Christmas with Nana!

We stayed overnight at a wonderful hotel again this year.  We had a 1 bedroom suite this year (no upgrades to 2bd avail), complete with fireplace and kitchen.  The boys, Art and I arrived to the hotel a bit after Mom did.  Unfortunately, we left Wyatt's sleep needs (khaki, blanky, paci) at Leisure Dr., and needed to go back for them.  That worked out well, because Mom needed more time to wrap the Christmas presents.  When we got back, it was time for dinner, and we decided to eat at the Welcome Home Meal the hotel has during the week.  It was Mexican night, so we feasted on tortillas, rice, cheese, etc.  Nice easy, yummy meal.  Then we headed back upstairs to play for a bit, AND to open some presents.  Not all of them got wrapped, so they would get to open more the next day, after we wrapped them all.  Mom had bought a firelog, and we started a fire before the festivities. The boys were very excited to get MORE PRESENTS of course.  Several of the things they opened tonight were clothes, with more of the toys saved for the next day.  Zach wasn't enthralled with the clothes, but Wyatt LOVED his Mickey Mouse pjs.  He insisted he put them on right away.  Nana got to open her presents from us and the boys tonight too.

Nana opening a bowl that Zach decorated w/ his preschool.

After staying up pretty late, being read to by Nana, the boys finally went to bed.  They were so keyed up though, that they were nowhere near ready to sleep.  There was definitely a struggle, and some tears involved.  They boys went to sleep, each in their own double bed while the adults stayed in the living room.  The boys would get moved b/f the adults went to bed. 

Nana and her boys about to read bedtime stories

Once the boys were quiet in bed, Mom and I wrapped the rest of their presents while Art got to watch Without A Trace, a show that he loves, but rarely has a chance to watch.  We all finished up about the same time, and broke out the games and hot cider.  We played two games of Mom's favorite - Sequence, then played two games of Bananagrams, a new game we got for Christmas.  By then it was time for bed.  We had planned on Art & I in one bed, Mom & Zach in the other, and Wy in the pack-n-play.  Mom had other plans.  So we could sleep late in the morning, she suggested a slumber party for her and the boys in the living room.  She and Zach slept on the pull-out couch, with Wyatt in the pack-n-play next to them.  It worked great because Art and I did not get up until after 8:30am!  What a treat!

At that point, after showers, we needed to hustle back downstairs before they stopped serving breakfast.  YUM!  Waffles, eggs, bacon, yogurt, fruit, etc.  Back upstairs for more presents! 

Knight Zachary (wearing a cape) opening his stocking

Wyatt dumping his stocking out

The boys with the big mess they made!

Looking silly by the fireplace - Wyatt's mouth full of chocolate!

They got to play with their presents some and then it was time to start packing up before check-out.  We got everything loaded in the car, and Art, the boys, and I went and played at the basketball court for awhile while Mom spent some time in the business center then running over to Ronstadt to try and turn in her time sheet.  Then off to IHOP for lunch.  We stayed and enjoyed lunch until the boys (really Wyatt) started to get pretty fussy.  It was nearly nap time, and he'd had enough.  Art took the boys back to Leisure Dr. for their naps while Mom and I went shopping for Zach's 5T clothes.  Success! We got a ton of clothes for Zachary, and Art even acquired a pair of bowling shoes (which he's always wanted) while we were out.

Now we all need a little rest before New Year's Eve festivities start!



The Sundial: Merry Christmas from Mom

For the past 3 years, my Mom has given Staci and I (and our husbands) outings with her for our Christmas present.  Two years ago it was a trip to the museum to see a special King Tut exhibit, then Cheesecake Factory for some yummy dessert to go.  Last year we went to Medieval Times restaurant and watched the jousting, ate w/ no utensils, etc.   This we we all went for dinner at the Sundial.  A revolving restaurant high above downtown Atlanta in the Westin hotel.  Very swanky!

All dressed up and having enjoyed a wonderful meal and outing

View 1 of downtown ATL

View 2 of downtown ATL

View 3 of downtown ATL

All of the food was quite good!  Some of us got salad as an appetizer, some got soup.  Creed and I both got the lamb chop w/ cheese grits and kale for dinner.  Everyone else got something different (that I can't remember).  We all shared a chocolate dessert that was TO DIE FOR!  I regretted being pregnant and not having enough room for all the food!

A fun evening, and a great Christmas present!  Thanks Mom!

Sharing a Bed

It started at Aunt Staci's house, where the boys had to share an air mattress.  The first night, Zach was very upset to have to share a bed with Wyatt and wanted to sleep on the floor, but that was more of a factor of it being after 10:30pm, and him having been awakened during the transfer from the car to the bed.  He had to freak out about something.  The next night they were both thrilled to share a bed.  Naps are NOT a good idea for bed sharing, as they just ended up wrestling.

So when we got to PoppiMeMa's house, we let the boys decide where they wanted to sleep.  It was a full house, with everyone there, so they either needed to be in the rec room with us, or Zach in there and Wyatt in PoppiMeMa's room in the pack-n-play or the toddler mattress if he wanted.  This is what they picked:

Boys sharing the futon bed in the rec room

During the day they took naps in the same room, but in different beds.  One of them usually slept in mine & Art's bed with the other on the futon.  Only once I think did one of them (Zach) complain about sharing a bed.  Not sure if this is a new standard for them or not, but it sure was cute!  In the mornings, they did not mess with us at all, but went straight to PoppiMeMa's room to get someone to go downstairs with them and play. 

Sklar Family Christmas - Opening presents!

Finally, the moment Zachary has been yearning for - more present opening!

Joanna & Joy opening presents

Staci, Creed, MeMa during present opening time

Shayna, Zachary, Art, Wyatt - keepers of the wrapping paper trash bag and the passers-out of the presents.

Wyatt in full fireman costume, trying out his (non-working, thankfully!) bullhorn

Art, who got a REAL fire extinguisher from his secret santa is having a "fire extinguisher proost" with Wyatt.

Zachary showing off his knight costume

Our family of 4 caught in action

Zachary & Wyatt posing for costume pictures

More than a pleortha of presents here!

Sklar Family Christmas dinner

A lovely dinner with everyone in attendance!

The happy family getting ready to start eating

Art testing out one of the two pies available for dessert

Stuffed as usual!

"Sklar" Family Photos

Thanks to Dad's camera, which took 10 pictures in 10 seconds (or something like that), hundreds of pictures were taken this Christmas - portrait style, complete with white umbrellas etc.  The pics shown below represent the best of the best (well, in my opinion...others may have picked different ones, but I sifted through the hundreds of pics and made my decisions).  Sadly, there were not that many great ones w/ the boys.  Someone was always doing something wrong...so hard to get 10+ people looking good at one time.  Particularly because Wyatt decided that he was NOT going to smile, and ONLY DaU could hold him.  He spent a good deal of the picture taking time turned around, away from the camera, or begging for Art.  Sigh.

MeMa requested everyone wear red for the pictures.  She purchased several random red shirts for people to use in case they didn't have their own.  Here, the only two brothers-in-law so far, are modeling the less male-friendly shirts available.

Shayna, Joy, Joanna, Staci, Creed, Art, Wyatt, MeMa, Zachary, Poppi

Nana was a good sport - jumping up and down, hitting herself on the head with a pillow, doing all sorts of embarrassing things that might entice 2 grumpy kids to laugh.  As a side note, I'm pretty happy that our chosen pose hides my prego belly quite nicely.

Shayna, Staci, Creed, Art, Wyatt, Nana, Zachary

Sister picture!  Shayna, Staci, Joy, Joanna

AS Counts family! Wyatt (2.5yrs), Zachary (4.5yrs)

A rare picture of the happy couple w/out their kids.

That's what we've got.  Way more enjoyable than trekking to the mall, and nearly the same quality pictures. Merry Christmas 2010!

Happy Christmas from Wyatt

Merry Christmas!  I tried to get the boys into Christmas shirts, but Zach did not want to wear his jingle bell reindeer shirt.  Wyatt was very eager to wear Zach's shirt, so I let him.  That made his Christmas!

Wyatt happy in Zach's jingle shirt

Wyatt by the tree

Wyatt jumping around to make his bells jingle and singing

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today we had a Merry Christmas - Savannah style.  Art's parents woke us all up w/ hymns playing, and brought a candle, to represent Jesus being the light of the world, into our room w/ a tray of tea.  What a lovely way to wake up.  Then we had breakfast in our jammies by candlelight in the dining room.  The boys loved eating by candlelight, and I'll have to remember to do that every now and then.  Zachary unfortunately got sent back to bed to get control of himself, because he was having a fit about wanting MORE PRESENTS, even though Sinterklaas visited him just 2 days ago  - dishing out plenty of toys.  We had to have a few chats with him about being greedy and ungrateful, etc, and he was finally ok to come back to the table and apologize to everyone.  Despite Zach's setback, it was still a lovely breakfast.

a nice blurry picture of the Christmas table

Boys Picnic with Girls

Christmas Eve!  Today the Taylors (Papa Creed and Mama Rosemary) came over for lunch and brought their 3 granddaughters along - Patrick and Laura's girls, Emma, Sarah, and Mary.

A good idea was offered up for the kids to all have a picnic together, sitting on the floor in the great room, while the adults sat at the table.  It turned out to be a wonderful idea - all 5 kids were very well behaved!

Kids having a picnic

All chatting and eating nicely

Lunchtime turned into reading time!

The kids all looking at books after the picnic

Three generations of Counts at the table with the Taylors

A lovely lunch, and I nearly ate my weight in some sort of yummy ham cracker spread!

Danke Sinterklaas!

Sinterklaas was a bit delayed this year in Savannah.  We saw him earlier this month, in Skokie, but he got lost down south.  Today, we celebrated Sinterklaas in two rounds.  A before-dinner round with the boys, and an after-the-boys-were-in-bed round for the adults.  Zachary and Wyatt did much better than expected.  I thought they would be impatient and grubbing for presents, but they did a great job being patient for their turn, and patient reading the rhymes that go w/ their presents.

Tante JaJa helping Wy open his cat calendar

Boys opening a present

Wyatt hoping for a basketball

A break in the opening for Art to read Wyatt his doctored Green Eggs & Ham book (eggs and ham bits changed to "play basketball", and the Sam bits changed to "Wyatt")

Oma helping Zach with a physical challenge clue

Zachary excited about his lego plane!

Zachary, DaU, and Tante JaJa with the physical challenge

One of Wyatt's favorite parts was when we recreated his "gym class" parachute time with an old sheet.  The parachute is his favorite at gym class, and he really enjoyed recreating it.

The back of Art's DaU shirt (atomic soccer ball)

Art (great smile!) wearing the shirt I got for him for Sinterklaas.

Art opening a mayo jar

The fake slippers from Art's wish list

Opa & Oma opening their gifts

It was a lovely time.  No show-stoppers. Fun had by all.  Plus, lots of yummy Dutch goodies to snack on!

Take your Eyes off them for a Second - DISTRUCTION

Today, being in the 60s was too lovely to be inside.  We had the kids outside for hours and hours today.  So long they they started to get bored and wanted to go back inside to play with the plethora of toys.  Mean Mommy, who was sitting on the front porch working on Sinterklass rhymes, said no.  It was too wonderful outside to go inside yet.  We had not been able to play outside like that in Chicago in many many weeks.  I should have realized that their cries of being bored could not lead to good things.  They started playing some strange game with two palm-sized rocks.  I was only half listening to them as they moved down the steps.  Then, something finally filters into my brain that they said "let's wash the car", and it started the wheels turning until I slowly, so slowly realized they were washing the car with ROCKS.  I jumped out of my rocking chair, once I suspected, and did a fair amount of yelling "did you actually touch the car with the rocks, or were you just pretending?" etc.  I said stuff like "rocks will scratch the car, did you scratch the car", at which point Wyatt is frantically rubbing the car with his hand - apparently trying to wipe the scratches off the car.  Yes, indeed, they had washed the car with rocks.  Scratches all over.  Circular scratches all on the hood, long scratches along the side, some in the back.  Wyatt starts screaming and crying because his hands were dirty.  Zach is screaming "are we in trouble?" and "am I getting a spanking?".  I keep saying "I don't know, I need to talk to DaU."  I take Wyatt into the house to clean him up, and Zach is following me, screaming his two questions the entire time.  Everyone is staring at me about what is going on.  I don't have any idea how to handle this, so I defer to Art.  I say, "you need to go outside and see what they did to the car".  We decide that they did not do the damage either knowingly, or deliberately, and they would not get punished, but would turn this into a learning event.  Art talked with them in depth about no ever touching cars, that they are not toys, etc etc etc.  Then, he said he was going to go inside for a bit, leaving them on the front steps to think about what he said, and was going to ask them questions to make sure they learned from this.  When Art came back out, Zach immediately starts crying and saying "I'm still thinking".  So they repeated the stuff Art told them, and then we decided they should have to wash the car FOR REAL as punishment.  And so they did.

A minor part of the damage - I need to add a picture of the hood damage - imagine circular scratches like this all over the hood.

Art helping Wyatt wash

Wyatt and Zachary washing the car

Boys giving it their best cleaning job

Both very happy to be doing something good for the car

They worked on the entire car, as far up as they could reach, which took well over 20 minutes.  Never complained.  They both were glad to be able to do something to try and make it all right again.  Of course they could not get the entire car, so Art finished washing the car while I took the boys in and gave them a shower.  We were so relieved they did this to OUR car, and not Janneke's, or Opa & Oma's NEW car!

The "best" part of all this was that I was sitting there, not more than 15 feet away when all of this happened.  Parent of the year award goes to me! :)  Sigh.