Merry Christmas!!

Christmas eve was spent at my parents' house having Chinese take out and opening a few pressies. As usual, it was completely chaotic and the kids got more presents than they knew what to do with!

It was questionable whether or not Santa would visit our house this year as we have had a couple of misbehaved children recently. Somehow, in the two weeks before Christmas, they managed to pull it together- Santa did come, and, much to our surprise, the only coal left in the stockings was that of the candy variety!! The kids were actually very well behaved in the days leading up to Christmas... all must have been forgiven.

Later on in the day we had my parents, sister Kristen and Dan over for dinner. Nick cooked a feast and we all had a lovely day!

Some (not so great) pictures from Christmas Day:

The Tree Christmas cookies

The cookies that Annabelle decorated! The mince pies
opening presents
sledding with some friends trying out the new scooter
Geotrax planeKaraoke performances!!
Will 2009 be the year Nick hides those tv wires?

...And The Fun That Followed The Storm!

And Then There Was The Storm

Calm Before The Storm

It is 8:30 am, we are expecting a big snow storm this afternoon and school has been canceled. It is not snowing yet. The kids are very excited about the impending snow, very excited. They have dressed themselves in all of their snow gear (over their pajamas); coats, hats, mittens, scarves, snow pants, boots. They are currently in the back yard... Waiting for the snow.

The Polar Express

The kids and I took a ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express this evening!

One of the local commuter rail stations decorated a train and had a special Polar Express themed train ride. It was very cute... On the way up to the North Pole each train car had a person reading the book, The Polar Express, and, just as in the film, there was a train conductor who went around and punched everyone's tickets, and little elves who served up hot chocolate and cookies.

Once we arrived at the North Pole we had a special visit from Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty, and also a winter fairy who gave the kids magical fairy dust! They even each got a magical bell to take home!

On the way back from the North Pole there was a man playing guitar and singing Christmas tunes for/with all the kiddies.

The kids had a great time... They are already asking to go again next year!!

Conversation Between Two Monkeys

Annabelle: Jack, when are you going to get rid of that binky?

Jack: When I'm four.

Annabelle: If you get rid of your binky you can get a prize!! Don't you WANT to get a prize, NOW?

Jack: I do, but, I can't get rid of binky yet... It's part of the family.

Gingerbread House

The end result- 3:35pm

Annabelle discovers a gumdrop

Super happy-she's usually not allowed to chew gum

The house begins to crumble
The real end result- 3:37 pm

The Santa Picture

Teddy's first Santa picture!

December 9, 2008

Little Artist

Annabelle loves to draw. She is getting pretty good at it too! Lately she has been wanting to sit at my drawing table in the basement. She is so funny when she does this, so serious and professional... Very unlike her every day personality!

No Baby!

We were at the playground yesterday and poor Jack was being followed around by three toddlers. They were very cute, and just wanted to be with Jack, but for some reason Jack is very anti-"baby" at the moment so this was really annoying him.

He was very good about it at first though; he kept moving away from them, going from play structure to play structure, but he just couldn't shake the babies. Finally he had had enough. He stood up, turned to the toddlers, and with his little finger waving in the air, shouted, "argh, not the babies again!... you babies need to play over there!" When they didn't budge he started in on the Moms!!! He was like, "HEY, you Mommy's, you take those babies away, OK!" "YOU TWO MOMMY'S, those babies need to play OVER THERE!"

*Sounds obnoxious but he was actually being very cute... And also quite amusing!!!