Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas 2011

Each year I always forget how hectic the week after Christmas can be.  Playdates, dinner dates, parties and get togethers galore!  I'm finally surfacing to post a few pictures for Christmas eve and Christmas day.

Christmas eve, dinner at Marc's aunt's house...


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Christmas morning, scoping out what Santa brought...


discovering the stuffed stockings...

Lola loves hiding in her new bed...

Sam's new Thomas set was a big hit...


..............

After lounging around in our pj's all day, it was finally time to get ready for the family to come over...

Marc made standing rib roast for dinner (or Roast Beast with Who-hash, as we called it)...

And after dinner, everyone piled into the living room to watch The Polar Express...

Our sad attempt at a group shot...so sad this didn't turn out!


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

the countdown continues...

December 14 - take a bubble bath!

December 16 - make cookies for firefighters and bring them to the firehouse!
Poppy and Ty actually came up with this idea on their own!  Poppy is all about "the season of giving" and Ty is all about firetrucks, so it was a match made in heaven.  They even made and decorated the cookies and were so proud to deliver them.
Poppy was super excited right up until they actually got there, and then she clammed up once she saw the firefighters (and would not even stand next to a firetruck for a picture).  Ty was of course in his glory.  Even Sam was checking out the trucks!

December 17 - eat breakfast inside of a gingerbread house!
Poppy claims to have no recollection of doing this last year, which cracks me up because she always remembers everything.  Anyways, we headed north to the Great Wolf Lodge to have breakfast inside of the gingerbread house they build every year to support a charity.  This thing is so cool!  It is covered in frosting, cookies, candy and chocolate.  The wooden structure that supports it is literally painted in chocolate (that melts when you touch it!).  And this year they had a train that looped around the inside and outside of the gingerbread house, which was a huge hit with both Poppy and Sam...



December 18 - make salt dough ornaments to give as gifts to friends and family!
This was the first time we've done this and it was so much fun!  Poppy had a blast rolling out and cutting the dough with cookie cutters, but painting them was definitely her favorite part.

This one was our favorite.  We used Poppy and Sam's fingerprints to make the lightbulb indentations and Poppy painted them different colors.  I think it turned out adorable!

December 21 - The Polar Express book was waiting for us under the tree!  

We've also had quite a few "drink hot cocoa for a snack" or "read lots of books while snuggled on the couch" as fillers over the past few weeks.  As challenging as it was sometimes to come up with a fun activity for the day, it has been so much fun to see Poppy's face light up as she read her daily note from Steve our elf.  Making memories like these is what the holidays are all about!

Friday, December 16, 2011

More Christmas countdown fun...

December 4 - write a letter to Santa

My favorite parts of her letter - 
"I have been naughty and nice."  At least she's honest!  
"I am going to be a good girl for the rest of my life."  Well, that lasted until the next morning.  

December 5 - drink hot chocolate after dinner!

December 6 - this one was a warning from Steve the Elf about Poppy's behavior, reminding her that Santa is always watching! (no picture)

December 7- make a craft with mommy. (snowman garland)

December 8 - Steve the Elf made a special treat for Poppy and her friend Maisy who came over for lunch...

December 10 - visit Santa at Santaland!

{This was Poppy's first time sitting on Santa's lap!!!}

How adorable are these pictures?!  I almost used the bird one for our Christmas card!

December 11 - make a gingerbread house!
Of course, both Poppy and Sam's favorite part was playing with the candy.

December 12 - family game night!
Hi-Ho Cherry-o and Candyland were played aplenty!

December 13 - Steve the Elf told mommy that Santa left a message for Poppy in her email.  It was a Portable North Pole message.  Poppy was excited and terrified at the same time...

Monday, December 12, 2011

Advent calendar

Here is how we have been counting down our days 'til Christmas...

December 1 -
Steve, our Christmas Elf, introduced himself.  He said that he would be keeping his eye on both Poppy and Sam and reporting back to Santa.  While he's here, he also plans to provide lots of fun activities to get ready for Christmas.  Today's idea was to watch "The Polar Express" before bed.  Poppy would not take her eyes off the tv screen for a second.  And Sam couldn't get enough of the popcorn...

December 2 - 
Poppy receives the first gift of Christmas!  She was awoken by a reindeer's bell resting on her bed.  She couldn't believe that it looked just like the bell the boy gets in the Polar Express.  The note in our advent calendar said that Poppy and Sam could open a large gift waiting for them under the tree.  Would you believe that it was the Polar Express train set?!  Poppy could barely believe it herself.  She couldn't wait to get to school that day so that she could tell Ty all about her new train.  And then Ty had to come over to see for himself...
(And Poppy is pretty sure that Steve, our elf, lives in the little village under our tree.)

December 3-
Aunt Jeanna gets to come home early, just in time for Christmas!!!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Poppy's piano debut

Poppy is still doing awesome with her piano lessons.  Just a few weeks ago she went from learning little songs on just one hand, to her first real song using both hands.  The first week trying to learn this song was rough.  But one day something just clicked and she figured out how to do it.  She absolutely amazes me.  Especially because I have been practicing this song just as long as she has, and I can't even come close to playing it.  

My favorite part is that she absolutely loves playing!  She loves practicing!  Almost every single time she walks by the piano, she stops to play a quick song.  And Sam is not far behind her with his love of the piano either, I'll have to post one of his videos soon...

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Catch up

I have been pretty much absent from blogging lately, but all for good reason.  We had 2 really fun events that have taken up all of my spare time over the past month.  First, it was my parents 40th wedding anniversary.  My brothers and I decided to have a little surprise dinner and put together a simple photo album as a gift.  Well the photo album turned out to be pretty epic.  It was nearly impossible to do "simple" when going through 40 years of pictures.  And we only had less than 2 weeks to work on it.  So I basically used every spare second going through old pictures and scanning them, and then used iphoto to make a really cool photo book.  And then Marc took all the digital files and turned them into a movie.  And my brother found some old videos and had them make into dvd's.  It all turned out super cool and my parents were surprised to say the least.  The only picture I have of the night was this polaroid from the end of the night...


The next fun, but time consuming event was having a welcome home party for Marc's sister and boyfriend who just returned home from Iraq.  We decided it would be nice to have the house all decorated for Christmas before the party, so we have been scrambling around to get all of that done over the past week.  First it was the big tree hunting trip.  Marc won this year and I agreed to go chop a tree down.  I personally think this whole experience is over-rated and am more than happy to go pick one out from a tree lot, but I will admit that the kids had fun...



Finally, they found the perfect tree!

Timber!

My favorite part of the day was our stop at Ted's for lunch.
For the rest of the week, I diligently strung popcorn and cranberries, while Marc tinkered away in the basement playing with his new train set.  This year he decided that Poppy and Sam must have the Polar Express train set.  And that he would have to build an entire platform thingy for the train (and village) to go on under our tree.  
After many, many, many hours of decorating, I finally present to you - our tree.  I love how every single branch is dripping with ornaments, candy canes or icicles.  Because you can never have too much on a tree, can you?  And don't forget Marc's pride and joy, the train. (it's pretty darn cute how much Poppy and Sam love that train too)

With all of the decorating behind us, we were ready for Jeanna's homecoming yesterday.  We were able to meet her at the armory, which Poppy was very excited to see.  It was really neat (and emotional) to see the buses of troops being escorted by police and motorcycles and then all of the families cheering at their arrival...

(check out Poppy's welcome home sign she worked so hard on)

Aunt Jeanna is so strong!


Home, at last!

So as you can see, we've been quite busy lately.  But now that the parties are over with, we get to relax and enjoy the holiday season.  We've already started our advent calendar, which has been keeping us busy with fun little activities to get ready for Christmas.  I'm trying to take a picture of each activity, so I will be posting those soon...
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