Fuzzy Love

Liam's Faces

Snowbound. Again.

Yesterday the kids and I went to the grocery store for staples like milk, bread, diapers, and (ahem) toilet paper. The store was mobbed with people and the shelves were becoming bare, fast. There was no meat available, for example, except some luncheon meats, hot dogs, and frozen fish sticks, so I took one of each. I got the last two loaves of our brand of bread and the very last package of non-organic toilet paper (whew).

I saw one man buying a cart full of bottled water and I wanted to ask him, "Dude, what do you think is going to happen to us?" But I didn't. In fact, it kinda made me want to buy water too (although really this mini-disaster is a problem of too much water).

Anyway, the snow started yesterday morning and is supposed to continue throughout tomorrow at least. We were prepared to be stuck for a few days as our little side street was not plowed after the last storm until, oh, yesterday, but to our surprise the plow has already been through. So I imagine we'll be out of here as soon as Mark finishes the shoveling. Not that we have anywhere to go.

And, thanks to Christmas, we have lots of new and entertaining things to do around the house.

Happy Holidays

Check out the kids, in their fancy new Christmas pjs, swiping the cookies for Santa.

Anyway, I hope you all had a nice holiday. We really did. The snowstorm made us slow down a bit early (actually, grind to a complete halt), although we did dig out on Friday for coffee and a trip to the doctor for Olivia (ear infection). It's a good thing we did have that time too, since Mark went back to work on Boxing Day and, as you all know, once you go back to work the holiday is over.

I spent Christmas Eve baking and cooking for the big day (no Yule log: Black Bottom Tart, which was to die for) so there wasn't much to do on the 25th but laze around and play with the new toys.* But Christmas Eve night we spent with a few relatives, their relatives, and our relatives' relatives' relatives (figure that one out). It was an interesting mix of people, to say the least, and there was lots of food and our annual gift exchange. Olivia hung out with her second-cousin Lily, while Liam tried to keep up with the big kids.

Back at home, we hung the stockings with care, put out the cookies and milk and carrots, and, once Olivia had a meltdown because we wrestled the Santa cookies away from her, went to bed.

That stocking that Olivia is hanging used to belong to the cat. Then we had kids and the cat dropped down a few rungs. Yesterday we ordered matching stockings for the whole family (love the after-Christmas super sales), so Fuzz can have a stocking again. Not that we'll remember to fill it.

And Santa came.

And dinner was damn good.

*Recipe-wise this was really a Martha Stewart Christmas. Although we followed Mark's family's tradtition of the prime rib dinner with Yorkshire pudding, we used the rest of Martha's menu. And two of her cookies are now our new favorites: Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies and Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts.

A Movie Review

I took Liam to see the new Charlotte's Web movie this afternoon while Mark and Olivia finished up their Christmas shopping. Charlotte's Web was my favorite book for years, but I don't think Liam is old enough to listen to a chapter book quite yet. However, I have been reading him stories without pictures, so that he must imagine them all by himself. Our favorite book like this is The Little Big Book for Moms, which is filled with fairy tails and poems and, luckily, an excerpt from Charlotte's Web. After hearing that our five-year-old friend Isaac loved the book, I read the excerpt to Liam the other night. He loved it and asked for it again the next night. And the next.

So today we went to the movie. Remember, Charlotte's Web was my favorite book for a long time, so I had a lot of hope that Liam would love the story in movie form. It's two-hours long (breaking our rule of no-more-than-ninety-minutes-tops movies) and I forgot to have him pee before we sat down. I was pretty confident we wouldn't be seeing the whole thing.

Much to my surprise, Liam loved the movie. He sat quietly through the whole thing, save for a part near the end when he said to me (whisper-free), "Mommy, Charlotte's sick an she's gonna die." As for me, I loved the movie too. Although it took a bit to get over the initial spider-willies, I cried when Charlotte wrote "Some Pig," I cried when she spoke of her "magnum opus" and I bawled, yes bawled, when she died. Liam climbed on my lap for that part, although I'm not sure if it was because he was sad or just seriously worried about his mother. And then, since the credits run with a song by Sarah McLachlan (and her song in Toy Story 2 still makes me cry every damn time), I started all over again. Liam got up and danced.

Afterwords Liam told me Wilbur was his favorite but Charlotte was his favorite too and that he liked when she built webs. We picked up a new copy of the book on the way home.

It Has Come to This

Instant coffee from the back of the pantry.

And it's Still Coming Down

Liam and I just came back in from shoveling half the driveway and man am I tired. Almost every house has someone out shoveling, except for the one guy in the neighborhood (there's always one) with the snow blower and he did all the sidewalks (thank you thank you snow blower guy). All the neighbors provided lots of chances to lean on the shovel and chat, which gave us many much-needed breaks. Liam and I were disappointed that this is not snowman snow, but after shoveling a few cubic feet I was grateful that it was light, powdery snow* and not the back-breaking snow of the Scotia that sticks to the shovel.

When looking at the above picture, please remember that Mark already shoveled eighteen inches yesterday. Check out our back fence, which is four feet high:

The only thing that really has us wishing we were free is that we have run out of coffee. I don't drink a whole lot of coffee, but I do migrate towards the Starbucks drive-through from time to time. Mark, on the other hand, requires coffee every day to maintain his sunny personality. I've been bugging him to strap on the snowshoes and head for the nearest grocery store, but there's a strong chance the Starbucks wouldn't be manned, so he hasn't done it yet. In the meantime, I've been singing, "I wish I had a mocha frappuccino," to the tune of "I wish I were an oscar mayer wiener," but so far that hasn't proved very motivating.

*Let's face facts: if this had been sticky snowman snow, I would have blown off the shoveling entirely and gone off with Liam to make a snowman. It's not like there's any rush to shovel; the plows won't make it down our street until tomorrow afternoon if we're lucky and we sure as hell aren't going anywhere until they do.

Snowbound

We are slowly being buried under what could be up to three feet of snow. It started in the early hours of this morning and probably won't stop until later tomorrow. Mark decided to work from home today, and thank goodness or he probably wouldn't be getting home tonight. The Governor has declared a statewide disaster emergency (which seems redundant to me). At least we have power, unlike friends in Washington. And we don't have to worry about trees falling on our house (they're all too small to do any damage anyway).

Liam is thrilled, of course; he went outside briefly today and I told Mark I'll do shoveling part two tomorrow and Liam will get more time to play then. The snow seems to be getting heavier, so we're hopeful that it will be sticky enough for a snowman.

Fortunately, I am 99% done my Christmas shopping save one more trip to Target (and the grocery store, come to think of it). Sadly Mark still has the bulk of his shopping (all for me) to do.

Meet Swimmy

Liam got an early Christmas gift last night. Our friends Allison and Eric decided they didn't want fish anymore (their last one died a while ago, so no fish were killed in the making of this present), so they packed up a fishbowl and its accessories, bought a new Betta, and came for dinner last night to give it all to Liam. Funny thing is that Liam and I had been in the pet store yesterday picking up gifts for Allison and Eric's cats (they got gifts for our kids; we got gifts for theirs) and Liam said to me wistfully, "Mommy, I want a fish."

Later that day, Liam got a fish.

We went through lots of possible names (starting with fish), mostly from books we've read, and Liam liked Swimmy. It wasn't until bedtime that he remembered that Nemo was a fish name, but by then it was too late (although Liam did ask if Swimmy was happy in the fishbowl and I explained that Swimmy didn't come from the ocean).

Swimmy is a beautiful fish; he's purple and red and turquoise with very impressive tail fins. And Liam is so fascinated with him that I can't help worrying about Swimmy; I really hope he doesn't die anytime soon. Fuzz hasn't even discovered him yet, but somehow I think Fuzz could be the least of this fish's problems. (Although, honestly, Liam has been very careful so far).

Our Christmas Tree

 

This is a teaser. Although we got the tree on Saturday (perhaps the last family in all of the USA to do so), we still haven't put the garland on it. Stay tuned for one last tree picture all aglow, uh, soon.

Zoolights and Breaking News

Just before ten this morning, Mark popped down to the lobby of his building for a Starbucks and a trip to the bank  and found it chock full of police officers, HAZMAT teams, and television reporters. He wanted to leave the building to run the bank errand, but he asked one person, half joking, "If I leave the building, will I be able to get back in?" and got a stern, "I don't know." as a reply. Apparently he did get back in, since I didn't get any more phone calls from him, although one of the local news stations is reporting that the building was evacuated (but only one station).

Okay, there's an update before I can even post this. It was nothing (of course). Mark's back, hard at work.

Anyway, last night we all went to the Denver zoo to see the Zoolights. It was beautiful. We didn't go last year (since Olivia was so small), and they've really expanded since then. The trees are completely covered and animals made from lights are all over the place.

Liam raced around and I was sure we'd loose him in the dark. Fortunately we were there with friends Hadar and Liza and their kids Isaac and Lia, so Liam didn't really venture far from us (most of the time). Olivia, on the other hand, either rode in our wagon (covered with blankets and tended-to by Isaac, who is a born care-giver) or toddled around saying, "Oooooooo!"

We didn't see many real animals, but those we did see were quality. Light elephant:

Real elephant:

Oh, and you know that song that has dogs barking Jingle Bells? The zoo was playing Christmas carols (say, I Saw Three Ships) screeched by monkeys. It was lovely.