It's That Time of Year

Last week was memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Dev and Matt came down with the flu within 2 days of each other. The poor things had sore throats, high fevers, vomiting, major aches and pains, severe congestion and coughs, zero appetite or energy....it was a long week for everyone. By some miracle, my Mom and I avoided the worst symptoms. We both had chills, aches etc... for one day and thought we were coming down with it. (We felt better the next day)

But, it's that time of year. I knew as soon as the kids started staying in 100% of the mornings at preschool, it would get ugly. They take them out whenever possible, but ice and snow and bitter cold means indoors they stay.

It's almost Christmas...already? We realized Dev hadn't been to see Santa yet. She's always been cool with the guy in red, except for her very first Xmas at 6 months old.

(We took our own pictures at home)

At that age, she freaked out if I left the room, so it was understandable. Santa pictures aren't very high on my childhood memory priority list, so whatever works for her is fine with me.

This year, Dev chose her Santa visit outfit. I thought the Peace symbol was appropriate:) She also asked if I could straighten her hair that day. I obliged.

Here's 2008:

And, 2009:

It's all about Barbie this Christmas. I introduced Barbie to Devin with my collection from childhood. I still have my 1970's Barbie carrying case, 5 dolls, outfits, the Dallas horse and saddle etc... She loves to bathe the dolls, wash their hair and change their clothes. Most of my Barbie's clothing was handmade by my Grandma & it's incredible. She hand knitted retro sweater dresses, coats, there's fur stole and some really sweet outfits. So, it was a wake up call when I went to the Barbie aisle at Target for the 1st time. Apparently, Barbie is a hoochy-mama now. All the clothes make Barbie look like she's ready to hit the streets for a Pimps Up, Hoes Down episode.

Her "big" present this year is a doll house to Barbie's scale. (Which btw, is 1/6 in case you care) The actual "Barbie" dream house is just too much pink plastic for me. (And, I'm fairly tolerant of pink plastic)

So, I went with this wooden one:

The most important feature for the house (according to Devin) is to have a "balcony." This has 2 with porch swings!

I damn near went postal putting it together, but at least I didn't wait until Christmas Eve. (Like last year, with her bike)

I just hope Barbie likes it. Let's hope she's into Southern Colonial charm vs. pink plastic vomit.

See?