blaaaaaack socks

JP goes to a week-long summer camp every year run by the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky and my dear friend Beth.

JP has a ton of fun and always comes home wishing he could stay longer.

He learns a lot about God and Jesus and living in community and stuff like that. He also learns a lot of great songs. Like this one...(sung as loud as possible, please)

Blaaaaaack socks, they never get dirty
The longer you wear them,
The blacker they get!

Blaaaaaack socks, someday I will launder them
But something is telling me
Don't do it yet, not yet, not yet.

It's a typical obnoxious camp song. Fun to sing if you're feeling punchy.

Fast forward to January....a full six months post-camp.

JP has worn holes in most of his socks so I buy him a pack of new ones. It's a mixed pack of white and (wait for it) black ankle socks. He's upset at first ("But I've never worn black socks before!" in the whiniest 8 year-old voice you can muster) but gets over it when he figures out how cool black socks look with his jeans.

He wears the black socks a lot. Every day, really.

This morning, as he's putting his shoes on, he announces, "I've worn these black socks for two weeks straight. They're black, so you can't even tell."

You did what?

Ummmm....I might need to have a talk with Beth.

keeping house

JP made a gingerbread house over the Christmas break. It was just a kit so really all he had to to was decorate it. He took his time and applied frosting and candy as carefully as he could and it was beautiful.

For about an hour.

Then he decided it was time to eat it.

And that was that.

My house is just like that. I get it clean and organized and tolerable and it lasts, oh, 20 minutes or so.

It makes me crazy and then I start yelling and then I feel guilty and just clean it up myself.

Just call me St. Anne the Martyr.

C'mon, Gibbs! Help a mom out!

santa delivers!

Wanna see what the kids got for Christmas? You know you do!

For the third year in a row, JP begged Santa for a Nintendo DS. Santa did not disappoint this year. I don't think JP peeled his eyes away from that tiny screen for three days straight.

I think JP looks a lot like Chris did at this age.

The ladies got a few joint gifts (because, really, that's one of the benefits of twins). A sweet little dollhouse (that they promptly took apart).

All the Yo Gabba Gabba! characters (which they still haven't put down)...

And a little play kitchen that took HOURS to assemble...

The girls were really clued in to Santa ("Santa come today bring me a present?") and were so excited to look at Christmas lights and ribbons and ornaments. JP is a HUGE believer in Santa and made a little origami fish tank thing for Santa to take back to the North Pole.

Grandma Nancy would have had a blast with the kids this year. The kitchen was Grandma Nancy's final gift to Julie and Maddie. We found it in her basement in September along with a massive Lego set for JP. Bittersweet.

merry xmas and happy new year from an irresponsible blogger

The blog world tells me that I should respect my readers by posting regular updates to this blog.

I mean no disrespect.

It's just that I'm busy trying to, you know, be present with the people around me. So, the blog gets pushed to the background.

It's not that I didn't have time...I've been off work for nearly two weeks. But the blog felt like an obligation and I had enough obligations to deal with.

But you'll forgive me....you always do.

Especially if I post pictures of the kiddos.

Like this one...

And the accompanying reaction...

Pretty much that's how my whole vacation went.

I'll work on more photos and updates this week...promise. (Fingers crossed)

all i want for christmas...

...is a Nintendo DS.