Here are my random shots from January.  Sarah was getting into hedgehogs, thanks to this adorable puppet from Uncle Peter, and a cute dress from Aunt Jody.  She even happened to wear it to school on the day the class got a visit from a real hedgehog!

But… her favorite still remains pandas.  Can you count all the pandas in this picture?

The answer is 6!  Too bad she wasn’t also wearing her panda socks, panda bib, and panda backpack.

Sarah started drinking from a “big girl cup” this month, and was pretty proud of herself.  I suspect she’d already been doing it at school, but we’ve been pretty careful/lazy at home.

We had a few birthday parties this month, all at My Gym!

Blaine combed his own hair after this bath.

We also focused on some home repairs this month.  We had a dryer vent company clean out the vent which has made our dryer so much more efficient!  The kids love this pic of the giant vacuum.  We had some other appliance work done, and we had an electrician install some new outlets.  Hooray!

We got a little bit of snow in January and broke out the snowpants.  The snow was too fluffy for making a snowman, I recall, but Blaine successfully made some snow angels.  Then we had some yummy hot cocoa sticks made by Blaine and Sarah’s friends, Michaella and Austin.

On 1/2, the whole family made it out to the Bronx Botanical Gardens for the holiday train show, plus Thomas & Friends.  The kids were so excited to have Daddy along this year.  We got there early and got some prime seats.

Blaine was thrilled when Thomas arrived!

Then it was on to the train show!

This fanciful display at the end was new this year and included rides from Coney Island and Lucy the Margate Elephant.

We had a great time, and Sarah has been asking to see Thomas again ever since.

We celebrated the new year with the traditional black eyed peas and collard greens.  Well, black eyed peas and kale (all the stores in our area were sold out of collard greens!).  And “whole chicken”, which is one of Sarah’s favorite meals.

The day after Christmas was pretty low-key.  The kids played with Aunt Jane.

And then played some more outside, with Uncle Tim.

Did some reading with Mom-Mom.

And we ate leftovers.  Well, we actually ran out of leftovers that night!  Here’s the last of it, all drenched in mustard for Aunt Molly’s dinner.  We had enough for her and the kids, so Mom-Mom, Aunt Jane and I ordered Chinese takeout.

The next day (12/27), Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly took us to the Please Touch Museum.

The kids were excited for the carousel!  But then no one wanted to ride on a horse, just on the bench.  I tried to talk the kids into it by showing them how it was done, but to no avail.

Here’s Sarah driving the boat that the kids loved so much last year.  Alas, the sound and movement were broken.

Sarah loved the grocery store section; meanwhile, Blaine was off with Mom-Mom enjoying the construction site area.

Here’s Sarah driving a sick boy to the hospital in an ambulance.

After the museum we went out to lunch at the new pizza place in Wynnewood.

Later that night, Sarah and Mom-Mom practiced balancing these shape sorters on their heads.  And then Sarah tackled Mom-Mom.

The next day we drove back to NY.  Our trip was slower this time due to some traffic, one stop for gas, and then another stop for Blaine to use the bathroom.  We were so close to home we combined that stop with picking up lunch (Shake Shack).  Here’s Sarah enjoying her hot dog starting from the middle.

The 29th was pretty quiet at home, here are the kids enjoying their new Paw Patrol puzzles from Mom-Mom.

And on the 30th we went to the Bronx Zoo to see the Madagascar exhibit.

We also rode the bug carousel for the first time… once again the kids chose not to ride the actual bugs.  They just wanted to ride on the bench.

Twice!  Oh well, maybe next time I’ll coax one of them into riding an actual carousel horse/bug.

We spent Christmas this year in Wynnewood, seeing all the Mahoneys.  I drove the kids down on the morning of 12/23, and Daddy followed on the train in time for dinner.  Uncle Tim and Aunt Liz were able to join us, which meant we got to meet Josie for the first time!  What a cutie.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and time for the traditional Mahoney bowling, lunch, and gift grab.  Here are the kids having some pre-bowling fun with Uncle Fran and Alexis, who’d arrived from Alexandria late the previous night.

And here are all the bowling shots!  Blaine and Sarah both enjoyed using the ramp, and Sarah enjoyed the slippery floors.  The kids also tried air hockey for the first time.  We took some group shots but I don’t have any right now — the crowd included us (4), Mom-Mom, Aunt Molly, Uncle Fran, Alexis, Uncle Tim, Aunt Liz, Josie, Aunt Jane, Uncle Peter, Janer, Daniel, Uncle Hank, Aunt Jean, Kate, Jesse, Sean, Clare, and Moira.

The Wayne Mahoneys hosted for lunch this year, and though Sarah and Blaine didn’t participate in the gift grab they were given some very special presents, including a new panda for Sarah!  He has joined the ranks with her other two pandas, so now they are a trio.  This one she often refers to as “angry panda”.

The kids sat with Clare and Moira for the lunch.

And then we had the gift grab!  I ended up with that Santa food package thing below, and Andrew got a glow-in-the-dark racetrack which the kids love.

That evening, Uncle Fran and Alexis worked on decorating the Christmas tree!  Here’s Fran with one of the oldest ornaments that Doc always used to hang deep in the tree where we kids couldn’t break it.

Christmas morning!  Blaine was so cute, he was clearly thrilled and was yelling, “He came!  St. Nicholas came!”

Blaine had asked Santa for “a fire truck with a ladder and a bucket” and also “my own umbrella”.  We’re not sure Sarah got the concept; she asked Santa to bring her a reindeer.  Santa delivered on all requests!

Sarah also got this cool dollhouse from Mom-Mom.

We took a break from present-opening to load up on sugar with these sticky buns courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa.  Not sure I’ll be making these again…

Then it was back to presents!

Post-presents, everyone was back to work in the kitchen, making the stuffing.  Daddy cooked two turkeys this year, to perfection.  Alexis made sweet potatoes, and Tim and Liz made a bacon-wrapped fig appetizer as well as pumpkin pecan pies.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Liz and Josie arrived mid-afternoon from Liz’s sister’s house.  So, the kids got to open some more presents – a new fire station playset for Blaine and a tricycle for Sarah!  They were thrilled.

We shared Christmas dinner with Mom-Mom, Aunt Molly, Uncle Fran, Alexis, Uncle Tim, Aunt Liz, Josie, Aunt Jane, Uncle Peter, Uncle Tom, Aunt Sue, Maureen, Anthony, Maren, Rafe, Sean (briefly), Uncle John, Aunt Mary K, Brian, Meghan, Ed, Theresa, Kevin, Kathleen, and Paul (28 for dinner).  Here’s Blaine playing with the car track with Maren and Rafe.

Sarah was thrilled to have a “whole piece” of turkey, as she puts it, meaning it was on the bone.  A wing, to be specific.

Thanks so much to Mom-Mom for hosting!  We had a wonderful time catching up with extended family.

Blaine wanted to make real gingerbread men cookies.  That made me remember how I loved a chocolate ginger cookie the Volunteer Park Cafe in Seattle made.  So, I found a recipe online and we tried it!  Unfortunately, the recipe was meant for round cookies, not rolling, as we found.  The kids were disappointed.

But they still enjoyed eating the cookies!

Luckily, Daddy stepped in to help the kids make some traditional sugar cookies complete with the rolling and cutting steps Blaine wanted.

We decorated the cookies with red and green icing!  The finished cookies were tasty and beautiful.

On the subject of food, Blaine also enjoyed these chocolate dipped pretzel rods that he made at school.

Then we played Dominoes, an early Christmas gift for Blaine.  He was thrilled to win the first round.

On the last day of school on 12/21, the kids got to meet Santa for the first time at the preschool party at LAC.  I didn’t get any pics because Sarah was frightened and I had to hold her in my lap, instead.  Then on 12/22 we went back to the Westchester Children’s museum with some friends in the morning, and spent the afternoon packing for our trip to PA.  We also made another batch of the chocolate ginger cookies to take with us to share.

Here’s a final look at our tree, fully decorated for the holidays.

One day we went back to the Westchester Children’s Museum and the kids had a blast.

Blaine particularly enjoyed this section with the large building materials, including some pulleys!

We decorated our Christmas tree.  Sarah was excited to put up this panda ornament that we got at the National Zoo.

Blaine did most of the work, though.

Sarah finally got comfortable at music class again (rather than just wanting to sit in my lap) and got up there with Leslie.

Here she is at our last class of the fall, learning how to dance by watching Leslie.

Blaine went to a Star Wars themed birthday party.  Things took an interesting turn when this man showed up and made half the kids (including Blaine) run to their parents’ laps in fright.

Strangely, he was not asked to leave the party, and instead even got to serve the birthday boy his cake. 🙂

The other big event in December was Sarah’s first haircut!  We went to Gisele’s Salon in Larchmont (where I’ve been getting my hair cut) for her first cut on 12/14.  I was prepared for the worst, but Sarah was wonderful!  Apart from the fact that she refused to remove her panda suit, she did not bat an eye.  No tears, no screaming.  Hooray!

A few more from the end of November!

We started off our Thanksgiving festivities with Blaine’s preschool party and show on 11/22.  In the pic below he’s the “native american” wearing all red on the right side.

Showing off the log cabin his class built using pretzel rods and chocolate icing.

The next day we drove down to Great Falls to celebrate Thanksgiving with all the Westbrooks.  Here’s Sarah during our pitstop for lunch.

And now all the pics from our time in VA!  We were thrilled to meet the kids’ first first cousin, Gabriel!  And get in lots of reading and cuddle time with Gram and Grand-dad.

On Thanksgiving, we made some time to enjoy the warm(ish) weather outside at the playground and on the tennis court and the hill behind it.

Grand-dad and Blaine even played a little football.

Then it was time to carve the turkey!

We celebrated with Gram, Grand-dad, Aunt Jody, Aunt Suzanne, Uncle Michael, cousin Gabriel, the Jolleys (Cameron, Megan, and Marcella), and our four.  Everything was delicious!  Sarah wanted to get her hands on a whole turkey leg, but we decided that was a bit much.  Daddy saved her a wing, instead.  Blaine particularly enjoyed Uncle Michael’s mac and cheese.

Then it was time for dessert, and the traditional smashing of the chocolate turkey!  Here’s Marcella getting ready to wield the mallet.

All the kids took a turn, with Aunt Jody giving Sarah some assistance.  Then Aunt Jody took some final shots.

The kids also loved Gram’s persimmon pudding; if I recall correctly, Blaine had three helpings.

On Friday, we drove into DC to visit the Zoo!  We were all so excited to see the giant pandas, especially since Sarah has never seen them before.  Sadly, some combination of the excitement, or the curvy roads, or a too-large breakfast, resulted in some carsickness on Sarah’s part during the ride over!  But we decided not to turn back, and instead got Sarah a new sweatshirt (large, red, featuring a pic of two pandas).

We also enjoyed seeing the elephants, the ape house, and the lions and tigers.

On Saturday, we made the long drive back to NY.  Thank you so much to Gram and Grand-dad for hosting us this Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful time seeing the whole family and enjoying so much delicious food.