Kevin's 36th Birthday 2016

We celebrated Kevin's birthday on the Sunday the 14th because Grandma was here and we mostly celebrated Valentine's the day before. Kevin slept in two days in row!* We stayed home, had many costume changes, relaxed. I made dinner and Grandma and James made Kevin a chocolate birthday cake with fresh whipped cream and strawberries.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Blowing out the candle with help

Yum!

Earlier today, post-frosting-making

Happy birthday to the BEST husband, father, and son! (...And brother and teacher and writer basically the best at everything he attempts...) We love you even more than we love chocolate frosting, which is a lot.

*My sweet husband wakes up with the kids most days.

Update: Kevin also went out on Friday to the Magician with Jon, Nick, and Emily.

Kevin and Jon

Emily and Nick

Christmas in Long Island 2015

This was a pretty fun Christmas. James was very excited the night before! I was so excited I had trouble sleeping! Miranda... was not excited in advance and doesn't know who Santa is or what's up. But unlike last year she was excited about the toys that came out of the boxes and not just the boxes. Still... I think next year will be the best Christmas yet in terms of both of them being excited for Christmas morning...

James opening matching lanterns for him and Miranda to explore the dark

Helping Miranda open presents

A puzzle he saw on Daniel Tiger!

Nana squish. (Nana's favorite.)

There were a few sharing problems...

Miranda wants to play with the race car too.

But they worked it out after a lot of encouragement. And yes, eventually we got the car out of the box too.

Pushing loud buttons together.

They are fairly cooperative when it suits them.

Miranda eating Santa's leftover cookies

James won't tattle ("Miranda is doing something bad!")... if he can share

I made a french toast casserole for breakfast.

 

French toast casserole

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. The kids mostly played with their new presents.

Shoots, scores, breaks net!

Reading to Miranda- James is distracted by his new toy watch with games.

Naptime.

G-chatting with Andrew in Japan, and the rest of Kevin's family in Cape Cod

Tickling Miranda. They both love to be tickled.

Noche Buena 2015

Noche Buena is what Cubans call Christmas Eve. We always serve pork for dinner. Traditionally you'd have an entire pig roasted in a "Caja China" in a pit, but we made due with some well-seasoned pork tenderloin in the oven. Also, yucca in garlic sauce, rice and black beans, and salad.

Christmas Eve Clous

My mom, her boyfriend Bob, and his daughter Jen joined us this year. It was our first Christmas at the new house.

Mom, Bob, Miranda, Jen, James

Miranda loves Bob

Kevin making my mom feel awkward before dinner.

James actually helped me marinate the pork the night before. It came out great!

Dinner!

As usual, Miranda started dinner in her baby chair but...

... ended up on our laps.

We exchanged a few presents too. Usually just the adults do presents Christmas Eve (the kids have Christmas morning) but Jenny had to leave so she gave the kids an awesome Mr. Potato Head and a tiny mechanical puppy.

James re: Mr. Potato Head "We have like this at school!"

Puppy wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Hugging my big 4-year-old boy!

After I put Miranda to bed, Kevin, Bob, and I took James on a short little walk around the neighborhood to see people's Christmas lights. Did I mention it was like 70 degrees?

Christmas lights walk

Christmas Lights walk

Then it was time to prepare for Santa! 

James put out the milk and chocolate chocolate chip cookies we made together.

And then Kevin and James opened the chimney flue so Santa could come down.

And off to bed because Santa won't come unless you're sleeping!

Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! A lot of things were going on this year. One was that we were hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever! We were pretty clueless but kept it SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE. Kevin focused on the turkey and I made a lot of not-so-much-from-scratch sides. Okay, you gotta walk before you run, okay? We missed Kevin's family this year, but we drank mimosas in their honor.

Our Thanksgiving party in front of Mad Men fireplace.

Another thing was that we recently hit the 5-year anniversary of my dad passing from renal cell (kidney) cancer. So that was... weird. To describe it in some inexact language, it feels less like being stabbed in the heart repeatedly now, and more like a dull ache punctuated by sadness when I want to tell him something, or wish he could see the kids. I think I might have repressed how I felt this year, and it backlashed, especially since I sort of associate it with Thanksgiving.

But also, this year there is the gratitude that we're together. As I wrote about on the blog, in August 2013, my mother was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, the same kind of kidney cancer my dad had. It was contained in the kidney, so she had surgery in October 2013, to remove the kidney. But not on the blog previously-- in February of this year she found out the cancer had returned. This time she couldn't have surgery, because the tumors are just on blood vessels. And as we already knew because of my dad, chemo and radiation does not work on kidney cancer. She went on two different studies this year and ended up trying Sutent (the control drug), and Inlyta + Dalantercept, but neither helped. In September, they put her on a IV drug combo of Torisel and Avastin. Her November scan showed no progression and some shrinking of the tumors! Just as important, she has much milder side effects on this last drug combo so she can actually enjoy herself, and does. So I'm thankful we're together, and thankful that she feels well, and most of all thankful that she knows how to enjoy life.

Mom, James, me.

Miranda and her mom's boyfriend Bob

Crackers and cheese make her joyful!

Kevin made a PERFECT turkey. Because that's how he rolls.

Cheers!!

Turkey, Bob, and Pilgrim

Happy Thanksgiving! To family, friends, and good wine!

We did it! Table cloth, fancy napkins, and all the food!

I don't remember what they were so excited about.

The "Making Of" our first turkey that morning:

Looks like a turkey dance

Decorating Cookies with Sarah 2014

Sarah snd Lukas come over ever December to enjoy a little holiday cheer, but this year Sarah came over solo because Lukas had to work. She came over with cookies and had James help her make frosting, and then we all decorated them for the holidays. I never did stuff like that growing up, and it's fun cannot be oversold. Thanks Sarah!

Mixing the frosting

Adding sprinkles

 

I think I'm enjoying cookie decorating most of all!

Sampling!