the rest of december

Technically it's February, but it still FEELS like Christmas since we have a little snow and it's FREEZING (as in -6F outside today, or colder than it was most of the winter in Finland!) I figured we'd play catch up here.

Lots more craft projects to keep our friends off the streets - the boys actually liked making the reindeer.

Alex and Katie each had 'holiday' programs at preschool, but apparently I only took pictures at one. Alex was that kid in his own little world, doing the actions to his own rhythm. 'Jingle Bells' continues to be his song of the moment.

The train show pretty much sealed the deal for electric trains in the house this year. Roger tried to resist, but in the end the Circus Train was too much for him to say no: one car has an elephant that ducks down below a gate, another has two clowns that chase each other around a freight car, and the caboose is decorated with . . . TIGERS! The guy at the train store was pretty much horrified that the primary driver of this vintage train is 3.5 years old, but he hasn't seen this conductor in action. After the initial set up, the boys added a circus in one loop, Christmas tree decorations in the other, and Thomas in a loop around the outside. Train mania continues.

Katie made presents for her brothers again this year. The excavator shirt was Alex's favorite present. I have to admit that 4 is probably too early for doing a latchhook, but she pulled the hook for a number of rows by herself, and then read the graph and gave me the right colors to do for 50% of the tiger.

When Grandmother and Granddad were out visiting, the kids all picked out fabric for RV quilts. The are all completely in love with them!

I tried to make more useful presents this year, with limited success. Last year's quiet books get minimal use, although the hats and mittens were favorites. Alex's sweater -finished Christmas morning at 6 am - will probably fit him well next year. Max's sweater turned out cute and he will actually wear it - a win! I had grand plans to make Katie and Summer matching dresses, and luckily Oma had all her projects finished ahead of time because the pattern Katie picked out was RIDICULOUS. But at least it was also crazy cute. Next year maybe I'll start in August with my psycho plans!

the remainder of the advent activities

This picture isn't about anything in particular; I just love Max's profile after dinner. Those tiny little legs contrast nicely with his big Buddha belly.

Every year the model train club in Longmont has a show down at the fairgrounds. Alex still can't get enough. One of these years maybe we'll win the raffle for the model! - yeah right. At least we're supporting the club.

Longmont has a 'parade of lights.' We didn't last for the fireworks, but Roger had the good sense to set us up on Main Street right out front of Winchell's donuts. The floats were fun to watch - apparently anyone with a vehicle and some lights can enter - but it was not the warmest night of the month, that's for sure.
We decorated sugar cookies - boy does Max like his cookies! He sees that Tupperware container and just goes bananas.

We made deliveries to our friends, and took some candy and cookies up to the guys at the fire station. A couple of firemen - who were HUGE - took us into the garage and let the kids climb in the truck. My posse of friends is not so adventurous, but Katie did eventually hop up in the driver's seat and turn on the lights. I modeled a fireman's jacket for the kids - boy is that thing heavy!

We went with Uncle Tommy to dinner and to check out Zoo Lights. They had a 'Fire and Ice' show in addition to all the lights. The 'Firemancer' totally made us want to 'Vote for Pedro.' What a funny job to have as an adult, but the kids were fascinated. Most of the animals were already in bed, but we did get to pet a couple of reptiles. And of course we rode the train.

We made gingerbread houses with Julie, Tom and Liz. The big picture is the grin on Alex's face after Liz told him to just pop a handful of candy in his mouth - like he needed encouragement! Alex made an engine with a tender and Katie decorated a house with her usual precision. As with most projects, she concentrates and is totally focused on getting things just where she wants them.

We had a sleepover - or two - at Oma's house.

We did a toy audit, choosing toys to go to Goodwill. This is always harder for mom than anyone else.

We drove around many nights checking out the Christmas lights. Maybe next year we'll add our own blow-up monstrosity to the yard. One of the funnest houses is a pair of duplexes in a cul-de-sac that have their lights synchronized to Christmas music, which you can listen to through your car radio.

Sickness and cold prevented a trip up to the mountains for some sledding, but the snow is still here, so maybe I'll feel adventurous one of these days.

Roger's folks sent up a steam-powered tractor, and that is no end of entertainment for all the kids in the house.


We read lots of Christmas stories each night. The book order is one of my favorite things about Katie attending preschool, and Scholastic had a nice variety of Christmas books, telling the story of Christ's birth from different viewpoints and at different levels. We have found some new favorites.

the second week of Christmas

If you're interested in some new holiday music, check out this free link to a holiday album on iTunes. FREE! It's free for a week. found via lifehacker via stephmodo

I'd like to claim that my helpers were responsible for this mess, but I'm afrait they were fast asleep. This one is all me. HAD Katie been helping me, it would have been a much tidier job.

This week's activities have included making jingle-bell wreath ornaments - now I want a big one for my door! (Yes, that construction hat is permanently welded to Alex's head, but Cinderella only comes out about once a week now.)

Picnic in the living room - this ended up being even more bananas than I expected. Next time we do this (?) I'm going with hamburgers and fries.

Animal 'magic scratch' ornaments.
Pop-up tree - template found on Martha. (I reduced the tree by 70%). Why is cutting paper so much fun?

Paint Christmas nails - Alex went with sparkles, Katie now has two different shades of pink on her hands, and even mom has some colored nails.

Date night with mom or dad - this one is still being planned.

Camping in the bedroom - we'll see how long they last in the tent, and whether or not ANYONE gets any sleep!

Camping in the bedroom worked out better than I expected, in that ONE child acdtually made it in the tent through the night. Alex had a hard time staying put, so he ended up in his bed sometime around 11 pm.

Christmas countdown

Part of the problem with starting Christmas preparations really early is that I just end up adding more things onto my list. Seeing a picture of these trees on Kari's blog, coupled with a gift of some tiny ornaments from Mag from Ikea resulted in this project:
Please note Katie's decorating choices. She put different colored ornaments in each row, and where there were multiple hooks in a row she alternated matte and shiny. With no prompting from anyone, although that is probably how I would have arranged them myself. I guess that trait would be genetic. :)

For our Christmas countdown this year, we've put a different activity to do everyday in the pockets of the advent calendar. So far we've:

Made cinnamon/glue ornaments, complete with glitter. (1 C. cinnamon, 1 C. apple sauce, and 4 oz. glue - this made a ton.) I love how glitter jazzes up everything. I was in charge of glue, Katie and Alex do all their own glitter. This is a tough one to mess up, and man do they smell delicious!

Had a hot chocolate party. We had to switch to straws when the pouring to be a little more fun than the actual drinking.

Here's Alex's perfect cup of hot chocolate:

Made Christmas cards. I got this idea from Kid's Crafts weekly. I got to cut out the shapes, Katie and Alex got to run the glue, although I did cheat and help Alex olace one of his trunks. Now to determine the lucky recipients . . .

Cut out snowflakes. We need a little more practice with the scissors for these to resemble actual snowflakes, but 'cutting confetti' was just as fun with our crowd. And I busted out my 'Kirigami a day' calendar from 2008 and did a little cutting myself.

Max decided to add his own advent adventure: Let's see how many baths I can have in one day. Luckily he still fits nicely in the kitchen sink. So far we're at 2, but the day is only 1/2 over.