Happy New Year!

We're going off the grid for a few days. I head back to work on Tuesday and Carey spends a couple days in Knoxville, Tenn., visiting a friend. We'll blog again next year! Until then, we wish all our readers a happy and healthy 2009.

Greta likes it, but has issues...

Tucked in and zipped up tonight on the floor, she told mommy: "It's not comfortable. I'm on the floor. I'm in a bag." She's in a full-size bed now and will soon either be between us or on an air mattress.

Lincoln likes everyone else's

Max likes his, too!

Esme likes her new sleeping bag

Christmas in Rye

What Peter did all day:

What Sara did all day:


What Carey did all day:


What Rob did all day:


God bless us. Every. One.

Merry Christmas!

Had a lovely morning opening presents and eating half-fried bread dough. In a couple hours, it's off to my sister's, for exchanging presents with the cousins.

Spitting image?

Both could use a little spit in their hair, at least.

Robert F. Merrill, age 94

Lincoln D. Merrill, age 18 months

Chuck E. Cheese

Or as Greta calls it, Chunky Cheese. We took her there for the first time on Sunday and I rather like this family portrait from the pixel photo booth.

First slumber party

Not counting cousins and long-distance trips, last night was the first time Greta spent the night with a friend. Her pal Duncan came over after lunch while his Mom went to pick up his Dad in New Haven. Since they were getting home late and the weather wasn't great, we took Duncan for the night. They watched Horton Hears a Who!, played Cinderella (Greta puts on two high heels, goes to a dance, loses one, then Duncan or Lincoln have to track her down and fit her with the magic slipper), Play-Doh, Legos, and most everything else in the playroom. At bedtime, they enjoyed a menage a bath, then read books together. Duncan was a dream to put down. Kudos to his parents for that! Two books, a hug, and a very emphatic "night, night!" Greta, naturally, liked the IDEA of a slumber party, but turned into Miss Crankypuss when it was actually time to go to sleep. Dad had to tell her a very long Princess Greta story involving a mean bear, a mean dragon and a mean giant playing a game of baseball in the Kingdom of South Orange, New Jersey, which violated the local noise ordinance. Princess Greta and her friends (Prince Duncan, Princess Emma, Princess Other Emma, Princess Esme and Prince Max) had to teach them how to play regular baseball without swinging trees and hitting boulders. Thankfully, the infield fly rule did not figure in the plot.

Reading is fundamental II

Teacher's pet

A lovely smile and hug from Mrs. Hicks, Greta's teacher at Morrow Memorial Preschool.

Away in a manger

Enjoy today's nativity scene!

First snowfall

Some big flakes fell yesterday in honor of Carey's birthday and Greta's new snowsuit. The girls went outside and Carey was intrepid enough to bring the new camera. The proof is in the pictures -- it really DOES make you a better photographer!

Happy birthday, love

A little closer to 40, sure, but as beautiful as the day we met. In fourth grade.

Village Aglow

That's what South Orange calls their annual holiday celebration at the duck pond. Santa arrives via fire truck, takes dozens of photos with the local youngsters, Christmas music blares from loudspeakers, citizens ignite hundreds of tea lights suspended in sand inside paper bags, and the local mafia sets off a 10-minute fireworks show. I Facebooked an 11-photo slideshow. Let's see if this link works for those of you who aren't my Facebook friends.

Friends

Greta and I checked out the Dickens' Village in the nearby town of Maplewood this afternoon. A small petting zoo, a horse-drawn wagon ride and half a dozen wooden sheds decorated on the inside like scenes from various Dickens novels. We met up with her friend Emma while there and warmed up with hot chocolate. I carted around the new camera, of course, and was quite impressed by the shutter speed. Even with kids running at me it auto-focused and I didn't miss the shot. It's nice to get something for all that money.

Rapt

At story hour this week, Lincoln paid close attention when instructed. I'm told the story was the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, featuring a hairy hand puppet.

The Nutcracker

Yesterday Greta and I enjoyed a girls' night out with friends Emma and Sasha (and their moms). We attended the New York Theatre Ballet's family performance of The Nutcracker at our South Orange Performing Arts Center. For days I had tried to prep her for proper behavior; we talked about being polite as a princess, sitting quietly, and using a whisper voice if she had to say anything.

Wearing a lovely Laura Ashley dress and ballerina pink shoes, Greta looked quite pretty, and received many compliments from Daddy, Mommy, and her friends. I reminded her before the show began of the manners we had discussed. She seemed to remember the rules quite well, sitting quietly in my lap, clapping as appropriate, and whispering when she asked a question. All was going well until there was a brief lull in the music during The Fir Forest sequence. I guess she just could not contain herself any longer, as she sat up straight, leaned forward, and pointed at the stage. She excitedly informed the entire audience: "Mommy, I am as pretty as the Snow Queen!" I hugged her back to me with a little "shhh" and whispered, "prettier, princess, prettier."

New toy

Christmas came early for me this year. And you, constant readers, will be the beneficiary. Sunday, I found myself in a going-out-of-business Circuit City store when what should I spy in their photography display case? Why, the camera model that I've drooled over since our French friend Roger visited and my cousin Ryan bought one! Long story short, I'm now the proud owner of a Canon XSi and am learning all of its tricks. So far, I love its resolution on close-ups, something I've noticed one of my other SLR-owning and baby blogging friends -- Dan -- enjoys. More awesome photos throughout the holiday season, promise.

Just the girls

The title of this post reflects one of Greta's favorite mantras. So you can imagine her delight when Lincoln's nap coincided with a visit from her friend, Emma, while Emma's baby sister had her 15-month checkup. Greta, Emma (and mommy!) enjoyed a just-the-girls lunch, which included the telling of a fairy tale in which Princesses Greta and Emma had to wake up a sleeping giant and dragon by tickling them with flowers. After lunch, we performed the story again, and again, and again, until the giant/dragon had enough of their tickles and declared that it was time to paint sparkle snowflakes. As both young ladies were recent winners in the South Orange Public Library Thanksgiving Coloring Contest (more about that once I get a picture of my daughter's second-place-winning glittering turkey), it was no surprise that their creations were simply beautiful. 'Tis the season to be jolly, indeed.

Reading is fundamental

Today's nativity highlight is brought to you by the nation's largest children's literacy organization. Seems like everyone really does love Elmo.

Video chatting

When I was growing up, some of our neighbors still had party lines and we didn't get rid of our rotary phone until I was in college. 36 years later, Greta and Lincoln video iChat -- for free -- with their cousins in North Carolina. This is a snapshot of our conversation last night, which ran the gamut from their Disney World visit to Christmas wish lists. Greta even got artsy, lying on her back and looking at the Mac iSight camera upside down to see how she would appear on screen.

Snowflake Parade

The kids enjoyed Millburn's holiday parade this afternoon despite the 38 degree weather and wind gusts up to 30 mph. I bundled them in their snowsuits (who knew L.L.Bean's size 4 would be so huge?) and tried to position them with their backs to the wind. Greta insisted on wearing her ballerina shoes, so as you can see, she was truly a vision from head to toe:

Lincoln fell asleep on the drive over and then slept in the stroller for an hour, waking up just in time to see the emergency vehicles with flashing lights and Santa on the ladder truck.
Post-parade we enjoyed hot cocoa and holiday window decorating at Duncan's with friends Jack and Emma. Duncan's mom, Nicole, survived their affection, and we returned home with only two hours to occupy 'til bedtime. An afternoon treat for the kids, and an evening treat for the grownups!

More Nativity fun

The Biblical manger's menagerie never had it so good. Lincoln took the steer for a walk today and Greta added some of her smaller stuffed animals to the mix to lend a little color.

Nativity fun

I come home at night, usually after the kids are asleep, and Carey and I talk briefly about what they did that day. Story hour at the library, which playgrounds they visited, that kind of thing. But lately I've just been plugging in the camera and uploading the photos to tell the day's story. It spares us the conversation. Last night I admired these shots and can only imagine the game they invented with the shepherd, the lambs and a baby Jesus who can obviously fly.

Trimmed tree

I meant to blog about it on Nov. 28 when it happened, but we had too many other stories to share and now I'm only half paying attention as I write. We're watching Mad Men, Season 1, episode 3 and it's as good as the critics say it is.

But I digress... this was the first time in our married lives we'd ever put up a tree before December. Fraser fir, 6 ft., shaped like a perfect cone. $19.97 at Lowe's. Mommy strung most of the lights while Greta put up what she calls the "activity" scene. More about the lamb's adventures with baby Jesus in a future post. Lincoln slept for the first half of the festivities, then enjoyed pulling all the low-hanging bulbs off the branches and exclaiming, "ball."

As of this writing, ornament casualties include a hand-painted blown egg from Prague, an ostrich that graced Carey's first tree, a plastic horse in a carousel, a small mirror ball gifted to AP Entertainment from the ABC Family Network, and a homemade wooden something-or-other that Greta made at daycare. By Christmas week, we will have ornaments ringing only the top third of the tree.

So you think you can dance, Part II

Last summer, Rob's cousin, Ryan, posted the fancy moves his trio performed. Looks like there is something in the Merrill genes. I can hardly wait to see where this next generation of cousins takes the Har-Har-Laugh-A-Day show!

'Tis the season

Macy's has stationery and a special mailbox for letters to Santa at all of their stores. All you need to do is drop off your stamped letter in their special mailbox, and they'll deliver it to the post office for transport to the North Pole. Plus, Macy's will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for each letter received, up to $1,000,000! Greta picked up her postcard last week and dictated her letter to Santa. We haven't seen any stuffed animal that fits the bill yet...and I learned that one should not Google "purple rabbit" to find one!