Twas’ the Night Before Christmas…

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope everyone’s holiday was as warm and festive as mine was.  On Saturday, Christmas Eve, I went with Frank to his family’s house in Brooklyn.  Nothing like partying with the Eye-talians; we had what seemed like a 15 course seafood themed dinner.  The deliciousness included calamari, a vat of ciopinno, which is like a giant fish stew, seafood salad, lobster tails, (which OMG I actually ate; I never eat seafood) and many more edible delights I can’t pronounce or remember, all prepared by Frank’s stellar chef cousin.  Note to self: “Make one of my future children a professional chef, this way I never have to cook for the holidays”.  Our feeding bonanza concluded with every kind of dessert you can think of and the unwrapping of presents by the Christmas tree. 

Here's a picture of ciopinno!  It's so much fun to say the word, pronounced cho-pino.

On Christmas Day, Frank made sure we woke up at the totally convenient time of 7:00am to get to Mandy’s so we could watch Kaylee wake up and see all of her presents.  Mandy and Justin were so excited to be woken up at 7:30am by an overzealous Francis and myself.  Nothing was more adorable than watching her face light up when she saw all of the boxes surrounding the tree.  Note to self: “Only buy toys that do not need instructions OR batteries”.  Her favorite item was a Little Tyke battery powered train from Uncle Frankie.  Kaylee can actually sit on it and ride it around the kitchen.  It’s Tuesday now and I am pretty sure she still hasn’t stopped riding it yet.

From there we went back to Frank’s house where I was spoiled rotten by his family.  Picture the quintessential rotating red and white Christmas tree with tons of expertly wrapped color coded presents all around.  Frank’s living room layout looked more like a Martha Stewart holiday ad or the centerpiece decorated tree found in Pier I imports.  I started crying on the way home from his house because no one person deserves so many things.  The list included Hunter rain boots, all seasons of Dexter, every perfume imaginable, clothes, (including my favorite but way too expensive brand Free People), an IPad, digital camera, video camera, pj’s, and jewelry.  I must have looked crazy driving home with a carful of unwrapped presents and tears streaming down my face. 

When I got home I had Christmas with my immediate family around 3pm, which is actually the earliest we’ve ever had a Christmas in the Bayiokos household.  Usually mom’s screaming for us not to come downstairs until after she’s done wrapping, which is ALWAYS after 12pm.  I keep insisting that she just throw everything into a giant gift bag, and that at 26 years I am pretty sure I have figured out that it’s not Santa who’s been leaving the presents all along, but she doesn’t care.  Note to self: “Get everything wrapped beforehand at the mall.  Saves time and Santa’s elves from A LOT of stress Christmas night, or in our case, Christmas day”.

 I am always so excited to give out the gifts I have bought for others.  I enjoy surprising those I love with a truly awesome gift.  Frank summed it up best, “My favorite gift was seeing how happy Kaylee got when she opened her train”.  In giving we are actually receiving. 

I hope everyone had a Christmas filled with happiness, friends and family.  It’s a time to reflect on the things we have instead of the things we don’t.  I am fortunate enough to have all the people I care about and all the things I need in life.  I have found that God always gives me what I need and not everything I want, and I am fine with this.  There are so many people with much less, more hardships and more problems and I am grateful for and recognize that my struggles compared to others are thankfully minuscule.  For me that is what Christmas is, to be happy to stand around the brilliance of a Christmas tree with all the people that were able to stand around it the year before. 

And of course, it’s a time to reflect upon religion, something for which I admittedly do not do often enough.  The stories that all religions pass down are beautiful and worth sharing from generation to generation.  Even the atheist has to admit that the morals and ethics that are taught by religions are worth hearing and have lessons to be learned that are pertinent to all.  So, keeping in tune with my Catholic faith, this is one of our most sacred holidays, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Without his sacrifice none of this would be possible.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

The Games I Play with my Niece

Who knew that I could fall in love with someone so small?  Today’s blog revolves around my niece.   This tiny girl has so much spunk and pizzazz without even being able to formulate sentences yet.  The innocence of a child is, I suppose, the most endearing quality of every child.  The insane frustration that builds up inside me when Kaylee wakes up at 7am melts away when she crawls up beside me in bed, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, and begins talking in baby gibberish.  Sweeter words have never been spoken.

Making up songs and dances and prancing around the living room like a crazy person is actually kind of fun. I love being able to solve the world’s problems for her by simply retrieving her favorite toy that’s perched too high or refilling her juice bottle.  I feel like Superwoman, but at the same time I worry for the future about the things I won’t be able to fix, like a personal setback or a broken heart.

I wish there was a way for me to bubble wrap her, to make sure she’s always safe and sound, as impractical and unhealthy as that is.  As my grandmother once said, “I didn’t know how to be a parent; children don’t come with a handbook”.  It is nature or nuture that is mostly responsible for churning out a good child?  What am I doing wrong, what am I doing right?    

God plays this crafty trick on women.  One day you’re worrying about your weekend plans, your hair appointment and your shopping excursion, and BAM out of nowhere you start thinking, almost wanting a baby.  It’s like God created a schedule for women.  From your first menstrual cycle, to your biological alarm clock setting off, to menopause, God has predetermined women’s lives and even our thought processes.  Not so for men.  Why? The injustice of it all.  How will being a mother affect my plans of world domination?  Seriously.

Veering back, having a niece has brought out qualities in me that I did not know I had.  The patience I have developed when I find my niece drawing on my bedroom wall with my favorite eyeliner, or dumping the dog’s water bowl again, has surprised me.  Don’t get any ideas; right now I am completely content with just being an aunt.  That 24/7 job is still on the backburner for me.  I like having a baby sometimes and then being able to give her back.  I still use way too many wipes when she has a diaper-full of number 2 and I have not quite mastered the art yet of whipping up food in 5 minutes flat for baby.

In less than 2 years of her existence I have consistently learned every day from her, how to love more, how to be more patient, and unfortunately how to worry more.        

I guess my point is that while children are still young, and while kissing their boo-boos will make them feel better again, relish the time you have with them, because today’s problems will not be tomorrow’s.  In years to come when you’re worrying about college tuition, the tough looking guy that seems to be hanging around with her an awful lot, and the nose ring she has been hinting at getting, you’ll look nostalgically back at the time when all that would suffice was a lollipop and a kiss. 

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.  Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me.  And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.  What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.  That's all I do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.  I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."  ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye