Ian with his cousin Kaitlyn

Emptied the ER

Ian's First Feeding

Winter Holiday Update

These past two weeks have been quite busy. Of course, it was an non-routine-kind-of busy because of the holidays, myself having a week off after Christmas and Paige have the entire two weeks off school.

December 17: I went to Carl's birthday party in Manhattan. Of course, it involved karaoke. He reserved a private booth, so we had no fear of embarrassing ourselves. I chose to sing "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding," "Sweet Child o' Mine" and ...yes... "Total Eclipse of the Heart." I ended up in a group sing-a-long of "Thriller" too.

December 24: Took the whole family to my parents' house for Christmas Eve. I ate a lot more of my mom's egg rolls than I intended. Unfortunately, I had to come back to the Lehigh Valley to work that night. My family made the most of it by scheduling dinner and gift-opening early. Megan obliged by doing all the driving, so I could get some shut-eye before work.

December 25: Came home that morning before Paige got up, so I got to see her reaction when she came downstairs to see all the gifts Santa delivered. She immediately recognized the wrapped box that contained her wished-for Barbie house (She sang songs about this dollhouse during the weeks leading up to Christmas.) I got a little more sleep before we went to Megan's parents for Christmas dinner. I had to work again that night and they accommodated by letting me finish dinner early and use their guest bedroom to get a few hours of sleep.

December 29: Paige's best friend from Dover, Nolan, his parents and his little brother Will come up to visit and spend the night. Paige and Nolan played with each other for too long and all of us parents chit-chat'ed late into the night.

December 30: That afternoon we bid farewell to our Dover friends and that evening Aunt Mary arrived to take Megan and I out for dinner and movie. We tried the local Pacifico for the first time and decided dinner would be more fun if we ordered tapas and apps instead of main dishes. We realized that Pacifico did fish and seafood well, but other meats not so much. The movie was Avatar and I liked it quite a bit, mostly because it imagined and realized such a detailed, exotic world. The script consisted of some action/ romance/ epic movie clichés, but I was having too much fun watching it that I didn't realize that script's weaknesses until long afterward.

December 31: After a little delay because of a small snowstorm, we took Paige and Ian to see their cousins at Aunt Mary and Uncle Long's. Paige tried ice-skating for the first time and liked it quite a bit. My back suffered from bending over continuously to hold her hands. All the kids played endlessly for the remainder of the day. They were way too tired and cranky to tolerate an 8:00 PM countdown faux-New-Year's-Eve countdown, but their spirits were briefly raised when dessert was served.

January 1: Megan's family came over for a New Year's Day traditional pork-and-sauerkraut dinner. I made homemade apple sauce from Alton Brown's book.

January 2: We discovered the Sports Chalet while hunting for seasonal ski rentals for Paige, and both Megan and I decided it was our favorite ski shop in the area. It was family-owned, friendly and informative. Uncle Long brought his kids up for another round of playing with our kids. I turned the previous nights leftover mashed potatoes (also from Alton Brown's book.) Long and I took the kids to the Crayola factory which was great for the kids but it was way too crowded. On the last weekend before school restarted and a day too cold to go outside, we should have known that every parent in the Lehigh Valley would have decided to also go there. The kids still loved it and they all got to make little masterpieces

January 3: We convinced Nana to watch the kids while we checked out another movie Up in the Air. I liked this one a lot too. I thought the director Jason Reitman got better with each film he did. I think his style was too subtle for academy voters this winter, but Vera Farmiga will definitely not go unnoticed.

Busy two weeks, although, I'm sure some of you may have boasted busier ones. Also this happened: