not that you asked...

High points, low points

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was – dare I say it? - pretty darned spectacular. I mean, yes, there were 150 percent more tantrums, but they could clearly be blamed on a decrease in sleep and a by-leaps-and-bounds increase in sugar and gifts, but when I take a moment to look back on the last ten days, I mostly see the good. That's not to say that we didn't have our trying moments, our gritted-teeth-and-clenched-fists moments (there was one morning where I threw an empty bottle of fabric softener across a room), but the goodness of it all clearly outweighed the bad, and I NEVER CRIED, NOT EVEN ONCE.

The kids were pretty excited about gifts this year. Asher is the kind of kid who wants to open one gift and play with it for a while before opening anything else. I really think we could have given him ONE THING and he would have been satisfied with his entire Christmas experience. He isn't the kind of child who looks beyond what he already has to see what he could possibly still get, you know? When we go shopping, he never begs for things or asks if he can have something, so I think it must just be his personality. He got a bunch of Toy Story Legos, some construction trucks, a marble run, a guitar, a Leapster Explorer, a Buzz Lightyear pop up tent, books, art supplies and MORE. I'll remind you that the kids have two sets of grandparents, three aunts and four uncles within driving distance. And they like buying things for kids.

Lucy tore through her gifts; she enjoyed the unwrapping process more than anything else. Even now, she doesn't appear to realize that she has a bunch of new stuff to play with – she hasn't gotten attached to any of her gifts. And she got about three items into her stocking before she discovered candy and after that, it was all over. CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY. Because I am an idiot, I filled up her Mickey Mouse Pez dispenser with an entire roll of Pez candy and it was gone in SECONDS. I thought she'd lose interest after two or three pieces but she powered through and ate the entire thing. She probably enjoyed the candy more than anything else, even a dollhouse, even a car seat carrier for Creepy Baby Shea, more even than the Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog book that I have read approximately 57,000 times.

This week we find ourselves doing what everyone else does after the holidays – finding homes for all these new toys, and finding new homes for a bunch of old ones. I'm dying to take down the tree and the decorations (our tree is now so wilted and dead that ornaments are just falling off) but before that happens, Dave and I have a date to clean out the attic and make two or three (OR HOWEVER MANY IT TAKES) runs to Goodwill tomorrow. Then this weekend I'll be able to put everything away neatly, so that I can find it all next year without having to dig through 14 various bins scattered to and fro throughout the entire attic, some of which were buried under 10 metric tons of old Dave Barry books. That's how much I hate to be unorganized. I can FEEL the disorganization of the attic THROUGH THE CEILING. Just because I'm not LOOKING at it doesn't mean I'm not DISTRESSED by it. And then hopefully (CROSS YOUR FINGERS) someone is coming to do the tile in our master bathroom next week, which means sometime in the month of January – ONE ENTIRE YEAR FROM WHEN WE STARTED – we could have a renovated bathroom. A special post on that coming soon, I assure you. It will have lots of pictures and will be absolutely DRIPPING with sarcasm.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of the entire last month came on Monday. I took the kids over to my parents' house while Dave was at work, and my mom sent Asher home with a few extra Lego train cars he could hook up to his Toy Story one. He thought she sent him home with three, but he arrived at our house with only two. He and I argued about this for a while – I was sure we hadn't dropped any train cars between my mom's house and the our car or between our car and our house; he was certain there were three cars and he was very upset and frustrated that he was missing one. Finally, I asked him if he wanted to call my mom and ask her if one of the train cars had been left at her house. I went upstairs while he was on the phone with her (he can dial it all by himself).

A few minutes later, he came running to find me and said (YOU GUYS, I SWEAR THIS HAPPENED, SWEAR ON MY LIFE), “Mom, I'm sorry. You were right; the train car IS at YaYa's house.”

Dave and I just stood there, FROZEN, with our mouths hanging open. And Dave didn't even hear the “I'm sorry” part – his mouth was gaping solely based on the “you were right” part of the dialogue. I have never been so completely taken aback in such a good way. I hugged him until I thought his head would pop off and we had a nice little talk about how kind and respectful he had been. It was this tiny glimpse into what kind of person he WILL EVENTUALLY turn into if we keep working with him and leading by example.

Of course, there are low points, too – Asher has had a minor cold over the last few weeks and his new thing is to take a bite of a food he normally very much enjoys and announce that “it doesn't taste very good.” I am never sure whether this statement is made because it really DOESN'T taste good due to a stuffy nose or if he's just being a pain in the you-know-what, because he is VERY capable of that too. But I have been trying to deal with it on a case-by-case basis and we have been talking through WHY something might not taste good, and I reassure him that I'm serving him the same food I always feed him, blah blah blah but the real kicker came the other afternoon, when I set two plates of food down on the table and asked Asher and Lucy to come sit down and eat their lunch.

And Lucy took one look at her plate, pushed it away, and then announced, “This doesn't taste very good.”

And I died.

Advent Day SORRY I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE

Ok, so it was fun while it lasted, but now the kids are getting colds and the camera doesn't take pictures like its supposed to anymore and we are pretty much finished with all the holiday cheer, BRING ON THE PRESENTS ALREADY.

Yesterday we made cookies with my sister-in-law and niece. Today we picked out presents at the mall for Dad. Tomorrow we're putting on Christmas pjs and watching the Grinch and eating candy canes and then on Friday we're opening presents at my parents' house and going to church. THE END. Don't get me wrong, I have LOVED doing all these activities with the kids. LOVED. And they have loved getting up in the mornings and opening their envelope and participating in whatever it was that I cooked up for them. Next year I suspect it will be even easier to think of activities that are age-appropriate. I am looking forward to taking each of them shopping for a gift for their sibling and watching holiday movies that don't revolve around Mickey Mouse or Dora and maybe doing some more service-oriented projects.

I am hoping to scavenge some after-Christmas sales for some books that are oriented more towards Jesus than Santa (SO MANY SANTA BOOKS, so few Jesus books without characters that look like Precious Moments figurines) and a nativity set or two. I would love to have one to display and one that the kids could play with. And I am gathering ideas from all corners of the Internet to try out: maybe next year we'll do a Jesse Tree or line a manger with good deeds. There is so much great stuff out there! I hope the last month has given you some ideas, too. For me, it has been a great way to redirect our Christmas enthusiasm away from getting presents on ONE MORNING and has become a way to enjoy the entire month instead. I am getting more and more confident that, come Christmas morning, I WON'T BE CRYING FROM DISAPPOINTMENT. Oh, they might hate their gifts or act like ungrateful jerks, but I have a whole month of memories to enjoy, and I realize that if I spent a whole month trying to teach them that Christmas is more than one morning of presents and didn't get the concept myself? Well, then I'm a Grade-A Idiot.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, which means I need to tell you that Dave and I went out to dinner last week at Red Robin and I ate my entire burger. A big burger. AN ENORMOUS BURGER, and I ate every last bite of it, and every fry that came in my basket, too.

And I felt ENORMOUS after I ate it. I can't remember the last time I ordered a restaurant hamburger and polished it off, much less one that included fried onion strings and blue cheese as toppings. I considered stopping halfway through, but then I thought NO, when am I going to do this again? And I kept going. And then we paid the bill and I stood up and said to Dave, “GOOD GRIEF, I'm full; I hope I can zip my jacket up!” and we both laughed and then I zipped my jacket up and we walked to the front door where – I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING YOU – my jacket promptly BURST OPEN. Like a CARTOON. The whole thing just... POPPED. It SPRUNG from my body – the zipper just... EXPLODED and I don't know if you've ever had a piece of clothing just pop open in front of people? It's kind of embarrassing.

And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, it took Dave and I six or seven minutes of struggling with the zipper to get it fixed (it was still attached right at my neck, so I couldn't pull the jacket off over my head) and it was 15 degrees outside so I couldn't go out with it undone and well, I am never eating a restaurant hamburger EVER AGAIN. In winter, at least.

The end. MY end, actually, as I discovered my underwear is getting too tight, so we shall be having some Major Exercise and Eating Overhaul Posts when the New Year comes along.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. Thanks for following along this whole month and leaving fantastic comments and just being a part of this little corner of the Internet. Enjoy your families and your traditions and good food and that little baby, born in a manger, who came to change the whole world.

Advent Day 20: Chuck E. Cheese

Today I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

I have been talking up today's surprise for a week. I told the kids that on Monday, we were going to do something REALLY COOL and REALLY EXCITING and they would start to giggle and Lucy would always ask, “What is it? WHAT IS IT?” And I'd tell them they could guess and they always guessed that we were getting a new cat or a new dog. Sorry, kids. Take your expectations down a notch or two or SIX HUNDRED. I swear, Lucy was already NAMING this new “baby kitty cat” she'd decided we were getting.

Admittedly, getting them worked up about Chuck E. Cheese was a big risk on my part. I can't remember if I wrote about it here, but nine or so months ago I suggested that we go to Chuck E. Cheese and Asher was clearly very anxious about the idea. I tried to explain what it was like and how fun it was for kids and his response was, “Maybe I could just look in the window.” So just before he opened his Advent envelope this morning, I said to Dave, “I'll bet you a hundred dollars that he doesn't want to go.”

Sure enough, after Asher opened the envelope and handed me the little slip of paper inside and I told him what it said, his response was, “Oh no.” But we got on the computer and watched a few videos and checked out the Chuck E. Cheese website and he seemed like he was warming to the idea. It helped that we were meeting one of his favorite friends and her mom (one of MY favorite friends) there, and he was really excited to see them. (Well, as excited as he tends to get.)

Chuck E. Cheese turned out to be a pretty big hit. The place was deserted, for the most part, and we never had to wait for games or rides and none of the kids had any concept of competition or tickets and we used a LOT of hand sanitizer and the whole thing was pretty fun to be a part of. It's not like we're going back every week or anything, but I'd totally do it again on a weekday morning. You couldn't pay me enough money to take my kids there on a weekend night. NO THANK YOU.

Asher's favorite was air hockey:

 

While Lucy favored this horse racing game:

 

We spent all our tokens and then sat down for a pizza lunch and exchanged Christmas gifts with our friends. Then Asher decided he wanted to climb through the play structure that ran around the ceiling. He didn't want to go alone, but Lucy and Kate are still too short to climb up the ladder that leads to the tubes, so we finally convinced Asher that he would be okay to go by himself. And he did! Except then (SIGH) he couldn't figure out a way to get down and ended up crying hysterically with his face pressed against one of the little windows that faced our table and I had to climb up inside the play structure and rescue him. Turned out that he did know how to get down, but the slide he was supposed to use was too dark and he was scared. When we got in the car to go home he assured me that, “Next time if I decide to go into the tubes, I won't go down the dark slide, I'll just go back out the way I went in.”

I mean, you guys, I know those play structures are designed to hold HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF POUNDS, but as I was climbing up there I was picturing the whole thing collapsing and the caption on the local news that read, “Woman JUST TOO FREAKING HEAVY; Collapses Play Structure on Poor Innocent Children and One Giant Animatronic Rat.”

Advent Day 19: ANOTHER CHRISTMAS CONCERT OH YES WE DID

The fact that we carried a tantruming toddler out of a holiday concert on Saturday night apparently gave us no pause in our decision to attend another holiday concert on Sunday. Dave's dad is in the choir at their church, so we took the kids, with full knowledge that there was NO CHILDCARE and that we had just done this same thing UNSUCCESSFULLY the day before.

But it actually worked out just fine. The kids paid attention for half the program (this particular church features brass, strings and handbells which the kids have never seen in-person before) and when they started to lose interest, we carried them into the lobby for a break and some nice woman said, “Oh! Did no one tell you we have childcare?” SURPRISE! There's CHILDCARE! So we took the kids up to the (brand-new) nursery and they were more than happy to spend the remaining 25 minutes playing with toys they'd never seen before and Dave and I got to enjoy the latter half of the concert.

Really, the kids weren't even behaving badly when we took them out. Asher was squirmy and Lucy was refusing to whisper and then when the congregation launched into Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, she put her hand up in the International Sign for Stop and yelled, “NO THIS MUSIC! TURN IT OFF!” so I don't know; something about Hark, the Herald Angels Sing gets her dander up? She hadn't reacted like that to any other song, but she was VERY CLEARLY OFFENDED by that one.

Then we had dinner at my in-laws' house and another little birthday party for Lucy, complete with singing and cupcakes. I find it absolutely and unfailingly adorable that, despite THREE (very small) BIRTHDAY PARTIES, when you ask Lucy whose birthday it is, she replies without pause, “Baby Jesus!” My kids are going to be pretty sad when they find out Jesus grows up. And dies.

Advent Day 18: Attend a Christmas Concert

Tonight we attended a special Christmas concert at our church. (If you follow that link, you'll see a video of my brother, who is the person responsible for the whole thing. He's unbelievably talented and inspired, and also MARRIED.)

Anyway, this is the first year Dave and I have felt like we could take both kids and try to sit through the entire thing. I thought the novelty of watching my brother sing might be enough to keep them from making us want to bolt for at least 15 minutes. I packed a little bag for each child – small dolls for Lucy, quiet trains and a magic pen book for Asher. We got there too late to get seats together on the aisle (FORESHADOWING) and the kids were a little stir-crazy and Asher was laying on the floor driving trains and Lucy was determined to climb over the seats until she made it to where her Yaya was sitting and we blew through the bribery candy in four short minutes and... yeah. Asher actually did FANTASTIC once the lights went down and the music started. He sat quietly for the entire hour (of course, he's four). But Lucy threw a massively disruptive fit at the start of the second song and was dragged (quite literally) kicking and screaming from the sanctuary by Dave. WE WERE TOTALLY THOSE PEOPLE TONIGHT. He calmed her down in the lobby and promptly deposited her sorry butt in the nursery. Hilariously, neither of us noticed until he was back that he'd dropped her off only wearing one shoe. We found the other one underneath our seats, where she'd kicked it off in all her flailing glory.

So, a bit of a failure in one sense, in that we didn't spend the hour together. Also that people had to listen to the Doppler effect of my screaming child being carried from the room. But really, it was much more of a win, as Lucy wouldn't have really remembered it or gotten much from it, and I think Asher was able to watch and listen without being distracted by Lucy, and he is at an age where he is starting to make sense of church and why we go and why it is so important. It helps that he thinks his uncle is VERY COOL, look at all those GUITARS HE GETS TO TOUCH.

Before we left (he took the Rudolph nose off in the car):

Advent Day 17: A Birthday Party for Lucy

We had a little party for Lucy tonight with my family (we're celebrating with Dave's family on Sunday). I made pizza and then Lucy opened her presents and we had cupcakes. Simple and perfect. She was really excited about the Mickey Mouse decorations I put up and wanted desperately to eat her “Mickey cake!” (really just a cupcake with a Mickey Mouse candle on top). She was also VERY excited that Real Baby Shea (her cousin and my nephew, who is five months old) was in attendance. Real Baby Shea is the obvious inspiration for Creepy-Eyed Baby Shea the Doll, who we still drag everywhere with us, much to my ever-increasing annoyance. Real Baby Shea has regular, non-creepy eyes. Also a non-plastic head, for your information.

My brother and sister-in-law gave her a big bag of baby doll accessories, including hairbrushes and spoons and forks and a potty and bottles for lotions and powders and she LOVED it. My parents gave her a tabletop easel and some little dolls with clothes that snap on and off (genius) and Lucy loved those, too. Her other aunt and uncle gave her a stuffed Mickey and Minnie Mouse and I just KNOW they're going to end up being her Crib Friends of Choice. She loved the process of opening presents and was quick to say thank you when we asked her to.

This morning we had her two-year well-baby checkup. The doctor was a little concerned – Lucy's weight hasn't stayed on the curve at all; in fact, she was at the 75th percentile at nine months and now only clocks in at the tenth for weight and 25th for height. It's not like she's withering away to nothing, but the doctor did want to see her slide UP on the growth chart instead of down, so we're under strict orders to drink more chocolate milk, and check back in six months or so to see if she's managed to break 24 pounds. I tend to agree – after all, this child is still wearing the same clothes she wore in MARCH OF LAST YEAR. We are actually going to wear holes through size 18 months, I believe.

Then the nurse marched in and poked her in the arm with a flu shot and... absolutely nothing happened. She didn't even acknowledge that a foreign object was being jammed through her skin. She just sat there and watched as the nurse popped a bandaid on her shoulder and then she threaded her arm back through her new Jessie t-shirt and hopped off my lap. Like it was nothing. Incredible. And borderline INSANE.

Advent Day 16: Light Show CANCELED DUE TO SNOW

Today we were supposed to go to this big drive-through light show with my mom but it ended up snowing something like 1.5 inches and the whole DC metropolitan area was basically canceled and there's probably not a single loaf of bread or gallon of milk in a 75-mile radius. The kids didn't seem too disappointed, and anyway, we'd already spent our morning being all Christmasy and festive at Asher's preschool Christmas pageant.

The pageant was a real eye-opener for Dave. I know he believes me when I say that Asher's teachers tell me he doesn't talk much at school, but I don't think he realized the LEVEL of shyness he is capable of. During the first part of the pageant, the teacher read the Christmas story and the kids followed her prompts and acted it out/said their lines. Asher was (mercifully) cast as a (non-speaking) sheep, but he was clearly very uncomfortable with even that. He didn't make eye contact with anyone during the play and then the kids lined up on the stage and sang a few songs and he stared at his feet the entire time. I only ever saw the top of his head. He OCCASIONALLY made the tiniest of efforts to look up at us, but for the most part, he was way too embarrassed to make eye contact or participate.

I think it surprised Dave, how introverted Asher can be. I am at the point where I'm not surprised at all (he did the same thing at the Thanksgiving party, so I was expecting it) and am now totally accepting of his little personality, no matter how different it is from my own. I have said before that I have a hard time with empathy, so it surprises me that I'm not more “ok, kid, suck it up already and PARTICIPATE” but I really do appreciate who Asher is and it doesn't embarrass me that he is quiet and reserved – it's almost the opposite. Maybe to some people he would appear obstinate and stubborn (and he IS, in so many ways) but I am so PROUD of him for getting up on that stage in the first place. For putting on a costume. For following his teacher's directions, even if he doesn't open his mouth to sing. I am proud of him for being the kid that everyone tells me is so sweet and tender and such a joy to have around.

We spent the afternoon making cupcakes and eating them to celebrate Lucy's birthday. We're having two little parties for her tomorrow and Sunday, so it was nice to do something just as our little family tonight. She blew out her candles (“More candles! More candles!”) and sang (“Sing birthday song!”) and she opened the present I got her, which was totally the equivalent of opening pajamas on Christmas Eve. We got her a Jessie t-shirt and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and some stickers, which, I KNOW, boring. But she'll get more gifts from other people and HELLO, CHRISTMAS IS NINE DAYS AWAY.

Seriously, though, I put SO MUCH THOUGHT into their Christmas gifts this year and I really think I hit the nail on the head and I am ALMOST as excited about Christmas morning as I was when I was eight years old and THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING, you know?

I would say that I can't believe that Lucy is already two, but man, those first 17 months? The ones where she woke up anywhere from three to seven times a night? Those 17 months felt like 17 YEARS. So I can totally believe she's two; I just can't believe we are at a point where we don't have a baby in the house. We are at a place where we could be totally completely absolutely done with baby stuff forever, you know? And while I'm not exactly sure I want to go back to doing the newborn thing again (even beyond the 17 months of incessant wakeups, I'm really not a newborn/infant person) but I'm not exactly sure that our family is complete. Such a hard, weird place to be.

I'll tell you what, though, if you guaranteed me that I'd get child like Lucy is right now? I would take you up on it six times over. She's just that awesome.

Advent Days 14 and 15: NOTHING TO REPORT

Not much of an update tonight – yesterday we attempted to make Christmas cards, which was a total bust. I think my kids are DONE CRAFTING for the remainder of the year. I dragged out stickers and paper and crayons and magazines and scissors and glue and they dragged out... zero enthusiasm.

And tonight we opened our last two wrapped Christmas books. Lucy opened Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate and Asher (unfortunately) opened Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, by Mel Torme and Robert Wells, which was kind of a dud, and came to us by way of a gift pack of five or so books. It's one of those books they put in gift packs because NO ONE IS BUYING IT OTHERWISE. I don't think we'll do too much rereading of that one, frankly.

The kids have been really great in the last week or so, though. Asher is suddenly OBSESSED with scissors and glue and wanders around all day saying things like, “Mom! I need to CUT SOMETHING!” He doesn't care WHAT he's cutting – the kid just needs to cut. He needs his fix. The only problem is that he gets so excited about scissors and cutting and showing me his progress that I cannot get him to remember NOT TO RUN WITH THEM. It's like, the First Rule of Childhood or something, isn't it? Don't run with scissors? But he is so thrilled with this new skill and the fact that we have actual scissors IN OUR HOUSE that he forgets to put them down before he runs across the room to inform me that he has Cut! Something! Out! With! Scissors! Lucy really wants to cut too, so we got her some plastic dud scissors and she doesn't seem to know the difference.

WHICH IS WEIRD, because Lucy knows everything else that's going on. She will be two years old tomorrow (Thursday) and she is already asking for her presents (!) and tonight as I was putting her to bed, she asked me to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I am not even making that up. She is thrilled about the idea of her birthday; thrilled about the cupcakes I've mentioned and the pizza I'm making for her and the enormous Mickey Mouse birthday balloon tied to our staircase. I know that comparing Lucy and Asher is like comparing apples and oranges, but it is really fun to see her getting excited and enthusiastic about something. It is really fun to watch her getting all worked up about her birthday and Christmas and baby Jesus and it's not that Asher was any less fun, it's just that they go about things so differently.

It struck me the other day that I am so thankful that we had Asher and Lucy so close together (they're 26 months apart) because she is really the only person who can get him to outwardly express enthusiasm for something. You know that whole thing about how being a parent is so amazing and wonderful because you can see things through your child's eyes? I really think that Asher is the same way – he sees things and learns how he's supposed to experience them through Lucy's eyes. We've already established that he's not your typical four-year-old – he's bound to get more anxious than he is excited – but when he sees Lucy get excited, it relaxes him and gives him an example to mimic and I think he reads her cues and responds as she does. Maybe that sounds weird, a four-year-old taking social cues from a child two years younger, but I am watching it happen every day with my own two eyes. I wonder often these days what he would be like if we had delayed having a second child...

Watching the two of them together is one of the greatest joys I think I will ever know. And knowing that Lucy, without knowing it, is teaching Asher while he teaches her totally different things in return? Parenthood really blows your mind sometimes. I am so lucky to have these two fantastic kids; these little puzzle piece children who fit together and complement each other in ways I could never have imagined.

Advent Day 13: Foam Ornaments

I did not even attempt today's craft with Lucy. It involved very tiny sequins and glue and a glitter pen and even though I know it would have been cute to watch her concentrate (she is what we call a Hard Worker), I thought it was better for all of us if we didn't all have black eyes for Christmas. Had Lucy participated, I am 99.4 percent sure there would have been an epic battle for control of all craft supplies. Also screaming.

So while she napped, Asher and I made some little foam ornaments from a package. I continue to be rather proud of myself for turning over all creative control to him when it comes to making something. I would much rather these ornaments turn out cute and less likely to fall completely apart and/or dry before the next ice age strikes, but I pretend like I don't care at all. Asher liked making the ornaments, but he really cared most about the glue and the glitter pen and wasn't too concerned about the process. He put me in charge of sequins.

Next year, I do plan on doing this craft again. I am buying TWO BOXES though (I believe they were $3 or something at Michael's) and letting the kids have at it with one box, and using my own box to make gift tags with initials on them. Seriously, it would be as easy as drawing a letter with glue and sticking sequins to it and I think they'd be pretty cute.

We were bored after Lucy's nap so we went over to my mom's house, because she said she had some sugar cookies we could decorate, so that was a nice extra activity for the kids. Weirdly enough, they couldn't bring themselves to eat them.

Perhaps this is because the flavor of sprinkles overwhelmed everything else? (WOULD YOU LOOK AT ALL THOSE SPRINKLES I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK.)

Advent Day 12: Christmas Lights and Ice Cream

Tonight after dinner we put on our jackets and loaded into the car for some Christmas light viewing. I'm curious to know what you other Christmas Light Viewing people do when it comes to going out and looking at Christmas lights. Do you just drive at random? Do you have a particular neighborhood that you visit? Do you just LUCK INTO IT or something? I never know quite what to do when we go out, so we end up driving to one particularly incredible house and then doing a couple of side streets. And then totally losing interest.

Seriously, though, that one house is pretty freaking fantastic.

The picture can't possibly do it justice. For starters the house itself is absolutely enormous, and situated perfectly on this corner lot, and every single bush and tree is absolutely COVERED in white LED lights. The front yards, the side yards, the back yard. Every window is outlined. There's a massive tree on the back deck. And those aren't plastic Santas, either. The Santa and reindeer and the nativity scene are BEAUTIFUL and clearly VERY expensive and the whole thing is very overwhelming, but in a classy, sophisticated way. The first time we saw it, our mouths hung open for what felt like WEEKS. I love it though. I love that the people who live there take such obvious joy in doing something that makes other people happy. I LOVE THAT.

I was trying to get the kids all excited about it while we were driving. I kept saying, “ARE YOU GUYS READY FOR THIS? Seriously? Do you think you can HANDLE this crazy house? You might have to CLOSE your EYES this house is so crazy!” and they were giggling and shouting “YES! YES!” and then they saw it and we drove past and Asher said, very seriously, “Mom, actually, it DID hurt my eyes,” and we all about died laughing.

Then we went out for ice cream. Sorry, CUSTARD. (I really was hoping to take the kids to Cosi for smores, but we just didn't have enough time.) We've never taken the kids to this particular custard place, and it has a TRAIN that goes around a track mounted to the ceiling and I was really thankful we were the only people there because my kids went BERSERK. I'm talking jumping and running and screaming and general overly zealous HYSTERIA over an electric train.

The custard was awesome, too.

(Don't you even THINK about asking for a taste.)

It was a pretty great night. As we were leaving, I was teasing Lucy: “Ewwww, ice cream is gross!” and without any coaching, she responded, “No! Ice cream is GOOOOOD!” I thought I might squeeze her until her little head popped off, I was so charmed.