Merry Christmas

It's a little late, but Bill's Christmas gift finally arrived! I ordered it at the beginning of December from a local artist and I knew it was going to be after Christmas when I could give it to him. I am not good at keeping secrets but I made it! I'm so glad that I did. It's fun to have a surprise on an ordinary day.

The significance of the Conservatory is that we were married there almost 18 years ago. I am always looking for anything that has the Palm House to add to our home. This is the first picture I have found that is a night time setting and I think its beautiful! It makes me happy when I see anything with the conservatory since this is where it all started!

Her Wooden Men

Obsessed. Since she was tiny, Erin has loved nutcrackers or as she called them her, "wooden men". She has been in love with this set since before she could walk and as soon as she was tall enough she carried them around, danced with them, played with them, and loved them.
Every year we take a picture before we put them away. Mainly because she loves them so but also to look back over the year and see how tall she is.
I love taking her picture when she is deep in conversation with them, it is hilarious and very sweet. I love that at six she still talks to them.
See you next year wooden men!
~ Erin

Picture of the Day

It's coming down tomorrow and I think Erin is going to miss it!

Cookies for Santa

We love our American Girl magazine! This month's issue had lots of super cute treats. Erin HAD to make the Oreo penguins for Santa. They were more fragile to do than I thought and I was worried she was going to get frustrated but not so. She had a great time and was so excited to have a very special treat for Santa made just by her! A wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve day together!

Paint Roller Snowmen

Every year we make an ornament to give our family at Thanksgiving. This will be the 11th year so I have to look for ideas since we have used many of the basics, salt dough ornaments, etc. This year I saw one in Lowe's craft magazine and the girls HAD to make it.
The snowman's body is a little trim paint roller with a conduit piece for the hat. Can't remember the size but I just held different sizes up to see what fit best. Once the hat was hot glued on we tied jute around the body and left plenty to stick out for arms.
The girls personalized their snowman with a ribbon scarf and buttons. We painted eyes and hot glued a string hanger. Everyone LOVED them! I have to say they are one of my favorites!

"Kitty"

No "Kitty" is not our new pet or Christmas present! When we took Quincy in last week to have a cyst removed, our vet had 4 six week old kittens in the waiting room. Someone had left them in a box on her door step.We just happened to have a good friend who was looking for a kitten for her daughter who is also friends with the girls.
It worked out perfect and "Kitty" was selected. When we went in to pick up Quincy we brought home "Kitty" to pet sit until Christmas Eve. She is so cute and tiny but also a little ball of fire, tearing through the family room where she camped out from the safety of two very enthusiastic pugs!
The girls set up a crate for her with everything she would need and loved her so much. I didn't have to do hardly anything for the three days she was here. The boys and Bill even spent time holding her and loving on her.
On Christmas Eve, we ran out of church to get home and get "Kitty" ready for her new family. We put a tag for the girls friend and added a bow to the carrier. Then we blinged "Kitty" up with a sparkly pink bow. Her new owner Daddy arrived at 8pm to take her home. Erin was a bit teary seeing her go, she had really bonded and basically spent three days in the family room only coming up to eat!
Within 30 minutes we received pictures and texts from her new family and "Kitty" looked so happy!
Most importantly, my girls were thrilled to be able to participate in the magic of Christmas for their friend. They loved helping and being a part of such a special gift for such a special friend. It was so sweet to hear them talk about "Grace's" kitty and how excited and happy she would be. Oh they were so happy for her!
"Kitty" is now known as Vanilla "Nilla" Paws Angel, a perfect Christmas present!

Merry Christmas Grace! We love you!

Santa Hats

 I went to put my New Years pictures up and realized I had not put my adorable Santa hat place cards up yet. Of course I was still finishing them Christmas afternoon but they turned out so cute it was worth it! Everyone loved them but I wouldn't let anyone take them home, instead I packed them up for next year. They were simple just paper, feathery trim, a jingle bell and lots of hot glue but like I said I barely got them done!
We truly had a wonderful Christmas....

 Love all the little hands holding their stemware!

True Christmas Spirit

Oh sweet Ethan, said to me at the beginning of last week that he knew he had the true spirit of Christmas. When I asked him how he knew that he said, "because I don't care about the presents I get, I just want to spend time with Emma."
I knew he meant it. There were no questions about how many days until Christmas from him it was always how many days till Emma gets here? Is she spending the night? Will she be here all day?
When Emma arrived we did our family exchanging with Mimi, Grommy, Grandpa, and aunts and it was hard to get Ethan to focus when it was his turn to unwrap! He was very involved with chatting it up with Emma and although I know he liked his gifts and was very appreciative, his true gift was already here.
Being only a couple months apart and having very similar personalities, these two are very close. They love their visits and that in itself made for the best Christmas for Ethan.

The "Girls"

 

 It wouldn't have been as much fun on Christmas if the girls could not have their BFF's run down to see all their Christmas Treasures. These girls are pretty much inseparable! The Christley's live two doors down and also have 2 older brothers (probably gives them an instant bond!). The ages are perfect, 11,7,5 which match great with our girls 9 and 5. They all get along so well you would think they were all sisters.
Once things had calmed down they had to all run between houses and check things out. Dolls were shared, girly crafts were planned for the coming week, and Grace proudly gave us her new cell phone number!
I had to grab a quick picture and the girls had to do a silly pose as well. My favorite part is Julia came down in her nightgown, now that's my kind of girl!

Plugged In!

 About an hour after all the Christmas gifts were open everyone was "plugged in". I walked throughout the house and found everyone with some sort of screen and a game going on. For the girls it was Webkinz, for Ethan he had a new game on the Wii and Kyle got a new XBox and was busy with that. It was pretty funny to see, I'm sure grandparents are laughing at this!

The girls wanted to be side by side so they could see each other visiting in Webkinz world!

Christmas Morning

 Love this picture of Erin all her crazy hair very suiting for Christmas morning! What a great time we all had! The highlight of the morning was watching the excitement in each child as their gift exchange gift was opened. Paige was ready to burst and told Lindy she must open her gift before she opened anything from Santa. Oh she was so proud to get Lindy they baby doll that she wanted so badly.
And yes Lindy was VERY happy. Phebe is now a part of Lindy's little doll family. Phebe caught her eye because of her realistic size. She can sit on the floor and resembles a 9 month old. She can sit on your hip and be carried around. Lindy is the baby doll queen here and I think she now has every style/type created.
Paige also got a baby doll but a smaller version of Lindy's that she has named Tessa. It warms my heart that at 9 they still love their babies and still ask Santa for new ones. With everything else techy out there and the number one thing they want are babies.
Ethan and Kyle both exchanged books. Ethan was so excited since he didn't even know that Diary of a Wimpy Kid had a new edition out. Decision Points by President Bush was one of the number one things Kyle wanted and we didn't see a lot of him after gift opening.
Ethan basically received a bedroom makeover. Bean bag, new fun lamp he wanted, a new desk from Grommy, he is ready to decorate!
Erin just loved everything! Her webkinz, PetShop stuff, coloring, you name it she was thrilled.
I'm enjoying my gift as well. All week to scrapbook, all day long! The entire week! So there is a delay in getting my pictures here because I am busy getting them put in the real "keep forever" albums and I am not only loving my week but getting some serious amount of pages done. Lindy did tell me she does not think scrapbooking is healthy! I don't cook and feed anyone (they are capable of making their own lunch!), I stay up too late (yes 2am is probably too late), and she claims I take no bathroom breaks (didn't know she was keeping track!). Oh well! Tonight I am done at 1am and we ordered pizza and have plenty left over for lunch!

Bill and I got Kyle's Dispatch article framed for his room. He loved it!

My niece Emma was selling her American Girl Doll carriage. I scooped that up for the girls who were thrilled to add that to their collection.

The Night Before Christmas...

 Christmas Eve and on our way to the Living Nativity at church. Our annual tradition of seeing the birth of Jesus complete with Shepards greeting us with animals outside. It is the kids favorite part of the holiday season. Many of their friends from church are part of the story and every year I whisper "Do you want to be an angel or Shepard next year?" and they all say maybe. Yet every year when it's time to sign up they change their mind.  I think part of it is they like to go and sit together as a family. The service ends with Silent Night and candles. Erin thinks she is pretty special walking back to her seat with a live flame in her hand!
We head home and have dinner of all types of fondue. That's a tradition that my family has done as long as I can remember and Bill and I adopted it for our family. Then its time for A Night Before Christmas and The Littlest Angel (Bill's favorite) then off to bed.
And what tired ones they were! Everyone including Kyle and Ethan were sound asleep my midnight. Unbelievable!! That has not happened in I don't know how long but we were very happy parents!
More pictures of Christmas morning to follow....

Thank you Bill for such a wonderful Christmas. It has been such a special holiday season and I am so grateful to have you as my husband.

Little Angels

 The results of last weeks Girl Scout pottery excursion are these adorable angel ornaments. Lindy did a brown haired one and Paige a blondie. I love them so much! The ornaments are pretty cute too!

Stephanie

My best friend from childhood on came through Columbus today on her way to her mom's. This is a huge deal since Stephanie has been living in Sweden for the last 15 years! We have not seen each other in over 8 years and not even talked on the phone in all that time. Our last pictures together were from my wedding when she was my maid of honor, that was 16 years ago!

When my sisters and parents found out she was coming to the US with her family they all left work and came for the afternoon to visit. She is basically my parents fourth daughter. We had such a great visit. The kids were so interested to hear all about Sweden and what its like to live there. Stephanie's kids Ericka and Adrian had a great time playing which gave us lots of time to catch up. Never enough but a good start!

Thanks so much for making sure to get to us Stephanie! It was so wonderful to meet the kids. Merry Christmas and enjoy your vacation. We will see you soon!

Gingerbread Fun

 We've never used one of these Gingerbread kits before but thought we would give it a try this year. Not too bad, very easy to put together. My only complaint was the icing, think I would make my own next time to get a better consistency.
The kids had a ball as you can see from the pictures. Kyle has about zero interest in this stuff, never really has, only does it to put a smile on my face. This year he totally ditched us, which was fine he spends plenty of family time with us. Plus it got a little girl crazy, Ethan even had to bail after awhile!
So here is our little gingerbread house dripping in icing and candy!