Festivus for the rest of us!

Ah, Festivus. The kids started this tradition. I'm not sure what year we started it but here are a few of the earliest pictures I could find along with some of this year. For some reason the kids wanted to go to the garage for something. Then I guess they just wanted to go outside barefoot. Naturally, I didn't want them to (get some boots on! wear a coat!) but once they made it clear it was a competition...well, that's different. Far be it from me to discourage my children from attaining a goal. Then of course they had to see who could go the farthest. Here Kristjan makes for the basketball hoop. This was in 2003 so I guess he's 9.

And here he is this year completing a walk all the way around the house with Danny and Brandon.

Here I am on my very brief dash. I like to participate but I have no delusions about winning.

I went farther this year but I'm still last.

And here's Nastassja, I guess she's 13 here - definitely beat me.

And once again, Nastassja takes the ladies division by storm - she even went twice...

Here's the toughest part, at least in my book. The AFTERMATH. You think it's over, but no. The snow is stuck to your feet - now we keep towels handy to get it off as fast as possible. It doesn't really help. Oh but the exhilaration of another successful Feats of Strength!

We usually hold Festivus on Dec. 26th (Daddy's birthday) but this year we bumped it up to New Year's Eve since Nastassja, Anthony and Ray wouldn't be there until Dec. 28. We kicked off the festivities with Mexican food - enchiladas, the kid's favorite. Then Nastassja and I went for our walk. It was a little hazardous this year since we had had a couple of warm days in wich the snow melted and then refroze. Then it snowed again - about 6 inches, so there was powder with a layer of ice underneath, nice. Oh, and the temperature was 12. When we finished the boys took their walk around the house. When they got back there was some dispute about the winner. I had declared Brandon the winner since he was last, even pausing for his photo to be taken after Danny and Kristjan went in. Some declared there was too much, um, complaining during the trek ( I believe the accusation was "Brandon screamed like a girl the whole way") So the boys decided to take it to a new level by making snow angels with their shirts off. Then they decided to do it face down! Too much fun....

A reader wants to know "what about the airing of grievances?" No dear reader, we don't do the airing of grievances....unless one counts "screaming like a girl" while walking around the house. Oh, and I must point out that the girls didn't "scream like girls!"

Pretty in Pink

This is my Mom's house on Long Island - it's pink! We go up every February for her birthday and usually get a nice blizzard. Not this time. This picture is from '06. (I'm dumping the 20 part of the year - Atalya thinks we need to get over it and do the years like we used to, last two digits only. I'm with her) It was actually pretty warm. We went in to the city on Monday and ended up carrying our jackets around. Mom took me down to the beach to get some nature photos on Sunday (we forced Yeshi and his cousin Josh to come with us) and I got some nice pictures by fooling with the white balance on the camera (it was overcast and a bit dark out). Ever watch Sunday morning with Charles Kuralt? You know the end of the show where they just showed some nature footage and had no narration or music, just the critter-sounds? I always enjoyed watching that with my cup of coffee, ahhhh. This is the online version. You'll have to imagine your own critter-sounds. Get your coffee..... (oh, pink picture first for a nice segue from the pink house :)

Marsh

Yeshi and I went on a bike ride around the neighborhood. I discovered a bridge to a little island just a couple blocks from our house. Unfortunately this will be a gated community so we'll just have to enjoy it in its formative stages. So today's post is primarily a look into the wetlands in my backyard... The view from the bridge

Sometimes I feel the need to pinch myself - I look around and say, wow, I live here.

Yeshi thinks it's cold...













I did not break the palm branch, it was like that...

Here are my babies - Atalya, Yeshi and little ROS still in the works. Yeshi has a broken left arm from falling off a scooter (some jumping was involved..) that was ER visit #3 of 6 this past year. This one was significant because it was the day after I had taken him to ER for visit #2 - sprained neck. Now THAT one was rough, some kid put him in a choke hold at a grappling tournament in Richmond, he felt his neck pop, got dizzy and then his neck went numb. Great - got to go to the hospital in the ambulance on the backboard in a neckbrace. And to make it even more fun, Dad was in Iraq at the time. Fortunately it turned out to be just a sprained neck. Hence the subsequent injury to the arm because he's a "get back on the horse" kind of guy. And there's Atalya, sitting there looking all maternal and uninjured. Nice. What can I say? Hashem is watching over my babies and I'm pretty relieved about that. I'll have to write another post on ER boy and my daughter the Uber-mommy.....

Heimlich Himmel

Baruch Hashem Adonai! (Blessed be the name of the L-rd) So yesterday my angel Yeshi had just finished his morning Quesadilla slathered in hot sauce (ok, maybe not the best breakfast but it must be better than anything out of a box and I'm certain the hot sauce he consumes in large quantities will prevent cancer) and all of a sudden he starts banging on the sink - he's choking and trying to get my attention. After a few whacks on the back and several forceful heimlich manuevers (ever try that on someone bigger than you with rock-hard abs?) I got him breathing again - jeez. That wasn't fun, I'm 4 miles from anything and have no car during the day. So now I've had to use that on both my kids - Atalya had a potato chip stuck when she was 4, that was a lot easier than yesterday's episode. So - 0 and 2 Mr. Death.

more rain

After raining pretty much all weekend it's sunny today - but cold. Supposed to be in the 20's tonight which is super cold when you have palm trees growing across the street. This is a nice view of the marsh from a dock that is about a block from our house. Yeshi likes to walk down here in the evenings and watch the sunset. This is him trying to duck my camera - but there is no escape!