Christmas with 4 blonde Bobs and a Bald Baby.

During the Holiday season, we get together with my family and have a nice dinner, followed by an "Airing of Grievances," in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year, we reenact the nativity while someone reads from the Bible, exchange gifts, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned and we also play "the envelope game".
My dad fills as many envelopes as there are people with different amounts of money and everybody starts with an envelope. My mother reads "Twas the night before Christmas" and every time she reads the word "ALL" we pass the envelope to the person on our right. Every time she reads the word "THE" we pass the envelope left. When the story is done, we open our envelope and get between $5 and $100. #3 was the big winner this year. That will buy a lot of HELLO KITTY lip gloss.
Christmas morning, the girls didn't wake up until 7:45. We made them take a bath and then they went down stairs one at a time to see if Santa brought them any presents.
Then we went to the in-laws and opened more presents.


It was the best Christmas ever.

{SPOILER} Party with Santa {SPOILER}

Parents may or may not want to filter this post from theirs kids.(Ashley)
The Doctor finally, finally finished his degree in storytelling.
With that, he and my dad went back to his commencement and got stuck in weather and airports and did not make it back, so we had Nanny over for Sunday brunch.
That evening we went and had a family party with Nanny's side and we were visited by a bearded man in a red suit.

Uncle Luke: "Hey Bunny, did you bring a present for Santa to give to Clare?"
My 6 year old #2 standing nearby and overhearing everything: "Oh, so that's how it works"

Thanks Luke!

After the party, we had to pull #1 and #2 aside and inform them that the real Santa was very busy this time of year trying to make it to lots of parties and finishing up with toys and things and could not make it to our party, so a neighbor dressed up and came to the party for us. We assured them that the real Santa would make it to our house on Christmas Eve.

#2 told me she could tell it wasn't the real Santa because he had to pull his beard up a couple times.

I guess we deserve this since we have been busy and up late the last couple nights and the tooth fairy has bypassed our house for 2 nights in a row.

Still, I can't wait to tell Lukes daughter how babies are made.

#2, #3 and cousin Nitnee observing the chaos

I did it. I whole post without mention of a bike.

Piano Recital

We finally got some good cyclocross weather, and instead of racing in the snow, we spent our saturday morning at #1 and #2's first piano recital. They both did a great job and i was very proud. It drives #1 crazy when #2 starts playing her songs....by ear. They have both picked it up quickly and are doing great.
It is a unique experience to have daughters that fight about who's turn it is to practice the piano.
they love to play and at times i wish there was a volume control on the piano.
When i was young, one of my sibling carved "I HATE PIANO" into the piano. I love to play now but as a 10 year old, it was almost as bad as weeding the garden.

It has been a week now since i have ridden a bike and i might be going through withdrawals. I find myself a bit more on edge and yelling at the kids more. And not the good kind of yelling, like; "GOOD JOB! KICK THE BALL HARDER! FOCUS! C'MON, GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME! LET'S GO TEAM!"
It has been more along the lines of, "IF I HEAR YOU SING RUDOLPH ONE MORE TIME I WILL GIVE YOU A RED NOSE! THE ELVES ARE WATCHING YOU RIGHT NOW AND THEY CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE BUGGING ME SO KNOCK IT OFF!"
The whole elves watching you all the time trick backfired on us a few years ago when we first tried it on #1. She became afraid of bathing or going to the bathroom because she thought the elves were going to see her naked. We had to explain that they were not Peeping Tom, pedophile, midgets and that they were Santa's helpers and didn't look into bathrooms.
Since i have not been riding my bike, i have been making up for all of the extra time i have had by eating homemade cookies. It is a lot easier than racing a bike and almost as rewarding.
With bike racing, i have to push my body to new limits and even though my legs and lungs and heart are all screaming at me to stop, there is some small part in the back of my brain that is over-riding every other impulse and has me pushing myself to go a little harder, and dig a little deeper to try and catch that guy in front of me and pass him.
With eating homemade cookies, it is very similar. A big part of it is mental, but the physical comes into play a lot as well. I look at a plate of cookies and i think "i couldn't possibly eat that whole plate of cookies by myself". But then i get going, and i think to myself "damn these are good" and i keep eating. My stomach is full and i don't need the nourishment, but there is some small part in the back of my brain that is over-riding every other impulse to stop eating and has me pushing myself to go a little harder, and dig a little deeper to try to finish the whole plate. And then i do, and i am sick for hours afterwards, but i have a sense of accomplishment. That was not something that everyone could do, or should do, but i did it, and i feel a sense of pride and naseau.

CX season comes to a close

Another biking season is in the books, which means we are in the middle of the holiday celebrations.
I was hoping my mustache would intimidate the other racers but it didn't. It is hard to pull off this kind of mustache while wearing spandex.
#1 decided that she would rather go to my family christmas party Saturday morning than come and race in 30 degree temps. My throat is still sore 4 days later. I think she made the right choice.
I knew i wouldn't be riding my bike for a few weeks and when i did get back on a bike, it would be real easy miles for a few months. With this in mind, i raced my regular race then raced again an hour later in the Pro class, just so i wouldn't be mad that the season was over. It worked, i am ready to be off for a bit. I had 2 goals with the Pro race. The first was not to get lapped by the winner and my second goal was to not take last place. I didn't take last place.

Thanksgiving Weekend

The weekend was nice and we spent lots of time with family and friends being grateful for what life has given us.
I drilled a hole in the middle of the Tofurky and filled it with stuffing. Incidentally, it is difficult to make a good, thick gravy from Tofurky stock.
#4 learned to sit up and roll over this weekend. All of those core strengthening excercizes are really paying off. I have heard of some babies not sitting up until they are over 6 months old and i just think that is sad. I know the pediatricians and baby books say that sort of thing doesn't really matter, but they are lying. It is a direct reflection of the parents.

#1 won another CX race and there is a movie of her riding below. She dresses herself. I have nothing to do with that outfit. She also picked the song that i put with the video. I tried to get her to wear long sleeves but she wouldn't. Maybe they would have messed up her outfit.