Christmas Time

Chocolate hazelnut, fir, and cinnamon swirl around as I sit in a silent house.  A house where my beautiful baby girl is catching up on her beauty sleep, not that she needs any.  The lights are off, and I sit here with babycake as company; fetal aerobics, knees, elbows, and tiny little finger movements make up babycake's contribution to our time together.

My brothers are home for the holidays; one from school and one recently out of the Navy.  It's times like watching them play with Ruby's wooden dress up doll and the entire Little People village that I am thankful my parents braved the number four and gave us a big family.

I purposely skipped out on the remaining five days of 25 Days of Christmas, willing myself to continue my baking binge when the crazy of Christmas time is over and done with.  For now, I want to soak in all that I have around me and enjoy this time of year without tearing apart my kitchen with flecks of white dusting as art and a bazillion dishes.

Our family Christmas time has been had; we were all thoroughly spoiled and there is only more to come.    A new sparkler dances in the light atop my wedding band and engagement ring; I also have new camera toys waiting for me to explore.  

Cirque de Soleil tickets decorate my table as they wait to perform their own Christmas magic in the middle of January.

Ruby really got into tearing open the presents this year, and by tearing them open I mean pulling off one-inch pieces of paper all the way around the gift before peering inside.  She did experience the magic of waking up to see Santa had visited with a brand new vintage pink kitchen standing proudly next to the tree.

Little did she know that Santa's elves themselves put that together in the middle of our very own living room until 4:00 that morning while watching some horrible sales lady on a jewelry shopping network because they were simply too tired and too lazy to switch the channel.

Countless batches of cookies, pots of noodles, and scrambled eggs have been served; she makes a superb waitress.

babycake wasn't excluded from any Christmas package festivities.

Our Christmas adventures should bring more cookies, lots of amazing food, laughter, and most precious of all, family.  Hopefully with a side of shopping and a Mizzou basketball game thrown in there too.  My grandma is beside herself with glee anticipating the interactions of the three smallest members of our ever-growing family, the great grandchildren.  At 25 months, 33 months, and 21 months things could be pretty interesting in the toddler conversation department.  And I'm just going to hope that Ruby stays away from her catchphrase, "No!" when asked to share.

Rubyisms of the Week:

At Starbucks, they were giving out free samples of their instant cinnamon flavored coffee.  Ruby gripped the counter with both hands, stood on her tip toes and said, "Coffee please."

Repeating after me and yelling, "This is ridiculous!"  Though, it sounded more like "adiculis"

Giving the baby "noses" (eskimo kisses to my belly button, which looks funnily enough like a little misshapen nose).