What We've Been Up To...

We're in full holiday mode around here, here's a glimpse:

Finally seeing Daddy and getting to celebrate his birthday and his being done for the semester with a favorite dinner and favorite cookie



Annual Cookie baking with Nana, using my grandmother's Spritz cookie recipe, it's a 4 generation tradition!

Loving that all it takes is a card or two in the mail to brighten our day


Lots of Christmas crafting, our first experiment with shrinky-dinks, so fun!


Yesterday was the biggest Holiday Fun-Fest ever! We did all the "must-dos" when in Atlanta for the holidays, I'm not not sure they're recommended to be done all in one day though! We were exhausted by the end of it, but it sure was fun!
First, we went to the Varsity for lunch,

MMMMMM, frosted orange...


Followed by a girl's day at The Nutcracker,



Followed by a visit to Lenox Mall to ride The Pink Pig,



Followed by a visit with the big man himself!


Here they are deep in conversation. I was so proud of both of them for actually sitting with him and talking to him after having such a long day with no real naps. I think finally we're at the age of not freaking out. (H) was a tad nervous though, you can tell by his protruding tounge! I think he wouldn't have done as well without the knowledge that he was going to get a candy cane from him afterwards.

Today we're recovering from all that and trying to get everything ready for the upcoming multiple Christmas celebrations. I'll try and post a bit here and there but life's gonna get pretty busy so I'll say Merry Christmas now and see you again in 2010!

Settling

Life is slowly coming to a halt of sorts, a nice easy pace.

Things are ending for the semester. Winding down. Coming to a close. Sort of.

After many weeks of rushing about and to-dos, it seems my brain is less full. I keep having this anxious feeling of things I should be doing, but when I really think about it, I don't.

Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of things going on in the next week or so. Shopping and baking and wrapping and visiting and such, but it will happen in a time of vacation and when we're together. ^J^ has a lot of work ahead of him but I think he's starting to see the light at the end. I know we are. We're ready to have him home and in-the-know again.

I'm feeling like vacation is here for the kids and I already though, and we're just waiting on daddy to finish finals. We're totally taking it easy today after a whirlwind trip this weekend and yesterday. We spent yesterday in Birmingham at a dear friend's ordination to the priesthood and caught up while the kids played. Tonight I am going out with some friends to the big city to eat at a real restaurant, and Friday I'm having a shopping day with my mom followed by our Annual Christmas cookie baking day. While our plate still seems a bit full, all the things we still have planned between now and the new year are fun things and I'm looking forward to each one even if it means we're active and travelling. But for now, I'm off to nap and enjoy this day of settling.

Cousin Fun

Last week ^J^'s parents came to visit and go to Lessons and Carols and they brought our neice with them. They spent the night and the kids had a great time playing and exploring the campus. We went over to All Saint's Chapel to take pictures of the beautiful flowers they had up for Lessons and Carols and the kids were mostly willing to get their picture taken too.





This weekend we'll get to have more cousin fun as we have a full day Sunday with the kids' Christmas symphony, and ^J^'s parent's church's Christmas show. Tonight we're headed to the seminary's holiday party (now that (H) is better), and we're continuing ^J^'s finals countdown. Have a great weekend!

Home

I'm home with a sick boy and since he won't let me leave his side, I've been checking out some fun stuff online while we chill on the couch and watch Christmas movies.

Here's what I'm loving right now:

**The smell of christmas tree in our house**

**This bracelet**

**Being amazed at our kids' sense of humor**

**These Advent ideas**
Here's how we adapted them into our own Advent Calendar:

(Inside each envelope is something to do each day until Christmas. The kids thought of each idea with only a little prompting from me for certain things like "Make Christmas Cookies". *A*'s ideas were very thoughtful and kind. After suggesting lots of things to give to people who don't have much, she wanted to "Make soup for the whole....WORLD!" I gently explained that would be awesome but way more soup than we could ever make, so she settled on making soup for our neighbors. Her new High Five magazine has a project for soup in a jar and she thinks the layers of lentils, rice, etc. is pretty cool so I think that's what we'll do when that envelope is chosen.)

These camera straps

**The way things are coming to a close for the semester and the long break ahead of us**

**Getting out our favorite Holiday cds, especially this and this**

**The reminders all around me to slow down during this Advent season**

Hope you enjoy some unexpected downtime this week.

Some snow, a saint, and a tree walk into a bar...

We woke up to 3 inches of snow Saturday which was super-exciting, but we couldn't stay home and play in it too long because we had the Morning with St. Nicholas event to get to. The kids were itching to get out and play in the snow though, so they threw some warm clothes on and ^J^ took them out (at 7:30am!) while I finished getting ready.

Gracie and Sophie were excited to play in it too!

Then we all changed into dry clothes and headed to Morning with St. Nick.
Here we are with St. Nick, as you can see, the kids wouldn't sit with him by themselves, and even with us in the picture, (H)'s trying to escape and *A*'s clinging to my neck for dear life. *A* did enjoy coloring pictures of St. Nick with her friends and here she is discovering gold coins in her shoes after the program.


Afterwards, we went to our friend's The Krouse's house and ate pizza and the kids played in the snow some more.
We were all pretty exhausted after this jam-packed morning so we came home and took naps. Then we watched Christmas movies, made a cake, and decorated the tree! The kids loved opening each box, getting out as much as they could, leaving it in various places in the living room, and then starting all over again on a new box. Can I just say how messy our living room was? Oh wait, here's proof
Sadly in this process, a few ornaments were broken but the kids were really excited to open all the boxes and in the end, after much rearranging of kid-placed ornaments, we have a finished tree. Whew, what a day!:

First Snow

Just have to say how much I love living somewhere that we actually *get* snow, not just the threat of it. And in the first week of December too! More tomorrow after the PMO Morning with St. Nicholas event I've been helping plan all week, followed by playing in the snow! I found a great resource if you would like to incorporate celebrating St. Nicholas into your Advent tradtions. It's here. Enjoy!

Off and running

Well our break was fast and busy, not the usual thanksgiving lazy break I was hoping for but it was nice to see family and I got some knitting done (although I can't currently find it). We have 2 and a half more weeks of the semester and then we have a month off...ahhhhh. The end of the semester is crazy, busy and we don't see ^J^ much but we're keeping our eyes on that long break coming up with very little obligations and lots of holiday fun!

Last night were the monthly board meetings for Parent's Morning Out and the Spouses of the Seminary. It was sad to say goodbye to the Seniors who will be leaving at the end of the year as the gave up their jobs on each board. I'm anxious and excited to see what the new people will bring as they assume leadership roles. I keep my job as Parent's Morning Out Director but I have a new job for the Spouse's organization, I'm the Discretionary Fund chairperson which means I get to help families in need. I'm very excited to take on this job as I know how much it meant to us when mystery money would show up in our mailbox last year when we were really struggling financially. Speaking of which, if you feel like praying for a worthy cause, please pray that the bank will accept the short sale on our house. We are feeling very frustrated and discouraged by the bank right now (I was on hold off and on for 2 hours Monday) and have had to renew our contract with the buyer because the bank is taking so long, so we just need this stress gone from our lives. Sorry for the prayer request on my blog but I figure it can't hurt.

Anyway, I'm off to the big city today to get supplies for a seminarian craft show tomorrow and for the Morning with St. Nicholas program on Saturday. Never a dull moment! I promise more pictures and less complaining next time! :)