As soon as we got back to Larchmont after Christmas, Blaine got to work on his lego police station.  I think the set included 11 bags!

On 12/29 we took a break from the legos to go to the kids’ first movie theater experience, Ferdinand at the New Roc City theater.  I was amazed at how cushy a standard movie theater has become.

By 12/31, with only a little bit of help, Blaine had finished the police station!

We spent Christmas in PA with the Mahoneys.  We drove down on the 23rd and the kids got to work helping Uncle Fran set the table for a family dinner with Mom-Mom, Aunt Molly, Uncle Fran, Uncle Tim, Aunt Liz, and Josie, plus our four.  We were so sad to find out that Aunt Jane was sick, and wasn’t able to make it up for Christmas this year.

It did not take long for the kids to discover that Mom-Mom had the old pinball machine repaired – “Rock”, from 1985 I believe?  I think this was the kids’ first pinball experience.

Later, Uncle Fran read “The Night Before Christmas” to his nieces and nephew.

And Sarah played with Uncle Tim, with the California Raisins playing in the background.  A holiday classic.

That night we also took the Christmas card photo and decorated the tree.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and all the Mahoney relatives gathered for the traditional bowling, luncheon, and gift grab.  In addition to those already listed, we were joined by the Hank Mahoneys (Hank, Jean, Kate, Jesse, and new 2nd cousin Gus, Sean, Clare, and Moira), and the Peter Mahoneys (Peter, Jane, and Daniel).  Aunt Jane was sorely missed.

Daddy left bowling early to go back to Ingeborg Road and prepare a delicious lunch of filet mignon with mushroom risotto.  He also prepared a delicious Bernaise sauce for the first time ever!

After lunch we were joined by Gus, who’d woken up from a 3-hour nap!  And we had the Mahoney gift grab.  Blaine insisted on helping open almost every gift.

Then it was time for dessert.

The next morning the kids slept in reasonably late and then hurried downstairs to see if Santa had found them.  He had!

Sarah was confused about her present from Santa, until she remembered that she had, in fact, requested a “stuffed triceratops.”

Blaine was pretty excited about his remote control fire truck.

We had some yummy quiche that Daddy made, and then tore through the rest of the presents!

I don’t know I managed to miss taking any other photos from Christmas Day dinner, but there were 32 place settings, I believe.  Let’s see… Mom, Mol, our 4, Tim, Liz, Josie, Fran, Alexis, Uncle Peter (12).  Then Uncle Tom, Aunt Sue, Aunt Mary K, Uncle John, Megan, Ed, Uncle Rich, Aunt Betsy, Stephen, James, Kathleen, Pete, Paul, Theresa, Kevin.  Only gets me to 27!  I know we were missing Aunt Jane and Brian.  We did get Maureen, Anthony, Rafe, and Maren for dessert so maybe that rounds it out.   Andrew made a turkey and Uncle Tom made another turkey and everyone brought many delicious sides and desserts.

The next day, Andrew took an early train back to NY for work.  Tim and Liz had off, so we hung out at Ingeborg Road in the morning and spent some brief time in the yard (it was cold!).

We had a really peaceful evening eating leftovers and playing the freshly tuned piano.  I was pleased to discover my meager two years of lessons have not entirely left me.

The next day was a bit of a fiasco… we tried to go to the Franklin Institute (to see the giant heart!  Blaine is a magic schoolbus fan) but the parking lot was full, and it was freezing, and there was no street parking nearby.  So, we abandoned that plan, much to Blaine’s chagrin.  We started driving in the general direction of all the historical sites, and ended up settling on the Benjamin Franklin Museum.  I recalled being there years ago with Andrew, and in particular a hilariously cheesy room where you could talk to historical figures on various phones.  Alas, the park ranger told us that was long defunct and the museum had been totally revamped only a few years prior.  It was pretty neat, with lots of screens for the kids to enjoy and even one phone-like exhibit that they were glued to.  It was small, contained, warm, and not crowded.  So, not a bad result after all.

We did feel bad about dragging Molly along, so we went out for lunch.

Then we all relaxed for the afternoon, and then we went out for dinner at Aronimink!  Thanks, Mom!

Thursday morning we headed back to NY.  Thanks so much to Mom and Mol for a wonderful Christmas!

Here are all the photos from December leading up to Christmas.  Sarah got an awesome new pair of panda earmuffs from our friend Elizabeth.

We also had a lot of developments on the home decor front — our new (red!) couch arrived for the living room, and we finally got the downstairs painted.

After the painting was finished we went out to get our Christmas tree, in the middle of the first snowfall of the season.  Sarah decided she needed to use the bathroom, which meant that Daddy and Blaine took over on picking the tree.

Later that day, during Sarah’s nap, Blaine and I built a mini-snowman which Blaine decided was a “Snow Baby”.

Sarah enjoyed dressing up in Blaine’s old Halloween costume and flying around the house.

The next day, the 10th, we decorated!  Sarah helped me put up the Christmas lights and garland on the front of the house.

Daddy got the tree all set up and the kids helped to decorate.

Here’s Blaine filling the advent calendar train from Gram with some adorable little stamps.  I’m also including it because it shows off our new paint colors — a taupe color called “cedar key” in the living room, and a deep blue called “phillipsburg blue” in the dining room and the stairs.  We used a light grey/pewter color for the kitchen/family room.

Later that week, more hot chocolate!

I went out for drinks one night with some friends, and upon returning home that night spotted what appeared to be a lone, young looking coyote, run down our street and then down our driveway.  The next morning I took pics of some tracks in some undisturbed snow beside the garage.  I have no idea – maybe it was a stray dog or something – but there have been coyote sightings nearby.

Sarah was invited to a 4th birthday party with music and dancing, even a limbo competition (though Sarah declined to participate).  I’m recalling now that as of this party Sarah was on a 5-day no-napping streak.  She’s since gone back and forth, napping some days and not on others.  I’m very, very sad to see the nap starting to go.

The kids both adored opening their Lindt advent calendars each day.  Thanks, Gram!

Lastly, here’s a pic from a holiday party in Blaine’s Kindergarten class, celebrating literacy.  Blaine made a really cool book about things we like to do as a family, and did all the writing and illustrating.