Peace and happiness

     We had a beautiful Christmas. We had good food, presents, romanian carols on the radio, friends, and love all around us. With Catalina growing up, I wanted her to know the traditions we grew up with in Romania. Christmas eve we are supposed to fast, so we have a special sweet dish, called "Jesus' diapers" They are very fine dough layers filled with walnuts, sugar and orange zest. Back home, my mom actually made the dough layers. This is a VERY tricky part, as the layers need to be transparent thin, and after that cooked fast on hot steel sheets. I cheated, bought fillo dough and cooked it in the hot oven. I have to say the result was awesome and I was very proud of myself. A very good start to Christmas preparations.

We tried to teach Catalina some romanian carols, but the american ones won. She kept singing in the house "Ji'ggle bells, ji'ggle bells" for quite some time, so we were confident she'll be able to carol for grandparents. Indeed she did!

Christmas eve we decided we'll let Catalina open most of her presents. They were a lot! She received a kitchen play set she loved. This gave mommy and daddy plenty of time for themselves, as our cutie pie played fascinated by herself more than half an hour.

Of course, her nana sent way too many cool presents, and she made sure played with all of them the same night. This one below is a cute lady bug tent that when fully assembled occupies half of our living room.

Well, not such a big deal when you get this smile on her face!

However, the only present that Catalina recognizes as coming from Santa is the one that grandma sent from Romania. A beautiful colored pencil set and coloring books. The moment she opened those, she dropped whatever she was doing and screamed: "cheion, mama, schie", a.k.a: crayons, mama, write!

We all received presents. Some bigger, some smaller. Here are the extremes :)

When the excitement started to go down, we went to bed, in hope we'll still have some romanian carolists from church. We fell asleep before, but here is a nice picture of my favorite elves:

One can think that after all that Christmas day did not have anything new to offer. Not quite the case. Even more presents, food and friends. Like I said, a good Christmas.

Evening came and our table was still full of food, our hearts filled with love and happiness. And our house spotless clean (not).

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! We love you all and wish you were here with us.

We are back to work for now, but fun begins once more in less than 4 days. We anticipate a very nice New Year celebration (hoping that everybody is healthy, weather does not go crazy and airlines do not go on strike). The reason: we'll have majorly cool entertainment:

                                                       The Foss family!!

Magic

     I think Christmas is just beautiful. Carols cannot start early enough for me on the radio, and I would like Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. This year things seem to work out my way.
First weekend after Thanksgiving I met most of my grad school friends. Grad school itself resembles hell (a lot of stress and very little money). Our lab was special, as we were a bunch of girls who just got along. We now have our own kids, and it was amazing to see them all after such a long time. Catalina was her usual self and did not befriend anyone. Also, being her sweet self, after they left she kept calling their names, one by one, until mommy got a headache. This story still continues till today, she still falls asleep calling Bella, Ta'ini, Doyet, Shaada and Yiiiig. And here we are, a happy group of beautiful mothers and daughters.

    After that, it was officially holiday season. So we started our hunt for Santa. First one we encountered was in our neighborhood. Each year we have a nice event, when Santa comes in a fire truck and listens to wishes of as many kids as he can before night sets in. Parents can enjoy hot chocolate and cookies. Win-win for everybody. This year we got there a little late (Cati and mommy slept half of the afternoon...). Catalina still got to sit in Santa's lap and even got his last stocking! Since it was the first time this year she saw Santa, we did not expect any smiles from her. Santa didn't get any, but we got plenty!

Next stop on our holiday tradition list was the Macy's magic light show. We thought Catalina will love it, but she was much more interested in running through stacks and stacks of clothes. We saw a nice set up from "A Christmas Carol"and then we saw Santa for the second time. Again, not such a big hit with Catalina.

We are not parents who get discouraged easily. My institute has a tradition of bringing Santa for all the employee's kids. Not only the kids get to see Santa and get some presents, but parents get an unofficial half day off. This was Catalina's first year to participate in the event, so I was quite excited. We had nice decorations, cookies, apple cider, kid movies, magic show, live music. I was very excited! Catalina fell asleep on my shoulder, so ... not that excited.

The wait line for Santa was looong. Catalina was ready to quit, but she immediately got interested when I told her Santa will give her a book and crayons. So, for the next 20 minutes she kept repeating "creion, carte, mos, brate" (a.k.a crayon, book, Santa, lap). Let me tell you, after you hear this for 10 times, you get tired. After another 10 times, you wish you were deaf. After 20 minutes of this you belong to new class: the crazy.

    We finally got in front of the line. Can be the third time the charm? Yes, Catalina loved her third Santa. She opened her arms to be held by Santa, looked in his eyes, said hi, slapped hi fives and waited patiently. She was rewarded with her book and crayons and a big pink flower baloon. She was happy. I was too.

    So, I dare everybody now to challenge the magic of Christmas. A two year old who is shy with most of our friends, sits on the lap of a big strange guy in a big red coat. But only the third one she meets!
I think it's quite understandable, we are, after all, talking about the adventures of a pretty little princess.