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January 23, 2002

This entry will consist of probably 6,000 pictures of Quinn.

It's important that you remain seated.

Christmas '02 was much better received than the previous year. It began, as is customary, with Christmas Eve breakfast at Andy's Uncle Gary and Aunt Shelly's house, where Quinn received the first installment of her seven thousand presents. We continued on to Cinda and Henri's house for dinner and more presents.

Andy imitating Michael Jackson and the baby dangle

Oooh! Is that police car that plays Hammer's "Can't Touch This" really for me??

When we arrived home from the Christmas Eve festivities, we found that my niece Kaitlin had arrived from California. Between my other niece Maureen being home from college and Kaitlin staying with us...it was a fabulous few weeks. Maureen is the most reliable, agreeable, versatile babysitter I could ever dream up. I felt perfectly comfortable at one point handing her the keys to my car and telling her to just take Quinn to her house for awhile while I ... did something. She needs no instructions, she can handle any situation (although she is not very polite when describing some of Quinn's atomic diapers), and Quinn loves her. When she left to go back to school a few weeks ago, I begged her to stay, offering to pay her tuition at the local community college. She snorted as she walked out the door, headed back to her dorm that has a piano in the lobby. Humph.

Kaitlin is unspeakably amusing. I laugh at every word that comes out of her mouth, much to her puzzlement. I can't even explain it. I want to hear her commentary on everything. I gave her the Mary Kate and Ashley biography for Christmas (yeah, it was about 26 pages long), because she's obsessed with those two. Last summer when she was here, she begged me to rent "Holiday in the Sun," their latest crap-fest. So anyway, she's reading the book, enjoying it, making sure to share the most barf-worthy passages with us, and eventually she asked for a highlighter. I got her one, and she sat on a chair highlighting "important" passages...simply for her own amusement. I mean, really. Does anyone else have a niece this cool?

My cousin Laura, an up-and-coming favorite babysitter, Kaitlin, and Maureen holding Quinn. Look how happy the bunny is to be hanging with the girlies! Look how happy Laura is to be feasting from a bucket o' cookies! It's just all happiness at this table.

Christmas morning brought donuts and Uncle Dennis to view present opening at our house.

Quinn, you may have one morsel of my donut, and that's it...

Look! Wouldn't you rather have those presents??

Love LaLa! Love her!!!

We finished off the holiday by going to my cousin Cathy's house, where my family had gathered to exchange presents. Because, you know, Quinn hadn't received enough yet.

And then, after presents and commotion and two full days of being in rooms full of people...Quinn cracked. Enjoy our family portrait, 2002:

And Quinn wasn't the only one who was weary of the holidays...

Aahh...my brothers-in-law...napping together, not unlike Joey and Ross...

And two more random pictures:

For the first time in two years, I didn't write an entry on New Year's Eve. That's because we were out rockin' with our new friends Amy & Greg. I met Amy at Gymboree class, and immediately fell in love with her ex-teacher, Phil Collins-lovin', cool mama, not "put on this planet to become a mother" badass self. We have so much in common that it's a little disconcerting, and I am so glad I met her and invited my way into her life. (Awww, and mad props to Julie, another Gymboree friend who makes me happy with her perfectly coiffed self and organized baby food cabinet!)

Anyway, so Amy and Greg let Andy and I come over to play games and watch Dick Clark. It was the perfect evening, and it was nice to not spend the night sitting on my booty in my office, writing for the enjoyment of you folks out there. Nothing personal, you understand.

Happy New Year! Yeah, I know it's January 24!

So I'm trying to do the redesign thing so that Andy can hook me up with Moveable Type and I can update this site more frequently. But it's hard to spend a lot of time doing design when I could be reading Television Without Pity and Fametracker. I am ten different kinds of lazy at night, my friends. After Quinn goes to bed I just want to watch our TiVo'd West Wings or sit here and veg. Maybe I should live on a farm with a family who will make me go to bed at sundown.

Any takers?