Prepping for Christmas!

We are having a busy December getting ready for His Jolliness.  Kids are having a great time this Christmas season.

Opening stocking on St. Nick's day.  Not sure they 100% understand the holiday but I try my best to explain.  Since it involves getting a stocking full of goodies, they are all in.

 Christmas parties are a must.  We always enjoy having our annual with the Acton friends.  Working on a craft.

 The traditional present book exchange. 

 Trying to get a good couch picture.  We'll be doing this when they are in college.

 Making Christmas treats.  Rice Krispie treats to cut out and decorate.

 Good thing Paige is wearing her Sunday's best for a day at home.

Gotta get our tree. We tagged it the weekend of Tgiving and went back mid-Dec to cut her down.

Paige thought this one looked good.  Watching too much Peanuts, I think!

Daddy had to measure it out, not an exact science as you can see.

Tagging "Our" tree.

 Finished product (might need a little V8).

Time to see Santa.  Paige told him she wanted lipstick and Luke said he wanted a hot wheels car.  Santa is getting off cheap with these two!

Just in case he forgot our order, we decided to go back and tell him again, this time bringing the cousins along.

 Christmas fun at the zoo.

Holiday card picture.  Don't typically care for posed pics but went with it this year.

School performance at Paige's school to close out the year -

Boston & Teddy Bear Tea

Today, Paige and I had a mother-daughter day in the city.  I took the day off work, we got dressed up and we headed into Boston for some holiday fun. 

First we walked through the commons and said hello to Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.

Then we stopped for lunch on Newbury Street.

After lunch, we stopped in to get our nails done.  The nail ladies were eating Paige up, said she could stay and work there.  I told them she would probably be back in 15 years!

After some shopping on Newbury Street (mostly window) we headed to the Four Seasons for the Teddy Bear tea.  I got tickets in August after a friend told me about this event (yes, they sell out that early). It was super cute.  You bring a new teddy bear to donate to a needy child.  Paige name hers "Teddy" and wrote a note to the child it will be going to and placed it under the bear tree. 

Here she is with Truffles the Bear.  Paige had a thing for Truffles (imagine that)  she is partial to the character animals - she will be in her glory when we finally go to Disney.  She kept hugging Truffles and talking to him.

 Paige and Teddy

 Loving all the bears as the place was decked with them.

 Placing Teddy under the tree with all his other donated friends.

 Couldn't resist getting up close.

 Time for our fine treats.  We each got an assortment of goodies, Paige got hot chocolate and tea for me.

 At story time, guess who was all snuggled up close to Truffles.

Paige said to me today, "when you are wearing fancy shoes, you can put them on any of your feet you want."
a) because you might have more than two feet, AND
b) because she doesn't know which shoe goes on which foot, she is rationalizing it away


So cool wearing Daddy's hat on backwards.  I'm pretty sure any cool points she gets for the hat get canceled out by the fact that she has her pants on inside out.

The kids are already so excited about Christmas.  It is hard to explain to them that although we have decorated the house and Santa is everywhere, Christmas Day is some time away.

Luke was asking just how long he was going to have to wait.

Luke: "Is Jesus' birthday tomorrow?"
Mom: "No"
Luke "The next day?"
Mom: "No"
Luke: "The day after that?"
Mom; "No"
Luke, clearly annoyed at this point: "Is Jesus' Mom even in the barn yet?"

Luke is just too funny sometimes.

Madonna

I know I am not going to get mother of the year for showing my 3 year old Madonna videos (clarifying point that daddy actually introduced her to Madonna, I just fuel the bad habit) but I couldn't resist posting a video. 

First of all, she motors around the house in the bumble bee costume like this is normal attire for kicking back at home.  We are all so used to her craziness (see about 7 other previous posts) that no one even bats an eye at this.  Jay used to start singing "No Rain" by Blind Melons when she walked in the room (if you somehow missed the mid 90s grunge movement, see below video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qVPNONdF58  but we are all so used to it now.

She has moved through the 90s back to the 80s, now she is becoming obsessed with Madonna. It is hopeless....

Celebrating Thanksmas in NH

Finding time to get everyone together for Thanksgiving AND Christmas is tough so this year we created an interim holiday - Thanksmas. We had a good old fashioned Thanksgiving meal then celebrated Christmas by opening gifts around the tree.  Best of both worlds!  We had a great weekend and the kids loved spending time with their cousins on Papa's farm.  COLD COLD COLD for us southcoasters.  It snowed all day Saturday but a light snow that was really pretty.  The cold snowy weather didn't keep the kids indoors, they were outside most the day helping with the barn chores or playing in the first snow of the season.  Papa spoiled the kids with gifts which they were extremely happy about as you can imagine. Grampy came for the weekend too which was nice.  Paige and Grampy have a little bond.  It is so cute to see a 3 year old and a 94 year old playing together.  Paige walks right up to Grampy and said "you want to play doctor with me?" and that was that.  Two hours later I found them in the family room still playing together.  Too cute!  The kids were so tired from too much fun.  After hockey on Sunday we laid low.

 

Pics of the house.  Nicely decorated for the season -

 Out to the barn.  Madison and Copper -

 Couple of crazies -

 Time for some chores.  Gotta get water and hay to the horses in the pasture -

 Walking Sophie out -

 

 In for a mid afternoon warm up -

 Back out for some tag -

 Papa's house in the background -

 Presents time -

 NOW you look like you belong in NH -

 Wooden flute -

 Cheetah!  My fav!!