How I Spent my Christmas Vacation - The Cliff's Notes Version

It felt like I was trying to earn my merit badge in Christmas spirit this year. So many activities; so little time; even less time to blog about them afterward. So, here are some highlights:

On second thought, before I get started with the highlights, I'd like to give a quick shout-out** to my sister, who was responsible for a huge number of this year's Christmas memories. Despite having a very demanding full-time job as a police officer in addition to her other full-time job of taking care of her family, she somehow managed to find the time and energy to plan and host several of our holiday outings this year, such as our trip to see the Nutcracker, our trip to see some amazing Christmas lights, and the Martin family Christmas. She definitely earned her Christmas spirit merit badge. Thank you, Suzanne!

Lunch with Santa at the Junior League yielded the most hilarious family photo of the season, when Amanda refused to sit on Santa's lap. As I get older, I have to admit I find the whole tradition of having our children sit on the lap of a strange old guy they have never met before to be quite at odds with other, seemingly more important, messages we send to our children, such as, oh, I don't know, "if some old guy you've never seen before invites you to sit on his lap, for God's sake don't do it!" So I find my four-year-old's distaste for Santa to be a sign of intelligence, frankly. Anyway, Brian had to sit in Santa's chair and Santa got a nice spot in the background of this priceless gem.




The Nutcracker with Suzanne, Sarah, Mary, Joan, and Caroline was a fabulous day out. Lunch at the Aquarium followed by the ballet at the Wortham made for quite a civilized afternoon for our young ladies. (As soon as I find the pictures from this event, I'll add them to this post.)

Walking through the trail of lights in Dickinson, Texas, was surreal.


The Martin family Christmas also was a lot of fun this year. Suzanne and Jeremy did a fabulous job hosting the event. Fajitas, margaritas, and a hot tub made for a fairly raucous family gathering.

Aunt Diane with her grandson, Drennan.



Dad and Linda on Jeremy and Suzanne's new deck.

Brian on hot tub duty with the cousins.

Dad and Elizabeth



Christmas Eve dinner with the Brantleys was wonderful as always, and Christmas morning with our girls was one of those rare moments that you can truly appreciate for everything it is worth during the exact moment it is occurring, as opposed to those moments whose uniqueness becomes apparent only with the aid of nostalgia.

This year Santa Claus decided that Amanda ought to expand her dress-up wardrobe. He brought her some outfits that would expose her to some future career options besides Princess, such as Firefighter, Police Officer, and Doctor. "Those are boy costumes," she declared of the Firefighter and Police Officer outfits. Relieved that she at least excluded the doctor outfit from that assessment, I reminded her that her Aunt Suzanne is a police officer, and also suggested the many ways in which she might play dress-up with these costumes without excluding her beloved princess dresses. "You could be a princess by day, and a spunky crime-fighting cop by night. A beautiful, royal lady equally comfortable on dance floors and at drug-busts. The SWAT Princess. Or maybe there's a fire in the castle and the princess has to put on her fire hat and grab the fire hose before it destroys the whole kingdom!" It is a little-known fact that Santa is not only an old bearded white guy; he is also a feminist.

Santa brought Elizabeth a trike with one of those long handles on the back. Now when Amanda wants to ride her bike around the block, Elizabeth can ride hers too. She was not too thrilled about this toy at first, but has warmed up to it since Christmas morning.





This post does not even come close to doing justice to how much fun we had this holiday season. But it's a new year now; new things to blog about (including Elizabeth's second birthday!) so the Cliff's Notes version of the holidays will have to do.

December 26th brought our annual holiday dinner. More on that in my next post.

**Conversation with my editor, aka, Brian, regarding the term "shout-out" just prior to posting this entry:

Brian: Don't write "shout-out."

Me: It's my blog.

Brian: I know. I so rarely give editorial input. Just give me this one.

Me: Ok I'll take out "shout-out" if you let me keep in the shot of you in the hot tub.

Brian: Just use "respectfully acknowledge." It's the same as "shout-out," only in English, not prison.

God I love this guy.

"Happy Family Happy Family"

The Brantley Family Christmas Tree Adventure

For weeks I had been secretly hoping to institute a new family tradition: cutting down our own Christmas tree. Our next few weekends were already packed with activities (including taking professional Christmas pictures to avoid last year's Christmas card debacle), so Sunday afternoon of a busy Thanksgiving weekend, I decided, it's now or never. With great doubts about my husband's level of enthusiasm for such an adventure, I enthusiastically asked, "Wanna wake up Elizabeth, drive about ten miles past Katy, and cut down a Christmas tree?" To my surprise and delight, he responded, "Sure!" without even pausing to consider the logistical difficulties involved. Off we went.

After arriving at Dewberry Farms, we piled onto a hayride to make our way to the Christmas tree farm.




Then we searched for the perfect tree, and also struck a few poses.






We finally found the perfect tree, and Brian got to work cutting it down.

What a dad!

The drive home was slow and a little stressful, due to our lack of confidence in how tightly the tree was secured to the top of our car, but we made it home around bedtime and started decorating the tree the next day.

We consider this new family tradition officially instituted. It was too much fun not to do it again.

Thanksgiving 2010

We have so many things to be thankful for this year -- healthy and happy children; successes at work and at home; France!; my new car! But this Thanksgiving, choosing what I am most thankful for is easy: For the first time in a long time, my dad is happy. This summer he met a kind-hearted, energetic, beautiful woman named Linda Hinze, and this fall they got married. Linda has brought about many positive changes in my dad's life, but the biggest one, by far, is that he is truly happy to be alive and is enthusiastic about the future. Thank you, Linda, for bringing life back to my dad.


Brian and I hosted our first Thanksgiving this year. I like to set fancy tables every now and then, so I was thrilled to be able to use my mother's beautiful hand-embroidered table linens, my wedding china, and my grandmother's silver. No one could tell that all of this finery was laid over a utility table from Costco.


We were thrilled to have Linda's grandson, Bryce, join us for dinner.

Jeremy woke up at six this morning to smoke a turkey, after brining it for a day and a half. It was the most delicious turkey, of any kind, that I have ever tasted. My brother-in-law truly is a genius with a smoker. We didn't even get a picture of the turkey; it was devoured too quickly.

That left the side dishes and desserts to Linda and me. Here they are all laid on our usual dining table, which was much too small to accommodate our Thanksgiving party of eleven (hence the Costco utility table).


I had plenty of help with the desserts. Sarah had a slumber party with Amanda the night before Thanksgiving, and the two of them were my pastry chefs. They helped make a delicious pumpkin pie. Here, dad takes samples of all the desserts.


The kids of course had a great time being together all afternoon. Here are some shots of the fun.






This is what Elizabeth looks like when she says "Cheese."


Bryce leads a vehicle parade down the sidewalk.


What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Happy 4th Birthday, Amanda!

We have a four year old! I almost can't believe it. For Amanda's 'actual' birthday, on the 18th, she and I baked her birthday cake together. A few weeks ago, we did a google image search for "four year old birthday cakes" to get ideas. After looking at page after page of cakes, she knew she found The One when she spotted a chocolate cake covered in M&Ms and encrusted with KitKat bars. Here's our attempt to copy that cake. The Birthday Girl is thrilled with the result of her effort:

Later that night, we had a birthday dinner out at Skeeters and came back home to dive into that cake and open a few gifts. Her big birthday gift was a big girl bike with training wheels. After only one day on the bike with me walking beside her and putting my hand on her back, she gained enough confidence to ride down the sidewalk all by herself. I have to say, walking behind her, watching her ride that bike, is kind of heartbreaking because I can already see how quickly those training wheels will be off and she will be zooming around on that thing by herself.

In this picture, Sarah helps Amanda strap her helmet on before taking a ride around the park.


On Saturday, we celebrated her birthday party at a local park. Her cousins, along with lots of her friends from playgroup and school, celebrated with us. The kids had a great time. Here are a few of the best pictures from the day.

Brian and the Birthday Girl before the party.


Sammy and Elizabeth, a duo otherwise known as Trouble.

Amanda and Uncle Jeremy

Elizabeth flashes the camera her trademark exuberance.
And the birthday cake shot:

Amanda certainly seems to feel older. Several times since Thursday she has declared, "I'm four now; I can do it myself." While Brian and I are very proud of her confidence and new-found independence, we're going to try to keep those training wheels on for as long as we can.

Overheard: An Actual Conversation!

I'm sitting at my computer wasting time while the kids are in the living room together. Elizabeth is laying on the floor; Amanda is straddling her tickling hysterical laughs out of her little sister.

Now Elizabeth wants to get up and Amanda helps her.

Amanda: I'll help you, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Tanks, Manda.

Amanda: You're welcome.

Elizabeth: Bye, Manda!

Amanda: Bye, Elizabeth. What are you going to get at the store? [she sometimes calls the playroom "the store"]

Elizabeth: I mmmm know. [I'm pretty sure she was trying to say "I don't know."]

Amanda: Okay! Bye! Have fun!



Here, the girls are helping their dad move offices at work.

PS Today is Amanda's 4th birthday! I'll post about that after her party this weekend.

My Little Buddy

Elizabeth is still at home with me during the day every day. We usually drop Amanda off at school, head to my gym or a music or Little Gym class, run an errand or two, then pick up Amanda. She is constant entertainment for me. Here she is in the Costco check-out line:

Who wouldn't rather shop with that adorable little toddler than shop alone?

Unfortunately, Elizabeth seems to be ready to leave the nest. The other day, I was packing Amanda's snack for school, and Elizabeth insisted that I pack a brown paper bag for her too. Later that morning, just as a teacher closed the car door after helping Amanda out of her car seat, Elizabeth broke down, yelling "Skoo! Skoo!" between sobs and pointing to the school as we drove away. She wanted to go to school too. It was such a painfully cute moment that I had to take a picture of it.



Soon she will get her wish, but for now I am relishing the time that I have her home with me.

Halloween 2010

Amanda was a mermaid for Halloween this year. She decided on this costume in mid-September and never wavered from her choice. I thought about having Elizabeth join her in some sort of aquatic themed get-up, but the lure of a perfectly good pumpkin costume sitting in our dress-up bin was just too tempting to resist. Plus, Elizabeth can say "pumpkin," and it is so cute. "PuhKeen!"

This year marked our first foray into actual trick-or-treating. First we met our dear friends and neighbors around the block and trick-or-treated with them. Miles (aka Bumblebee the Transformer) is Amanda's best friend. Silas, Miles' little brother, is already big buddies with Elizabeth.


We made sure to get a picture with the neighbors before it got too late:

Then we moved on to the my in-laws' house, where the girls helped hand out candy. They got a huge kick out of running to the door and putting candy into the trick-or-treaters' bags.


It was a fun and successful Halloween. Now we get ready to run the rest of the holiday gauntlet.

Amanda's School Photo 2010

In her 2008 and 2009 school photos, Amanda had this way of looking at the photographer with a combination of bemusement and mild condescension. It is a look she inherited from her father, who has perfected it.

Here, Amanda gives the look to the photographer trying to snap her photo for her very first school photo, in 2008.




In her 2009 photo, the look is is refined.




This year, however, Amanda chose to flash her beautiful, winning smile. While I am thrilled that she gave us such a perfect school photo for 2010, I am a little sad she has abandoned the scowl. It is yet another example of how fast she is growing up.

More New Tricks

For the past few weeks, Amanda has spent entire afternoons at the park asking me to hold her legs while she swings her arms over and over and over again from bar to bar to bar. She would protest every time we visited a park that did not have any monkey bars. It was fun to watch her so determined to accomplish something new, but I have to admit the spotting was getting tiresome -- especially at playgroup, where it was really getting in the way of me gabbing with the other moms, which, let's be honest, is the real purpose of playgroup. Last week, she finally did it without a spot, and today I was able to capture her on video. Sorry for the terrible quality. I shot it with my ancient cell phone. Maybe Santa Claus will bring me an iPhone.

When Lawyers Become Parents

I'm in Elizabeth's room chatting with Brian while changing her diaper.

Brian: You forgot to close the lid to the baby wipes again.

Me: Mhmm.

Brian: You know, when we don't close the lid, that next wipe in the container gets all dried out and we can't use it.

Me: You may have mentioned that a few hundred times since Amanda was born.

Brian: I mean, we may as well just throw out half the wipes in the package right when we open it.

Me: No, it isn't like throwing out half the wipes in the package.

Brian: Yes, it is exactly like that. If every time we use the wipes, we waste one, we are wasting half the wipes in the package. It would be more efficient if we just threw out half of them right when you open it.

Me: No, it isn't at all like that. Implied in your argument are some wipe assumptions that aren't correct.

Brian: Really. What are my "implied wipe assumptions"?

Me: First, you assume that the entire wipe is ruined by being left out in the open air. However, usually only the top half of the wipe that is sticking out is dried out. The bottom half is usually just fine. Second, your argument assumes that we only use one wipe per diaper change. One wipe hardly ever gets the job done. Usually it takes at least three. Therefore, it is actually more like a 3:1 ratio of used wipes to wasted wipes, not 1:1, assuming, incorrectly, that the wipe sticking out is completely unusable. When you take into account that the bottom half is usually fine, it's more like a 6:1 ratio of used to wasted wipes.

Brian: Interesting. Let me revise: You may as well throw out one sixth of the wipes in the package right when you open it.

Me: Maybe you have a point.