Merry Christmas to All

It was another wonderful holiday at the Weatherwax house.  If you overlook the stomach bug that went through everyone in the house, it was nearly perfect.  Santa was very good to everyone.  Mudgie told us we needed to "go to bed at 6 o'clock on Christmas Eve so Santa could come."  To say he was a little excited would be an understatement!  Unfortunately, Aaron woke up at 3am with "the bug," as it came to be known in our house, and although "the show" was over by 8am, he was still pretty low-key about the day.  Once the presents were in front of him, Aaron seemed to muster up enough excitement to open them, but he asked to go to bed at 6:30 that night, even after taking a good nap, and was out until the next morning.

Mudgie loved his Lego train, all 1351 pieces, and every time Aaron opened a gift he would say, "Oooh, a [fill in the blank].  Just what I wanted!" It was super cute.  Tommy didn't really get to open his presents because his big brothers wanted to do it for him, but he didn't seem to mind.  That afternoon we were lucky enough to host 20 people at our house for Christmas dinner, like we do every year now.  It's so wonderful to spend so much time with family, and every year I feel so lucky that we are able to do it.  Plus, with all the extra adults around, we get a little parenting down time, which is much needed this time of year!

The next few days were spent recovering, quite literally, from the holidays.  As I said, the stomach bug went through everyone in the house.  Thursday was Tommy's turn, and it was so sad seeing my poor little baby gagging and looking so sad and confused.  Luckily, it went through him quickly, but he went through 4 clothing changes in 3 hours!  I got sick on Friday, and then Mudgie and Dave got it on Saturday, but once it was over, at least we didn't have to worry about anyone else in the house getting it.

On Monday, Dave went to work, and Tommy and Aaron went to daycare, leaving Mudgie and me to ourselves for the day.  We went over to Nashoba Valley for some skiing.  We started off on the bunny slopes so I could make sure Mudgie remembered how to turn and stop.  Once he proved to me he could control himself, it was off to the chair lift.  I was a little nervous about it, but he did great getting on and off.  He just needed a little push to shuffle up to where you get the chair, and little push and support to get off.  We did 2 runs on an easy "blue" trail (I put the blue in quotes because, while that's what Nashoba calls it, it would be a green trail anywhere else) using the harness and lead ropes.  After our second run, it was clear that those were only getting in the way, so while it may have been one of the hardest parenting things I've done yet, I let Mudgie go down the trail all by himself (with me behind him).  He did so incredibly well, and he loved it!  We did another few runs, and when I offered him a break, he said, "just one more time."  And after that run he wanted "just one more." And so on and so on until it got to the point where I had to tell him it was the last run because I needed to "feed" Tommy. We went home for lunch, and then went back out for some ice cream, as it was a very special "Mudgie and Mommy" day, after all.  I can honestly say that it was one of the best days I've ever had.  We had so much fun together, and I can't wait to ski with him more and more as he grows up and becomes a better skier!

The rest of the Christmas break seemed to fly by.  We had lots of "together" time as a family, and had fun playing with all of our new toys.  I am so thankful for all 2013 brought to us, and look forward to many more great things in 2014!