The Neal Family

Well, it's happened folks. We've officially reached the point where eating is the primary holiday activity and I can no longer tell if I am hungry or not at any given point. It's been another successful holiday, I think.
We've had a full house here in Idaho. There's my maternal grandma from California, my paternal grandpa, Sean Patrick and I here from Reno, brother Chad and his wife Amy and new daughter Emily, brother Brady and his wife Jessica from California, brother Micah and his buddy Jim home from BYU Idaho, Marissa home from college as well, and Mom and Dad and Tanner and Kearis who live here full-time. That's right...17 people, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two crying babies, and a partidge in a pear tree.
It's actually been very nice and peaceful. Patrick has done OK with the traveling, especially after my mom started feeding him pears in mass quantities to combat the cheese situation that keeps cropping up when we travel. He's been especially entertaining the last 24 hours and is VERY cute when he wants to help hold baby Emily. He's surprisingly gentle and intrigued by the little doll that moves. He doesn't even seem especially jealous, since there are plenty of people to pay attention to both babies.
Speaking of my new baby niece, let me just say that she is indeed an "angel sent straight from heaven." She's a keeper, according to Kearis. She's very mellow and makes me want one that sleeps like she does. I've only heard her cry once in three days and it was more like forceful mewing than real live crying. Chad and Amy are properly proud and completely exhausted. Ah, the memories.
So there, you go. There were presents and people and fun and family and lots and lots of food. Tomorrow, Sean and I are taking two of the clan (Mimi and Jim) back to the airport and then heading to Park City for some post holiday clearance shopping. The Gymboree outlet is having a Big Red Balloon sale and you all know how I feel about that place. So happy...

Patrick and I arrived safely in Bear Lake last night. We had a great flight to SLC. There were only about a hundred people on the plane so we had our own row which helped Patrick immensely. He entertained people the whole way there, played toys on his bench, and ate his weight in fruit snacks. Of course, he fell asleep as we landed, but did promptly go back to sleep when we got to the car. My dear friend Nemesis was kind enough to pick us up so that we could go to Provo, have lunch with our friend Jamie, and visit the McCulloch family. My dad drove down from Idaho and met us there and we stopped for a short visit with our friends, the Stroms, over at Wyview. It was a lot of fun to see everyone again and be in Provo for a little while. ALSO, they have A LOT of snow! It's unreal.
In other news, while we were traveling all day, my brother Chad and his wife Amy were busy having baby Emily! I don't want to steal their fun, fun announcement, but hop on over and congratulate them if you get a chance. Hopefully they'll put pictures and details up soon! Congratulations to them!

There were even games to play while you waited in line...

Then there was this weird guy in a red suit...

He was pretty funny, I guess....

Until my mom tried to ditch me with him. That's when I had to object!

I'm having one of those trapped-in-my-own-apartment days. Patrick's sleeping has been whack all week, after he stayed up way too late Sunday night. We had friends over for a dinner night, and thought that since we hosted, the little monkey could easily go to bed on time. But, NOOOOO, did I really think that the life of the party would willingly turn in? Long story short, he stayed up till everyone left at 9 PM, we layed him in his crib as they walked out and he conked right out. No matter that I had tried to put him down no less than five times while they were over. He was hamming it up and feeding off the adult attention and NO WAY was he going to bed. Anyway, it's been an odd week and it seems to have caught up with him today. He's been totally tired but we've spent most of the day "trying" to take a nap. The last time I went in there he was throwing his binky across the crib and then lunging for it again and again and laughing hysterically. And when I say hysterical, I mean bordering on the insane. So, I did another round of sooth-the-baby, there was quite a lot of screaming when I left, but finally I'm hearing blessed silence. Thank heavens--now maybe we can go outside, or walk to the park, or something. Get me outta here! :)

Feel free to hum along to my title. Or sing. Whatever you feel is best.

A few weeks ago I blog-hopped to a cool site/blog called largerfamilies.com. I thought it was interesting reading since I grew up in MUCH larger family, especially since "larger" seems to be defined as more than three kids. I'm also fairly interested in having my own larger family one day, provided that the thrice daily high-chair battles cease soon.

It's interesting to read the contributing writer's blogs, since most of them are more experienced mommies than me, for sure, and even more experienced than you, my dear readers and friends. It's interesting and a little frightening to read about the challenges that lay down the road. However, that is not what this post is about. It's about traditions, since I just read a huge thread about all these families holiday things that they do. I love traditions, and am a firm believer that they help kids find a sense of self and feel at home in the world. Sean finds my obsession mildly amusing, especially when it finds us frantically searching for 0-3 month old Christmas jammies (for a baby obviously too young to remember anything) because I forgot to purchase them in my postpartum/mastitis induced haze last year. Albeit, I think he's on my team as far as creating lasting memories and rituals for our kids to look forward too all year, but especially at Christmas. Here are a few of my plans:

1. The St Nick's Day new pajamas--may or may not be left near shoes set out and filled with treats. We'll see.
2. The Christmas books. I have a lot but need a few more. The best idea so far is to gift wrap them all and read one every night from Dec 1-24. One mom even sewed Christmassy bags that tied to hold each book and not waste paper. Love the idea, and the anticipation. Also love reading presented as a gift. I need more books that explain the symbolism of Christmas and get at the real meaning. Also, maybe we could do the same with the Christmas movies, and unwrap those on Friday nights to watch as a family.
3. The winter Solstice party on the 21st. My mom and her friends started this after I left home. They have a soup/salad/bread potluck night, with goodies and all, and the kids write Santa one last letter with a reminder of thier little hearts desires and they light a fire, starting with the letters. My mom used to use this method, I guess to save on postage? She told us that the ashes flew to the North Pole and reassembled themselves for Santa to read.
4. Santa presents are laid out unwrapped with filled stockings, for immediate enjoyment. Even though no one is technically allowed downstairs until everyone is awake, I remember sneaking down early nearly every Christmas and that magical feeling of seeing all those presents laid out, waiting, in the glow of the tree lights. When Kearis was 4 months old, I even snuck her out of her crib to go appreciate things with me and then spent an hour trying to get her back to sleep without mom knowing I woke her up.
5. Some years, Santa managed to wrap the entire doorway with Christmas paper, requiring a battalion of little ones to rush through to the bounty. That could be fun.
6. The present unwrapping happens one at a time. We try to take turns somewhat and appreciate every item before moving on. I like the idea of designating an "elf" or a "santa"--the child who does the handing out for that year.
7. We always had the BIG dinner on Christmas Eve, and then a big special breakfast on Christmas day. The rest of the day was laying out leftovers and noshing pretty much continually, until you couldn't really tell at any given point whether you were hungry or not. This time was usually occupied playing with new gifts, playing in the snow in some way or another, and squeezing in a nap at some point.
8. I know I want a special day-after-Christmas tradition. Ice skating, or something. I hated that let-down day when I was a kid and I think if you planned a simpler, family time to transition down from the high, that would be nice.
9. I really want some kind of set Christmas Eve thing. One family I read about had a "program" that everyone just had to contribute to in some way. They could sing, they could read, whatever. That could be fun since it would change as the kids grew. There obviously needs to be a reading of Luke 2 and the "Joy To The World" DVD.
10. One family had a surprise day in the middle of December called "Cookie Hooky." They pulled the kids out of school at lunchtime, dad (and/or mom) came home from work early and they did the Christmas baking as a family. That's be fun, and since I know about the craziness that goes on at school between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wouldn't even feel too guilty about it.

That's what I have so far. The problem is that it seems like it will be forever before our kids are old enough to appreciate the fun, fun things I have planned for them. I'm sure it'll be shorter than I think. Any ideas you guys have? What did your families do that you definitely want to continue?

Against letting the boy feed himself oatmeal at 7 AM and then "forgetting" to wash the tray until noon, at which point your wife will be forced into hours of scrubbing and soaking in order to remove the cement that is old oatmeal.

"I opened and closed my shiny scissors real fast."Now I can start my years and years of practice!" I whispered very thrilled.I skipped to my bed where my stuffed animals sit. 'Cause I needed volunteers, of course."Who wants to go first?" I asked my animals. "Who wants to get their fur trimmed at my beauty shop?"My bestest elephant named Philip Johnny Bob raised his foot."I do! I do!" he said.I hugged him very tight. 'Cause that guy is always a good sport, that's why.I picked him up and put him in my beauty chair.I sat him on lots of pillows so he would be tall.Then I kept on looking and looking at his fur."Yeah, only here's the problem," I said. "Your fur is made out of softie gray velvet. And softie gray velvet is short and smoothie. And so I can't even trim you."Philip Johnny Bob did a sad sigh.I patted his head and put him back on the bed.Just then, I accidentally stepped on something.I looked on the floor.And guess what?It was my slippers that look like bunnies!"Us! Us! Trim us!" they said real squealy."Hey, yeah! 'Cause you have the beautifulest long white fur I ever even saw! And so you guys will be perfect, probably!"I quick picked them up and put them in my beauty chair. After that, I skipped all around them. And I snipped their long white fur.I singed a lovely song. It is called "Snipping, Snipping, Snipping Their Long White Fur." It was the funnest fun I ever even had. After I got done, I holded them up to the mirror so they could see theirselves. They did not smile. We're baldies," they said real soft. I did a big breath at those guys. "Yeah, only I already know you are baldies. But that is not my fault. 'Cause you kept on wiggling while I was trimming you," I said. I petted their heads very nice. "Don't worry," I whispered. " 'Cause bunny fur probably grows back, probably. I'm almost positive, sort of." Then I hugged them real gentle. And I throwed them under my bed. 'Cause I didn't want Mother and Daddy might see them, that's why. After that, I got in bed and did a sigh. This job was going to take more practice than I thought. "

I just had to call my office manager and the police due to a nasty domestic dispute happening next door. Can't a girl just clean her bathroom in peace anymore? I was actually quite annoyed by the noise, worried that Patrick was going to wake up from his nap early, and a bit startled, since we've never heard any of our neighbors before. Only then I realized that the screaming and swearing were escalating, someone threatened to kill someone, there were a series of heavy thuds and then lots of crying noises. And that's when I thought, "That's it. We have to move. Only first I'm calling some people to take care of this mess." So I called the office manager. And even though he promised to head right over there, I called the police as well, just for good measure. Things got quiet and then about an hour later loud music started blasting through the wall, along with the sounds of someone vomiting, forcefully and repeatedly. Fun. And even though I gripe about our apartment, it's really not that bad and things like this just shouldn't be happening.