ok. almost through the crunch. last night we had a christmas party to go to, and i actually think that might be the very last holiday event. besides new years, which is a non-event for the kids, really.

christmas was very successful, basically. on the saturday before the big event we went to the mountain one last time. the holiday week was due to start on monday, and our passes would be no good after that. then we made an attempt at going out to dinner at howard johnsons. i have managed the 2 kids at the pizza place pretty successfully, and thought this would be easy, though perhaps a bit greasy. no. not easy.do not, ever, take a small child or children to a restaurant if they are not completely starving. and especially not one with a 'food bar.' a very hungry child in a pizza place is easy: hungry? pizza. he or she knows what is coming. no guesses, no choices, nothing but solution to the problem of hungry tummy. in a place with a food bar, the hunger is quickly replaced with curiosity. so, we exited as quickly as possible, but not without establishing that carter does not like green jello, red jello, canned peaches, corn relish, cottage cheese, chicken wings, or broccoli.

when we returned home, guess what both kids wanted? food.

then, in a moment of supreme brilliance, i wrapped all of the kid's presents after they had fallen asleep.

later that evening, around 1 am, i woke up very suddenly and feeling not so great. i attributed it to it being the middle of the night and tried to go back to sleep. 1.5 hours later, i finally drifted off. carter woke me up a half-hour later, for a few minutes. then at 5 am, my eyes flew open. something was very very wrong. i lay quietly for a few minutes, localizing the discomfort, then came to a realization and bolted to the bathroom. now, there was NOTHING in my stomach. this did not make my brain relinquish its efforts to empty it. as far as it was concerned, there was something very very toxic in my belly, and it had to be out IMMEDIATELY. i spent the next 2 hours slumped on the bathroom floor, praying for it to end. i finally fell back to sleep, only to wake up again to the same routine. when the rest of the family woke up, i was literally unable to do anything. i collapsed in the big-person bed, and they fended for themselves. carter snuck in for a nap around 11, and he and i slept until 1. when we woke up, peter and ava had disappeared to go skate at the oval, and carter and i played quietly for the rest of the day. when peter and ava came home, they brought a movie. which one? RATATOUILLE. ugh. i could barely cope, since any mention of food made me heave. but i had been steadily improving, and after falling asllep at 8 pm, i woke up on christmas eve without nausea. intense pain in my abdomen? yes. nausea? no. peter and ava left again, and carter and i played quietly one more time. this automatically set us up for a mellow christmas eve. chrismas eve for me has always been a Big Deal, and so it is very hard to let go of that, but it actually was the best thing to have happened--the kids were relaxed, there were no huge messes, and the pain in my belly had finally subsided.

christmas morning found me healthy. i could not have been more pleased. whatever it was, it was gone. no one else got it, so i doubt it was a virus. and had it been food poisoning, we all should have gotten it, since i did not eat anything that anyone else hadn't eaten. it was weird.

anyway, christmas morning went by very quickly. ava recovered from an initial disappointment, in which she thought santa had brought her something that she had (secretly) asked him for and then when she realized that was not the case, she had a tough time seeing the value in her other presents. but she finally was ok, and started to enjoy herself. and she really enjoyed giving carter a gift, which was terrific. most of the toys have been well-received, after several days of getting to know them. the playmobil things were not intriguing in the box, but once i started assembling them she became very interested. carter, for his part, thought everything was great. and he got the playmobil airplane, which has been so sccessful, he has asked to sleep with it. as an aside, playmobil is utterly terrific. very small small small pieces, and thousands of them (requiring a LOT of parental imvolvement), but ultimately easy to put together and a lot of fun to play with. even for parents.

i made french toast, but the kids were not interested. carter finally fell asleep for his nap at 11, and we made it over to nana's and da's by 2ish. from 2:00 to 2:05 we opened presents, then the kids played for a bit, and then the excitement and frankly, pressure, of the day started to bubble up in ava--she started to get really bouncy, and a little bit defiant, and i thought "Alarm! alarm! alarm! Must Get Child Outside in Snow!" so, despite not having snow gear, we went on a walk. best idea yet. when we returned, dinner was on the table. and roast beef is very child-friendly.

When we got home, it took the kids an hour to fall asleep, and by the time i emerged from their bedroom, Peter was out cold, so I took it upon myself to organize. This involved removing the tree. I felt a little weird, but the tree was dead dead dead. I think it was because we did not saw off a bit at the bottom before putting it in water. It never drank anything. So, after de-trimming it, I hauled it out onto the porch, and then set about cleaning up and getting toys and cds and books and movies opened and getting rid of all the packaging (aaaaaaaahhhhhhh). This turned out to be a good idea, because the toys were ready for the kids first thing the next morning, and we had a lot more room once the tree was gone. Ava noted it immediately, but i had a plan: we were going to set it up outside. and decorate it with food for the animals. Which we did, and will continue to do through the winter. I am not sure how many animals benefitted from this first round other than Rose and one very pleased red squirrel, but I am pretty sure the woodland creatures will spread the word. We also cleared a skating rink on the ice, but abandoned it when I went through close to the shore. The ice is thick enough, but the shoreline is rotten (obviously), and what good is ice if you cannot get to it?

The next day was Michaela's birthday and she came over for dinner and a movie (Dumbo). That was very fun for the kids, especially since it involved ice-cream cake.

Then yesterday Ava had skating in the morning and we went to Corey's to make day-after-birthday-cupcakes with Michaela and then off we went to the Christmas party. When we arrived, Ava was completely taken off-guard by the number of people there, but after a bit she recovered and we spent 2 hours playing and eating and learning about manners and other people's houses. She did well, and all of the guests tolerated Carter's compulsion to push a truck around their ankles. We left at 8:20, home by 9 pm. Late bedtime. Both kids were tired and cranky today, but they fell asleep by 7:30, so we are inching out way back to calm and routine.

What a week. It is getting easier, in a way, but also a lot harder.