Christmas...whew!

Merry Christmas!!!

Vic, the kids and I are all back Stateside for Christmas. I got in town the Saturday before Christmas and Vic and the kids got back one week before me. I love being home, back in familiar surroundings, but Christmas is a blender that grinds my mind and strength to a pulp. Vic and I spend our time trying to balance time between two houses with the kids throwing a tantrum every time we leave a house..."I don't WANT to leave!!" Of course, they have completely forgotten the fit by the time we arrive at our destination three miles from our starting point. The entire process is repeated when we announce that it is time to load them back in the car leaving Vic's and my mind in complete tatters. Having said that, I wouldn't trade the memories and the time here for any amount of money the world could offer.

Piano...One cause of my dad's vein throb

I'll start the summary at my parents house where we have six adults, five kids aged five and under, four cars in the driveway, three noisy dogs, two cats and partridge in a pear tree. We tend to sit around watching my dad's blood pressure rise as the children wreak havoc on his poor house. Anyone that knows my dad can probably imagine the look on his face. The saying "herding cats" is very appropriate for the experience.

This year my mom and sister introduced the inaugural "Plank/Huffman Family Christmas Shirts" for all the kids. OF course, if you give Ansley an "outfit" she will insist on wearing it any time it is clean. With all the kids in the same shirt, we of course needed a group picture...remember "herding cats." Now we weren't just herding them, we were posing them. We just love to give ourselves a challenge!

Herding Cats

At my parents house, the adults always open gifts the night before and the kids open in the morning. The adults gift opening tends to take five to six hours as we open in turns and there is a fresh drink poured every couple times around the group...for some reason the kids don't seem to appreciate the waiting concept. The kids had their gifts sorted and opened before 6:30 the next morning. Vic and I like to get our nieces and nephews something that makes a lot of senseless noise because we're kind of mean like that. This year it was a megaphone that altered the kids voices into a really annoying sound (this comes back up later, so rememeber it). Ansley, Ellie and Anna all got Ariel night gowns that were a hit. Ansley also got some Fancy Nancy clothes which were a big hit (again, they come up again later). All together, it was a great Christmas and I really enjoy watching my kids and my sister's kids have fun together. No matter how long they spend apart, they hardly miss a beat when they get back together again.

Fancy Nancy at her finest

Now following Christmas at my parents house, Vic and I moved over to Vic's parents house for Christmas there. At the Russ Household, there are a few less kids running around (although Liz will add to the mix in June!), but there a quite a few more dogs. Anytime you take a seat, it is necessary to make sure a dog isn't there. I stopped counting when I stepped on my seventh dog of the time. The nice things about having this many dogs around is that any entrance is a major event. All the dogs line up around the door and scream at you until they have been sufficiently patted upon the noggin. It just makes you feel wanted.

Christmas at the Russ's is also always accompanied by a sack of oysters at the Russ's. As a kid, I hated oysters. They were nothing more than an oversized loogie served with hot sauce and a cracker. About the time I started drinking beer, my feelings had a slight shift. Now, there is nothing I like more than eating oysters. Around Panama City, a cooler of oysters on ice means that the guys are all standing around it shucking (or, in my case, standing around watching others shuck as I am horrible at it), the girls are all yelling at the guys because they want some oysters shucked for the grill, and the kids are all declaring that the oysters are gross and look like an oversized loogie with hot sauce on a cracker. I did get Sawyer to try an oyster. He ate a bite of it and was enjoying it until he looked down and realized there was something on his cracker. Then he was done.

We had a Christmas Eve meal next door at Uncle Bill and Aunt Lynette's House. Bill is a fellow disciple of Alton Brown's, but where I like to dabble and try thing out, Bill has perfected it (I'm pretty sure Lynette contributed too, so she deserves credit as well). The result is that you feel you have to eat a litte of everything...two or three time. Vic and I had to eat in shifts because Sawyer discovered that the VCR was in reach. Before the fat man in red even got close, I had pulled a cookie and coaster out of the cassette deck.

Finally we went and grabbed Sawyer's new Dora DVD and put it on. TV works like a magic trick for that kid. I honestly believe his mind is working so hard that he uses TV time to completely decompress. A herd of capybaras and monkeys singing the entire Barney collection could walk by, and, if Dora or Mickey is on the TV, Sawyer won't even turn his head to shush them.

Christmas morning at the Russ's always starts a little earlier than Vic's sisters or parents can imagine. This is especially true for poor Mary, who is still in college, and always manages to pull sleeping duty on the couch downstairs. She works now, so it's probably not as true any more, but at one point, I was sure Christmas morning meant that she woke up at least five hours earlier than usual. Santa came to the Russ house this year, so the kids had an added layer of excitement. The jolly, fat man doesn't bother with wrapping paper, so it doesn't take the kids long to discover the goodies (both kids are now the proud owner's of a scooter, and Ansley got roller skates as well).

After we had sorted the loot from Santa and stockings, it was time to pass out the gifts. Remember that really mean thing we like to do to my sister and her husband...the loud, annoying toy we give her children. Apparently, Vic got that masochistic desire legitmately because Vic's mom gave the same megaphone we gave Caden to Ansley and a super, special ray gun to Sawyer. The kids were running around the house screaming into the megaphone and shooting everyone with the ray gun. It just goes to show that there is always someone watching and paybacks are a bitch.

For brunch we all herded back next door to Bill and Lynette's for another stuffing of various pastries and breakfast casseroles. To make sure I ate healthy, I wedged some fruit between the smoked ham, two types of monkey bread, two types of breakfast casserole, and biscuit. I also stoutly refused to add the cheese grits to my plate. I felt that this was a win.

Over the remainder of the day, we enjoyed some football, were introduced to Fancy Aunt Bill and watched Sawyer discover the magic that is Bill's fishing boat. It was a truly great Christmas all around.

Aunt Mary and Liz (+1) with Sawyer and Ansley

Finding the boat...I love it

Fancy Nancy and Aunt Bill

The Plank/Russ/Smith Family +1 shown but not seen

I hope that all of you enjoyed yours as much we enjoyed ours and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Spirit

For those of you that need a little infusion of the spirit...here is Ansley performing all your holiday favorites!

Merry Christmas from the Planks!

Turkey Day! and beyond.

Thanksgiving outside the US is a little different. Everyone knows about the holiday, they just don't really care. Vic and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner at our house and invite our American friends and some friends from other countries, to let share the day with us. All told, there were 23 of us - 14 adults and 9 kids all five and under. We also had three nationalities represented for a distinctly American holiday - American, Australian and Belgian.

The food was the same as you would see at any American table. We had bought what we thought were the two biggest turkeys available down here (9 and 11 pounds), there was pecan pie, brocolli casserole, sweet potatoes (with orange food coloring as batata dulce are white), gravy, bread, salad, etc. From a culinary standpoint, the day was the same as always.

The shock to our system was the kids. Vic had cooked some sweet pecans that had brown sugar and coffee as ingredients. The kids enjoyed them to excess for the first five minutes of the party. The remaining several hours were filled with a level of noise typically reserved for rock concerts. The adults would stand around - the women in the kitchen while Vic put the finishing touched on the food and the men watching football in the living room (I believe the Non-American men were fully on board with a holiday that focused on sports). Every now and then a herd of children would stampede through one room or the other, occasionally both. One child would invariably break away from the herd to tattle on a different member and then scream a battle cry and rejoin the herd at full gallop. The couples that had not had children were a little awed. I have always said that the best birth control in the world must be a party with children involved.

We eventually corralled the children to a table for grazing and did the same ourselves. It really was a great day. All the food came out perfectly - especially the turkeys. For those of you interested, check out Alton Brown's Turkey recipe for our new favorite. Vic's Pecan Pie was perfect and we went through seven bottles of wine and a case of beer. There was even football on TV thanks to my sling box. I believe everyone went home happy and thankful and slept well that night.

The following weekend, we decided to try one of the most traditional past times here in Rio - Ice Skating. I think Ansley was so excited she almost peed her pants. When she decided that she wanted me to help her on the rink, I almost did the same. I had managed to crack 18" of ice with my head one time...and I didn't even have on skates. The thought of ice skating again with my daughter hanging on me certainly made me nervous. When we got there, Ansley and I suited up while Vic took Sawyer to the jungle gym. I think Ansley assumed that she would be able to step onto the rink and begin doing pirouettes just like the princesses did a few months back. She actually wasn't far off. The first ten minutes she essentially kept her skates straight and was dragged around the rink by your's truly and Daniel...a rink employee that recognized those needing help. The second ten minutes she spent trying small runs by herself. The last twenty minutes she preceeded to pull Daniel and me around the rink at an alarming pace. This girl is a natural.

This morning we went back to a walking park near our house. When you are walking, you would never guess that you are in the middle of Rio as the trees are very effective at hiding the buildings and noise. They have three or four parks (with slides made of wood...see picture below)and the trees are crowded with monkeys and children (again...see picture and video below). The highlight of the day came when a momma monkey turned up with two babys on here back. We also spotted a pod of capybaras asleep next to the swamp. The kids had a blast as always.

Illegally Picked Flower

Wooden Slide

Monkey in a tree

Sawyer in Timeout

Hope you enjoyed the pics.