Bienvenido a mi vida loca

Eleanor and Daddy enjoying the fire

Okay, I thought I should probably reassure anyone who thought (after my last post) that perhaps I had not made it through the holidays with my sanity intact, that yes, I am still alive and not currently institutionalized. I'm not going to lie, there were a few rough spots in my quest to actually enjoy the Christmas season, but overall it was a lot of fun.

Cindy Lu, Jackson and Ziva at de Barros Christmas (or "Prexmas")

We had de Barros Christmas the weekend before Christmas, when my parents and PJ and Bethany all came to our house to celebrate Christmas (or "Preex-mas) as PJ is lobbying to have it called). To be perfectly honest, this was probably my favorite part of the Christmas season. Why? First (and probably most importantly) we didn't have to go anywhere. That means to packing, no being stressed out by the things I forgot to pack, no 4 hour car ride anywhere, no "Are we there yet?" "Fraser is touching me!" "I can't see the movie!" "I'm hungry" "I want to get out!" "I have to pee" "Are were there YET?!?" Second, our family isn't super big on "fancy" meals, so they are usually simple affairs (read: easy to make and clean up afterwards). Plus since it is a holiday my parents, husband and brother all must have some sort of meat (I don't really understand this, but there it is) and since I don't cook meat it means my part of the meal is even easier than usual. Third, I get to sleep in my nice big comfy bed instead of a guest bed or air mattress (yes, I do realize this means the rest of my family gets stuck on hotel beds or air mattresses, but hey, you can't please all the people all the time.)

Checking out Hammie's new pinball game

And finally fourth, I get to spend the "holiday" with all my pets too. I know this may not seem like a huge weight on the scale to most of you, but for me it is a big one. That isn't just because I enjoy having them around, which I obviously do, but also because I get really paranoid about whether they are okay when I'm not here. I decided to go down to my parent's house earlier than planned the next week so we could take the kids into the city and to give them a chance to adjust before we began the mad Christmas rush of racing back and forth between NY and NJ all weekend, and we decided to board Jackson at a local home boarding farm (he lives in their house, no kennels) since he has had trouble with travelling before and he is so freaking huge it is hard to fit him in the minivan with the kids, our luggage, gifts, and Ziva. I was really sad to leave him on Christmas (I know, it's not like he knows it is Christmas, but I know) and I don't think I would do it again.

Fraser with his new dumptruck and Hammie's new loader

The kids had a great trip into the city (I think their favorite part was the train ride though). They thought Grand Central Station was pretty cool (It's Grand, and it's Central) but Fraser was worried he was going to get run over if we stopped moving to look at the ceiling. I couldn't blame him. The longer I live outside of New York the more I wonder how I could have ever lived there. I dislike people in general, especially in large crowds ("I love my dog, you not so much") and I would be absolutely psychotic if I lived in New York.  I really don't understand how people raise children there. I was walking through the streets with Eleanor and I had to pretty much use my body as a human shield to stop people from trampling her since she was walking at the speed of a normal two year old. I also noticed that I didn't see any other two year old walking the whole day, and I actually saw one kid who looked about 7 in a stroller. Fraser actually 
stopped to stare at him (which was rude, but he is 5) like he was wondering what was wrong with him. To be fair, the 7 year old was also starting at Fraser, like he was wondering where his stroller was.

Grandpa and Eleanor at Rockefeller Center

On Christmas Eve we went my cousin Leah's house for dinner. The kids had a great time with their Borzoni cousins, and for probably the only time over the course of the weekend I wished we lived back in the NY area. (I wish my parents lived closer to us, but that's not the same thing). Fraser and Hammie have such a great time with Tommy and Johnny, Eleanor and Quinn have just recently noticed that the other one is alive and may be somewhat closer in age to them than their siblings, and they are all so stinkin cute together. Plus Leah is one of the few moms I know who has three kids almost as close as mine, which means together we have six little mutants who will most certainly be making us seven shades of crazy for many, many years to come. Crazy loves company.

The McBeths and the Borzonis

The McBeths and the Marshalls (except Hailey, who was napping)

On Christmas day we opened gifts at my parents house in the morning and then headed to NJ for our very last Christmas in Wyckoff. The kids were adorable with their Marshall cousins (aside from the brief "I don't want to play with you" crisis, which of course we knew was coming eventually, but still is no fun). Seeing Lily and Jack, and especially Hailey who has changed so much since the summer, definitely made me wish they lived closer to us. (no, it didn't make me wish we lived in Texas, though the last few days of zero degree temps have caused me to reevaluate that position). I know the holiday was a little bittersweet for Andy, since this was his childhood home and his parents will have moved out by the end of April. It definitely made me look at my parents' house with different eyes. Although I do encourage them to get a condo, or at least a smaller house in a town where the taxes aren't a mortgage payment in themselves, I know I will miss the big yellow house like crazy when they finally move. 

Keekey on Christmas

And speaking of crazy, after I drove home from NY on Monday we had a whopping 2 days at home before we drove to Maine to spend the long New Years weekend in Belgrade. The kids loved the snow (haven't seen much of it this year!) and the boys really enjoyed ice skating on the lake. Ziva ran up and down the ice after them, spinning out and falling over multiple times. Jackson was wiser and just barked at everyone from the shore.


I did make some new years resolutions this year, but to save myself the heartache of slowly failing at each one I promptly broke them all in the first week or so. Instead I am crafting a new New Years resolution this year, which is to just accept myself for who I am. (Did I make that resolution last year? My memory isn't so great these days). So, I resolve to accept that fact that I am a little bit crazy, my life is more than a little bit crazy, and I have learned to accept that I really do like it that way. When my to-do list gets to be only one page long I start to feel like life is too boring, that I am missing something. 

On the lake in Maine

These are the days I mention to Andy that I think adopting a fourth child seems like a good idea. Andy has learned to pretty much just ignore me on these days, partly because he knows I will be satisfied with something more reasonable, like bringing in a foster dog who is recovering from surgery, and because my "Our lives are boring! We need to mix things up!" days will no doubt be followed by days like the beginning of this week. The kids were off Monday for MLK day, so we played with play dough, turned the living room into a giant blanket fort, went sledding, chased our foster dog across the neighbors property (she was onto some scent and I don't think she could even hear me yelling at her), bounced in the bounce house, read stories, did puzzles, made pizza dough, made pizza, gave the kids a bath and had them all in bed by 6:30. 

Hammie with our foster dog Bunny

This morning Johnny the kitten pooped on the bathroom floor, Bunny the foster dog ran upstairs and started to eat the poop before I grabbed her (And I thought "Please let this be the grossest thing I have to deal with all day"), I cleaned up the poop, took the dogs out, Bunny came back in and threw up all over the rug (Gee, I wonder why), I cleaned that up, took the boys to school, took Jackson to the vet, took the dogs back out, brought everyone in, left the dogs in the mudroom while I took Eleanor to use the potty, came back to find that Jackson's foot was bleeding and he had shaken blood all over the floor, rug, wall, closet door and air hockey table. Welcome to my crazy life. We always have room for one more!

Sledding in the back yard