It's all about the hair!

Three days before Christmas, I finally understood why Liz so badly wanted a Barbie Repunzel this year. It was her No. 1 gift request and she mentioned it no fewer than about 20 times a day. She mentioned it in her letters to Santa and to every single person she saw - who she thought might have some ability to pursade the Big Man to give her a Barbie Repunzel.

Turns out, she's really in a hair phase. For those of you who don't know - Barbie Repunzel is a Barbie doll complete with an array of long hair, short hair, and even hair clippers to cut and trim Barbie's hair.

Again, I really should have known what was coming. But there it was, three days before Christmas and Liz walks into my room with this sheepish grin. Immediately from that grin I knew she had done something bad. I look carefully at her and see that a HUGE chunk of hair on her right side is missing. Yes, she cut her hair. In retrospect, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

But it still required an emergency hair-cut appointment two days before Christmas. And, oddly enough the mood at the salon was very tense. All of the stylists know Liz and chat and talk with her. Not this time. I had forewarned them of the major hair incident and the mood was eerily quiet.

We could have kept her hair long and used "short area" to frame the face, but she was ready to go short. So, the stylist cut about 5 inches off her length. I actually think it looks quite cute.

But it took a long time, as I expected - a full hour. At one point, Liz said: "It didn't take me this long to cut my hair."

At which point, both I and the stylist explained that it was quick for her because she's NOT a professional and didn't do it properly. Ah, another one of those teaching lessons.

I took a picture of her with my cell phone when she cut it, and Brian best describes it as a police mug shot. I texted it to my mom who promptly replied that she laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. In other words, I think you'll get a kick out of it.

Here's that mug shot...errrr picture of her when she cut her hair. Look on the right side.




Here's the new do, complete with a similar grumpy expression and of course, a chocolate mustache. Priceless.




Ah, yes, Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without her Barbie. At first, I thought this was Barbie Repunzel, but this was her 2nd most-requested gift the Barbie Musketeer. I wanted to post this one because it shows how cute her hair looks - and yes, we get a smile. Don't worry - she did get a Barbie Repunzel and we chatted for a long time about how she should not cut her hair until she receives proper taining.

Holiday Craze

It's hard to believe I've been off work the last two weeks - because it's been such a whirlwind. In such a short span, I was in New York, then we headed to Goshen, Ind. for Christmas with my family. Back home for a few days and off to Michigan to spend time with Brian's family. Then, we spent the last week at home where I took Liz downtown and worked on lots of projects (translation: cleaning).

Here are some of our favorite photos from the holiday season.

In the middle of December, we went to our Pal Dylan's fourth birthday. This was probably the best birthday party Liz has gone to because it was held at a place called FunFlatables. So, the whole party consisted of kids jumping up and down on the enormous inflatable objects. A child's dream come true. Liz was so impressed that as we were driving home, she said to me: "Dylan's party was genius."
A big compliment - I'd say. You'll notice Mommy and Daddy had some fun at the party too.












The next day after the birthday party, I headed to New York for my staff meeting. I usually go to the city about three times a year but don't always take pictures. Here's a few fun ones from the city. I got one taken with Elmo for Liz. The weather was beautiful in New York at December. Amazing. You hardly needed a coat - but I still wore one and the hat - just for good measure.







After I got back from New York, we headed to Goshen the weekend before Christmas. We spent time with my family - both my dad's side and my mom's side.





When I was growing up, we used to take pictures of the nine cousins every Christmas by the tree.



Here are the cousins with our kids. Brian enjoyed taking these pictures. In the pictures that he was in, my Aunt Barb kept teasing him for "hiding from the camera." That evening, Liz opened a kids' camera from my mom and began taking pictures. She remembered that phrase and kept telling Brian to stop "hiding from the camera." We'll get to her pictures eventually...I promise...





Here's Liz opening a few gifts at my mom's house.



My mom and her two sisters are opening gifts together. Don't they look a lot alike!



Despite all the travel, we stayed home for Christmas eve, made cookies and opened our stockings. We also opened gifts on Christmas day and even had our own "feast."







After we opened our gifts on Christmas day and had lunch at home we headed to Michigan and stayed there until the Sunday after Christmas. We were stunned to travel there with good weather and home again too. Here's Liz with her "Don't Break the Ice Game" along with Aunt Marilyn and Mimi Hedger.





When we got back from Michigan, I took Liz downtown Chicago for our tradition of spending the day in the city together at Christmas time. We walk around and see Chicago's Christmas tree at Daley Plaza, look at the Macy's windows, watch the ice-skaters and play in Grant Park - if there's time. It was a beautiful day and we also met up with Brian and friends at Pizzaria Uno and had plenty of time at the park. We also stopped in and had hot chocolate (blended chocolate for Liz) at Ethel's at the front of Nordstrom's on Michigan Avenue. It's one of my favorite chocolate places in town.






She played at Grant Park for a few hours while my friend Jennifer and I chatted. It's one of our favorite parks in the city.

Santa: Bring gifts - but please stay outside

Even though it's a full year later, Liz is still nervous around Santa. OK. Downright Frightened. Terrified you could say. Basically, She loves talking about him, hearing about him, and even watching Santa shows on TV.

But if we're within 50 feet of a Santa at the mall or on the street, she'll immediately dissolved in fits of screaming, crying and basically a full meltdown.

It would be tempting to get a shot of her terrified with Santa, but I can't force myself to put her through that agony - even though we all know it would be a priceless photo.

Despite her fear, she still wrote her letter to Santa and was thrilled to get a letter from him in return. We even made the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve too.

Still, just before bedtime on Christmas Eve, the thought of him entering the house sent her into a near meltdown again.

She decided she wanted Santa to leave the gifts outside - a reasonable albeit cold idea. So, you guessed it. The cookies and milk went outside too. I believe the milk was frozen in about 7 minutes. Luckily, Santa didn't mind and did indeed eat most of the cookies. Rudolph ate some of the carrot too. It's a good thing he's so accommodating. Whew!

Probably the most precious thing I've ever seen Liz do was when she bounced into our room at 6:30 a.m. saying, "Mommy, Daddy was Santa here. I've been a really good girl this year!"

She was so excited and we ran downstairs to bring in the gifts that Santa had left outside and she was so impressed to see that indeed the cookies and milk had been gobbled up by Santa. She looked at the plate with awe and said: "wow."

Then, she tore into those gifts. And, of course the best presents were the ones that came from the Big Guy.

Welcome to the family, Chuck & Bob

You'll see that Liz loves her new twin baby dolls that she got for Christmas. It took her just a second to decide to name them - Chuck and Bob. I won't even begin to offer an explanation. But she loves Chuck and Bob very much.

Ice, ice and 24

It's been a whirlwind the last several days mostly trying to help Brian manage the pain. At last count, he's used 130 pounds of ice, and we've got another 50 pounds in the garage ready for action.

We've been helping him heal mostly with ice, a carefully-prepared concoction of painkillers, and favorite comfort foods like apple sauce squares, his mom's homemade veggie stuffing and banana bread.

The surgery was a success and in addition to repairing the ACL, the doctor ended up needing to complete some additional repairs. Brian came through fine, but was groggy for many hours after the 2-hour surgery.

It's difficult for him to feel so rotten especially since he's used to being so healthy. He's also trying to avoid taking prescription painkillers as much as possible, but that also comes at a price. We're trying to manage the pain as much as possible with over-the-counter medicines. We head to the doctor this afternoon for a checkup as well.

Coincidentally, while I've been hauling ice in and out of the house we had a few minor ice storms here. Nothing horrible, but it seems like there's ice or water everywhere.

To add to the already constant flow of water, Our washing machine also leaked on Friday and Brian's mom and I spent time wiping up all of the water that had flooded into the bathroom. The problem is easily fixable.

I got Brian the last season of 24 as an early Christmas gift and anyone whose seen that show, knows watching Jack Bauer save the world, can help distract you from just about anything.

Liz is doing very well and having a blast hanging out with her Mimi Hedger. However, she had one of her world-record-breaking tantrums in the morning on Saturday but pulled through and surprisingly has been a great girl.

We made Christmas chains for the house and she's helped me make banana bread and she and I also played in the snow over the weekend. She and I also went to her friend Dylan's birthday party on Sunday and had a blast there.

I could go on and on about how utterly behind I am for the holidays, but seems useless to write about it because it won't change. We're not sure if we're going to travel for Christmas. This year, might be the first year that we don't journey across the Midwest over Christmas and actually stay put and have Christmas at our house.

To be honest, it seems too exhausting right now to think about loading up the car and traveling through more ice and snow.

Speaking of ice. Time to get some for Brian.

The reinforcements have arrived

Liz and I came home Sunday and I quickly unpacked and spent four hours getting our Christmas decorations up. Most of that time was dealing with the lights and cursing beneath my breath, but smiling brightly around Liz while wearing my Santa hat and jovially making hot chocolate.

In hindsight, it wasn't a very smart idea to add putting out the Christmas decorations to our already packed Sunday after being gone for four days.

But I knew we'd have no other time to get the decorations up, and even though life has been and will continue to be quite chaotic, I want Liz to enjoy the season. So, we're in Christmas mode!

By early today, I realized I was quickly losing my mind from juggling too many tasks. Today, it became crazy completing my duties as a full-time working-mom while also caring for Brian. My mother-in-law had decided to come today and at first I thought that I wouldn't need her help until after his surgery. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I felt tremendous amounts of stress roll off my shoulders when she arrived armed with health food and extra patience. She and Liz have been making crafts and playing various games while I've been working.

Luckily, Dad was released from the hospital on Monday afternoon and the main issues have been regulating his blood thinners. It will be a long task and he's also getting shots twice daily to help regulate the blood thinners. Hopefully, that won't last for long.

He's slowly recuperating but won't be back to work for another week or so. Brian's been able to work from home, which has been a huge help as well. His surgery is scheduled for first thing Thursday morning. The doctor's office called yesterday to warn us he'd be in "extreme pain." Great. Just what we needed to hear.

Not much positive to say after that sentence - except that the Christmas decorations do look quite nice. Even though it may not have been that wise to hurry and get the decorations up, my mother-in-law made my day, when she asked if my tree was one that came with the lights already on it!

Well, it was clear right then - I definitely deserve to wear that Santa hat.