merry frickin' christmas

I love Christmas, although the title says otherwise. I felt this title adequately describes this photo. It seems that the girls, and Santa too, didn't want to have their photo taken. Oh, someday I'll have one of those picturesque Santa photos to be proud of.

So, I didn't send out a Christmas family newsletter. I just have too much do! Come on people, the last time I updated our blog was on the 7th. Gees! How does anyone keep up? Enjoy the blog 'cause that's the closest you'll get to a Hadley newsletter!

Ella and I went to Nutcracker a couple weeks ago. I can't believe this barely 3-year-old sat through and LOVED the entire thing! I thought she'd get bored through the serious ballet moments, but I'd have to say those were probably her favorite parts. She did get mad because she couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her go down and dance too. At the beginning of Act II when the pageboys were dancing she turned to me and said, "where are the ballerinas?" I said, "those are ballerinas. They're just wearing pants." She was so mad. "I want the ballerinas in tu-tus!" Precious.

We had Ella's birthday party a couple weeks ago. She planned her party:
denise: Do you want to go somewhere fun for your birthday like the aquarium or the Treehouse?
ella: No, I want to stay home
d: What kind of birthday do you want? [I thought for sure she'd say a princess birthday]
e: a yellow one
d: Do you want to play games at your party?
e: No. I just want to play with kids.
d: What do you want to eat?
e: cupcakes
And then she proceeds to tell me she needs a yellow dress for her party. So there you have it. Ella knew what she wanted! Eva ended up getting sick so we moved the party to McDonalds (Miss Donalds, as Ella says). But she loved her party. She had so much fun. She scored on all the princess gifts. Jason and I gave her a construction vehicle set just to offset the girliness!

And Eva walks everywhere! No more crawling for this girl. And she's so proud of herself too. Just this morning she reached up to the table when I wasn't looking and dumped my granola all over the floor. When I saw what she had done she gave me the biggest smile, as if to say, "Look mom! I'm big enough to reach on the table!"

Since it's been so long since I've written, Eva has said her first word: Duck. She said it last month. She knows the duck says, "kak, kak" and she knows the monkey says "ooo ooo." I love these moments!

Eva loves our Christmas tree. She's surprisingly gentle with it. She'll just sit on the couch, staring at it, and say "ooh" and then a bunch of babble that makes me wish I understood!

Jason works and studies, works and studies, works and studies...... He works so hard and I can't imagine what a harder residency would be like. I thought this residency was supposed to be one of the best, for crying out loud! I think his favorite time of the day is when he gets home in time to kiss the girls goodnight. Ella runs into his arms and covers him with hugs and kisses. Eva reaches her arms up as high as she can and giggles until he picks her up. Completely priceless moments, in my mind.

And me, well, I'm freakin' busy. This month, between all the Christmas shopping, a week of sick kids, and my two jobs, I've been stretched pretty thin. Of course, I have to make things even more complicated by giving some really time-intensive gifts. (I can't mention what they are considering they're for some people who read this!) All-in-all, I am quite happy with my life, my family, and myself.

After my second job ends mid-January, I'm taking up running again. My boss has been an inspiration to me. He just ran his 49th marathon a few weeks ago and said the company would pay for any marathon I enter. So I guess that's a goal of mine this year. Since I've let myself get so busy my body will be starting at ground zero. It'll take time.

Have a merry Christmas, happy hanukkah, and a fabulous new year!