Holidays 2008

Well, another holiday season has come and gone and we’re none the worse for wear (except in the bank account).

Jason and Scott really got into the spirit of the season, decorating the house and helping Mommy make cookies and fudge.  Grace was dazzled by the tree and seems to miss it now that it’s gone.  As usual getting a holiday photo taken was a logistical nightmare; the difficulties seem to multiply exponentially every time you add a new kid to the mix, to the point where I’m wondering if it’s even theoretically possible to get decent smiles out of three people at once (add in parents too and you can forget it).  This is one of the better attempts, I guess:

Easily the big hit this Christmas was the Wii game system, which is constantly on the boys’ minds even when they’re not actually playing it.  By now they’ve mastered all of Wii Sports and Wii Play, with golf and bowling probably at the top of the list.  Jason has achieved “pro status” at bowling and is pretty unstoppable at tennis, where the only challenge left by now is to play doubles matches; Jason and Jason versus Jason and Jason.  I still don’t know how he does those power serves of his.  Scotty favors boxing and has become a terror at golf, where he’s picked up all sorts of terminology like “bogey,” “chip in” and “bench to bench,” whatever that means.

Over the break, the neighbor kids were in evidence a lot more than usual, and they soon struck up a friendship with Jason and Scott.  A quick climb over the fence takes the boys into the neighbor’s yard or vice-versa just about every day the weather’s decent, and there have been all sorts of schemes to play Wii at each other’s houses when time allowances are exceeded at home.  This weekend, Jason said, “Daddy, I’d like to play Alex’s Wii and he’d like to play mine, so I’m going to his house and he’s coming over here.”  Nice try.

It was fun having two weeks off from work to spend with the kids.  We didn’t get around to half the stuff I’d planned, but what we did do was great fun.  Gracie is developing a sense of humor and whenever she sees me, even if it’s just five minutes after the last time, she smiles at me like we’re being reunited after years apart.  The boys, meanwhile, are always good for conversation. I called Scotty “Scotty-kins” once and he corrected me: “No, Daddy, Grandma calls me Scotty-kins.”  “So only Grandma’s allowed to call you that?” I asked.  “Yes.”  “Well, what makes her so special?”  I asked, and he explained patiently, “She doesn’t know my name.”

Jason’s big thing now is “who would win?”  As in, “who would win a race, the Flash or Reverse Flash?”  One day he asked, “Who would win, our Santa Claus or Canada’s Santa Clause?”  I asked why he would think there’s more than one Santa for the whole world, and he said, “There’s no way he could get to everyplace in one night.”  Maybe he’s onto something.

One night as I was giving him a bath, I explained to Scotty that 2009 was just two days away, and it would be a big year for us; he would be turning 4, Jason 6 and Gracie 1.  He thought that sounded great, and as soon as he was dressed he ran downstairs to tell Mommy, “In two days I’ll be four and Jason will be six and Gracie will be one!”

The sad thing is by this time next year it’ll probably feel like it really all happened that fast.