December, continued....

With today being the final day of the year, I figured I should wrap this up. After Mimi's visit, Evyn came down with strep throat for the second time in as many months.

Lucky for her, after five l.o.n.g. days she recovered in time to attend her class holiday party which was cute, of course. During Evyn's recovery, we also attended Reed's pre-school Christmas singing extravaganza. His class dressed as the shepherds and angels for the manger scene (obviously, he attends a Christian school where they are not afraid to say the J word or the C word). I am happy to report that Reed actually participated in this show and sang and everything. To say we were pleasantly surprised is an understatement. See the kid that looks the most uncomfortable? That's Reed.

I'm sure you will need to click the picture below if you want to read the text. Christmas Day was perfect. Santa did not disappoint and our very-heavy-on-the-mimosas brunch with the Martins was wonderful, as usual. Fortunately Grandpa does not mind being our DD. It's all part of the tradition, ya know.

The kids got some great stuff this year. We have all been enjoying their big wheels. As a matter of fact, Holly and I came home from brunch Christmas day and raced. It was like being a kid again. These big wheels hold up to 180 pounds (they say from age 5 up to 180 pounds). We knew exactly what we were doing when we recommended that Grandpa get them for Evy and Reed.

Here it is, the last day of 2008 already. I do not have the same sense of urgency for this year to end as I had in 2007. There is no sense of needing a fresh start, a clean slate. Some amazing things have happened this year. Of course, some unpleasant and annoying things have happened, but overall I really cannot complain. All I can really hope for is more of the same in 2009. I wish the same for you. Happy New Year!

December

What an amazing month it has been. We have squeezed more activities in than I would have thought possible. It all started in early December when Holly and her friend Kim took our kids and another friend's kids to Lewis Ginter for their Festival of Lights. I was unlucky enough to have to stay home and work that night, but being home all alone to work in silence is pretty nice (and warm) too.

The next week started the countdown to Mimi's visit. She came with us to see Santa's Polar Bear Express. (See how tall Evy is compared to her three classmates?) The show included time with the star of the show and then lunch downstairs afterwards - very cute.

After the show, we met up with the rest of the clan and went to the country to cut our tree down. I was dumb enough not to call the tree farm in advance to make sure they were open like the website suggested, so once we got there we were faced with a huge banner that said "Closed for the 2008 pumpkin and tree seasons. Come see us next year." Thankfully, my aunt was home and was able to look up an alternate farm on the internet and get us there. It was a freezing cold day and once we finally made it across the countryside, over the river and through the woods (no lie!), it started snowing ever so slightly. My pictures do not show it at all but I swear it was snowing. Growing up in Texas AND always having a fake tree, this was a first and probably a last since it never seems to snow in Central VA either. We opted for a small-ish white pine. I just love how our little man tried so hard to saw the tree down and wanted to haul it away by himself. The kids rode the tractor with our friends to another part of the tree farm to get some other kind of tree. While they were gone, we just stood out in the snow and drank hot cider. It was amazing (even for this cold hater).

As if decorating our tree, Mimi taking the kids to see the fake snow at Stony Point Mall one evening and out driving around looking at Christmas lights the next was not quite festive enough, we also headed downtown to the James Center to see the lights down there.


To be continued......

Holiday Hell-o!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year stands out a little bit though. The kids are now old enough to really understand what Thanksgiving is all about. They have been putting a lot of thought into what they are thankful for and, of course, doing many, many Thanksgiving crafts at school (how many ways can you construct a turkey out of art supplies anyway? - I think I might know) and talking a lot about Indians, Indian symbols, etc.
The thing that Holly and I thought was so cool was they took it upon themselves (without one argument) to make their own cornucopia centerpiece out of an old basket we had around the house and several things from the refrigerator. They set and decorated the table, hung artwork around the dining room, and on Thanksgiving day, Evyn made almost everyone their very own feather hat (which I am sure has a more formal name). Troy really wanted to help out with the turkey and tried really, really hard to be helpful but never really got the chance.

Our prep work started Tuesday night right before their bedtime.



I was most thankful that we had a very small crowd for dinner. Still exhausting though. Here is Evyn making Ashley and Gary's feather hats. Reed refused to wear one, as expected. I wish I had taken more pictures of him semi dressed up.





See, Troy even had his own hat, thanks to Reed - the only one Reed had anything to do with he gave to the dog, who also seemed very thankful. It had to have been the whole stick of butter he stole from the table and the handful of turkey we shared with him.


The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, cleaning out the attic in an attempt to organize and easily locate our Christmas decorations and Holly hanging lights outside with Evyn cracking the whip. There was also some exciting news from Ashley and Gary ( I'm sure you can guess what that is all about) as well as some socializing and football watching. It was one of those holiday weekends you wish would never end but it did, darn it, and it is Monday once again.