Merry Christmas Eve!

Thinking about our family and friends. Hope everyone is feeling a little bit of Christmas magic tonight.

Dear Santa

The kids have written their letters to Santa this year!

Henry's letter. Written by himself. How many first graders do you know who can spell "sleigh" correctly? Also, take note of how he incorporated the top of Santa's hat into 'love'. He was proud of that.

"From: Henry

Dear Santa, How have you been? Is it fun

riding in your sleigh? I bet it is!

I can't wait for Christmas! this is

some of the things I want.:

A Elctronic Dinosauar costome,

Snap circuits extreme And

Snap Rover. the stocking

with the bone is our dogs!

His name is: Franklin!

Love, Henry

P.S. I've

been good!"

 

And Clara's letter, transcribed (and influenced) by Henry:

"from: Clara

Dear Santa How Have

you Been? Ist fun 

riding in your sleigh?

I can't wait for 

Christmas. I hope you

can bring the presents I

want! A Doll House.

Love, Clara"

In other news, Fabio is looking fabulous. He's a little ornament-heavy around the lower-mid section, but that's because the kids did most of the decorating. I've been resisting the urge to redecorate.

Fabio (updated)

Guess what we did today! It was very muddy for cutting down a tree. Not as lovely as last year's snowy wonderland, but we enjoyed ourselves and found a good one none-the-less. And the cinnamon donuts taste just as good when there isn't snow on the ground. Clara tried to name our tree, but it kept coming out as something I couldn't quite pronounce. For a while it sounded like "cerado". I suggested maybe we just go with Fabio and she was good with that. His brother Frederico lives on the other side of town at Sharon's house.

 

Update: Fabio is a bit bigger than we realized. He looks very wonky in this picture, but we're still working on his placement and he's still loosening up and settling into his new home.

Christmas 2010

Last night we tried out services at a local church. The service was kind of cute, with the kids doing their pageant stuff, but then it got weird with some evangelical puppets. In any case, the kids looked adorable and we got to sing all of the good hymns.
When we got home we lit the luminaria and the house looked like this.
Sharon and the girls and Tom came over for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate lots of food and then there was gingerbread cake and lots of cookies. Tom read Santa Mouse to us.
After the kids went to bed we played games for a while, had some cocktails and some laughs and then before going to bed around 2AM the tree looked like this:
This morning it looked like this:
The kids poked around, trying to figure out which boxes had their names on them.
It looked like this outside:
Henry and Clara played with their little Bilibo seats that Santa left unwrapped.
They also checked out these wildlife puppets left by Santa Tom (shhhh!)
Full stockings!!
Henry had a dino-themed book in his stocking.
Clara got this beautiful sweater from Aunt Joyce. She enjoyed showing it to Franklin. He appreciated its design.
Franklin seemed to enjoy the whole morning, even though he didn't get a new Kong.
The kids were very slow-paced in their opening...playing with each toy or reading each book before moving on.
The big finale from Santa was a big roaring, stomping t-rex for Henry and a sweet, but also noise-making, elephant for Clara. They went head-to-head for a while. Clara is completely freaked out by the dinosaur. She was hiding behind my back.
Later, after some much-needed naps, we went to Grandma and Bampa's for dinner. Henry and Clara poked around the presents before we ate.
Later we opened a few gifts. Clara got a big dress-up box and Henry tried to help her out with the shoes.
Vivian got a new Bumbo seat from her parents, and enjoyed hanging out in it.
And, I apparently didn't get many good shots of Pete this year, but here's one of him listening to a singing Snoopy. Right now he has his headphones on and he's geeking out with a new Bitches Brew album/memorabilia gift from Liz and Van.
I was hoping for another Christmas game of Scrabble, but I may just have to go fall asleep. Merry Christmas!

Nice List

Today we've done a little shopping, a little baking, a little Christmas movie watching, and the kids have just written new letters to Santa.

Winter Sing

Henry had his Winter Sing this morning. He was very handsome and very proud.
I like this picture because I think it's when they were singing about gingerbread cookies and the lyric was "yummy yummy yum yum. In my little tum tum."
They also got to wave scarves around.
Here he is, walking out, trying not to make eye contact with me and also trying not to break out into a huge smile.
And I hardly even teared up at all!! I was a little proud of myself for holding it together.

Getting into the spirit...

Somebody requested proof that Eleanor was here with us last weekend. Here she is! Unfortunately I didn't get many good photos!
Clara went shopping with her Grandma on Monday and they picked up a festive sweater for Franklin. Here he is enjoying some time in it.
And with the kids....
We kind of had to squeeze him into it. You can tell he felt quite regal.
As a matter of fact, it was quite a challenge to get him in AND out of the sweater. It may have actually been what caused the sprain in his back for which I had to take him to the vet yesterday. Now Franklin's on medication and bed rest. Poor pooch. (I don't actually blame the sweater, but we did pass it on to Franklin's friend Calvin once we eased him out of it.)
Speaking of Calvin...his human, Rhiannon, is spending the evening with us tonight. Sharon had a last-minute opportunity for some photo work downtown and Sinéad was busy for the evening. We had some Chinese food for dinner and put together this fabulous gingerbread train from a Target kit. Now we're watching a little Muppets Christmas Carol.
If you look closely in the photo you may see streaks of blue on Clara's face. She snuck a couple of gumballs while we were making the train. Sneaky little girl. When I asked her if she had a taste of anything she said "No I not!"

Since we last met...

We took a day to play and sled before heading back to Iowa.
Hi jinks immediately ensued upon arrival in Iowa.
We had a little wildlife viewing at Dad's house.
And enjoyed lots of handmade gifts.
Eleanor and Clara each received a baby doll sling made by Aunt Sandy.
Henry's new microscope was not handmade, but the case for it was.
And Clara's new music box needs to be seen and heard in person to be fully appreciated.
More hi jinks and hilarity...
I'm not sure if anyone kept track of how many times those legos were picked up, but the number was easily into double-digits.
And then there was New Year's Eve.
With fancy headgear.
Rob, Carrie, Pete and I attended a party held by these fine folks in their super-cute house.
New Year's day....I think this is the only photo of all 4 cousins together.
These glasses were a hot commodity.
There was lots of reading going on, and lots of patient aunties.
We did some more presents. Featured here is a book Eleanor made for Grammie and a poncho Carrie made for Clara.
Finally, we finished up our trip with a stop at the Hamburg for breakfast before heading back home.
Happy New Year everyone! Go Hawkeyes!!