Ornaments 2009

To Maggie: an angel engraved with her name.

  

To Kole: a wee little gnome friend working on his song.

To Kari: a 1977 Hallmark special – a German weather house.

All came bundled with love in the last 3 days of our advent calendar.

Play.

We do NOT heart…

This week seems to have an overabundance of things we do not heart.

1. Rotavirus.  I don’t know that anyone could heart this particular strain of sickness that has caused us to do approximately 3 sheet changes and 4 extra loads of baby laundry a day. 

2. Tests done on babies.  Said tests require blood draws and samples of other things.  Babies cry…hard.  Moms then cry…hard. 

3.  This weather!  Does no one understand that we’ve got Christmases to celebrate in different towns, and this quasi-blizzard threat isn’t helping???

Things we DO heart…

1.  Knowing that this, too, shall pass.  She seems a lot better than yesterday.  We are enjoying the extra snuggles that come with feeling not so great (though not the reasons for them).

2.  The pediatrician who hugged this crying mom and cried a little, too.  Compassionate healthcare providers – love them!

3.  A new plan to get to grandma & grandpa’s tonight with the Wii in tow.  Racin' Rick playing Mario Kart… I like it!

4.  Wally & Maggie’s new-found rules for play.  We’ll post some video soon – they’re pretty hilarious.

Take care friends & family.  From the house where we live…

It’s Magic!

The blanket of snow we got 2 weeks ago hasn’t really dissipated at all.  It’s still the backdrop for a winter fairyland – if you’re looking in the right places. I’m not talking about the brown snow piled alongside the road or the other snow that Wally likes in the backyard... 

I’m talking about the stuff that’s still clinging to the bushes and trees – keeping them shrouded in white which only looks more like a fairytale when you mix in some lights.  So we decided it was high time to head out to the WPS Garden of Lights at the Botanical Garden.

We went at a most inopportune time.  It seems that 6:45 on a Saturday night is a bumpin’ hour at the garden.  Everyone and their mother wanted to get in, though not so much the dads (Kole excluded), as we listened to the family behind us in line (side note: they budged to get there) fight for 35 minutes about whether the dad had to go in.  Yipes!

We opted for the horse & wagon ride through the park.  Our driver enlightened us with some fun facts during the ride.  For instance: they use upwards of 250,000 lights and more than 7 miles of extension cords to make the event happen! 

  

Being dark & full of people, the photo ops were few and far between, but Kole and Maggie were kind enough to pose in the new caterpillar tunnel feature.

SNOW DAY!

Wednesday marked Maggie’s first blizzard.  No school, crazy slippery roads, and lots-o-snugglin’.  Please to enjoy some photos.  Oh, and I did not face plant her in the snow drift – she did that on her own!

 

Good night!

The Preparations

We’ve been busily checking items off the TTD before Christmas list *sigh*. Some days it’s exhausting, but with Maggie’s first Christmas to look forward to, I find myself feeling that sense of wonder that I felt as a child. You know what I’m talking about – that feeling that December would last forever and the anticipation of the big day would surely get the best of you before the 24th arrived! It’s exciting preparing for her first Christmas. I have OH SO MANY ideas for plushies, altered clothing, and other toys, and no sewing machine and only 12 more days to get it all done. Hmmmm…

I did order a machine, it just hasn’t arrived yet. My fingers are crossed for early this week. In the meantime, we’re working on other projects. We went to get a tree at our most favorite tree farm.

We put it up – with appropriate safety features, of course.

Putting up the tree is my favorite part of Christmas. We don’t do the store-bought color scheme thing. No, siree. My parents started a tradition of buying me an ornament every Christmas – they still do. Every one has the year and a name on it. Decorating the tree becomes a slow walk down memory lane that takes me back to the Christmases of my childhood, often reminding me of the events of a particular year.

Our tree now also tells the tale of the family here at the House Where We Live. When Kole and I started traveling together, we began collecting ornaments from the places we visited. There are at least 20 ornaments from our honeymoon alone, not to mention all the other side trips we’ve taken together. In the left-center area of the picture above is a white & blue cow ornament. It was the first ornament that Kole and I purchased together. We were at a corn maze in the Door County Peninsula circa 2004. I would have forgotten about that short afternoon adventure were it not for the yearly reminder I get right around this time of year.

We’re pretty excited about Maggie’s first ornaments. We found a few that just seemed too perfect! The last 3 days in our Advent hide-a-gift, homemade calendar are our ornaments to each other. I’ll try to remember to share them when the time comes.

Until then, we wish you a happy, peaceful countdown to Christmas

Thanksmas ‘09

 

Kids galore!

 Big Olie – Can you see us by his foot?

  

Maggie’s first reindeer.

 

Lighting ceremony.

Gift opening.

It was a full weekend.

Holidazzle

Who knew that Green Bay had a pretty great holiday parade?  We had low expectations as we headed downtown to meet some friends for the show.  I must say it really surpassed our expectations! We strolled into a primo spot at 9:55 (parade started at 10), and we proceeded to thoroughly enjoy the 1.5 hours that followed.

Maggie was bundled up tightly.  She was mistaken for a boy, yet again, which begs the question, how much pink is enough?

We saw the roller derby chicks. (p.s. Is anyone else just so curious that they’d like to go to roller derby with us, just once?)There were 2 balloons!  I was so stunned, I didn’t take a picture of the first one. So, so neat! 

Real reindeer (or a reasonable facsimile).

And 8 people dressed like reindeer accompanying Santa and Mrs. Claus.  The thing they’re riding on actually rose and lowered and spun in full circles while the vehicle was moving.  It was quite sweet. At the end Mrs. Claus did a shout out to Maggie…yes, really…and we were able to head home happy.

Halloween Night

After all the pumpkin carving hubbub & a delicious dinner, we headed out to the Idaho State Penitentiary for the Frightened Felons Halloween Night Tour! We went during family time (for Maggie), and we weren't disappointed!

 

We did a scavenger hunt – stopping in various cell blocks & such.

We took a tour at dusk.

And Maggie got us in trouble…

So we hi-tailed it out of there and over to Harrison Boulevard in Boise, where some folks decided to do a tribute of sorts to MJ.  They were playing the Thriller video in its entirety, and during the zombie dance portion, there were real-live zombies dancing along.  It was pretty amazing.  We stayed for 2 rounds of the video.  Maggie was a big fan.

It was a pretty crazy 1st Halloween.

Halloween Day

Maggie’s very first Halloween was an eventful one, let me tell you.  We had to get up at the crack of dawn…okay, okay, we had to get up at 7:00 (which seems like the crack of dawn when you’re trying to vacation) to get to Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro for breakfast.  We were trying to avoid waiting outside.  Didn’t work.

The wait was worth it.  Four words: sweet potato hash browns.

Maggie dressed up as Yoda.  Okay, we dressed her up as Yoda, but I think the smiles speak to the fact that she didn’t mind a bit.

 

 

We hit the last day of the market downtown and snagged some pumpkins for carving.

And then we set to work.

I ended up doing a rendition of a sock monkey a la Maggie’s onesie. 

 

I think they turned out quite well.  Stop back again this weekend to find out about our Halloween night…oooh, the suspense!