Christmas '09

Merry Christmas!

We left for my parent's house a day earlier because of the weather, and the drive wasn't all that great up until Fond du Lac. We saw a car 360 ahead of us on Hwy 94 in Milwaukee. We also left my parent's house a day earlier because of weather. They were supposed to get up to 10 inches on Saturday, so we left on Friday.

Craig and Clark and Beth and fam were already there when we arrived. Meg and fam stayed home this year, as they were just here at Thanksgiving. We just hung out during the day on Christmas Eve. Paige took the kids outside for a while even though it was kind of sleeting/raining. We got those final gifts wrapped and waited until it was time to open presents. Clark set up a 'pizza party' in the basement for all of us. Santa, with a shaving cream beard and pillow-stuffed suit, made an unexpected appearance out on the deck. Bella and Lucy were freaked out and Clark was sure he looked like Grandpa....

To make the night a bit more festive, we all got glow bracelets from Craig & Clark to wear. The favorites of the night: Lucy loves the set of dress up shoes from Grandma & Grandpa, Bella loves the dinosaurs she got from Santa, and I got a surprise gift from Bryce (Meg) - a Little Miss Sunshine doll. This just happens to be the same name as a character I used to pretend to be when I was really little. It made us all laugh.

Hope you all had a wonderful, merry Christmas!!

Bethlehem

If you celebrate Christmas, are in the Milwaukee area, and want to do something that is geared more towards the true meaning of Christmas, definitely take the time to check out Elmbrook's Bethlehem Marketplace. We were taken through a time tunnel to Bethlehem at the time of Jesus's birth. We each got a few shekels to shop in the marketplace, got to see real sheep, camels, goats, chickens, etc, and many of the villagers there explained how life was back then, and told some of the story leading up to the birth. The volunteers there really did a great job and never came out of character. Bella got a little scared of the tax collectors, but that's not such a bad lesson to learn at an early age!

Making our own calendar to count down to Christmas and having a few wrapped presents under the tree makes for a very impatient Bella!

December '09

The holidays are here! We've been busy but I'm proud to say that I have all my Christmas shopping done! We made Bella & Lucy's teachers these mugs and made some hot cocoa mix to go along with. I like the girls to contribute to their gifts and they get excited making something. Painting with non-washable paint did get a little stressful though, especially when Lucy started whipping her brush all over her face!

Last weekend we had the daycare Christmas party, no parents allowed. So Carlo & I got to go out for lunch and since I had my shopping done, we went home and got some stuff done around the house. I got some painting done, and Lucy no longer has a changing table and diaper pail in her room! Those have been fixtures in that room for about 5 yrs! Her room looked so big after that, that I decided to move some toy bins up there. The girls got to visit Santa when we picked them up but neither one wanted to get remotely close to him! Bella gave him a high-5 but that's it.

We also had our first real snow last week. We went out and made snow angels, but it was SO cold we didn't stay out long. Lucy asks daily if she can go outside and ride her bike. Poor kid. I'm sure she would try to ride it in the cold and snow, but I won't let her.