December 20, 2009

I have Jocelyn here with me and she's going to help me write the email.

me: Jocelyn, what did we do this week?

Jocelyn: uh, we played in the snow, and it was Sunday, and I think that's it.

me: what about Hanukkah?

Jocelyn: we got presents, Daddy opened Morgan's present cuz he wasn't gonna open it at Hanukkah, and we were being a family, and candles.  I think that's it.  Oh, don't forget the music - is it baroch ata adonai?

me: what did you do at school?

Jocelyn: uhhhhh, there was no school today, I didn't go to school today.  But last week it was Jonathan's birthday party and we were touching Jonathan's turtles and Jocelyn said no to touching and I moved a little backwards so I couldn't touch the turtle cuz they have little claws on their hands and they were sleeping but their heads were out of their shells.  I'm gonna do the others tomorrow, k mommy, now it's Jesse's turn.

<switches place on couch with Jesse>

me: what did we do this week Jesse?

Jesse: hmmm, yes.  hmmm, I don't remember.

me: did we have Hanukkah?

Jesse: yeah, I mean no, Hanukkah's over.  Hanukkah's over Mom!

me: what did you get for presents?

Jesse: umm, hmmm, fire truck!  I got a fire truck present.

me: what did we do today?

Jesse: hmmm, presents hanukkah christmas

me: anything else?

Jesse: hmm, yeah.  ducky

Jocelyn is enamored with Anna Mann (my cousin's daughter).  She says Anna looks like her and she loves her hair.  I told her Anna is her 2nd cousin, so Jocelyn calls her her "next cousin".  haha!  I tried to do Jocelyn's hair like Anna's from her holiday picture tonight but I think I need to email Natalie and ask how she does that. Jocelyn's hair is so thin, the braid (french braid crossing across the front of her hairline) turned out much smaller than Anna's.  She told me it was ok, I would do better next time.  I'm not so sure about that!

We only got about 3, maybe 4, inches of snow today.  I dressed the kids to go outside while Josh did the driveway.  It took about 30 minutes to get everyone into snow gear.  For Jocelyn and Jesse, I had a stroke of genius and put their soccer socks on them over their PJs.  For Morgan, his snow pants double as a girdle - I had to squish him to get them on!!  Timothy could only find one boot, so wore my old ones (I just got new ones for Hanukkah - the old ones I bought in 1995 but they are still fine, I just wanted new ones, and good thing!).  I can't find boots for Morgan so he wore some that I bought that were too small for me and I was too lazy to return.  

Timothy's feet are 1/2 a size smaller than mine (though I haven't checked in a week, so maybe not any more) and Morgan's are a size smaller than Timothy's.  For Jocelyn and Jesse, I had boots no problem, in fact I think I have every size or at least every other size between Jesse and Morgan, and each pair only gets worn a few times.

Did some cleaning this weekend to get ready for Christmas with the crew here. Shampooed the living room carpet (an improvement, but still needs to be replaced), cleaned out my office and figured out I can fit 2 airbeds in there, steam cleaned the kitchen floor, did 8 loads of laundry (ugh - still need to match up all the socks) and read all the recipes I will be making for xmas eve.  We're doing an ongoing series of appetizers starting around 3-4pm and going into the night.  I have a variety of hot appetizers to prepare (with, of course, stuffed mushrooms because they are my favorite) and then a potato soup and Josh is making ribs.  Then several dips (hot and cold) and then I've got something special in the works for dessert to utilize the 20 7oz ramikens I bought on clearance.  So exciting!  So I'm taking off the 23rd to get everything prepped, and then the 24th too because all the beds have to be stripped and remade and reordered for the 16 people that we call the extended Lessard family - yikes!  Totally worth it though.