Merry Christmas Eve!

Stinky Dipe

Trying out the Blogger mobile app.

This is where Fritz likes to go when he knows I want to change his diaper.

Winter Sing and Zoo Lights

Last week the Christmas spirit really amped up around here with Henry and Clara's winter sings at school. Clara's was first. Here she is with her pals, getting ready to sing her heart out on four adorable songs. We're fortunate that at Meadowbrook they do the sings in the big gym, so grandparents are able to come (unlike at my school, where we use the lovely auditorium, but only 2 family members can attend). Grandma and Bampa are always enthusiastic audience members. The rest of you can come enjoy the video. 

 Henry's sing was the next morning. That's one of his buddies giving him bunny ears behind him. This was not during the sing, but rather the 'Kodak moment' photo opportunity beforehand. Henry had a speaking part this year. We were quite proud.

 We were supposed to have gone to Iowa City this past weekend to celebrate with everyone there, but the weather looked daunting for making the drive, so we all (Will's family and ours) decided to postpone Christmas until MLK weekend. It's made for a bit more of a relaxing weekend. We were able to go to Brookfield last night to see the ZooLights. My favorite part was the polar bear sleigh.

 Rob would have been excited to see this giant talking tree.

 Clara enjoyed the giant ornaments.

 After the zoo we pushed our tired kids a bit and went to Hackney's for dinner. Hackney's never disappoints, with it's festive decorations and entertainment. I like this picture because Frederick is watching the carolers walk by, but also because I love his hat hair. The giant pitcher of Green River behind him is sort of a fun bonus as well.

 Henry was not actually this pouty about the carolers. He just didn't want his picture taken.

 There was also a balloon guy. The kids got a wreath and a candy cane. He was running low on white and red, so they got more colorful combinations. Fritz wanted to head to the foosball table instead of staying put for the photo.

Today the kids have a lunch date with Grandma and Bampa. Pete and I will be doing some last minute tidying and other preparations. There are probably more Christmas movies and popcorn and treats in our future tonight. Pete and I may or may not be planning to have a pre-Christmas Eve martini. Oh, and, in keeping with our typical timeline...we have to have one major household appliance with issues at Christmastime. This year it appears to be the furnace, which stopped blowing for a portion of the night last night. So, we'll be dealing with that and Pete's check engine light as well. (Not Pete's check engine light...the light of his car.)

Thanksgiving on...

Here's the adorable tiny-hand turkey that Frederick 'made' for us for Thanksgiving. 

 And here's the real live turkey that was in the Starbucks parking lot on the last day of work before we left town for Thanksgiving...

 And here's Clara, Anders and Henry dressed up for Thanksgiving morning.

 We were up in Minnesota for Thanksgiving this year. We stayed with Will and Sandy, but had dinner at Aunt Paula's newish house (they've been in about a year now) and Grandpa and Nana came up to eat turkey as well.

Here's Aunt Paula loving on Anders...

 The kids had a great time with their cousin Anders, too. Here they are, performing the classic black-olive-on-the-finger trick.

They didn't totally fill up on olives. Here they are getting ready for the big meal. 

Aunt Paula took extra care to make sure we could all sit down together at one big table. It was so nice to be together!

Clara had made some table decorations.

After dinner, of course, there was artwork to make. 

Clara got to wear one of Grandpa Fritz's old shirts to protect her clothes. 

Frederick got in on the action too. 

One of the activities the next day was to make sugar cookies with Aunt Sandy. She was happy to allow the kids to choose a wide and crazy variety of colors. The cookies turned out adorable and delicious. We made foxes, reindeer, hedgehogs, footballs, stars, bears and squirrels. 

Frederick tried to watch the football game with Uncle Will, but he was a little yelly at times.

Before going home we had a yummy cheeseburger meal at a place called Burger Jones.

 Clara ordered the Little Elvis, which was peanut butter, banana and Nutella. Ate the whole thing up!

When we got back from Minnesota it was right back to school and work for all of us. We decided we didn't have the luxury of time to go cut our own tree down this year, so we went to a local garden center here, on a misty evening, and picked out a nice one.

 Frederick approved of our choice. I don't actually think this was it...

 Completely unrelated...Clara has been doing a ton of writing lately. Here's a note she left for the cleaners. "I'm a girl, Clara. May you please clean the ceiling right next to the trash can." I loved it so much.

 Here's another one she left for St. Nick. " I love you St. Nicholas. You are so nice to me. Thank you for that. Could you give me a note back. Clara. And Frederick." I especially love "dif" for "give." It's so Clara.

 Here are the kids on St. Nick's morning, checking out their new ornaments. We also had a special Swedish coffee cake made from Grandma Opal's recipe.

Here's an outtake from our Christmas card photo shoot. 

 Did I mention that Mom and Zeke were here with us for a bit?

 Frederick especially loves all of the ornaments that look like his favorite thing in the world...."ball!"

November Busy-ness

November holds many important days for us. Obviously, this year, it was especially big with Pete's 40th birthday! Pete and I both took the day off work, but I still made him get out of bed early. Scott came to pick him up at about 7AM. It was a surprise all the way up until about 6:30 when another friend of theirs from high school let the cat out of the bag. Still...they had a great time. Went to visit their old high school jazz band teacher and watched the kids play. Then we got our own kids off to school and the 3 of us went into the city for a delicious brunch at Longman & Eagle. We made a couple more stops, including one at Vic's drum shop, but then got a call from the Meadowbrook school nurse. Henry had cut his chin open at recess and we had to take him to the doctor. Luckily, no stitches were needed, so the party was able to go on. 

Here's Frederick in his party clothes, ready to head to Evanston. 

 Pete set him right on the piano to put his coat on, which I thought was pretty funny.

We held the party at Prairie Moon in Evanston. I did not get very great photos. My dad has some good ones on his site, so you can check that out if you want. Here's a selection. My favorite is of the boys playing a random selection of improvised instruments later in the night. We had a pretty great time! 

 
The original plan was for Mom to be with us and then to take the kids home after a while. Due to a very sick pooch, she was unable to come, so the kids hung out with us the whole time. Frederick, thankfully, crashed in his stroller for the evening. Henry and Clara eventually fell asleep on either side of Grandpa Bill.

Amber used the lighting to our best advantage and got what is probably the only photo of Pete and I together from the night.

Rob and Carrie's family stayed with us for the weekend. We put the kids to work raking. 

Monday of that weekend was Veteran's day. The big kids and I took advantage of the free day and took the train down to the Art Institute. The lions were not yet sporting their holiday wreaths.

We saw a lot of cool things and had a really great day together!

About a week later I was able to go out on the town for the night with some girlfriends form school. It's nice to be back with such great colleagues and friends!

Last Sunday I braved the tornadic weather and took Henry and some friends out to a birthday movie. The movie was pretty terrible, but the popcorn was good. I sat behind the boys and was official popcorn refiller. We had frozen yogurt and checked out the Lego store afterwards. I think they had a great time.

Here's another school picture. My school was just awarded the national Blue Ribbon award, which is a pretty big deal. We all wore blue on the day the principal and my 2nd grade teammate/friend Nancy brought the award back. The picture is blurry, but there's the kiddos I work with every day.

Last night the big kids and I went downtown to try to catch the Magnificent Mile lights parade. I don't know when I'll officially give up on this fiasco. It's always too cold and too crowded. Aunt Carrie was in town for a conference, though, so she met us and we tried it anyway. We were able to hoist the kids high enough to wave to Goofy and Pluto and then we took off to meet Sarah, Orion and Archer for dinner at the Berghoff. Another blurry picture, but it sort of captured the moment as we left and looked for a cab to get back to our minivan. The kids were probably most excited by riding in a taxi, which was a first for them.