Well, this post is going to be an update on the last couple of weeks. We had a great Christmas at home! We celebrated with Jon's family on Christmas Eve over at Grammy & Pop Pop's. It was so much fun this year as the cousins are getting older and enjoying each other more. Highlights included Georgia singing 'Jingle Bells' while in her new Dora undies (over her diaper and tights!), Pappy's homemade ravioli and the purses that Auntie Lizzie knit and felted for all the girls and their mommies. Here is a pic of the 5 cousins - Gordon, Sophia, Anthony, Lily & Georgia - we have yet to get a "good" picture of the 5 of them. Baby Gordon is very cooperative, but we've been trying to get one of the other 4 together since the little girls were babies, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards! Actually, I love these pics because they're so real!
(click on any of these pics to view them larger)
And here's a pic of Sosi and Lils in their matching Christmas outfits:
Christmas morning was so much fun this year! Sophia & Anthony slept in until 9:00 a.m., but once they woke up, they were very excited to see if Santa had come. 
They were both thrilled that they received what they had asked for; Sophia - a microphone to sing all of the High School Musical Songs (and Santa was kind enough to throw in both movies too!) and Anthony - a football helmet - he didn't specify what kind so Daddy put in a special request for it to be the Dallas Cowboys. Anthony is somewhat confused about his allegiance as the other day he wore his Cowboys pants and his Eagles jersey! However, if you ask him who his favorite team is, he will always say "The Vikings" (
thanks a lot Truman! Truman is his little buddy who hails from MN) The Packer fan in me cringes each time he makes this declaration! Thankfully, Uncle Jer and Aunt Erin are helping me in my quest to shape Sophia & Anthony into Philadelphia Eagles fans!
While on break, we had the opportunity to get together with several friends that we don't get to see often enough. My friend Kelly (my very first Pennsylvania friend!) and I reinstated an old tradition of getting together to bake Christmas cookies - we did this together several years pre-kids but have not been able to make it happen the last couple of years. We baked 5 kinds of cookies and made some nut brittle in under 6 hours (it helps that she has 2 ovens)!
Jon and the kids came and joined us that evening when Orazio (her husband) got home and we had dinner together and spent the night there. Every time we go to their house for dinner, we always have to leave earlier than we're ready to part and always talk about spending the night some time and finally did it this time (we live about 1 hour apart). Baby Orazio was with us all day and cooperated beautifully by taking a very long nap and then sitting contentedly in his highchair while we finished up (it helped that we kept giving him cookies!). We also got to go back the next week and help celebrate Orazio's 1st birthday! I love one-year-olds! He is such a cutie and such a good baby!
We also got to be with our friends Greg, Tricia, Lexie and Noah for an evening. We had a great time being in their home, sharing a meal together and sampling some of the great Christmas cookies that Tricia made. Our girls are such great playmates and our boys are getting there too! Our time together always goes too fast!
Our friends Rick, Alicia & Gracie also had us over for a great meal (hmmm, I'm just realizing that we were the ones being treated to all the meals this time, so we'll have many favors to return!) and we had a great time with them. Gracie loves Sophia and Anthony and always calls them "friends" - it's too cute!
Jon and Rick watched the historical Patriots/Giants game after I took the kids home to bed.
Oh, I just realized that we actually did make a meal for someone! Before Bethany, Quenton, Eden, Truman and Briar left for WI for the holidays, we had our annual Christmas celebration together and we made baked ziti! Ok, I'm feeling better about myself now :-) Oh, and we were going to have Jer, Erin and Lily over for dinner but they got sick - - okay, now I'm just trying to convince you that we're not freeloaders!
Since Jon and I were off for so long and did not travel, we were able to get so much done around the house. I cleaned out the kitchen - emptying every cabinet and drawer and wiping them out and sorting things. In addition, I cleaned out the pantry and the refrigerator. Jon got smoke detectors up and running and did some other little things around the house. I also used the time to create some charts for Sophia & Anthony that I've been thinking about doing since I read about the idea on one of my friends' blog. For lack of a better description, I call them "Good Behavior Charts" - basically just a way to help reinforce good habits and values. We haven't fully fleshed out the rewards system yet since this is the first week we are doing it, but we are thinking of having a prize box that they can draw a piece of paper out of, and on most would be activities to do as a family such as play a game, go to a movie etc. We also want to give them small amounts of money for the values they exhibit (we don't want to "pay" them for the tasks). We think this will give us an opportunity to teach them about money too. Any other suggestions?
Our New Year's Eve was nice and quiet. We had some plans with friends that fell through and although we were disappointed to not see them, we ended up having a great night at home just the 4 of us. We played games with the kids, made chocolate fondue and watched "The Princess Bride". They almost made it up 'til midnight, but were both asleep by 11:30. Earlier in the day, we went up to my Aunt Debbie's to celebrate Christmas with her and our cousins Carly, Austin & Andrew. Debbie's sisters girls were there for the 2nd year in a row and we had our second annual Mexican fiesta - we also got to celebrate Carly's birthday. It was a good time together!
Well, for those of you actually still reading this, thanks for hanging in there. I don't usually write such long posts, but it's been awhile...
Happy New Year!!!
We were so glad we made it work! We easily baked over 500 cookies!!! Here are some pics of the fruits of our labor.
And here's a pic of Sosi and Lils in their matching Christmas outfits: 
While on break, we had the opportunity to get together with several friends that we don't get to see often enough. My friend Kelly (my very first Pennsylvania friend!) and I reinstated an old tradition of getting together to bake Christmas cookies - we did this together several years pre-kids but have not been able to make it happen the last couple of years. We baked 5 kinds of cookies and made some nut brittle in under 6 hours (it helps that she has 2 ovens)! 
Jon and the kids came and joined us that evening when Orazio (her husband) got home and we had dinner together and spent the night there. Every time we go to their house for dinner, we always have to leave earlier than we're ready to part and always talk about spending the night some time and finally did it this time (we live about 1 hour apart). Baby Orazio was with us all day and cooperated beautifully by taking a very long nap and then sitting contentedly in his highchair while we finished up (it helped that we kept giving him cookies!). We also got to go back the next week and help celebrate Orazio's 1st birthday! I love one-year-olds! He is such a cutie and such a good baby!
Our New Year's Eve was nice and quiet. We had some plans with friends that fell through and although we were disappointed to not see them, we ended up having a great night at home just the 4 of us. We played games with the kids, made chocolate fondue and watched "The Princess Bride". They almost made it up 'til midnight, but were both asleep by 11:30. Earlier in the day, we went up to my Aunt Debbie's to celebrate Christmas with her and our cousins Carly, Austin & Andrew. Debbie's sisters girls were there for the 2nd year in a row and we had our second annual Mexican fiesta - we also got to celebrate Carly's birthday. It was a good time together! 
