One Milestone & One Historic Break From Tradition

TONIGHT...

Milestone:
After Thanksgiving on Thursday and then the next four nights straight of eating T'Giving leftovers for dinner we finally couldn't take it anymore. I had to work late, and we could not stomach the idea of a sixth night of turkey, so Braydon seized the opportunity for him and the boys to pursue one of their favorite activities: a trip to the pizza place. Braydon reported that tonight both boys marched right in there to Borderline Pizza, Braydon plopped them up on the counter, and Owen yelled out "High Five Sal!" (to the owner). Sal, of course, came running from the kitchen. After 'high fiving' with K & O, and after K & O 'high fiving' with the rest of the pizza-making-guys, Sal gave each boy a piece of fresh pepperoni. But I digress... this is not the milestone... this is normality... Milestone: once we were all at home situated around the dining room table for supper both K & O requested that their pizza be "not cut" but rather that they "eat it big"?!!!!!!! This is a huge milestone since they ALWAYS always always ALWAYS always insist that *EVERYTHING* that they eat be "cut." "You cut it?" they always, always, always request. But tonight, they ate their pizza "big." They were sooooo proud of themselves. A big milestone for our pizza-loving two year olds.

Historic Break From Tradition:
Who the heck knows (or even cares) how it began, but somewhere along the way I started a tradition many years ago that I/we DO NOT start Christmas stuff until December 1. No Christmas music to be played until December 1. No Christmas shopping to be done until December 1. And definately, definately NO CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS in the house until December 1. But alas, I'm a sucker for my precious bambinos and they could probably get me to do just about anything on earth for them. Tradition smadition blahdition. Starting this weekend we see Christmas lights decorating houses as we drive along the roads to and fro. Being the crazy foolish people that we are, everytime we see the Christmas lights we sing "Hallelujah" like maniacs. So, since the weekend my sweet baby boy Kyle has been asking, with the most forlorn little look on his face, "Mama, where'd my hallelujah go?" and "Mama, where's my hallelujah?" and "Mama, what happened to my hallelujah?" It hasn't taken a rocket scientist for us to coax out of him that he wants some lights up at his own house. I've been telling him that we're going to do it "Sunday" (like that even means anything to the poor child?!) and that "we have to wait." Tonight though, I couldn't bear it anymore, and I thought to myself, "my gosh, there will come a day not too far in the teenage-years-future when I'll be pulling teeth to get this boy to help me put up a Christmas light..." and I thought, "oh, what the heck..." and I shouted to my three family-mates, "YOU WAIT HERE!!! And sing Jingle Bells while you wait!!!" (which they did), and I ran to the basement to dig in the Christmas storage to fetch a string of lights. I threw them up along the dining room window. And I plugged them in. You should have seen the look on my boys' faces, and the twinkles in their eyes, and the spirit in their excitement when they saw those Hallelujah lights light up in their home. We'll put the tree up on Sunday, but I must say, that the breaking of a tradition has never felt so satisfying.