A puppet show in the puppet show thing Emily and Mike got Art.

Unwrapping a horse from Bubbe.

post sledding with Mama.

a few tiny videos taken with my pops digital camera.

This just in from Jessica who’s home with the kids cooking a dish to contribute to our 20+ person christmas gathering tonight at our Aunt and Uncle’s house in St. Paul. (I’m working a short christmas shift):
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Oh my f%cking god. That’s all I could say while i piled the ingredients into the giant blue bowl for my spinach dish.
Four cups of cream?
Four cups of milk?
Two cups of wine?
EIGHT BOXES OF FROZEN SPINACH!
TWELVE EGGS!!
FIVE CUPS OF CHEESE!!!

You will NOT be embarrassed about us skimping on our contribution. Not at all.

Evva came over to play today.

watching the Nutcracker.

Art and Evva (not sure who’s who) wear a couple pairs of stretchy pants.

post sledding cocoa. photo by jess.

Barely past 5:30am. Art calls out that his clothes are wet. Go in there and he wants to be awake. No way. Told him it’s too early and he started angry crying. Not feeling compassionate. Went back to bed. Told Ben I’m super irritable. Can’t deal with Art right then. Hear Lewis cooing and likely gleefully touching whatever he can reach. Got more irritable. Can’t tell Lewis it’s too early. Told Ben I have a sore neck. Wake up every morning with this stupid sore neck. So sick of it. Lewis is making those airy, super-happy sounds in his room. Ben says it’s just another reason he’s glad he’s not me. “Fucking sore neck and a piece of shit baby.” We laughed super hard. I didn’t know you could laugh like that before 6 o’clock.

a gift from Bubbe.

Art and I had a great time in NC, but the trip back was less than perfect. Summarized, we missed our first flight and waited in line more than TWO hours to be rebooked the following day. Many flights had been canceled due to snow, so Art and I waited in line with lots of unhappy, unpleasant people. I quickly realized my singular task was to entertain and occupy Art (luckily I had the help of clown). We read books, danced, spun in circles to get dizzy, rolled a little car back and forth. I was a performance Papa. We ended up staying an extra day in NC which was fun, and we were rebooked on a direct flight and upgraded to first class! That was especially fun for us commoners.

I had our neighbor in line take this setup photo of Art and I finally making it to the ticket counter.

Art eats his favorite, sausage, as we flew home in the spacious first class (we boarded last so we could avoid shaming the commoners who had to march past to the rear). Although one bad thing about first class: you can’t lift up the middle part to extend the seats into one bed (like coach). So Art ended up sleeping on me leaving his seat empty part of the trip.

Just stealing away here to announce that Lewis now moves!  He will drag his body along the floor slowly, very slowly, and get whatever it is he was interested in.  Often it's a shoe or a box.  Or the plug of an unplugged lamp.  How do they know that's dangerous?