Blame it on Christmas, El Salvador and the iPad

It has been over a month since I have updated here - definitely my longest stretch to date. I have no good excuses but my lame excuses are that I had too much to do for Christmas, I was in El Salvador for 2 weeks and I have been playing with my new iPad non-stop. (I know I can blog on my iPad but my typing skills are already horrible and only get worse when using the iPad.)

I have so much to write about that I'm not sure where to begin. It was Matteo's first Christmas. It was the first Christmas where the twins understood that they had gifts and knew to unwrap them. Hopefully next year they will know not to unwrap other people's gifts. We began 2 new Christmas traditions: Christmas pajamas (on Christmas Eve) and Christmas croissants baked by yours truly. It was my first time making croissants (used the bread machine to make the dough) and they came out OK: A- for taste, C for looks.

Three days after Christmas, we got on a plane (and then another) to head to El Salvador. I was really anxious leading up to this trip - I am pretty comfortable being outnumbered by my kids when I'm at home or out and about in familiar places but running through airports to make connections, not so much. In the end, the trip was fine. Sebastian and Collette were great, mostly thanks to copious amounts of snacks and the potable DVD players. Matteo did well but didn't nap as much as I would have liked. He did poop though, which may not seem weird but he only poops once a week. And he saved it for the plane. And then he did same thing on the way home. Figures.

Being in El Salvador was great. Billy has all the pictures on his iPhone and we haven't been home long enough to upload them all to my computer but I'll be sharing them soon enough. With so many adult hand around, it truly was a vacation. Next year will be even better since I won't be nursing a baby every two hours. The beach was so much more fun now that the twins are a year older. Last year they didn't even know how to play in the sand. This time, they could have done it for hours! The ocean was a bit overwhelming for them, even though it didn't have waves, but it's just as well. One less thing to worry about.

And now, we're back home, covered in 2 new feet of snow. Leading up to Christmas and New Years I had been very exasperated with life. But our vacation did its job and feel renewed and energetic. Lord knows I need it!