double the laughter and twice the confusion: Christmas review: episode 1

Why is it that we make such a big deal out of a baby's first Christmas? It's not like they care. At ALL. (Though I have to admit, Lily was pretty enraptured by a couple of the pretty bows.) Maybe it's just that, by the time we have children, we miss the childlike joy of Christmas so much that we're going to project it onto any child-like person that comes into our lives. The same reason that dogs get stockings.

Anyway, how was that for a non-festive way to start a Christmas entry? On to funner things!

First of all, it's been way too long since I've posted. Since it usually takes me all day, off and on, to make even one normal post, I'm breaking this into two entries. (It will also give me time to find a bunch of pictures I'm missing...)

Noah and Lily accompanied me on my pre-Christmas shopping trip to Kroger. Usually if I take them both, I use their carseats and put one baby in the seat part, and one baby in the basket. This means that my shopping cart maxes out with about 3 cans of vegetables, 4 bananas, and a 2-liter. Any more than that, and the baby in the basket of the cart runs the risk of suffocation or avalanche from the groceries. As someone who perpetually buys tons of groceries, this was majorly cramping my style. So since Lily and Noah have been sitting up better and better, I was thrilled that they might be ready to ride together in the front part of the basket. The result was extreme and unexpected cuteness:

In the split second that it took me to re-focus the camera for another shot, this happened:

Needless to say we hit up the Clorox wipes as soon as we got to the entrance. I'm not too germophobic about most things, but Lily's determination to lick every inch of the shopping cart within her reach was a little scary. All in all the trip went pretty well, although the "twin factor" was pretty high with them sitting side-by-side. Meaning that we couldn't get more than about 10 feet without somebody wanting to chat with me about them. And they got a little bored by the end, but I was impressed at how well they did overall.

Our little fam trekked to Bastrop the weekend before Christmas to visit Scott's parents. It was a very fun trip and great to see them. Why a random town in the middle of Texas, you might say? Scott's extended family has a cabin there, in the midst of pine trees on top of a hill. His grandparents bought it nearly 40 years ago. It's not a cabin in the strictest sense of the word--more like a small, rough house, with ancient furniture, several beds, and a decent smattering of sheets, towels, cooking utensils, and other items that have been collected over the years. I always get a kick out of finding old stuff there. Here were my favorites from this trip:

I'm open to ideas as to how old anybody thinks these things are. The cabin was purchased in 1973... I'm wondering if these were among its first occupants. The wax paper has a coupon on the back that you can send in and get a wall-mounted wax paper dispenser for a dollar. I wonder what they'd do if I sent it in? I also wonder who in the world wants a wall-mounted wax paper dispenser...?

Most of the pictures from the trip were taken with Gemma's camera and they're not within arm's reach... so that will be the focus of the next entry. I do have a picture I took the other day of the babies with their new "laptops" that they opened on the trip...

They strongly approve of technology.

In other news, our Christmas was white! Scott heard somewhere that this was the first white Christmas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in about 80 years. That may not be true, but it sounds cool! It was not just a little snow, either--enough to cover the grass and stick on driveways.