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.