December is NUTS!!

As you can tell by my lack of posts, December has been NUTS and I've found no time to blog.  The month flew by - I can't believe we're staring 2012 in the eyeballs!

Ella and I started the first weekend in December with the Jingle Bell run downtown.  Her gym teacher got over 120 people signed up from the school. It was a ton of fun and Ella ran the whole way with me!  (It was a 5k, or 3.2 miles).  She did great and wants to start running with me more often.

We put our Christmas tree and decorations up earlier than usual this year because we hosted the Santa party, and it would have looked pretty bad to have Santa but no tree or decorations!

Both Ella and Silas wanted to put the angel on the tree this year - so they both did.  Both are getting pretty heavy for Justin to lift up that high!

We had another great visit with Santa this year - our 10th year I believe.  Such a fun tradition.
And Ella had quite the outfit picked out - she looks like one of Santa's Elves!

Ella's class also put on a stellar performance with their play called Snow Way Out.  It was very good and some of those kids that sang solos were very brave!

I tried to upload the video of one of the songs but no go...

Silas had  a fun party in class.  All the kids got a gingerbread boy. Si was so excited to get him.  His teacher had been reading The Gingebread Boy to them in class.

Margie got a cardboard gingerbread house for Ella and Silas to paint.  They did very well for the first couple days...then I had to twist arms to get them to paint!

Guess who ended up finishing the painting on it!? It turned out cute and Cleo likes it :)

Much more to post about Christmas and Si's birthday...but that will have to come later!

Fa La La La La

We are busy little Christmas bees around here.  Sometime over the last week, the Christmas tree lost its top strand of lights...at first a few lights went out and then by mid-week, the whole top strand was gone.  Justin was content to let it be but it bummed me out every time I would look at the tree.  So yesterday we took everything off the top half of the tree, pulled off the old lights, put on new lights, got covered in tree sap and then put everything back on.  In the process, we discovered that the tree was not very sturdy in the stand.  Justin tried to tightened it up but it kept leaning like crazy...enter fishing line tied to the curtain hook and curio drawer knob.  Voila - a perfectly straight, fully lit Christmas tree!

We have an official name for Mr. Elf.  The kids really, really want to call him Buddy.  So Buddy is his nickname.  I've named him Felix Navidad because I think that is much more clever than Buddy.  So I call him Felix, they call him Buddy.  This Elf thing is a lot of work!  I woke up to 5 post-it notes worth of questions the first night he was with us, and 3 the next night. "Can I bring you someplace on Christmas Day?  Just this one time?  Pleas pleas pleas" "How do you get down when I can't reech you?" Felix/Buddy didn't  answer the 2nd round very promptly so she added "Y did you not write back on my notes??"

I bet Felix/Buddy at no clue he was getting into such a high maintenance situation when he came a-knockin'.

We had some additional name suggestions from an "anonymous" source:

Snitch, Quisling, Willard - Famous Movie Rat, Ben ( Sequel to Willard), Elfis, Finkus (Fink on Us), Squealer,  Weasel.  I do think Squealer is kinda festive.

We also made some Christmas cookies yesterday.  The kids iced and decorated some for Santa and I made some very yummy chocolate crinkle cookies...while we watched Elf (as you can see from the TV!).

We wish that we could be with ALL the family at Christmas - but we'll be thinking about you all - near and far - and wishing you a blessed and magical Merry Christmas!

What's been Going On?

So, what have we been up to since we got back?  A lot of picking up around the house and trying to get ready for Christmas!!  We spent 17 of 33 days in New York and Christmas has completely ambushed us!

Last weekend Ella and I went to a Girl Scout mom/daughter gala.  It was a "formal" and I had nothing to wear (unless you count my wedding dress) so I ran to the consignment shop and got this dress that maybe someday I'll get to wear again. We had a good time eating cookies (girl scout of course), drinking tea and dancing!

We also went and got our Christmas tree last weekend.  It's not romantic or pretty but we go to Lowe's and get the tree, pay our $15 and get down to the business of getting it trimmed while sipping on eggnog. 

It was getting pretty snowy and bad out when we went to get the tree and we saw this car go off of the road...

oopsie!

I love the shape of the tree - quite lovely for $15!  I think we broke the record for how fast we threw the ornaments on this year.

We've been getting a ridiculous amount of snow and frigid temps (in the single digits) for the last week. Crazy for this time of year!  We've been holing up inside a lot excect for when we MUST go out. Or to play in the snow a little bit.

This is the kind of weather we typically get in February...not December!  I hope that after Christmas we have a very mild winter!!

It's difficult to get into the Christmas spirit this year - I think the kids are doing okay...they are very focused on the presents and Santa of course.  Silas has been coming up and giving random hugs, which I love. Justin and I have been in "be productive" mode.  Getting lots of stuff crossed off our list. Justin is taking time off now until the new year to work on admin for the business.  I am still trying to get caught up from being out so much between surgery and NY trips.  I really just want to get to 2011 and pray for a better year.  And a year for cleaning out the basement!  After the last few weeks, that has become a #1 priority!!

I hope that we can find a way to remember Grandpa J in each holiday - and during those times that he would have spent with us.  It's so important to me that the kids remember as much as possible - his quirkiness, his visits, his birthday calls, the cartoon wrapped gifts.
We have some fun parties to look forward to, our annual Christmas Eve of wrapping and drinking and a New Year's Eve with friends.  Hopefully that will help get us more in the holiday mood!

O Cannon Bomb, O Cannon Bomb

We put our tree up a little earlier than usual this year (several weekends ago). We made the annual trek to Lowe's because that means I get to avoid walking around a tree farm in -8 degree weather.  We are NEVER at Lowe's more than 12 minutes total.  And Silas and I are usually back in the car warming up after 6 minutes.

We got home, turned on the Christmas music, poured the eggnog and got out all the decorations. I noticed that Silas was singing very heartily to "O Tannenbaum" (Nat King Cole version) but Si's words were a little off - "O CANNON BOMB!  O CANNON BOMB!! Mah blah mah bah bu bee bo. O CANNON BOMB!  O CANNON BOMB!  Ba dum ba dee bo moo boo."  I know I'll never hear the words to that song the same again...

Ella decided that she wanted to be the Christmas Lion.

This was her wreath that she made last year in Kindergarten

- it now hangs on her bedroom door.

It's nice to have a (tall) teenage boy in the house for things like helping his dad string the lights on the tree - that is a job that I don't care for!

I like this picture (below) because you can't see who's holding the lights.

Mason was walking with them and I hadn't changed the shutter speed - hence the "ghost" 

Miss Ella Boo is also very helpful in the decorating of the tree - she loves to hang the ornaments and her job is to be the angel topper (at least while she is still small enough for Daddy to lift her up there)

We've been lucky that Cleo has not showed any interest in the tree or batting the ornaments off of it.  She is much more interested in sleeping in the basket of junk on top of Ella's book bag (she sleeps on it everyday if Ella leaves it on the floor or anywhere accessible).  Like I've said, she's a funny cat.

I CANNOT believe that Christmas is a week away.  It totally snuck up on me this year, especially with the events of the last few weeks.  I was out shopping until 11pm tonight (sounds worse than it was - I didn't even go until 9pm).  Target was dead and it was a good time to go (thanks to Margie, otherwise I'd have been in my pj's in bed at 9:05). 

I'm feeling pretty good - starting to bounce back and somewhat ready for the holidays.  I think the kids are going to be happy with Santa this year and I am taking time off between Christmas and New Year's to get some organizing done around the house, recharge myself, do some fun stuff with the kids AND to mourn turning 40.  I think I see some massages, pedicures and wine in my near future...

O Tannenbaum...O tannenbaum

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend before last - always a fun time in our house. I'd love to say that we take a fun-filled family drive to a tree farm, carefully select and cut down our tree (all while frolicking in the snow) and then sing Christmas carols all the way home.

The REAL story is: we pack the kids into the van, make the 10 minute drive to Lowes, spend 4.67 minutes picking out the perfect tree (Mason and Justin usually agree on several that I veto before we all agree) and then we pay our $15.97 for it, net it and stick it on the roof of the van. Usually (always), Ella and I cannot stand to even be outside for the total of 5 minutes that it takes, so while Dad is paying for the tree, we're back in the van warming up.

When Mason was little, Justin and I took our first tree-buying trip to Lowe's - and yes, we were the people that tied the doors shut on the car (with Mason inside - luckily he was about 3 or 4 at the time). And yes, we had him roll down the windows so we could climb in and not have to untie the tree. Truly not something that I should admit to!
But 10 years later, we are pros - we have a minivan with a roof rack now and that makes it pretty foolproof.

Another confession: I am about totally worthless when it comes to the tree-trimming event. I am in charge of music and eggnog when we decorate. I do put the household decorations up, but mostly I try to make myself look busy. I am more of the re-arranger once the tree trimmings are placed.

The best part for me is seeing all the old ornaments that we had when I was growing up and the ones that the kids have made over the years.

Silas hanging an icicle on the tree (actually, on the cord to the lights)

Ella has become the official "angel-put-er-on-er"

Silas loves the nutcracker - it tries to bite him

Justin and I laughed our butts off at this - Mason made it in the 2nd grade (it's a snowman). He has my artistic (in)ability.

It reminds me of the snowman from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie.