Merry Christmas, everyone! May your holiday season be filled with love, friendship and lots of chocolate. From our family, to yours, have a very happy holiday.

Lyrics:
I used to write a blog
About Swee’Pea & TheMonk
But then came #3
And now they’re in a funk, Boo Hoo Hoo
But Santa’s on his way
So we are being good
We tell Santa we love our sis
We’re just misunderstood!
Oh, Jingle Bells, The Baby Smells
But she’s here to stay
She only sleeps, eats and poops
But we love her anyway, hey!
(Repeat)
At least three times a week
The baby cries at night
I haven’t slept a full 8 hours
And now I’m quite a sight
But they say this soon shall pass
When she’s not quite so new
Yes I’m tired, but it’s ok
At least it isn’t two!
Chorus

The voices ring through the silent night. Giggles and loud bursts of chatter followed by lower murmuring. The talking and the listening in on the baby monitor has been well documented on this blog. But this week, the conversations are bitter sweet.

In another week or so, new beds will arrive at our house. I will assemble them and, for the first time, put Swee’Pea’s bed in one room… and TheMonk’s bed in another. Even as I write this, the tears well up in my eyes at the prospect of the twins being separated at night. I knew this day would come but now I’m not so sure I want it.

I want to hold onto the love and comfort that these two give each other. i want to hold onto the innocence of youth and the love of siblings that has never been stronger. I want to hold onto the notion of Swee’Pea and TheMonk being an inseparable team, conspiring, sharing, protecting, supporting and, yes, even fighting. They’ve always had each other and now… it feels like they won’t.

Tonight, I turned up the baby monitor that has never left their room (but not always turned on) and listened to them talk about computer games and canopy beds and everything that’s important to six-year-olds. I reminisced about all the great conversations I’ve heard. Singing. Arguments. Constant talking and cute comments. Wonderful memories that I hope I never forget.

And as we head towards this bittersweet milestone, I pray that they will always remember the closeness that only they can share and that this bond can survive the distance of a wall and two doors.

In the meantime, forgive me if I shed some tears.

There are a few things I need to get you all caught up

First, if you recall, TheMonk and Swee’Pea had a fundraiser where they had a goal of selling 75 items to win the coveted runaway alarm clock. Well, we didn’t quite get to 75 but they did sell 27 items and were very happy with the collection of various swag they won. My favorite? The 5 foot bendable pencil. Who knew that we needed this pencil? Thank you to all of you who participated. Swee’Pea and TheMonk were very excited by the support they received.

Second, you may recall that I was involved in Movember – growing a mustache for cancer awareness and fundraising. I was part of a team of some great Dad Bloggers, led by my friend Doug at Laid Off Dad. Unfortunately, I had to shave my mustache just prior to the end of the month but I raised $170 and our team raised over $34,000 which included a match from Norelco. You can see some great videos of gentlemen shaving with Norelco razors here.

Third, it seems that the good people of Babble.com felt that this little corner of the blogosphere was one of the Top 50 Dad Blogs of 2011. I’m totally honored to be on the list and to see some of my old-skool dad bloggers on the list as well. If you want some great blogs to check out, do not miss this list. For an arguably better list, you can also check out the Top 100 Mom Bloggers of 2011. My cousin Maggie is #20 – a travesty, if you ask me.

Finally, this year we celebrated Christmahanukwanzaakah (what, you’re not familiar with this holiday?) by making our very own music video for Neil’s 6th Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert. If you scroll down, I’m 8th from the bottom, but there are some great videos on there – go and check them out.

That catches you up! Regularly scheduled programming to follow.

We are eating dinner. Our dinner conversation has taken a typical turn towards school.

Swee’Pea reports that she jumped up three frogs in reading level and got to check out harder books at the library today.

“You are such a good reader, Swee’Pea.” I say. “I’m so proud of you reading these new books.”

Swee’Pea takes a bite of food and, with a mouth slightly full, replies, “And I slap your butt.”

“What did you say?!” I choke out, in disbelief that my sweet 6 year old would even go there during a standard dinner conversation.

“I said, ‘And I read chapter books!’” She says indignantly.

I breathe a sigh of relief and laugh as I tell the table what I thought she had said.

We all get a good laugh – except the baby. She isn’t old enough to appreciate butt humor.

Someday. Someday.