The last 10 days

I came down with pneumonia.

My mom watched Hyrum while I slept on the couch all day.

Evelyn threw up in the cab on the way to church.

John left his meetings early to come home from church with us.

Hyrum threw his first 20-minutes-plus tantrum.

A friend brought dinner over.

Hyrum had an ear infection.

Another friend picked Evelyn up from school.

Evelyn's coat broke beyond reasonable repair, and all my usual suspects were sold out of winter coats.

We found a new coat with matching snow pants (neon green/gray zebra; her very insistent choice) for 40% off the sale price at Daffy's.

I had to take antibiotics for the pneumonia and experienced some unpleasant side effects.

I got to take antibiotics for the pneumonia, which killed my fever within 24 hours and also mostly eliminated what had been a completely debilitating pain in my back within five days.

I had to stop running because I had pneumonia.

I didn't have to run because I had pneumonia.

My house was a wreck because I was sick.

Because I was sick, I had an excuse to not clean my house.

I don't know. I guess maybe it really does depend on your perspective after all?

New Year's Eve

Since we returned from our trip to Ohio after Christmas, I have taken the kids to Disneyworld, co-hosted a gourmet dinner, and then, after that was done, contracted pneumonia. As it turns out, trying to go for a morning run in sub-freezing temperatures when you have pneumonia is an incredibly bad idea. That was Monday. I wasn't able to run much, had the shakes for two hours after I got back, and spent the rest of the day comatose on the couch. Wednesday, I finally broke down and decided I was going to go see a doctor about the completely debilitating "pulled muscle" in my back even though, in my experience, visits on those types of issues aren't usually very helpful. Surprise! A few days of antibiotics later, I'm no longer running fevers or crying every time I try to breathe, but I'm still far from 100%. Although "resting" at home with two small children is a bit of a misnomer, we have taken it down a notch (or a dozen) from our usually active lifestyle. And so, I feel it might be appropriate to finally blog about, or maybe just post lots of pictures from, our trip to Ohio over the holidays.

During the five days we were there, we saw all of my six siblings and associated significant others (one husband, one son/cousin, one boyfriend). Six of the seven of us even made it into a photo together, which is pretty momentous; I think it had probably been about three years since the five oldest siblings were all together in a room. Plus, I made John sit with Hyrum on the plane, so it was a pretty enjoyable vacation all around. Without further ado . . .

This year for Christmas, I instituted a new family gift tradition. The idea is to buy a membership to a museum, zoo, etc every year. This year, we joined the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which also gives us reciprocal admission to other children's museums and science museums nationwide. So, when we were in Ohio, we went to COSI for free. Other than losing Hyrum for what seemed like a really, really long time at one point, it was great. We will be back, I'm sure.

Originally, Laurel and Mark weren't planning to come. So, when they showed up unexpectedly on the night of the 30th, of course we immediately celebrated by going to Walmart. Right?

Hyrum turned out to be a master Silverton player.

I failed at convincing mom to let me buy this vintage dress from her but succeeded in convincing her to loan it to me for the traditional New Year's Eve dinner.

A dinner cooked mostly by Mark. Thanks again!

Dillon is a champion at drinking cashews.

And just like that, we were home again,

drinking milk out of Ikea cups,

playing with trains in our pajamas,

and making Costco trips via public transportation thanks to our new stroller.

Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. Dare I say this is becoming a habit with us? We managed to check off most of my "family tradition" boxes, commemorated John's birthday in style with dinner out two nights in a row, enjoyed the company of John's parents, and just generally spent lots of quality time celebrating the season together with family and friends. A few highlights:

Evelyn graduated from rider to pusher. Sort of. Steering is a work in progress.

We held our very first Jello jiggler-decorating playdate. Note to self: Candy bleeds into Jello. Yum!

For the first time in a couple years, I took the kids to see the holiday windows, and finally, someone other than me was old enough to enjoy it. Evelyn was in heaven. A few days later, we went on what I hope will be our first annual family holiday trek.

I got yelled at for taking pictures of the angel tree at the Met.

The origami tree rules were much laxer.

We capped off our family Christmas pilgrimage with star show (+snacks) at Columbus Circle.

We celebrated John's birthday with Sprinkles cupcakes and Magnolia banana pudding.

Also, with Grandma and Grandpa. We go all out for birthdays here.



Hyrum did not cry when we put him on Santa's lap.

Really, he didn't cry much that week.

Evelyn read her first book!

Hyrum spent the holiday season perfecting his yogurt beard technique . . .

. . . and running around with friends.



Evelyn's burgeoning fine motor skills took our holiday decor to a new level. Maybe crafting skips a generation?

I attempted to capture a Christmas Eve pajama photo ("John, can you just hold the kids in front of the tree? Don't let them move. At all!")

Late-night vacation planning and online shopping led to some interesting catnaps.



We awoke Christmas morning to find that Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their snacks. Also, that they did not clean up after themselves. Men!

Church Christmas morning was a highlight this year. We spent sacrament meeting singing members' favorite hymns as a congregation.

When we got home, it was finally stocking time. A few favorites included

new jewelry,



a bus Santa found at Duane Reade,



lots of candy,

and socks I'm pretty sure Santa scored from the Target $1 bin. That Santa is one frugal shopper. After a quick refuel, we were back for presents.

We finished off the day with a holiday potluck. And yes, my table is set with tablecloth, placemats, cloth napkins, and disposable plates and cutlery. Holiday entertaining at its finest!

The La Barberas stayed till the bitter end and were champions in the clean up department, which reminded me yet again how blessed we have been in our friendships here in the city. To everyone, near and far, with whom we were not able to celebrate personally this year (and since we didn't send out Christmas cards for 2011), we hope you had a wonderful holiday wherever you were. Merry belated Christmas to all!