Da-Who Dorays

We have had a very sweet Christmas although I was without my laptop just before Christmas which made communication difficult. I was attacked by some spywear which needed to be cleaned out. I gave it to the professionals and all is well now.

Julia had a wonderful Christmas. Marcia and Matthew spent Christmas with us, and we all decorated the tree, watched Christmas movies and sang Christmas songs. Julia loved helping me cook and talking to Cheshire (who spent Christmas with Jason and his family in the north of England). Julia and Matthew set out milk cookies and fruit, plus a carrot for the reindeer, for Santa and both of them were very good about going to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was exciting but Julia still doesn't know that she is supposed to be up and ready to go downstairs before the sun rises. Matthew does. Once Julia got downstairs, though, she was amazed by the presents under the tree and stuffed into her stocking. Before she tore into the piles she insisted that we join hands and sing Da-Who Dorays, the Whos' Christmas song from the Grinch story. None of us know the words but it's a good song to make it up as you go along. LOL.

We opened presents one at a time, as is our custom, with each present admired and examined and sometimes played with for awhile before moving on. Julia got a new family and furniture for her doll house, a Bitty Baby (regifted from when we first met her and the moving eyes freaked her out) and lots of clothes (which fit at least 3 of her dolls), a Sesame Street boat for the tub, books, puzzles, a few wind up toys and weebles. She loved them all. The cosy sweat suit that Santa brought and the night gown that Babja sent were opened and appreciated, but not as much as the toys.

Marcia and Matthew went home the day after Christmas and now it is just Julia and I until Cheshire comes home after the New Year. We are going to spend time working on numbers and having pretty directed days -- I started with a list yesterday that we checked frequently during the day and crossed off tasks that we accomplished. There were a few trips to the naughty chair and some stubborn refusal to do what we had decided (and Julia did have a hand in deciding what to do). Every day will have some numbers work and yesterday we did the number 2. We counted two of things, made a 2's parade, talked about the 2s on our bodies, and found 2 of food we eat. Today, we will work on 4. We've already counted 4 eggs, and 4 yokes.

I'll try to write more about this planned day later. Now, I have to shovel snow. Yes, more snow, and more and more coming today.