Deck the Halls...

Recently, at our weekly playdate with the cousins Amy and I were talking in the kitchen and realized the kids had been quiet for a while which is rarely good with a 3, 4, and 5 year old on the loose. We went into the living room (really we call it "the tickle couch room") and found this...

The tree only had lights on it before this but the kids broke into the ornament boxes and half the tree was decorated when we got in there!




Then we got in on the fun and helped keep the kids (and the ornaments) safe :-)


Earlier that week we had decorated our own tree at home which Ella LOVES to do!


Good times were had by all and only a few ornaments bit the dust ;-)

More Snow Pics!

BLIZZARD!!!

Nothing like 2 feet of snow to have a lot of winter-Christmas-ey fun at home. We had a great day on Saturday. The snow fell non-stop from Friday night until Sunday morning! We cooked, made ornaments, decorated a gingerbread house, watched The Polar Express, and eventually played outside once the wind died down. Great day!






I was determined to mail the last of the Christmas cards and ventured out to the mailbox thinking that whole "come rain, sleet, snow" motto of the post office was for real. It's not. They didn't come :-(

Lots of fuse bead fun was had. I'm telling you $5 at Ikea has lasted us a year!


Ella and I ventured out to play in the evening while Chris shoveled his little heart out


Ella insisted on helping and stayed out there long after I went it to sweep snow off the cars with her broom while Chris shoveled. She really was helpful! I love having a 4 year old!




Ella loved sliding down this snowdrift mountain Chris made!

My rosy cheeked little girl after coming inside, ready for hot chocolate! LOVE days like these!

Rockettes Spectacular minus one

Because my grandmother was a Rockette 70 years ago I've grown up going to see their famous Christmas Spectacular Show many times. Lately they've started traveling so we don't always make the trip to Radio City in NYC. This year my grandmother bought tickets for the whole family months in advance so we could all go to the show nearby.

Then...

My dad spent weeks planning a surprise for my grandmother-backstage passes to meet the Rockettes, take pictures etc. Something she'd LOVE.

Then...

We put in the Rockettes DVD my grandmother bought us at the show last year to show Ella and get her all psyched up for the show. She was even more into this year than last year. And she knows that GG used to be the 3rd one from the end on the left :-)

Then...

The night before the big show and the big surprise...my grandmother fell and broke her hip.

Ugh. I cried when I got the phone call. It doesn't help that she'd been in the hospital exactly a week before for a totally unrelated problem. This poor woman! She was spitting mad to have to miss the show and asked every doctor around if they could just drug her up and let her go in a wheelchair. They said no way.

So, we all went to the show. And met some Rockettes. And called her a lot as she sat in the hospital. It was a great show but so sad to not have here with us! But as she reminded me in her New York/Yiddish accent, "it could be worse, doll"



Ella's sneaky face when she spotted cookies when we got backstage


Ella was terrified and would NOT go up for a picture by herself.

My Dad was SO excited!

My mom's friend, me and my mom had to get in on the photo op too

A little video they made for my grandmother (yes, they're holding the picture of her my dad brought to show them).

Hanukkah, O Hanukkah!

Because my dad is Jewish, I grew up celebrating Hanukkah and Chris and I have decided to carry on the tradition! Ella has been learning all about the Maccabees and the oil lasting for 8 days, menorahs, the shamash, latkes, and dreidels. However we had a little miscommunication and Ella was very disappointed when she saw that the candles don't burn for 8 days :-( It's been fun to point to God's miracles from so long ago to encourage all of us that He still does amazing things today!


A rousing round of "Hanukkah O Hanukkah, come light the menorah.."


After a crazy stressful day I spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of the menorah as the candles burned. It was so relaxing and fun to be creative. I think photography may actually become my new hobby. Like father like daughter I guess.





And finally, Ella singing "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" at my grandmother's house last week. Ignore her pulling up her tights at the beginning. She's 4. She doesn't quite get propriety ;-)

Sweetness

Blast from the Past...

My Sister in law Amy has an awesome post today about Ella and her cousins...check it out here

First Snow 2009!

It SNOWED! I am obsessively in love with snow so Saturday was pretty blissful for me. The weather people are almost always wrong about snow. Usually they overestimate how much we'll get and it just rains. But this time, they said rain turning to snow mid afternoon and we had 2 inches by 11am! Glorious mistake I tell you!

We had a blast throwing snowballs, catching flakes on our tongues and just running around like crazy people!

Chris created a Ziploc contraption to keep the camera dry :-)

It was a BEAUTIFUL day and some of the snow is still around! I'm fine with the weather deciding to be cold finally, as long as we keep getting snow!



And now two completely random pictures but too fun not to share...
#1. My 91 year old grandmother cracking up. I LOVE this woman!


#2. I've been told since college that I have a "look" that I give at times. I think this infamous death look has now been captured.

Happy December everyone!

Kicking off the Christmas Season

We went to a local festival the day after Thanksgiving and it will definitely become a new family tradition! It totally exceeded our expectations and we had a great time. I took about 175 pictures-partially because there were that many fun things and partially because I LOVE experimenting with the new camera.

This was one of our favorite trees-simple but beautiful

Ella loved this ornament. We got lots of ideas for our annual ornament exchange with Chris' family

Besides 500 decorated trees, all kinds of vendors, live music, storytimes, pony rides, a carousel and food, there were animals!!! I never pass up a chance to touch creatures and Chris was up for touching the largest one there.

Ella and I both love crafts and spent a long time in "craft corner" at the festival. This was mostly because the really nice craft-helper-guy kept bringing us new crafts to do for free after we paid our 2 tickets for the first one! (and we got the tickets for free from people who were leaving and had extras!)

The Kids rock band Milkshake was performing and since we have their CD we were excited for Ella to see them in person. She was oddly fascinated and horrified simultaneously. Even with her hearing aids off she covered her ears the whole time and looked terrified but didn't want to leave! She wanted to be off to the side, way in the back, behind Christmas trees and watch from afar but somehow enjoyed it!

I really loved the snowflake tree

Here are a lot more pictures (not all 175, just the good ones)

Thanksgiving #2

Thanksgiving with Chris' family was a lot of fun :-) 4 kids under 5, 2 large dogs, and 13 adults all sat down to a great meal. Other highlights-watching my nephew Silas learning to walk, laughing until it hurt about Farrah Fawcett (don't ask), and having many joyful "conversations" with Lau-Lau, my SIL's MIL who only speaks Chinese (think talking mixed with sign language and a lot of nodding in ignorance!)

Some of the spoils of Pie Night!

One thing I love about events and Chris' parents house is the constant piano accompaniment! Chris' dad is a professional pianist and I love getting to listen! Even if we are scurrying around getting food ready and scolding kids, it lends serenity to the whole night.

It took 2 people to carve the 32lb turkey! Ella got to help pick it out at the Turkey Farm.

Not the best pic but this is almost everyone!

Chris' brother Dave (as if you can't tell from the resemblance) and Julie enjoying after dinner conversation.

Aunt Debbie, who I really love. We don't get to see her often so I was really glad she and Uncle Dave made it for this holiday!

And finally a fun pic of Amy which she might make me take down. But it's hilarious! (AND for any photography nerds, it was an experiment at an ISO of 100 so it's a miracle it turned out so sharp!)