Busy days

These days before Christmas are often a little busier. This week I haven't had classes at school, but there's still a lot to be done. I met with a thesis student, worked on a syllabus, did a shopping trip and took Eva for her innoculations. Emily and I had a morning out after Sam's performance for school (the monthly birthday celebration). Life is good but busy.

We find that twins is still an adjustment. Now that Em's parents are gone we have whole weekends to deal with again. Yesterday we spent some time talking about how to make them better. Getting three together and out the door isn't easy, and we have slightly different ideas of the best way to do things (I'd tend to rather have all threee for a couple of hours and then a total break, whereas Em finds all three too much). I don't think there's a perfect way to do this, and we have developed some good coping meganisms (staggered sleep! a list of places to go, long Sundays at church, and so on). I keep trying to remember that this is situational, and that it will improve with time. Today while I was skyping with my parents it was fun to watch the three kids interact with each other. While this includes a certain amount of competition (Sam takes Eva's toy, Eva takes Eli's binky, Eli cries), it holds forth the slightest glimmer of a day when we can tell our kids to go away and play with each other.

Sunday is the baptism. I think it will be nice. It will be a long Sunday, since we should leave around 9 and also have lunch and English service and dinner with friends. Emily and I were realizing this is our first real "whole nuclear family" Christmas. Last year only sort of counts, because the twins were so tiny then and we still had family around. This year we are trying to figure out what the traditions are and how to do things. I realized pretty much every Christmas my family loves to go see movies. Emily's tends to go to the zoo or public events. Hopefully we'll get a nice mix of the traditions. On Wednesday I took Sam to Arthur Christmas, which was really fun. The 3D glasses don't quite fit him, but he loves being in the theater and we went to dinner beforehand, and we got to ride the buses home. Next year will be fun with the lighting of the trees in P-town, time with different family members, and Christmas around others. This year is still kind of a trial run.

I find the to-do list always stretches a bit longer than I'd planned. We haven't done Christmas cards yet, but did buy some yesterday. Presents aren't wrapped. I submitted a job expense and then at some point I need to do the medical receipts for the last year. I have another manuscript project (smaller) to wrap up by the end of the year. Grading will be really, really ugly this year, since the number of students is higher. That's the list!

In the middle of it all, we're trying to keep some of the mystery and joy of the season. Sam brought home glutonous balls from school yesterday for the solstice and we love having our Christmas tree up. We're cooking some familiar foods and enjoying the special-ness of this time. It helps that we get the national new year's break in another month, although we're a little terrified of watching all three kids for such a stretch. Exciting days!