I never thought I'd see the day: our sweet, little Matthew's got a very devious streak! I watched in horror (OK, total amusement) as Matthew set our laundry basket hamper on its side and said, as if calling a dog, "Here, Zachy. Crawl into here. It'll be fun." Then, to really bribe his brother, Matthew had the adeptness to chuck ALL of Zachary's baby toys that were out on the floor INTO the hamper basket to truly entice him. I put an end to the charade at that point.

Christmas has come and gone. We had a great day, though as always I greet the post-Holiday season with a mixture of relief and sadness. I'll be glad to have life settle down a bit and get back into a routine (and on top of the laundry situation-- how dare I take a vacation from clothes-washing!), although I'm always bummed when Christmas is over. I HATE the taking-down of Christmas decorations; the house looks so naked (and yet uncluttered and cleaner) once everything is back to normal. They say that the holidays is the number one time of year for people to be depressed, but for me, it's the post-holidays that get me down. And very sadly, we have another reason to feel a little bit down this year. Yesterday, December 26th, we had to put our beloved Christmas kitty, Mistletoe to sleep. I can't get over the irony that our last day with her was Christmas Day (our 7th with her). Neither Mike nor I have ever had to put an animal down -- it's obviously a hard decision to make and an unbelievably sad thing to experience. But it was very evident that she was ailing quickly. She stopped eating, could hardly walk, couldn't jump up on the bed and she didn't purr anymore. It was time to put her out of her misery. We both felt guilty for not being able to give her more attention the last couple of years, and sadly, some of the attention that she did get was toddler attention -- not always the most feline-friendly, gentle lovin'. But alas, we all loved her and will miss her. We know that she's in a much better place -- Matthew thinks that she'll be very happy in Kitty Heaven, and we quite agree.

Well, there go my potty breaks as my only quality alone time of the day. Now I don't even get those! Zach is a mobile baby unit. He decided after days of frustration trying to do the 'traditional' crawl (i.e. on knees), that he'd fore-go it and stick with his more successful -- and very speedy -- army-boot-camp-commando-scoot-on-the-tummy method. And man! is the kid ever quick! I turned my back for a few seconds, and next time I looked at him, Zachary was playing with the outlet and plug for the lamp. Oye. He also knows what he wants and is no sucker for the tom-foolery of distraction. He'd much rather have one of Matthew's big boy toys than an old baby toy. So much for potty breaks. So much for a little peace of mind.

And of course, no surprise here, it's two days until Christmas and we have colds. 'Cuz, you know, Thanksgiving wasn't even a month ago yet and we were sick for that holiday, so why not do it again?! Grrr.

It's sad, really. I just feel a little bit disconnected from the world when our internet is down. What, pray tell, did stay-at-home Moms do PRE-world of wide web?! Our cable (as well as our power) has continued to be a bit spotty since [TO BE READ IN THE MOVIE TRAILER DEEP MAN'S VOICE] WIND STORM 2006. Thankfully, despite freaking us out a bit every time the light's flicker, the power's not gone back off for good.

And another sad confession: it is 5 o'clock in the morning here, and while I was just up changing Zach's diaper and feeding him I couldn't stop composing blogs in my head. So, I thought I better come see if we were back on-line so I could type this up, get it out of my system and head back to bed for hopefully a couple more hours of sleep! That, and I'm still on such a high from the soon-t0-be-told experience, that I just couldn't wait to write about it.

On, Sunday afternoon we all went Christmas caroling at a nursing home in Seattle with several other of our friends from Engaged Encounter. It was amazing. I wore Zach in the front-pack while Matthew walked up and down the halls with our group for nearly two hours. Not only did the boys tag along but, of course, they totally stole the show. Matthew carried a shaker in one hand and one of my jingle bell bracelets from music class in the other and kept a steady beat the WHOLE time. At one point, Sister Beatrice (of our group) had given a resident (a dapper, older -- well, OK, they're all older -- fellow) a maraca to shake along with us. He came up with a fancier rhythm (not too crazy -- but something like: shake, shake, rest, rest...shake, shake, rest, rest). Matthew immediately picked up on it, and the two continued that way for the whole song. So, while Matthew was focused on being the heartbeat of our group (he really was very focused -- didn't smile much but delighted the residents with his percussion-skills none-the-less), Zachary was focused on being the heart-melter of the group. I finally had to take him out of the front-pack and let some others in our group carry him because I couldn't sing whilst wearing him for two reasons. One: Any time we'd stop to let a resident see him up close (and they'd tickle his feet and chat to him or whatever), he'd be kicking and leaping so much it was hard for me to sing. And Two: Any time we'd stop to let a resident see him up close I'd get so choked up with how happy he was making them that I couldn't sing!
It was an amazing experience and definitely made us full of Holiday cheer!

We have not blown away -- though it sure did seem like a possibility. The winds whipped up to about 60 miles an hour in our area on Thursday night (so reported the news). Our electricity flickered on and off all evening but was still on when we went to bed. The wind was howling, shaking the house and rattling the windows. I had just said to Mike, "I'm a little nervous...about the trees in back," when THUMP! (and I JUMPED about a foot) -- a tree grazed the house on its way down. We immediately got out of bed and moved the boys into the family room downstairs. Looking out our upstairs window we watched nervously as a tree behind the neighbor's house across the street kept lighting up as it blew into power lines. (We called the fire department though we never saw them show up, and thankfully, we lost power before the tree really caught on fire). A HUGE tree fell across the road two houses down from us, so that part of the street was blocked for several hours (though the neighbors got out there pretty fast to take care of things). First thing in the morning I went out to make sure that my brother Chris was alright (he was home alone since my parents were staying at a B & B in snowy Leavenworth -- they got a foot of snow dumped on them while they were there). I found myself trying to get dressed in the dark and thinking, "hmmm, what does one where on a rescue mission?" We were all worried about Chris since he REALLY gets nervous during storms especially when the power goes out. After trekking up to Bellevue (which was treacherous as there were downed trees and power lines -- and therefore roads closed -- everywhere), I walked into my parents' condo only to discover that Chris wasn't there. I had a moment of serious panic until I got a hold of someone at the grocery store and they said, "oh yeah, he called in and said he'd be a little late, but he's on his way to work." So here we'd all been worried for nothing. Chris had just gone to bed (and he's the heaviest sleeper I know though Matthew might give him some competition), slept a little late since his alarm didn't go off, and got himself out the door as always. What a guy!

Anyway, in the end we were without power for less than 24 hours (after hearing to expect up to 8 days of darkness!). We're SO thankful to have power and to have the reminder to stock up on supplies in case of longer, more serious natural disasters. The blackout also provided a good excuse to eat a fair amount of ice cream.

So, the Mistletoe, our cat, does not have an STD -- which is sure is a good thing 'cuz if she did, Mistletoe the Catholic Christmas Kitty would have a heck of a lot of explaining to do -- especially since she hasn't been outside...ever. At the vet today we were informed that she doesn't have AIDS, but it is very likely that she has Cancer. We're back on the force-feeding regiment for a while, but if she doesn't get better and stay better than in all likelihood this will be our last Christmas with Mistletoe. She's not old (only 6), but she is a Martin, so I guess there's no surprise that she has to have some unique medical issues. She's been such a good kitty (despite peeing on my wedding dress and my being allergic to her which isn't her fault), and it'll be hard when we do have to say goodbye.