Holiday Greetings... Part 4 (The Final One)

Wishing you holidays full of love, and a new year free of bad behavior...



With much love from Life with Lily and Anna!

Holiday Greetings... Part 3

But as I said, Hanukkah was early. And this holiday season is long. The celebrating didn't stop after all 8 candles had been lit.

LILY...

The Combined Federal Campaign is one of the oldest and largest charitable workplace giving campaigns. Ever. Originally dreamed up by President Eisenhower (same POTUS who dreamed up my Agency!), millions and millions and millions are donated every year by federal employees. Last year I think some $17m was raised by DoD employees alone.

This year has been a rather sporty one for our campaign at work, which resulted in us raising 173% of our goal! And since I was one of the keyworkers, I was very involved. Very. And when one of the other keyworkers suggested that kids singing at Christmas would very likely be a successful fundraiser, I immediately volunteered Lily.

It was, by the way. Successful. We raised almost $3,000 for charity that day.

Poor Lily missed the one and only rehearsal because I was in meetings longer than anticipated... and given that most of the songs at this "non-denominational" concert had more to do with Santa and Frosty than they did with dreidels... Lily held her own and did pretty darn great. And although she might not admit it, I think she had fun.





ANNA...

And while it was great fun to see and hear the kids sing for such a worthy cause, we also had a blast two days later seeing and hearing the kids sing at the Holiday Open House at Anna's school.

Now, after the Thanksgiving performance of 10 Little Indians, I thought that I was prepared for just about anything. And I almost was. I ALMOST made it through Anna's impersonation of an elf without laughing. Almost... But not quite.

Although she's in the 2 year old class -- the youngest in the school -- I personally think that they were the best. They stole the show. Now don't get me wrong... the 2 1/2 year old pint sized Elvis look alikes and the 4 year old Bolivian dancers were ADORABLE. K-RAY-ZEE cute, in fact. But the little dancing Elves stole my heart. And, no, I'm not biased at all.



Not to be outdone by the kids, there were a few very special visitors.



Of course, Dora got just a little too close to comfort when we attempted to take a class photo. I've never seen so many kids look so shell shocked...and then simultaneously burst in to tears...as I did that day.




My little Hanukkah elf...

Holiday Greetings... Part 2

Although amazingly... sadly... I don't have ANY photos from Hanukkah this year (how did that happen?!?), I was able to snap a few at the Hanukkah Family Service/Shir Joy Hanukkah Concert at Temple.

My cousin Susana and I got the "brilliant" idea to sign our girls up for the Temple K-2 choir this year. Without asking them. And although they've both protested at various points along the way, she and I seem to be winning the battle of the wills. Lesson learned: ignored complaints will SOME TIMES actually go away.

We missed the first Shir Joy choir concert. It was the same weekend as "the incident", and Lily was in no mood to leave the house let alone perform in public. So be it. By the time concert #2 rolled around, she seemed to actually be embracing the idea. And her beloved cousin.


I'm happy to say that Hanukkah was a grand-slam success this year. Noah and I got eachother...well...a brand new and much larger mortgage.

The girls got just about everything on their wish lists. Nothing really big. But big hits all around! Lily was so excited on the first day of Hanukkah that she came home and reported that she'd had a hard time concentrating in school. In my book that = mission accomplished.

Remember, this is the child who, when asked what she wanted for Hanukkah at age two replied...to sit on Santa's lap.


And while I couldn't be more proud of Anna and her super Spanish skills, it knocks my socks off that Lily is learning...REALLY learning...Hebrew. It's awesome. Uber awesome.

(apologies for the poor camera angle...which includes some awful, um, boob shots...but I had to be stealth since all cameras were strictly forbidden in the sanctuary... my disobedience probably doesn't bode well for me in the after life!)

Holiday Greetings... Part 1

Hanukkah this year was early. REALLY early. Which meant that the Holiday Season 2010 was (well, still is...) long. REALLY long.

We've celebrated over and over and over. The kids were really in to it this year. Which made it ten times more fun. At six and two, the girls knew what the holidays were all about. They had plans. And wish lists. And lots of activities they wanted to try.

Like gingerbread decorating.

Although we don't celebrate Christmas, we do apparently celebrate art projects and candy. And we REALLY celebrate when we get to combine the two. Which we do every year...in a lovely mother/daughter tradition that started a few years ago (2009, 2008, & photos from 2007 are buried somewhere in iPhoto...).

Although Lily was anxious to invite her old buddies again this year, we branched out to her new kindergarten friends -- plus cousin Camilla of course! -- and had an absolutely lovely afternoon. Each of the girls partnered with their moms to decorate AND name their houses. I was amazed by how different each house ended up...despite having all the same ingredients at each work station. The names were just as quirky and cute as the houses themselves. Sadly -- SHAMEFULLY -- I forgot to write them down. Bummer!

(Erin with the winning house, in my book...this one rocked!)

(can you see that Lily's gummy Frosty is on candy cane skis? Bonus points for creativity!)

Even the little girls -- who were simply candy "catchers" (as it fell off the table and in to their mouths) last year -- had tons of fun doing their own houses this year. And I must say, having the extra 2,000+ sq/ft of (real) house made ALL the difference when setting up to decorate 8 cookie/candy houses!

Broken...

A few weeks ago, late on a Friday afternoon, I got the call most parents dread. The call that starts with, "she's ok, but..." The call where in the background I can hear her screaming...while trying to focus on the words through the phone... "she was in an accident." An accident...


Luckily the call came just after I'd gotten a critical signature at work. A signature I thought I was going to have to wait until 6 p.m. to get. A signature that I could not have left without. But I got it. And then I got the call.

(Lily got lots of sweet "fan mail" and get well cards...including this dee-lish edible arrangement from Loly!)

We all joke and tease that Lily's middle name should be "drama" because yes, oh yes, she's the one and only...original...DRAMA. QUEEN. (she is, afterall, my daughter...) But when I heard her pained and scared little voice through the phone, my mama instinct kicked in and I just knew. These were no crocodile tears. Whatever had happened, my baby had a broken arm.

(6 year olds + sharpies + a rough surface = hieroglyphics! Lily swore she could read all the signatures...)

It took some time to get a straight story. And that involved a conference call with the school's principal...the director of Extended Day for the entire county...and the E.D. supervisor at Lily's school. But we eventually did get the story. She tripped... In the apparently slightly-less-than-perfectly-controlled transition between "school" and "after school," she tripped over a buddy's leg while trying to race to get in line. And when she tripped she fell on her arm in oh such a way that she broke it. Both bones. Radius and ulna. Which not only fractured, but buckled.

After a miraculously quick visit to our local pediatric emergency room (LOVE FAIRFAX PED ER!!), Lily left with xrays on a CD...arm splinted and in a sling...and a new appreciation for just how easy it is to get hurt. Poor kiddo.

Last moments in the cast...with very soggy skin underneath it, she was on her way to get it removed!

That first weekend was rough. Really rough. Painful and embarrassing. But we got through it and once the real cast when on, Lily's spirits went up.



It's hard to believe that that was so long ago she's now in a brace. With only one and a half weeks left of that! The cast came off a few days early thanks to "an incident" (that involved...um...water...don't ask). Thank goodness. It smelled. Pee-you GROSS!



Lily is well on the road to recovery, I'm happy to say. And we've all upped our calcium intake hoping to prevent a repeat experience any time soon!