Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Holidays

Ok, I do know it's been a while. As usual, things are just getting out of hand crazy-busy here. I only get to work in the evenings, after Mark is in bed. So that's what I do. Then at the end of my very long day, I'm way too tired to even think about writing a quick post, much less about uploading pictures (takes too long). Besides, we don't even take that many pictures any longer.


But of course, with all the holidays, we got some nice pictures. First there was a party at Mark's day care. If you don't know, it's a small at-home daycare and all the children there speak Russian. They had a giant Christmas tree nicely decorated with hand-made ornaments. There was a puppet theater, lots of crafts, a small tree for kids to decorate, and even appearance by Снегурочка and her favorite северный олень.
Mark didn't care much for most of it though because right away he got to a big red choo-choo train that was set out under the tree. He ended up playing with that train for most of the party.
Then there was Hannukah. We went to a special Hannukah story-time at a local Barnes&Noble where a rabbi told the kids a Hannukah story about a boy making latkes. The story was fun, but the best part of it was that rabbi Aaron juggled through it. Hard to explain, but it was really great. Next year (yes, he does it every year) I'll be taking a video.
Mark's gift for Hannukah was a big Melissa & Doug easel from Grandma and Grandpa. Mark helped Chris put it together. Boy, he absolutely loves his easel now and finally draws with crayons (and chalk). We're going to do some painting soon as well.
Then, of course, was Christmas. Mark helped Chris make some gingerbread man cookies. He's really good at mixing things up. Sure, he's got plenty of practice helping me make his most favorite food of the moment - muffins. Every day he asks for more muffins. He actually learned to pull up a step-stool to the counter and climb it to get to the muffin tin.
Ok, back to Christmas. Lots of gifts. Mark's got a big pop-up book about trains which he now wants to read 5 times in a row, every day. That was a gift from Great Grandma Phillys. He also got a Thomas the Train book with lots of buttons that make train sounds. Plus Mark has a set of 4 minibooks about Thomas from his Grandpa Ron. And Mark got a pig from Word World (he loves watching Word World and Pig and Dog are his two most favorite characters).
Then on the last day of Hannukah Mark got a little green train from Thomas the Train set, Percy. Mark's been carrying it around with him ever since and quickly learned the train's name. Oh, and for the New Year's gift, Mark is getting a couple of DVDs with Thomas the Train cartoons.