Chritmas 2008 was in Salem and saw the introduction of the Rocking Cow.  Ashley was not impressed with the whole ordeal, but she wasn’t particularly upset with it either.  It was a real take it or leave it day, but her cousins had a ton of fun.

Mom and Ashley weren’t able to fully clean up the holiday mess after we got back from Athena.  So we took our last Sunday in the long weekend and put all the decorations and tree away.  We put away all of the new toys, cleaned the cupboards, organized the pantry, picked up everybody’s rooms and did several loads a laundry.  Go Mom Go.  Go! Go! Go!

For his part, Dad took Ashley on a red wagon ride around to the park and rode swings.  Christmas was great, but I think we are all glad to be home.

Glad to return to normalcy.

Ashley and the gang traveled to Athena this year for Christmas.  We left Thursday the 24th packed to the gills with presents and a happy baby.  We arrived to a house full of people in Athena and had a rocking couple of dinners, breakfasts and more snacks than a pelican could fit in it’s beak.  Ashley learned some new life skills with cooking in the kitchen with Grandma and reloading shells with Grandpa.  The uncles showed Ashley how to ride a skateboard and Aunt Tylee taught Ashley the fine art of light saber fighting.

We caught a burger and even a rare Ellis sighting on the way out of town.  It was a pretty reasonable trip home and Ashley was basically good the whole time, but did not nap.  Even though mom went on a bit of a tear putting away clothes and boxing up old toys, it was a pretty good Christmas for everybody.

We have been traveling to and fro, meeting and gathering with our friends and family.  It has been very nice so far.  I am not sure why exactly it is this year, but the entire Christmas season is seeming far less commercial than it usually does.  Perhaps I haven’t been looking, or maybe I don’t go out enough to be buried.  Maybe it is because we don’t have cable tv anymore or possibly because my job is pretty secular.  Whatever it is in the world, perceived, real or otherwise I am happy that it is so.

I have spent a bigger portion of my time worrying about how I can bring everybody together and what music to play at the party than having to hassle with presents and gifts.  Times are tight and less spending is good.  I guess I now understand that giving is still just as important as the getting, and my original plan of no gift exchanges wasn’t so popular as I had hoped.  The upshot being that since this holiday is going so well, who am I to dictate to anybody else how they enjoy it.

Just don’t expect anything from me ‘cause it ain’t comin’

My kid is staring to want to sit on the toilet after going potty at 21 months.  Her timing is off but the will is there; once we get the timing right there will be nothing but songs from our bathroom.  (Our potty training toilet sings when you use it)

• She might not have a lot of hair.
• She might not have a lot of teeth.
• She might not string sentences together.
• But she craps where she is supposed to.

Hell yea.

Christmas 2009 is a very promising one.  Mom is in full swing and very excited with decorating and gift giving.  Dad is very happy because mom has agreed to tone it down a bit from last year and stick to a budget.  Ashley is excited because this the first year she recognizes gifts for what they are.

Rock hard awesome.

Aunt Stacy brought over a gift for Ashley in an early season gathering and it was amazing to watch Ashley dutifully and slowly unwrap the present because Mom asked her to.  The first few tears were done out of loyalty but were ripe with confusion.  Ashley is a good girl at heart so she pushed on at the paper as her mom and aunt pressed, but a moment that probably only occurs once in a persons lifetime arrived when she noticed the first glimpse of pink in the package under the paper.

More tugging and an ever frenzied pace was emitted from Ashley like demons from the Ark of the Covenant (Raids of the Lost Ark) as she pulled back more paper to reveal more pink.  In what felt like hours but was literally just moments Ashley had unwrapped her present and was gleefully holding the magnetic writer thing aloft with pleasure washing over her face like sunshine through a window.

This is why people give gifts to little kids.

This year Mary was responsible for donating some clothes and schools supplies at our daycare.  We felt good that we were doing some good at the time when that school (that burned down) really needed it.  But next year I think I want to find a sweet toy and make sure a toy drive has that.  I might do it this year too.  I am not a particularly generous person nor do I have a habit of giving to charity; but seeing Ashley get excited for that gift means that likely other kids get that excited too.  Kids can still appreciate stuff for the idea AND for the item.  I think I have lost that within myself somehow, but I like that I can possibly pass it on to someone who hasn’t.

Here are the pictures from the camera in the first half of December 2009 for our family

Ashley is a better bowler than either of us.  She was charming at the lanes and basically a good sport.  Part of being a good bowler in Ashley’s world is charming the glitter off of the nice ladies in the lane next to us and the nice server lady.  Everybody was impressed.

Ashley scored a legitimate 30 (without weak bumper usage) in her 4 frames.

I think that it wasn’t really the swine flu because by all accounts the whole family should have been sicker than dogs for over a week.  That just didn’t happen.  Mom and dad escaped with little to no effects.  Sure we had headaches, coughs, runny noses and general malaise, but since nobody got all the symptoms at once or any kind of temperature I am willing to chalk it up to poor health in general related to our sedentary lifestyles and Delta Burke poor eating habits.

Ashley felt much better the next couple of days as well.  She perked up very quickly and by Sunday was running around demanding things and generally bossing us around that we knew she felt good.  Ashley and daddy stayed home on Monday to be double triple sure that all the sickness was gone, but we both felt better to get back into the routine by Tuesday.