Holiday Gathering

The boys helped host their first holiday gathering this evening. We had a few neighbors over for snacks and desserts. It was really nice. We did most of the bedtime routine before the party (dinner, bath, jammies), so I think the babies were a bit surprised when instead of going night-nights, people started arriving!

Matthew (who is not normally shy) wouldn't let me put him down for the first part of the evening (though he did let other people hold him briefly), but later on he had a good time playing with Charlotte. James also wanted to be held for the beginning of the party, and he gave his seal of approval to Y's spinach and artichoke dip. (Yum!)

Charlotte was not only the official sugar cookie decorator, but she also appointed herself caretaker of the boys. We would occasionally hear things like, "No, baby, no!" from down the hall, and sometimes she would sort of tackle them if she thought they were going in the wrong direction. They all seemed to be having a good time, though, so whatever works!

Mattie was also fascinated with baby E. He kept saying "baby! baby!" and very gently touched her hair. He also was quite interested when he had his bottle and she had her bottle. Just as everyone was getting ready to go home, I was holding E, and Mattie and Jamesie both came up and grabbed on to my legs, looking extremely concerned! ("Wait a second, that's MY mommy!") I gave E back to her own mommy, and had to pick up both the boys at once (not something I make a habit of, since they're getting heavy these days!)

We took advantage of this occasion to open two special bottles of wine: one from our trip to Austria with Mike's parents, and one from our trip to an island in Germany called Fraueninsel. In Austria, one of Grandma Georgia's distant cousins, Gerhard, spent a day taking us around the Burgenland. Our tour ended at a wine tavern in the hills outside Vienna, owned by one of Gerhard's friends. It was a great meal with lots of wine and stories and a visit from the winemaker. The bottle we opened tonight was from that winery. The other was made by the nuns at the Abbey on the island in the Chimesee (a lake an hour or so outside of Munich), where we stayed for a conference. It was a gorgeous island and it rained for almost all of the three days we were there! But we treasure our memories of the sunny hour or so we had. :) Anyhow, it was great to relive the memories and share them with friends.

P.S. Mattie's new words: knife (for his play knife in the kitchen set, we obviously don't allow him real ones), ride (he wanted me to give him a ride in his shopping cart), yeah (though he's probably been saying that for a while, it seems more clear now), and (I'm slightly sad to report) no.

We had the television on to the Christmas music channel, and Jamesie saw the snowman on the screen, and signed "bird." Hee hee! Not quite, kiddo, but I can see how that carrot nose would look like a beak.