Welcome Alexa!

Our new baby cousin arrived last Friday! She weighed just over 5 pounds and came a few weeks early. Apparently, Mom and Dad and baby are all doing fine. I just learned that right as they came home from the hospital they moved from one apartment to another in their Manhattan apt building. Talk about stress! Though if anyone can handle stress, it's Alexa's parents. Her mom is an ob/gyn and dad quit being a surgeon to go do research on Wall Street. And they are the sweetest people in the world. That is one lucky girl - and she and Abby managed to both be born in 2008!

Anyway, here is darling little Alexa with her Grandma Linda, my father's sister. I'm so excited that I'll be going to NY regularly very soon and will get to see her!

Gr. Lynne's Great Photos

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas this year! Grandma Lynne decided the day before to come early to join us for Christmas morning, so we had house full of toys and hands on the big day.

Jake was super excited about Santa, leaving a cupcake and a carrot for Santa and some oats for the reindeer as well as a blank piece of paper so Santa could leave him a note. He told us he wanted to go to bed early and wanted us to as well to be SURE Santa would come. He even asked if I could sleep with Abby to be sure she didn't wake up in the middle of the night and keep Santa from coming! (I declined on that one!)

Abby did very well for her first Christmas. She wandered around in her jammies for about an hour, enjoying the very first toy Jake opened for her (little turtles on a pull string) and then went back in for a nap while Jake continued his over 2 hour opening and playing extravaganza. After getting dressed and rested, she returned in a cute reindeer shirt and red velvets pants and had a fabulous time playing with the foil wrapping paper from Grandma Fran (it crinkled but it would not tear, which she found fascinating), and unbidden, kept putting her new pjs from Fran on her head to play peekaboo.

We all loved our gifts and Jake exclaimed that each gift was "JUST what he wanted!" Jake got the remote control garbage truck he wanted from Santa and a huge amount of geo train parts from Mike's forays on Ebay. Abby got a few toys and a lot of books, some regular and some that play music, which she has been "reading" constantly. Mike got some new electronic gadgets he wanted and I got some very nice shirts, a sweater and a robe and 6 boxes of my favorite tea! All of Abby's new PJs fit her perfectly and Jake actually called out to say he liked the shirts he got.

I made a special brunch dish and we all enjoyed spending the whole day together. I'd say our first Christmas with two kids went over well! And next year, Abby will actually want to open her own presents. That should be interesting!

Abby is 11 Months Old!

And she is becoming such a little person! She "reads" books by herself, plays independently, and gets us all to laugh. She is a riot!

Jake Sings Rudolph

Jake's holiday celebration was today at his school. We all went. Last year, he gazed at the crowd calmly but kept his mouth closed. This year he sang every song! Here he is singing next to his best friend Aidan, giving his special wave to Daddy.

Last Class in Durham

Yesterday was my last class of the term in Durham. I had a very full day, which started with an early morning swim in my new favorite hotel pool, ran through a full of morning of meetings and then class. Then I stayed late in town to have dinner with a friend. It was a great dinner, but it rained cats and dogs on my 4 hour trip home and I spent literally hours not really being able to see in front of me. Not relaxing driving! And I got a sore throat about 9:30 that turned into not being able to swallow or talk by 11 pm when I got home. And it turns out Abby has the same affliction so we spent a lot of time together not sleeping last night.

Today I had a trying board call most of the day and nursed tea with honey as often as I could. I'm beat!! Now all I have to do is grade all the papers, finalize grades, and prep all the readings for next term -- all due next week! This working stuff sure is tiring! But I'm hoping we'll do some fun holiday stuff this weekend. I believe I've started the weekend on the right tone - see my elves below.

A Few Good Elves

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A Few More Good Elves!

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