Season's Greetings

     As I write this, one of my babies is bundled up in two snowsuits and a wooly sleeping bag in her stroller on the balcony and the other sleeps peacefully in her bed. Kids from all around the neighborhood are sledding down a small hill across the courtyard behind us. I can see our friends' kids. It's been snowing all day and that makes my heart happy. Tomáš is at the grocery store buying stuff for our day tomorrow. I hope to get some baking done today, and maybe even a little cleaning. His parents are coming over and bringing with them a whole Christmas spread. Slovak Christmas dinner is something that Tomáš could never live without, and so far something that I could never attempt. Just the words breaded deep-fried fish make me a little skittish. Thus far we have spent all of our Christmas eves at their house, but I decided this year that I wanted to be home. I'm hoping this will make for a much more relaxed time for everyone, since Lily will be free to roam, more or less safely. Otherwise there is always someone having to play defense, protecting dishes and plants and picture frames. So hopefully this way the only thing we'll have to be super careful about is not swallowing a fish bone. The last two days have been spent trying to teach Lily not to touch the tree. It's been mostly successful.
     Yesterday we also had our yearly photo shoot for our family Christmas card. I don't know what it is about these sorts of things, but it feels like there is some force in the universe that is against them successfully happening. First Tomáš put me in a foul mood by criticizing my vacuuming or something ridiculous like that, then he told me to snap out of it and I actually did. But then as I searched for something to wear that I didn't look enormous in, the tension started to build. It was one thing after another: T didn't like what I chose for Lily to wear, so we got into an argument, then we realized the batteries weren't charged for the camera, then we disagreed on where to take the picture, then Lily was sweaty, then I was sweaty, then right when we had everything ready, Rosy needed to be fed and by the time I got that done I was so crabby I couldn't even imagine faking a smile for the camera, much less giving a real one. But, goshdarnit, I was determined not to let this get the best of me. I was gonna have my photo. And then...THEN Lily saw the camera. And she wanted to take pictures. And she broke down in a terrible twos toddler tantrum (a TTTT), full of tears and slobber and snot. And after about 10 tearful shots, we found the key. With each shot we would tell her who we were taking this picture for. First Grandma and then uncle Cody, uncle Jase, Babka and so on and then she started declaring who each picture was for and screaming ''AAAAGAIN!'' with each shot. Hallelujah. We got our shot. Maybe it's not perfect, but it's perfect to me. So, with that, I wish you all a very (very) merry Christmas, št'astné a veselé Vianoce, joy, peace and a relaxing time with loved ones.