Welcome to the 21st Century, Me!

It is Saturday night at 9:49pm. I am sitting on my loveseat in our living room, all comfy-cozy, with the dull sounds of a football game a few feet away as Dan "watches" the game, lying on the couch with his eyes closed. It is absolutely a wonder of nature because I am typing on our new laptop with WiFi- so exciting! So 21st century! So now! Usually when I am blogging I am squirrelled away in our downstairs office, which while functional, is about 20 degrees colder than the rest of the house in the winter. So try to withold your smirks and dismissive chortles as I relish being modern and fresh... and warm.
We got back into our regular life today after a long holiday break. Michaela had a fun Brownie outing to a local bowling alley and was a little disappointed that she didn't score as high as she does in bowling on her Wii. Then we brought her over to a friend's house, which she declared was "a tradition" because last year she went to the same friend's house during Christmas break. Dan and I hit the mall with Jenna to do some returns and after Christmas sale shopping. This evening we worked on assimilating our gifts into the house, after which I declared myself Officially Christmassed Out.

I am forming in my head all kinds of to-do lists of things I've wanted to do for the last few months but have been too distracted by the holidays to actually accomplish. Most are stupid things, like bringing the cat to the vet because I'm suspicious that she has some pretty serious cat dementia which causes her to howl at night and constantly stare at us like she doesn't know who the hell we are, but other items on the list are more significant, like printing out some of the roughly 5000 pictures I've taken over the last three years. I have so many pictures that you could put them in a pile (assuming they were printed, of course) and flip through them and you'd see my life animated before your eyes. I also have closets to organize, checks to write out, copious amount of fudge-based fat to lose, and multiple projects to complete. I don't really do New Year's Resolutions- I'm stressed out enough by seeing the Quit Smoking ads that flood the media airwaves (remember my rant about how glad I am that I don't smoke... and don't have genital herpes???) and I generally think that a to-do list is better than an "I wish I could..." list.

Though speaking of "I wish I could..." lists, I do wish I could slow down time: I feel like the girls are growing up before my eyes these last few weeks. Dan and I keep looking at them and suddenly they are big and not baby-faced anymore. Jenna's personality is forming and changing right in front of us and her sense of humor is growing and developing every day. Michaela looks like a different person than she did just a few months ago... more sharp-featured as her baby fat in her cheeks melts away and her face elongates and looks narrower. They are more independent, more helpful around the house, and generally seem to have moved into a new stage in life: from Let's kill Mommy through sleep deprivation and endless nursing to Let's demonstrate a glimmer of a behavior that will keep her up at night languishing about whether she's raising us right AND negotiate her to death. Fun times! Seriously, though, it is great to see them make this shift and I love every minute of it.

Jenna is now older than Michaela was when Jenna was born and that totally blows my mind.
And I will bet you a million, trillion dollars that my father just read the last sentence and is saying out loud, Well, come on, then!! Time for another!!

Christmas: A Pictoral Essay.

We had a jam-packed holiday and while I'm exhausted, I'm happy and not quite ready for it to be all over.
Here's some pictures I took along the way.

The Church Pageant.

The big family picture for Paga.

The newest Guitar Hero.

The climber, also known as Baby Kate, investigating Gammie's fridge.

The cake, the brownies, the fudge. Oh, all the fudge.

The cookies.

The lamp. Yup, THAT lamp.

Thank Goodness it's PopPop's.

The Mr. Libuttis.

The Mrs. Libuttis.

The girls with their Grandpa Paga and Ann.

The photobook full of NYC pictures from Aunt Michele and Aunt Jaime.

The presents for Michaela.

The presents for Jenna.

The aftermath.

The matching Hannah Montana pajamas.

The Strauss-Libutti Offspring.

The Aunts.

The Cousins (who could be sisters!).

The Cousins.

The Cousins.

The Paga thinks about getting a Wii for himself.

The competition playing tennis. The intensity!

The seven-year-old in heaven: listening to the new yellow iPod,

wearing the new jacket, and the Wii in the background.

The love.

The love.

The Libutti Family love.

The best presents I've ever gotten. Ever.

Priorities affirmed.

Here's my favorite part of being a stay at home mom:

two school holiday parties in one morning.

10:20am-10:50am- Partying it up in Miss Hajeck's classroom

11am- 11:30am- Jenna and Mommy at the Preschool Christmas party

P.S. - Happy Baptismal Birthday to Michaela!

Unbearable cuteness ahead.

Monday night was Jenna's Preschool Christmas program... three and four year old cherubs, wearing their singing crowns and angel wings, singing "Away in a Manger" and "Joy to the World". It was adorable. They were all pleased as punch with themselves and all of the parents and siblings were snapping pictures like the paparazzi during the whole thing.

Jenna knew the first two lines to "Away in a Manger" but took a freestyle approach with the rest of the lyrics:"Mary and the angels kissed the baby's head and the shepards were all around them..." and when I tried to gently refresh her memory as to what the lyrics were, she very seriously told me,"No, that's not how it goes, Mommy."

Of course I took pictures:

Erin and Jenna do the motions to "lay down His sweet head..."

Icy icy ice storm.

Here's the short version, because the longer version's kinda boring: Power goes out at 1 am Friday. For the next few hours, all is quiet except for the sound of branches being bent from trees and crashing to the ground. A fire siren goes off every half hour. In the morning, we pack up and head to my parents'. They are gracious enough to warmly host us as we wait for the next 36 hours for our power to come back on. The gas fireplace in our family room works, so the house doesn't fall below 57 degrees.

Sweet, sweet relief when we walk back into our freshly warmed house on Saturday night.

Here are some pictures: