The Piano Guys

I hope you enjoy this holiday video.

Friday the 13th of December

Fear not... for behold, he barely lifted his head for this photo.  He is not likely to cross your path.  Unless, you are standing on some fleece.  Then, all bets are off.

we saw Santa again!

Every year since we moved here, we have celebrated at Lew's company Christmas party.  This year, Santa and Mrs Claus actually met us at a photographer's studio for more formal pictures and some holiday chit chat.

Santa asked Gretchen and Carl what their favorite cookies are because he said he likes to get kids' favorites.  They all agreed on chocolate chips.  I suspect that Santa knew Carl was lying when he said he liked them.  Santa started to ask about milk, but both kids quickly corrected him and reminded him that we leave cider.  He smiled and said he loves cider!!!

Carl asked for rubber stamps of TV channels and TV ratings.  Gretchen asked for a 2013 Holiday Barbie doll.  We hugged and exchanged wishes for a wonderful holiday season for all of us before Santa's elves gave each child a stuffed dog.  They were so happy to receive puppies!  Every year, Santa has given them a beloved stuffed animal.  My kids are very good with their toys and they have such great memories that they easily remember who gave them which stuffed animal and when.

Gretchen did mention that Santa was not as silly as he had been when we saw him in the gardens, but we both decided that since Mrs Claus was with him tonight, he had to be a little more serious than when we saw him alone.  When we saw him before, he actually sat on the lap of a little boy ahead of us in line.  that little boy had a Santa hat on, so the Big Guy sat on his lap and asked for a scooter!  The kids loved it!!!

Here are some of my photos from tonight.  The photographer will be emailing me one more posed formal shot that she took.

 Carl's request

 Gretchen's turn

 Santa reminded them that they need to go to bed nice and early so he can come while they are sleeping.

 They are definitely on his Nice List!

movie night! Minions!!!!

Despicable Me 2 came out on DVD yesterday.  The commercials say it would make a good Christmas present.  yeah, it might if your kids were obsessed with minions and have known for weeks exactly what day the blu-ray and DVD were coming out!

Here they are - homework done.  movie on.  dinner cooking.

They wore minion shirts to school in anticipation!

It was so warm here yesterday, lizards were out!

2 + 3 = 5 .... under age 8

Over the weekend, we headed over to Lindy's for an afternoon of construction and dinner!  He wanted to get the twins together with other friends of his... the triplets!!!!

The kids had a blast building this box play house.  Well, Carl did declare, "Girls are wild" at one point and disappeared into the house to play on Lindy's ipad.  We dragged him back out for a group photo!

After the picture above - they closed the girls into the box and tried to mail them to The North Pole.  

After, the kids had to cook their own dinner!

and the grown-ups got to eat in the other room.  Three 6 year olds and two 8 year olds can eat alone!!!  They quickly ate their hot dogs to make room for make-your-own-sundaes with lots of fun toppings!  Us grown-ups.....  we used our ice cream to ala mode one of my apple pies.  Mmmmmm!!!  It came out perfect - not soupy at all like the one I made on Thanksgiving.  What a fun evening out for all of us!!!

7:34 a.m.

Car Seat Friday!!!

throwback Thursday

I found this photo in my searching and wanted to share it.   This was taken up in Potsdam by my dear friend Earline in December 1993 when we worked together in a day care center there.  She cooked our kids delicious wholesome meals and I was one of the 3 year old teachers.  Santa came in to see the children and I asked him for a picture with me outside of my classroom.  

 
Sadly, he died of a heart attack on Christmas Day.  He was shoveling.

20 years ago.

I still wonder about his family each holiday season.  I mean, there is no good time to lose a loved one, but to have the anniversary of his death be Christmas Day seems so heartbreaking.

7:39 a.m.

2 minutes earlier......

the last night of Hanukkah

The little flames button onto the candles.  She wore this to school today with 1 candle left not glowing.  That got added tonight.

He did take time to open some presents and had fun, but this is the only photo I took of him tonight.  Yes, he is wearing a Halloween Angry Birds shirt.  He's cool like that.

visit to the beach with Grandma

Even though it was overcast, we headed to the beach with Grandma today.

 timer shot for us!

I took a few pictures of Carl since I had been here only a week earlier with Gretchen.  Those pictures of her are in my 5 years post.  

we saw Santa!

Tonight, we went to the holiday light show at the local gardens.  They have beautiful lights hanging throughout the trees on the grounds, a massive Lego display that is brought in and built over 2 weeks and you can meet Santa!

We heard a little boy ahead of us tell Santa that last year he heard Santa come in!  Santa said he remembered because he had to come back later when he was alseep.  The little guy was about the same age as Carl & Gretchen.  Carl was falling in love with a little baby girl who was a few families ahead of us.  He says he loves babies and he can't wait to meet his 2 newborn twin girl cousins in December.  

 I love this one - she is giving Santa some attitude and Carl looks like he is trying to stay on the Nice List!

Gretchen told him she wants a 2013 Holiday Barbie doll.  Santa said, "2013?  Is she a baby?"  She thought that was funny, but when he tried to ask them about their birthday, she got confused.  He asked how many birthdays they have had and they each said "Eight".  He then said, "Oh, I only have 1 birthday.  I celebrate it's anniversary every year."  That went right over their heads.  Carl asked for an "iPad 4S".  This device does not exist.  Santa told him he would bring it if Carl could spell it.  Carl spelled "i-p-a-d-4-S".  Nope, Santa said, "i-p-a-d-f-o-u-r-e-s-s".  So, he is off the hook!  Pretty funny!

Time for a hug and then we headed out for popcorn and to wander through the garden.  

We waited to see Santa for about an hour, so we didn't have enough time to see everything else.  We were in the middle of a gazebo decorate with lights when it turned 9:00.  Click. Lights off.  Luckily, that was close to the parking lot and we were able to find our way out.  Maybe we will get back there on another visit this season.

Black Friday shopping!

Yes, this year, Lew & I went shopping on Thursday.  We left Lindy and Grandma with the kids and we bopped over to Walmart to buy the pajamas we buy every Black Friday.  The problem this year was that Walmart opened on Thursday and they put these pajamas on their 6pm sale.  We knew if we waited until Friday they would be all picked over.  We were right.  By 7:30, there were very few remaining in the kids' sizes.  We also bought some blu-rays and DVDs very cheap that we will probably never unwrap.  Another tradition around here.

and I needed bread.  So, yes, in the middle of people clammering for $100 TVs, we were doing every day grocery shopping.

Then, on Friday morning, we really had nothing to go out for.  But, the kids needed headphones for school and we saw some at Radio Shack that looked like a doable price so we headed there.  Our Black Friday shopping was complete about 4 minutes after we left the house.  Lew said, "If someone told me I would be going out to Radio Shack on Black Friday I would have thought they were nuts!"

Annual pre-shopping photo...

 And a shot with Lew & his mom and the kiddos....

 
We went to one other store for fun since we were already out.  Then home for leftovers!!!

flashback????  I am actually wearing a new shirt this year, but seems Lew has only 1 favorite black shirt.

2012

 2011

They did not bring home any festive art work this year.  Our 2013 door looks bare!