Holiday Wishes

Cooper and Caroline have something to say...please turn off the music below to hear.

Tree Gazing

The tree is half decorated.......but the kids can't get enough of tree gazing.

They love scooting underneath the tree and looking up at the lights....2 and 4 are really great ages for Christmas.....they are loving every bit of the magic. I might jinx myself here but we are pretty low stress these days......I am slowing checking things off the "to do" list.....and making more lists as I go. Hopefully the Christmas cards and shopping will be done by the end of the week....and then on to wrapping and baking, what fun!

I hope you have time to gaze under your tree....try it, its magical.

Winter Lake

The past few days we have been hit with cold days and even colder nights.....but we try to get the kids outside for some fresh air......last weekend we spent a few days at Nana and Grampa's house. While Rob and Grampa worked on the kitchen island we took the kids outside to explore the lake shore.





Nana has boots in all sizes....and Nana hats are fun too! Nana, I think these hats are missing something?!

We found Santa again!

We heard Santa was going to be at our town's tree lighting....and since we are only a 5 minute walk we bundled the kids up.....snack in hands....and we were off in the night to find Santa!
Found him! Once again....Caroline happy to see him! Cooper not so much...

On another note.....this was Rob coaching Caroline's basketball team.....Cooper didn't understand why he couldn't play...and threw a hissy fit when he couldn't go with them....he is giving me the "look, I got what I wanted mom" look.

Christmas Tree Hunt 2008

All Set! Lets go find the perfect tree! Hang on Coop!

It was a touch and go search....a little whining, a bit of crying, Cooper wanting to be held, Caroline had a boot malfunction......but in the end we found our tree! Cooper liked the sawing part!

And Rob had two great helpers.


And the kids found a playgroup friend!

Santa Traditions

Two of our favorite traditions are Breakfast with Santa at Ioka Farm.......this year Caroline couldn't wait to talk to Santa.....
while Cooper clung to Rob as we tried to get a group picture with the cousins.....at this point he couldn't even look at Santa....but as the morning went on, we enjoyed pancakes and hot cocoa.....Cooper warmed up to Santa enough to wave. This is Santa's stash of books...... and every night in December when the kids have taken a bath, in pjs, brushed teeth......they look for the hidden "santa books." Last year we started out hiding the books under Caroline's pillow.....until she clearly stated she didn't want Santa in her room.....it kinda freaked her out......so now Santa uses "magic" to hide one book for Cooper and one book for Caroline in mommy and daddy's room. I keep the stash in my closest.....and hide them while they are in the bath. All year I buy Christmas books from tag sales to book sales.....and we now have over 100 Christmas books.

Reindeer setup and boxes

We thought they would be really excited about the reindeer.....but all they wanted were the boxes....go figure.

So it has been one of those weeks when things just go wrong...nothing serious...just minor things that add up to be frustrating and me yelling...."nothing is easy anymore!"

Caroline and I set up the Christmas village on Monday...thought I could check that off my list...until I found another box with 3 more houses...so I spent the morning trying to rearrange everything.

I had 3 strands of garland for the top of the kitchen cabinets.....only to have 1 strand not light up....so instead of running out to the store I spent over an hour looking for the one broken light.

And, I have been trying to sew curtains for our two new french door, the typical 84" length that all the stores carry is about 15 inches too short.....but I made a rooky mistake on the first hem and spent over 2 hours ripping out stitches! Aahhh!

The good news is I am slowly checking things off "the to do list" but for some reason I keep adding onto it.....like, taking the dog to the vet, picking out stains for the island top, and picking up one sick child from preschool.

Christmas Village

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is our Christmas village......one of the selling points of our house was the 8 foot mantel, 12 inches deep....perfect for garland and village.....I started out with a few houses and when my grandmother passed away I received her pieces.....these pieces are priceless to me...so full of memories and my grandmother's love of the holidays. They soon became a year round display in her house along with her dollhouses.....every little girls dream. So now I cherish the moment the boxes come down from the attic.....we wait to put Cooper down for a nap and Caroline and I get to work. I set up the houses and Caroline unwraps each village person.....like unwrapping a gift.

Thanksgiving in Vermont

After stuffing ourselves at Nana and Grampa's house on Thanksgiving, I traveled up to Vermont with the kids to see Gramma and Shener......Rob stayed home to work on projects (without 2 little kids bugging him) and came up on Sunday to eat turkey dinner #2....after eating turkey leftovers for 2 days from turkey dinner #1......yes...we are blessed with lots of family....and lots of Thanksgivings. So, every year we have the tradition of putting lights on the pine tree in the back of my mom's house and taking a family picture......the tree was itty bitty when we started this tradition....now it takes ladders and throwing, I mean tossing...lights as high as we can. We brought the kids to their first hockey game......Castleton vs. ? They loved sitting right up to the glass....until a few players were smashed right in front of them....the picture below is of Caroline holding Cooper's hand while they watched.....every time the players would get near they would race back to us....they had a blast!

Cooper was allowed to help with the dishes this year.

We headed downtown for the tree lighting and hot chocolate. We waited in line for the hayride, but then it started picking up people in a different line.....and then we went to go see Santa....but the line was very long.....we caught up with Santa at the mall the next night.

Caroline is wearing a vintage hat from Shener's mom.....

So now the eating has slowed down....back to normal eating. Let the decorating begin!!!