Who's That Girl?!

And when did she grow up?

 (Quinn's School Picture)

Christmas Fun

Last Saturday we completely OD'd on Christmas.

We started out by going to Cheekwood to see a Holiday Magic Show.  I frankly don't know what was more entertaining, watching the magician (who by the way was pretty decent), or watching my children laugh and stare in awe when he turned a handkerchief into a dove or pulled giant underpants out of his magic bag.

Then it was off for the requisite visit to Santa's lap and the over priced picture of said event.  Though, I will have to admit isn't half bad....


Afterwards, a lunch out and then to cookie decorating.


(Exotic flower courtesy of my sweet boy)

 

Finally, home for a quick nap (well OK Raif and I fell asleep, Lord only knows what the kids did.).

Then out to see Chad's Christmas Light Extravaganza and pizza out.

I am feeling Christmas in the air.

Thanksgiving in Austin

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Austin to visit Page, Jamie and Hudson and to meet their latest addtion, Camden.

We spent the better part of a week doing nothing and it was glorious.  We let the kids roam wild (I admittedly was jealous with the 70 degree weather enabling the kids to spend most of the day outside) and just relaxed and caught up with old friends.  It is so nice to be able to do nothing and not feel the need to keep everyone entertained.

My kids spent most of their time vying for Hudson's attention, probably because they were sick of playing with each other.  Hudson must have felt he was the bell of the ball.



 

Meet Baby Camden.

After Hudson, my children's favorite person was Tio Robbie (Page's brother).  Do you remember back in college, that one guy that when he came into a party you knew it was about to be ratcheted up a notch? That people cheered as he entered the room:  that is Tio Robbie.  Whenever, he came over my kid's would chant "Tio Robbie" like he was Elvis or something.  And clearly you can tell from the picture below that Quinn thought he was the bees' knees.  Look at the girl, what a crush she has.



We were also able to have lunch with our friends Elissa and Steve and their daughters Reagan and Abbie.  And if will have to say that seriously, Abbie is the happiest baby EVER.  When she wasn't scarfing down rice, beans and flour tortillas she just sat there with the biggest grin on her face and just giggled.  Never a cross look or moment through all of lunch.  I wonder what they are putting in her bottle. :)

Thankful

(Yes, these next posts will be woefully out of order.  Too much to do and not enough time.  Just consider it reminiscing!)

For the first time we did a thankful tree for Thanksgiving.  I let the kids each day pick a leaf and write what they were thankful for and then hung them from the dining room chandelier.  It made a great Thanksgiving display and honestly it was quite interesting to see what they were thankful for.  Eventually, they were thankful for me, but that was only after LEGOs, bikes, food and a teacher or two.  But hey, at least I got on the list, right?

Chopping Down the Candy Cane

I think that most people feel their Christmas season starts when they put up their Christmas tree.  Normally we go to our local tree farm and cut it down the weekend right after Thanksgiving.  Now under normal circumstances I would be a tree on the first weekend of December kind of gal, however around here the grandparents that aren't coming for Christmas are usually here for Thanksgiving and it is nice to include them in at least one Christmas activity.  However, this year we were in Austin TX for Thanksgiving and the kids and I got home Sunday and Raif went straight on to a business conference in Chicago and so we had to wait until the actual first week of December.

So for that whole week the kids were getting more excited each day as they saw more and more houses with lights and trees.  And each day Quinn would ask when we were going to cut down our tree and squeal with excitement as the day got closer and closer.

"Mommy, are we going to the Christmas tree farm on Saturday?!"

"Absolutely."

"I can't wait!!  Yay!!!!"

"I know, isn't it so fun to walk through the rows of trees and find your very own Christmas tree that is just perfect and then bring it home?"

"That's allright."

(Huh, she was bouncing out of her seat a minute ago and now has the excitement of receiving melba toast for breakfast.)

"I thought you were excited."

"Oh, I am!!"

"You don't sound excited anymore."

"I am not excited about the tree.  I am excited about the candy cane and the hot apple cider."

So there you have it.  For the last three years I have attempted to create this wonderful Walton-esque family memory about cutting down our own tree and what does my daughter remember and get excited about?  The $0.15 candy cane and the free watered down hot apple cider mix they give away at the farm.  Sigh.

But regardless of the lack of excitement of the actual purpose of the event, at least from Quinn, off we went and found the perfect tree.

 (Here the kids are enjoying their watered down apple cider on the porch waiting for Raif to have the tree trimmed and tied to the car. They actually didn't have candy canes this year, much to my daughter's dismay)

 (The required hanging the first ornaments on the tree pictures.)

Greyson's "sweet spot" for his ornaments.  I think he put about 5 right on the lowest branch all together.

And the finished product...Ta Dah.....

Christmas, here we come....

The Great Holiday Mix-Up

Greyson's class is learning about holidays from all over the world this week.  They are doing a special emphasis on Chanukah because Quinn in Greyson's class (ah yes the irony of Greyson's best friend in school being a boy named Quinn) is Jewish (more on this later).  Every night he is so excited to tell me the different facts he has learned but I think he may be getting a couple of things mixed up.  Here is his description of Chanukah.

"This guy named Peter has this boat that he sails from England and goes to all of the countries around the world, except here because Santa comes here.  In his boat he has St. Nicholas and a helper who wears a purple coat and has dark skin.  They ram the boat up on the shore to deliver presents.  He can ram the boat up on shore because the front of his boat has this bulldozer thing that can help get it up on land.  After he gets out of the boat he puts on this pointy hat and gets on a white horse and goes off to deliver toys to all the Jewish boys and girls.  If they boys and girls are bad they don't get coal like we do, Peter's helper chases them around with a stick."

Now I am not a Jewish scholar by any stretch of the imagination but I don't think that a single syllable of that is actually true.

But what is even funnier is how excited Greyson is to learn about Chanukah because of his friend Quinn.  He has come home every day to tell me some of these odd tidbits about Chanukah he has learned from Quinn.

Today I happened to run into Quinn's mother while picking up my Quinn as her other son goes to the same preschool.

"Greyson is so excited to be learning about Chanukah this season and celebrate the holiday with Quinn."

At this point, Christina burst into laughter and promptly told me that they are, in fact, Catholic and she has no idea why Quinn is going around telling everyone he is Jewish.  And the only reason she knew about this was because their teacher happened to see her in the car pool lane one afternoon and told her they were doing a special section on Chanukah just for Quinn.

So now I don't know what parts of my son's crazy Chanukah stories have come from Quinn just making things up or getting confused with other holiday traditions.

What I do know is that he loves Chanukah and I can't wait to hear all about Kwanzaa.