Christmas 2011: A Traumatic Santa Visit and Julia Stays Up Til Midnight to Help Us Open Presents

This year's tree. Fancy photo editing by Mark.

In early December we made our annual visit to see Santa at Tiny Tots. Last year Julia tolerated Santa and James lasted about 10 seconds on Santa’s lap before bawling. This year, well, as soon as they saw Santa they started to howl. Beforehand I told other moms how sometimes the best Santa pictures are the ones where they’re crying. But then after seeing the tears on my own kids' faces I felt horrible. Thankfully they seem to have emerged unscathed. When we show them the picture they both point at it and excitedly exclaim, "Santa!" It's funny that they recognize themselves in the picture but it doesn't seem to register with them at all how unhappy they are in that moment.

For the first time I helped my mom make the traditional Mikulis family Christmas morning breakfast. I countered her pork-heavy part of the proceedings with a line-up of Hanukkah-friendly Trader Joe’s foods, including potato latkes and powdered sugar-dusted Danish pancakes (a.k.a. sufganiyot).


Before breakfast, Julia makes Uncle Michael ride the horsey while she rides the zebra.


Papa toasts with a slice of bacon.


Mommy steals a kiss from James in the kitchen.

James and Julia wore their matching reindeer pajamas with reindeer feet ($1 each at a garage sale) and opened their gifts.


Julia opens Sesame Street figurines and then has to smell each one.
"Mmm... Cookie Monster-scented!"





Since the babies, particularly James, are obsessed with getting the mail each day Mommy and Daddy got them their own mailbox.


Daddy reads over a wooden postcard and sends it via toddler mail.


The babies' Daddy's new mailbox.






James has always been fascinated by pictures on the wall...


In fact, here he is at one month looking at pictures over Mommy's shoulder.


This is the only photo I got of the babies in their matching pajamas where they're actually sitting on the couch...


Escape!

In the afternoon the babies wore their dress-up clothes and we put a bunch of wrapped presents in front of them to play with. I held my breath hoping nothing inside was TOO breakable.


Julia's not happy about waking from her nap... or Mommy taking her picture.






I sure hope there's nothing breakable in that one.




Julia does her best Spanish dancer impression.


"Darling, make sure they pull the car around, IMMEDIATELY... I shan't be late to the opera!"


Daddy helps the babies ride their new PlasmaCar.


Then Daddy rides his the babies' new PlasmaCar. Although this photo doesn't show it, they were not happy about it one bit.


Papa pretends to eat James.



We planned to have the adults open their gifts after the babies were asleep like we did last year, because we didn’t think James and Julia's attention spans would last the two hour gift onslaught. But Julia, possibly keyed up after a day of activities or having heard us in the living room, decided that tonight she’s not going to sleep. After an hour and a half of trying to get her down, we gave up and let her open gifts with us until midnight. She had a ball helping us rip open paper and needed help crossing the river of gift-related refuse. We regretted not opening gifts earlier in the day so James could have joined us too.


Julia helps Papa open his gift.


The gift of Julia is the gift that keeps on giving.




Mommy helps transport Julia over the river of gift wrap.

Here's our 2011 holiday letter.

Twin Birthday 2011: The Saturday Family Celebration

By Saturday Papa feels better so we go with the original plan for their birthday. (They also celebrated at a toddler birthday party and on their actual birthday.) First, new backyard toys: a slide and a teeter-totter from Papa and Gaga.

Gaga and Papa set up the outdoor birthday gifts.

No, Julia. You hike the football.




James is new to slides so they can still be a little scary.





Then we all watch Sesame Street again. Papa really wanted to.


"Oh Elmo!"

After the babies’ naps we have mini chocolate cupcakes. I had to buy more from Whole Foods because Mark polished off the leftovers from the babies' birthday party. We also eat cardamom ice cream. There is some initial grumbling from the grandparents about the flavor, but I picked it knowing it would be the parents finishing off the pint. The grandparents eventually concede that it does, in fact, taste good.


Julia is already bored by her cupcake.




This is just a ruse because Julia didn't actually eat her cupcake.


James eats his ice cream with so much gusto he almost looks angry.


"MORE! COLD STUFF!


Julia discovers that ice cream tastes better when Papa feeds it to her.

When the messy food is out of the way, the babies get dressed up to open their gifts. First they get distracted by cards and think they’re the best thing ever, but we have to remind them of this new thing called “birthday presents.” They discover that they love tearing open their gifts. They keep getting distracted by each one and want to play with it instead of opening the next one. And then at one point they just want to hand everyone pieces from their new play food set.


Julia walks right over the present Terminator-style.


James possibly pees on his present.




I feel like we're in that illusion from The Exploratorium where I'm the giant on one end of the room.

Like this.

The twins were pretty excited about the cards. It took awhile to convince them to open the gifts.

James immediately starts hoarding his new play utensils.


"Forget whatever this wrapped present is, I'm going to hide my new dishware from James."


"I think I'll hide some spoons in here as well."


Julia the Food Bank starts handing out food.


"Ice cream for Papa!"


"Refried beans for Mommy!"


"I can only hold so much Hamburger Helper! Somebody take more refried beans, stat!"

Henry VIII at 9 months with a rattle and again at 2 years, this time with a fake chicken drumstick.


"It's my boss. I have to take this."

I put the babies on the sofa for a picture together and this one photo we got pretty much tells you how long it lasted.

Next up we all go to dinner at one of the babies’ favorite restaurants, Su Hong. We eat here so often the babies think a meal at any restaurant ends with fortune cookies.

Julia and James wait for their table at Su Hong.

Papa gives James an eggroll.

James eats rice.

Julia makes goo-goo eyes at Gaga (or is it ga-ga eyes at Googoo?).

"Water out of a sippy cup tastes much better than water out of a glass, Gaga."