pretty sure he was just being silly for the camera...


Sarah is thrilled with her new friend "Sparkle", her red ladybug Pillow Pet...





We had Zhu Zhu pet racing in the kitchen...

And then once back home we decompressed with some of the other gifts the kids received. William had his Dynamo Torch put together within 15 minutes, with a little help from Dad, and Evie did her first Tasty Science experiment - she is VERY excited to have her very first set of test tubes. God help me with the two of them.

If you're looking for a gift for a handy 3 year old, I recommend Battat's Take Apart vehicles. Jason got the roadster, and he had that thing apart and put back together over and over again at least 5 times between 4pm when we arrived home and 6pm when we had dinner. He LOVED that thing -check them out, I am NOT being compensated in any way to say this.

It's nice getting a taste of Christmas a week or two in advance, and my kids are super excited to finish up school, do some baking, and get our tree - hopefully on Saturday (we've either been busy, or it's been too cold and super windy up to the this point). Evie and William have their Christmas programs this week, and Matt and I have our neighborhood (and beyond) cocktail party to look forward to on Saturday. I'm happy to say, we're in a good place - even if my kids are acting so bizarre that I checked the calendar the other night to see when the full moon is - not for another 8 or 9 days, so it must just be the Christmas Crazies. But I bet you don't believe me, looking at this sweet face :)