It occurs to me, or rather, I was gently reminded, that I was remiss in my last post about New Year's Day. My parents came down on the 29th of December for Second Christmas - which I conveniently forgot to mention. It was great having them down, as this time Devin and Maya weren't under the weather, and Devin had a new-found world of aural delight was he had his tubes put in. It was a great visit! Dad helped prune back a few bushes including the thorny beasts on the side of the house, a/k/a pyracantha. Mom had some great grandmother time with the kids which allowed Steph to get the Christmas decorations down and boxed up.

On that note, iof our e to mention that I have put up pictures of our dual-Christmas celebrations, which you can access here.

It's [the day after] Boxing Day, and that means a return trip to Atlanta from Sanibel. We had a good visit, even though it was bittersweet having to see Steph's grandmother in the nursing home. We were able to get in to see her quite a few times, and each time she was elated to see all of us, especially her great-grandkids! I was happy to be able to help out the family by moving furniture into her new home and helping get the old house ready for sale.

Speaking of, if any one is interested in some prime real estate in Sanibel Florida, on a canal with a pool and grandfathered-in fully-paved driveway and cement block construction... let me know.
The icing on the cake was when we stopped by to say our goodbyes to Grandma Olson. I had Maya on my shoulders, and we were seated on Grandma's bed, and Maya reached out to her great-grandmother for a hug. That was awesome! Oh, and the first time Maya said, "I love you" was to her great-grandmother the previous day. I didn't actually witness that myself as I was hanging a curtain rod, but I heard it was pretty sweet. And we also learned some other neat tidbits of information. Stephanie's great-grandmother Amanda was also a twin - boy/girl, just like ours, and the only twins ever in the family. But here's the rather neat part - Amanda was born on July 28, 1877 - 129 years before Maya and Devin to the day! I just think that's something awesome and special.

So we made the trip back last night in record the usual time, only 12 hours! Actually the trip was pretty good, we had about 2 hours total for stops (dinner, snack, gas, pee). So that puts actual road time at 10 hours.

-- Insert Sleep Here --

It's now 10am, and Stephanie should be checking Devin into Scottish Rite to get his tubes put in. Actual surgery time should be at noon. Right now, as I'm typing this, Maya is still asleep (!) which is pretty incredible. I think she definitely takes after her mother in that regard; she has gotten to the point where I have to wake her up to get breakfast :-) Devin on the other hand, is like me and is up at the crack of dawn most days. So keep Devin in your thoughts over the next few hours, since he will be under for this procedure. But it's all out-patient, and he should be back home by 3pm I'm hoping... the Doc says it should be like flipping on a light switch for him, and I'm thankful for that. The little guy needs to be able to hear properly! On a related side note, he has finally started to repeat words like "Hi" and "Up", which is great!

Maya on the other hand has continued her education by learning how to ask for "hup" (help) when she needs something (like assistance getting up onto the sofa) and by repeating "pweez" (please) ad infinitum when she really, really wants something. We have already started with Miss Manners training for Little Miss by requiring that request words (e.g. help, up, cracker) must be followed by please. We'll see how that works out :-)

While typing this I just texted Stephanie to see how things are going...but I haven't heard back so she probably has her phone buried in her purse, left it in the van, or is busy checking in our boy. I'll update this again with news. TTFN!

Well, it's 2007 and already there are many changes afoot in the Little household. During Christmas, as a surprise for Steph, I had her Mom fly up secretly and surprise her Christmas Day. It was a great time, and the kids got to spend plenty of quality time with their grandparents and aunts and uncles.

New Year's Eve was quiet; we had a small party here with Steph, myself, her Mom and Karyn & Davis. We lit off a couple of sparklers and "blooming flowers".

In other news...the kids have started eating solids - not exclusively, but just to introduce them. I tried to get some pictures up on here, but Picasa is giving me troubles with the new version of Blogger. Hopefully I'll have an update soon.

Merry Christmas to all y'all, and all y'all's. I'll post some more later, when I have some time. Christmas Day was filled a bunch of people. Probably the most we've had around the house at any one time for Christmas. Anyway, I'll post some more, including pix, later.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Do I have to choose? Nog is bad for you, so I really don't drink it that much...but the Jim Beam version...I can't... I mean...
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? My Santa did a bit of both. My family's Santa wraps everything except some micellaneous items that end up in a stocking, only because it's difficult to leave things laying around Santa's Workshop without people getting into them, so they must be wrapped.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I don't like unnecessarily killing trees, so we have a really nice Faux-mas tree that has permanent lights installed - colored of course. On the house we usually do blue lights because nobody does blue lights, and then the trees/bushes get multicolored lights. Then there's the large white snowflake lit in white. Then the projected snowflakes moving across the face of the house. Oh, and then we usually wrap the mailbox with a nice blue rope light.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Not officially, but somewhere we acquired a plastic mistletoe ball that we generally hang. Over the sink. For laughs.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually a week or so after Thanksgiving. But this year we really have done nothing. Just the moving snowflakes, a wreath or two and some stockings. This year we won't be at home much, and time was really lacking. I'm really just bummed because the train won't go up this year.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Pumpkin pie, of course!
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Have I not mentioned before that I don't remember anything? I mean, I probably wouldn't remember if I told you... but I have seen some home movies where I was about 8 (or maybe 9, 10 or 11) and got some cool GI Joe stuff.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Don't know. Probably snooping around the house.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yeah, at the grandparent's house. I'd rather not though. As you get older, you get fewer - so save up and do 'em all at once.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I am not allowed. I'm just kidding. You know Steph, ever the perfectionist and designer, so there are to be no "bare spots" lacking in ornaments. I also am a stickler for putting ornaments deep into the boughs of the tree so as to give a fuller appearance. Like BJ we have lots of ornaments, some keepsakes, others generic glass balls. The keepsakes generally go up on a display somewhere. I recall one year, maybe last year or the year before when Cooper and Stella decided to see if the shiny glass balls would be fun to destroy. We came home one evening and found all the glass balls from the lower parts of the tree had been removed and were quite decimated all across the living room floor. I think I even took a picture of it.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Snow = fun. Lots of it (both I mean).
12. Can you ice skate? Yes, twice. Does that count as "can" or merely "did"?
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I saw a home movie once where I received a Mickey Mouse plastic guitar and some weird moving dinosaur monster that walked. It was an ill-conceived dino as it had 8 legs, but it was fun.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Being with my family. As we live a bit further away than the rest of my sibs, and now that there are more of us to haul around, it's difficult to get up there with regularity.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pumpkin pie, of course. Who doesn't like the creamed sweetened innards of a gourd? That and Mawmaw's jell-o salad.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Setting up the G-scale train set. Although sadly we didn't do it this year, even after adding 7 new cars (you did see that post, right?)
17. What tops your tree? Errr....well I think we have some silver star at the moment, but I'm always on the lookout for the "perfect" topper. Haven't found it yet though.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving, hands down. I get stuff for me all the time, so it's more fun to surprise people.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night...but I really love all Christmas Songs, especially the "classics".
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I actually do not like traditional candy canes. I rather prefer the Old Fashioned Peppermint Sticks you get a places like Cracker Barrel.

Looking.. well, I'm not sure what that look is.


Ah - a happy girl!

Dressed up for Thanksgiving.


Learning Christmas Carols with Dad.