Vacation needed to recooperate from vacation

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I don't know about all of you - but as wonderful as this holiday season was, I am exhausted and need a vacation to recooperate. December is honestly a blur. I do like to keep busy, but it was a little insane. Lots of activities, lots of music to prepare and perform, and lots of errands and shopping.

Matt had the week of Christmas off. It was nice to be together and enjoy the holiday as a family. Christmas eve we spent with friends. We had our little tradition of going out to eat and then heading back to someone's house for desserts and christmas carols. We headed home and got things ready for Santa to come. Maya and Luke put out cookies and milk for Santa and oats and carrots for the reindeer. We read the story of Christ's birth and then tucked the kids into bed.

Christmas morning the kids didn't get up until 7! When I was a kid I'd get up with my brothers and sisters at 4 am and sneak down to see the tree. It was always so magical. We'd all grab blankets and pillows and snuggle on the couches until the hour was decent enough to wake our parents. I wonder when that will kick in. My kids may just be heavy sleepers. Once they are out, they are out and they don't like to get out of bed until they are good and ready. Maya and Luke showed us the letters they got from Santa and we even found some reindeer footprints in our entryway. Very exciting.

It was Seth's very first Christmas. He turned 9 months old on Christmas day. He spent the month very curious about the Christmas tree. By mid December I noticed that the bottom foot or two of the Christmas tree no longer had decorations on it as we had to constantly move them out of reach.

Seth spent more time trying to open someone else's present as opposed to his very own that we set right in front of him. But once it was opened it kept him entertained while the rest of us opened presents.

We got lots of fun stuff. Here are the fleece stocking caps that my mom made. Very warm and comfy! Seth is sporting mine for me.

We also got lots of fun things to play with in the backyard like a soccer net, baseball gloves and a T-ball set that will also pitch the ball to you.

It's so fun to just play all day long out in the backyard and then come in and play new games inside. What a fun day.

As I said earlier, Seth is 9 months old. But, up until this point we have never moved his crib mattress lower from the newborn level. I made Matt do it the day after Christmas cuz Seth has been starting to pull himself up. Sure enough this is what I find the next morning:

The first time I've found him standing due to his own power. He sure looks proud of himself.

My sister Jessica and her husband Lance came to visit right after Christmas with their kids - a pit stop for a few days before moving on to Lance's family reunion. we loved every second of having them here. Matt was on call pretty much the entire time they were here, but he was home for a few hours one afternoon and we all headed to a fun park to play. Good times!

My handsome blue-eyed boys!

Luke likes to climb on this tree and find things around the base of it to throw.

The kids had lots of fun with Aunt Jessica "saving their lives" on the slide.

Jess and her fam headed out the next morning - which was probably for the best because Seth woke up with a fever in the middle of the night and wasn't himself again until Saturday/yesterday. We spent part of new year's eve up the street at our good friend's home lighting fireworks and snacking on goodies. We only lasted until about 10:30 at their place because Seth was still not feeling well and crying like crazy and Maya ended up spending a good part of the night crying due to an earache (which I remember doing as a kid - those things hurt!) So Matt and I rang in the New Year with our baby sick in bed and our oldest crying in pain.

Seth woke up the next morning without a fever (but still not his smiley self) and Maya woke with her ear feeling better. Everyone is now happy and healthy and I pray it stays that way for as long as possible because I am worn out and need to recover for a bit.

I really hope you all had a really fun holiday break. For those of you outside of San Antonio, I miss you very much and think of you often. I wish we could be closer.

As for this New Year of 2010, our family is up for some big changes. Matt will finish his residency this June and then more likely than not the Air Force will move us to a new base (your guess is as good as ours as to which one) and we will start a new phase of Matt's career and our life. He will probably be deployed a few months after we get to wherever we're going, but hopefully that won't happen until after next Christmas. If he's gone before that - Mom and Dad, plan on me and the kids coming home to NY for the holidays!

Maya will turn 8 and be baptized this spring. Luke will start going to school and Seth will start walking a talking. It seems like yesterday that Maya was a baby having her first Christmas. Now we have 3 and things keep changing so fast. At least it's a great ride and (go ahead and gag a little at the cheeziness) I get to have Matt next to me for the whole thing.