Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This year, we spent Christmas 'just the 3 of us' at home in Swampscott, having decided to do our travelling for Thanksgiving instead. It felt a bit unusual to Mama and Dada - Mama having spent most Christmases with cousins galore and Dada remembering several travelling holidays (Mexico, Hawaii, etc.). But for Caden, Christmas was all about Santa, Reindeer, presents, Christmas trees, and wishing for a fire truck! We enjoyed some fun holiday gatherings, including Chinese food at the lab, brunch at Caden's school, game night at our house, lunch with Eric and Jackie (who were visiting from BML) on the 24th, and a fun open house/party at our neighbors that kept us up late on Christmas Eve.

We awoke to a bright, sunny Christmas morning - with just a bit of snow on the ground leftover from the previous weekend's storm. We spent a leisurely morning, opening stockings and presents and having our traditional cinnamon rolls, omelette, and OJ. There were enough presents under the tree to keep us busy opening all day on Christmas and even into the 26th! Among the many wonderful gifts were play food...

...2 fire trucks (Santa must have gotten the message!) and a school bus...
...the hilarious laughing bear from Great Grammy and Grandpa...

...and the most creative gift we have ever seen: a book made by Auntie Misty that uses actual pictures of Caden to tell 2 stories - one about Caden the Great (a pirate story) and one about Caden the Farmer. In the pirate story, with his trusty sidekick, Jerry the Jolly (Uncle Jerry), Caden sails off to find a suitable gift for the Queen, taming oysters out of their pearls and singing (child-friendly) pirate songs en route. We all so appreciated the gifts and packages that family sent to us!!

Around lunchtime, we went for a walk along the Swampscott waterfront. The sun made it nice and warm (for December - note: no gloves!) but it was super windy. We collected lots of fun shells and even found a shark egg in the wrack.

We ended the day with a Skype video chat with Ama, Adad, Auntie Sally, Uncle Jerry, and Auntie Misty and had a great time sporting our new outfits and gifts and giving them their first (all except Ama) tour of the house as we walked the computer around.

Caden didn't have school all of the next week, so we both spent most of the week working short hours from home. Caden came down with a fever/cold/cough/ear infection/pink eye, so was under the weather part of that time. Here we are administering tea and vit C-rich popsicles!

Fortunately, Caden was pretty recovered by New Years, when we visited Mark and Anne in Vermont for 2 nights. We hadn't been there since a year before, so this was our first visit to their new home - a ~1830s farmhouse in Poultney, just down the road from where they work at Green Mountain College. Temperatures were around 5oF the whole time we were there, so we spent most of the time inside. Caden was in awe of Mark's guitar so, since we'd brought his new harmonica, he and Mark had a little jam session.

We spent New Year's Eve at a party with several of Mark and Anne's friends and all had a great time. Caden even fell asleep in their spare room, letting Mama and Dada stay out until after the midnight champagne.

Since the 1st, we've been getting back into a routine. Dada is teaching on campus in Boston on Tuesday and Fridays, and we switched Caden's schedule so he is now at school Tues-Fri and home with Mama on Mondays. Since the 1st, Caden has been diaper-free, except at night, so that's a big milestone! Happy New Year, all!