A lovely Christmas

It's SO nice to get the family all together to laugh and shout and have a good Christmas all together.  Some of my favorite Christmas memories from this year include a beautiful Christmas breakfast spread- fried crub, cinnamon buns, and TWO kinds of monkey breads.  Obviously, Noel wanted us all to have a Very Merry and Well Fed Christmas.  It was really fun to see Tyler in his PJs playing with his new Christmas toys (including a BALL!), and even though he was still a little sick, he really loved to get packed into a box that Dad converted to a baby sleigh by adding a handle and letting the grown-ups drag him around the house.  He would go all peaceful and have a contemplative suck on a sock dinosaur tail, or wave at the passing family members like the best float in his one-man parade.  And he has such great parents!  They nursed him so gently through the chicken pox, if it weren't for the rash, you'd hardly know he was sick.  Just a

This year's Christmas puzzle was a world map, which was fairly easy while we were putting together countries into continents, and then got really slow as we tried to fill in the remainder of the blue oceans.  Best of luck with that, family!

The award for the biggest gift this year went to Dad, who got a new air compressor of some character that apparently was way better than the old compressor and made him rub his hands together at the prospect of future projects.  The award for most thoughtful gift (or my vote at least), is a tie between Dad's specialty imported Speculoos spread, via our source for all things decadent and Belgian our host sister An- which was a project in the making since October!- and Tyler's gift of artist certified finger-paintings, and portraits of the artist in his labors (ie, naked but for his diaper, head to know in finger paints).  That just puts joy in the heart.

We also got the band back together on Christmas eve, to play through our book of carols.  Some of us were a little rustier than others, (there aren't enough flats in this key signature for half position!) but that just increased the laughs and made it fun.  If we get enough comments, I am sure Noel can release some of the footage of this, or other feats of adorableness.  Like a baby in a snowsuit in his very first snow!

And can I just say, that I got in some fantastic Aunt-ing? I thought to steam up some veggies for Tyler to try out finger foods, but this mostly turned into sweet potato and regular potato paste that stuck to the folds of his chubby wrists and all over his high chair.  Very little appeared to enter his mouth. I tried to let him drink some water, and while he chewed on my glass, I poured about a cup of water all down his onsie (diapers are absorbent, right?).  And I totally indulged him in the joys of shouting happiness at the dinner table (his Nana was mortified, so I know I've done my job well).

Matt and I flew home last night, and Matt somehow managed to get to work this morning.  This promises to be a busy week with another chapter to edit, some promises made about algae and some voice recordings to do for an online game via the science center.  Matt only works 2 days this week, then we get the Noely family back and then we are off to Concrete for New Year's/Third Christmas.

Being on Vacation is objectively better than Home

As I already had the chance to brag about mention, I got to spend the last week in Austin Texas with the World's Greatest Nephew and his super parents.  I did a little bit of job hunting, a pretty decent about of cooking and a whole lot of baby squishing.  There is not one part of Tyler that doesn't deserve a kiss or a squish. And he is very amenable to adventures.  He got to go to the pool!  Which he liked looking at more than splashing in.... And the Neighborhood Festival (where the rest of us porked out on Bake Sale)!  And to Rudy's for awesome BBQ! Where he got his feet cleaned in the handwash jacuzzi, and he came to a posh Derby Party, where he got cooed over a lot, and I got some good contacts about Austin Jobs.  He is such a great baby.  And I got to feed him peas and carrots, and change his tiny clothes and he even feel asleep in my arms BECAUSE HE LOVES ME.

And then we took a plane home.  And then Matt and I got violently ill.  I was hoping it was something we picked up while flying, but no, the Austin Family is out for the count too.  I was thinking I am pretty lucky have someone as nice as Matt to feel so dead awful with, and I did have the passing thought that having a Baby around would be impossible.  And then I found out Noel and Jessie both had it... So, not feeling so whiney anymore.  But yes, the vacation part was WAY more fun than coming home has been. 

Trying to get ready

I brainstormed a couple quick ideas for what to blog about today, I thought briefly "my tummy hurts." And then I thought that might seem unfair in the face of, well, the other major issue on my mind- I am going to be an Aunt "soon." I suspect sooner all the time. Maybe I should check my phone again, maybe I am an aunt already!

Not yet. But when I am, I'm going to be awesome at it. Because I am going to have pretty much the best nephew, the two go hand in hand quite well. I've been trying to imagine what that will feel like (and the actual parents can feel free to roll their eyes), but I am pretty sure this is going to be the coolest thing that will happen to me this year. And this is hopefully the year I get a real job, so the bar is pretty high. In all seriousness though, having an extra person just added into the family, well, that hasn't happened since Noel got married- and that went really well for me, too. I want to be awesome at it. There is a whole extra person- one who isn't even totally developed yet that I can influence, with explosive laughter and nerdy jokes. Someone who will make my world that much more exciting just by being in it. What a gift!

The phone still isn't ringing. I'm trying to imagine what it will feel like, for me, when I get the call that the little one is out in the world, and hopefully there are OMG-adorable pictures to follow. (I don't want to be demanding on the new family, but please let there be pictures). It's kinda weird not having people who can share in that excitement with me, or at least not to the same extent. My friends will be happy for me, but they don't get promoted to Auntdom, so surely they don't really get it. All the complex emotions- I'm related to someone who used to dig crystals out of a rock 'quarry' in the woods and collect dead bugs, and now he is going to have a bundle of pudge of his own. I guess I am trying to say, Noel and I were kids together- and now he is going to be really, 100% no-take-backs a grown-up. It makes me realize I've got some adult responsibilities now too- like to make the world the best possible place for my nephew. He deserves all the good things the world has to offer, and I need to get out there and make it happen! I surprise myself (and Matt) by feeling so strongly about this arrival, which will likely happen- which does happens all the time in the world- without actually changing anything about my daily life. Which makes it tough- I really want to do a great job at this, but I am the one who forgets to pay the rent. How can I fulfill this major responsibility to someone who I haven't even met yet?

I seem to have some extra time until The Call comes. Since I am completely inexperienced, I'm going to spend the intervening time thinking about what kind of aunt this baby needs, what kind of aunt I can be, and figuring out how to do that for him. I'm pretty sure that's what an awesome aunt should do.