Merry Belated Cristmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, & Happy Ganna!

Where have we been? Right here all along cooped up with a mind full of stuff and 10 days without electricity. Ice storms, snow, crashing trees, sparking power lines, temporary loss of our driveway, and personal business left us a little edgy, but always cozy, warm, well-fed, and most importantly, together . The ice storm was beautiful, grandiose, and just standing in it and listening to limbs and trees crashing into the river and around our house was majestic (the trees will recover). It was worth a million candles.

So how do we keep three cabin-fevered toddlers and two parents happy during winter storms?

Find toys that the triplets can share and play together with nicely (I mean the ones that don't cause biting riots--not easy). It is music to my ears when they pitter-patter around the house chasing each other, screeching and laughing, and playing games like hide 'n' seek.


Climb on furniture. Am I reaching or does Tsega look a little Holy in this picture below?


Sit and look pretty.

Keep the bowl of binks overflowing.

Climb on furniture AND do dishes. That's right, not only can they climb up adult sized chairs (and ladders! Tsega made it to rung #4 while Jerry was putting up Christmas lights before mama pulled him off. . . ), but now I guess we gotta child-proof up to the rafters because a certain toddler pushes the chair (or toy box) to somewhere he wants to go and climbs on top to reach things he's not supposed to be reaching for in the first place. Like last night when I found him sitting on the laptop computer on top of the kitchen counter!!! The guy is obsessed with all things domestic and gets up to the sink to do dishes. And since monkey-see monkey-do rules, bad behavior (or good milestone-reaching to put it in positive terms because I am always grateful for their healthy development) is quickly taught and learned.

Un-child proof the kitchen heater (yep, they climbed underneath about 5 minutes after Jerry built the cage--Oi vay!).

Eat and eat. Bereket prefers adult utensils now and shucks the baby spoons.

Bundle everybody up and drive--anywhere.

Enjoy Christmas, of course. Their favorite gifts were the three little vintage corn whisk brooms I found on eBay. My favorite gift of theirs was the beautiful clothing from Ghana my mom brought home from a recent trip. I tried to get a decent Christmas photo before their clothes got food on them but my victims were reluctant. The cracker bribe helped.



And no pictures of them on Santa's lap. How cruel to place your child on an ugly strange Santa with a fake beard (and the one in our mall had open wounds on his hands to boot!).

Our only Christmas traditions before the triplets came involved a tree (no tree this year--believe me, with three little boys and mob mentality, it would have been disastrous), David Sedaris's annual elf story on NPR (I love this guy!), and Vince Guiardi's Charlie Brown Christmas music. Now maybe Jerry will let me include all the cartoon Christmas specials.

I hope all your holidays were full of peace, love, and happiness. Bereket (blessings) to all. And a special shout-out and cyber hug to those who have emailed me in the last month or so about the triplets and to those who have left kind comments on my blog. Human being support means everything to me. I leave you and 2007 with twirls, meows, laughter, hits, hugs, and dance. . .

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com