Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 - success! We're back home, cozy and ready for bed after a day full of presents, cookies, food and family.


Our morning started out pretty great. To our surprise, Josie's reaction to the piles of presents and the whole idea of Santa went over really well. I got her reaction on video, coming down the stairs and a bit giant "WOW!!!' and running over to check everything out.


We quickly learned after the first few presents and hearing "dada, open'd dit!!!" that we should have planned ahead better and had some of the presents already opened and assembled. Live and learn ;) Even so, we took our time with each present, opened and assembled most everything and had some time to play before dashing off to Mimi's house to meet up with the uncles and Nate! Josie was thrilled with her Toy Story guys, Strawberry Shortcake remote car, and she even got a Hot Wheels Garage and ramp to play with the hundred Matchbox cars her and Dad found in the basement this week (Ed's vintage collection). Not to worry, she got lots of girly things, like some new outfits for her Mrs. Potato head, a collection of Curious George books, and a puzzle too.


At Mimi's house she got spoiled even more, but one of the funniest things was this little remote controlled dog from Uncle Adam. This little guy wags his tail, walks and barks. At one point Josie sat on him thinking he could give her a ride. Surprising that little dog is pretty resilient.



The rest of the day was spent with lots of family. We had lots of amazing food, lots of playing with all the little ones and now back home for a good nights rest. Up and at 'em early tomorrow to play with all our new toys!

Cookie (and carrot) Thief!

Eating Santa's cookies and the reindeer's carrots! I wonder what Santa will have to say about that ;) And of course, it isn't a proper spread for Santa with a beer... a long standing J family tradition.

This evening was a small taste of what tomorrow will bring... and if the meltdowns on a mellow night like tonight are a sign of things to come tomorrow, we're in for a reallll treat. Here's hoping we artfully manage the abundance of stimuli on a toddler tomorrow by pacing it, and a few well placed naps :)

Crafty Birdhouses

I had been looking through the craft store for a fun project for JJ to make and give to grandmas for Christmas - and thought these bird houses would be perfect. It had been a several day process of painting, drying, next color etc... but we're nearing the end. Today we added our green layer, and they turned out pretty cute. I'm going to sign the bottoms with her name and the date, tie them off with some ribbon and raffia and a perfect little something for the grandmas!




Of course, I had to use acrylic paint - that washable stuff wasn't going to get the nice bold colors. We've painted something just about every day this week, but today was the first day we decided to paint our hands. JJ thought this to be pretty darn cool and proceeded to not only paint her hand but her arms (BOTH!) all the way up the elbow. SOLID green. She woulda kept going if the shirt wasn't getting in her way. We went straight to the bathtub to soak and chip away at the thick paint. Lots of fun, hope to do it again soon :)

Pancake Store Saturdays

Dad and Josie have had a Saturday morning tradition going on for quite a while... they go to the pancake store. Just like we get books at the book store, naturally you get pancakes at the pancake store, right? I usually don't tag along, Dad usually gets JJ up before I'm awake, he dresses her in God knows what, and off they go, just to the two of them. I love this two fold - I get to sleep in, and two, it's their very own "thing". I've been tagging along the last few weeks b/c we go spend the rest of the morning at the Y after stopping at the pancake store (McDonalds). I know that all sounds counter productive, but I eat breakfast at home before we go :)





The really cool thing? It's the same folks having breakfast every Saturday morning. It's usually the same group of guys just hanging out having their coffee. And they've come to realize Josie's now part of their Saturday morning group :)

Oh, and we've started adding a little syrup to her pancakes lately. I've pretty much avoided it in the past due to the huge mess factor. But I've relaxed a little bit more - and she's really loving "sticky dip" these days. How is it "dip" of any sort makes everything better in a toddlers eyes? Chicken in apple sauce "dip" is pretty unappealing but JJ thinks it's great!

Gingerbread House

With a fair amount of certainty, I can say building gingerbread houses are not my thing. But I wanted to give it a whirl for holiday spirit sake, and to see what Josie would think of the pieces. Needless to say, it's a huge gigantic mess with walls and roof collapse a tough thing to escape.


But even through the frustration of the actual construction was significant, the part where Josie laid eyes on the candy and realized that icing tasted pretty good - made it all worth it. I think she actually got the idea of decorating the house and placed several candies all by herself... especially putting several in her mouth :)

Time spent with Mimi

Mimi taught...

happy face:


sad face:


cute, just sayin'

Snow Day Yay!

An unexpected treat today - SNOW DAY! It's a declared state of emergency in our county, lake effect snow has been falling since yesterday morning and all major roads have been closed and side roads are impassable. I heard "state of emergency" on my radio as my alarm went off this morning and rolled right back over knowing I wasn't leaving home today! That also meant Ed wasn't going anywhere either.

Ed and I tackled the bonus room this morning, gutting the closet and emptying all toy bins from around the house to match up pieces, quarantine broken toys, purge stuffed animals, and sort for give aways and storage. The bonus room looks great and feels a million times lighter! It feels good too make room for the the loot Santa will be bringing in less than two weeks.


And through several foot snow drifts, we walked across to our friends house and spent the last few hours making sugar cookies.



5 kids given free range of cookie frosting and sprinkles... can you begin to imagine the mess? We left for home just in time for nap time... maybe wrapping gifts next.

Christmas Photo Outtakes

I sorta dread taking our own family photos. I find it ironic that I love doing family photos for every one else, but when it comes to getting one of our own - it's that least favorite thing on my list. I suppose my clear vision of exactly what I want makes it more difficult to be staisfied, but I think we did ok this year - I prayed for ONE good shot and we got one that would fit that bill so i called it a day. But certainly not after sweating it out trying to get JJ to sit smile and be cute :)

Here are some outtakes!





and then the one chosen for the offical 2010 photo:



Glad to be done with that, on to something else on the holiday check list...