National Christmas Tree

To keep the holiday spirit flowing, we all headed down to the National Mall to look at the National Christmas Tree. It was actually a pretty cool spectacle, as the larger tree was surrounded by 50+ decorated trees representing all of the states and U.S. territories. We, of course, had to scope out our local trees. Traci's Pennsylvania tree was O.K., including balls filled with abstract prints and tinsel. (She was hoping for something more significant to the state itself.) The Virginia tree was simply a bunch of Christmas symbols painted on metal. And, Mike's Michigan tree, strangely enough, was filled with snow flakes and cardinals. (That is strange in the fact that MI's state bird is the robin....) Our favorite trees tended to have ornaments that typified their state. For example, the Texas tree had a tiny space station and sandy beach. And, the Maine tree had a huge lobster net thrown on as garland. In spite of the bone-chilling temps, everybody had fun looking at the trees and model trains; and we plan to make this a holiday tradition!

Christmas, Part One

Whooooooaaah - we had quite a whirlwind weekend here to kick off the Christmas holiday! Grammy called on Thursday night to surprise us with the news that she and Papa would be down to visit and deliver their presents. Needless to say, Katie was beside herself with excitement. The caravan (or should we say sleigh?) pulled in Saturday lunchtime filled to the brim with presents from all kinds of relatives in Pennsylvania. Actually, the sheer amount of presents was so overwhelming that Katie honestly asked for a break in the middle of opening things. So many thanks go out to all of the OVER-generous relatives that sent things...we wish you could all see the smiles that the kids had while opening and playing with everything. Katie especially loved her new dress-up clothes, and Michael...? Well, his favorite thing was the styrofoam cooler that Grammy brought the Christmas ham in. He is 15-months-old, you know? Please take a moment to look at our photo album from the festivities. Merry Christmas, Part One!!

K-A-T-I-E!

Guess what our kiddo can do now??? That's right - write her name!! Katie's preschool has really been working on letters with the kids, and Katie finally has the small motor skills to really start writing letters. Yesterday she was perfecting her name. Today, she literally wrote KATIE, DADDY, MOMMY, and MICHAEL!! It's so exciting to see your child on the cusp of some big things to come.

Adequate ROI

Today was our first real snow fall of the year, so, of course, Katie was begging to go outside to play. Now, as every parent knows, you really have to weigh the pros and cons of getting everybody bundled up for such a snow adventure. Will it be worth all of the hassle to get everybody outside? Once outside, how much will your youngest one even tolerate? Will the older one whine about getting snow in her mittens? You get the picture. We definitely got what we would consider an adequate return on investment today: only 15 minutes of tugging, pulling, screaming, and kicking to get outside...and 30 minutes of good fun once we got to the snow! Even Michael did a pretty good job walking in his snow boots! We were getting well-prepped for our journey to Michigan next week. Knowing Grand Rapids, Katie will not want for snow there!

His Father's Dance Moves!

G-Bread Time!

Last Tuesday, before all of the stomach bugs (ugh!) started to settle in to our house, Traci was able to slip out for a fun evening of gingerbread house decorating with her Book Club buddies. All of the ladies had a blast munching on candy and food, sipping some wine, gossiping, and...oh yeah...making some beautiful little houses for our families to enjoy. A very special thanks goes out to Kim for hosting AND building every single house for the rest of us. You go above and beyond, Kim, and we are all grateful. Pictured with our houses (L to R): Kim (the lovely hostess), Julie (the slow and thoughtful one), Traci ("ew, get the chocolate away from me" one), Angela (the only one who could honestly say that she was eating candy for two), Emily (the one who built her first-ever house), Jasmine (the creative one who built a train depot for her boys), and Jamie (the one who topped us all by building a wrought-iron fence out of pretzels!!)

Did Somebody Say Skirt?

Just Katie being Katie....she can find a way to play dress-up no matter what is in her path. In this case, it was the tree skirt, while we were decorating the tree. Surprisingly, it fit her well. Notice the thing on the TV pointing at her in an accusatory manner....

561 Infected Files Later....

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back online! Sorry about our absence over the past week...our computer was taken over by a nasty virus last weekend and we had to have it scrubbed clean by the Geek Squad. 561 infected files, a new Christmas tree, a few stomach bugs, a couple birthday parties, a gingerbread-house making venture, and another (failed) recital later, we are back. We continued to take some good photos and video while our computer was away, so we'll do some catching up this week. We'll start with today's activities: putting up our Christmas tree! We decided to go with a short, but plump, tree up on a table so that Michael would do minimal damage. We'll see how our strategy works. Katie did a FABULOUS job helping to decorate this year, while Michael did his best to tear apart all of the tissue paper that packed all of the ornaments. So far, we have only had to clean up two smashed ornaments, so we'll see....

Dumping Grounds

What is it about the act of dumping one's toys out of a bin that causes such glee in children? Is it the instant gratification of getting to what you want? Is it the loud sound that emanates from all of the toys scattering everywhere? Or is it just the plain, ol' mess left behind? Whatever it was, Katie, Michael, and their buddies Sam (almost 4-years-old) and Oliver (21-month-old) sure reveled in some good, old-fashioned DUMPING (with a capital D!!) during their playdate today. I honestly don't think there was a toy left untouched by the time these crazy kids were done. Please note Michael, pictured in what is left of the art bin. While his partner-in-crime Sam got the bin opened, Michael was the one who climbed in and decided to dump every last marker and crayon out of their respective boxes. Oh well, at least the kids had a fantastic day!