Disclaimer: still in summary mode...
It seems like just yesterday that we were packing our moving
truck in the sweltering Texas heat. But
here it is December already. Where does
the time go?
No December – according to our kids, at least – would be
complete without gingerbread house building.
I’ve set a bad precedent in years past by baking my own, so now there’s
no fooling the littles with less time-consuming
building materials. We were smart this
year though and staggered the merrymaking (and sugar
in-taking) over the whole holiday season, which made everything - including gingerbread making - a bit more manageable.
A bit.
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| sampling the building materials (i.e., undermining structural integrity) |
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| great expectations |
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| a place for every candy and every candy in its place |
Being back in the North meant we could also hunt down our own
Christmas tree this year. There’s
something about going out in the cold, saw in hand, in search of the perfect
evergreen that just says ‘Christmas’ to me.
This year my sister and her husband were able to join us on the quest and
I have to say we both bagged some nice looking firs. Maddy and I even
ended up on the tree farm’s facebook page. Guess that was our brush with fame! Then we introduced Karen and Rick to the most
amazing fresh apple cider and homemade cake donuts (that happen to be sold right
around the corner from their new house – which may not be a good thing).
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| posing with 'the man' |
Our family also featured in our church’s Christmas party
program. It was a pretty low-key
assignment (thankfully); all we had to do was sit on the stage and ‘listen’ to
Daddy as he read the Christmas story, but the kids did it well.
After waiting and waiting, we finally got some
snow here in New York. We had to head down to Grandpa’s
house for enough of it to play in, but it was worth it. (I find it ironic that the only snow day the kids will have in 2011 occurred in San Antonio!)
The kids have been talking about making snow angels
forever. (They actually started
practicing them on the carpet back in Texas.)
And finally they got to make one for real… way exciting!
But really, what could be more exciting for kids than the big
show? Christmas Eve brought them each
their traditional pair of homemade jammies.
They suffered through participated in the obligatory pj photo
session with the promise of good things to come in the morning.
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| very merry |
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| we hope santa's watching us right now |
We spent Christmas at home – what a nice way to
break-in a new house! Grandma and Tom’pa came over in the morning and Karen and Rick joined us
in the afternoon. We opened presents,
played games, enjoyed a lovely meal and even better company, and just generally
had a very merry day.
Then we took our show on the road the following day to visit
Grandpa. And do some more sledding! Fortunately, Santa knew our plans and had
stashed four new sleds in Grandpa’s fireplace.
The kids were really excited by this.
And Grandpa was pretty glad that we showed up to claim the sleds so he
could use his fireplace again.
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| happy christmas |
Next stop… 2012!
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