Merry Christmas!

Oh, Christmas Tree Revisited

Two years ago at this time, we were heading to Toledo to spend Christmas with my family.  I posted some pics from that visit here and here but after my mom passed away, I found a bunch more on my dad's camera.  I thought I'd get them posted now.  Audrey had just turned 1 a month earlier and my mom passed away 3 months later.  These are the last pictures I have of the two of them together.

My mom always had a supply of buckets, bowls and shovels for Audrey to play with and Audrey loved them!

Look how little Audrey's boots were compared to mine!

The squirrels in my parents' backyard are ridiculously friendly.

A visit from Aunt Dixie and Uncle Greg:

The sled my parents bought for her.  Audrey claims to remember sledding with Gammy.

Bill with Chloe the cat:

My mom's light up Santa giraffe.  Audrey didn't quiet know what to make of it.

"Audrey's Tree" - my mom decorated in entirely in non-breakable ornaments so Audrey could touch it if she wanted to.

The Little People nativity set my mom bought Audrey - it plays music!  My mom taught Audrey to kiss Baby Jesus.

My mom had also gotten a Christmas train set that plays Christmas carols for Audrey.  That's one thing I loved and miss about my mom - she was always so thoughtful of other people, especially Audrey.  She turned her guest room into a nursery and always made sure it was stocked with diapers, wipes, bib and spit cloths just so we wouldn't have to pack those items.  She even would try and get dolls, or items that showed girls on it, with brown hair so it would match Audrey's!  She wanted to make sure the girls looked like her instead of some blonde.  :)  While that might sound odd, if you think about it, it actually makes perfect sense.  Every child's world revolves around them so why shouldn't a brown haired girl have other items that show girls with brown hair?  No one else would think of something like that.  She was also the type to pay close attention year round and buy you Christmas gifts throughout the year of things you said you liked.  That Christmas I opened a beautiful glass vase and she said, it's the one you pointed to at the store in Iowa City when we walked passed.  That happened when we had Audrey baptised the June prior!  Seriously, no one I know is as thoughtful or detail oriented as she was.  She was so on top of EVERYTHING and I so, so miss that.  There's comfort in knowing that there's someone out there you can always rely on and who is so thoughtful and caring, you don't know where she finds the time and energy.  I definitely haven't mastered it yet but I hope that as I grow as a parent, I will become just like her and will always be paying 100% attention to everyone and everything.  I love you, Mom, and thank you for being so amazing!

The Best Ornaments EVER

Check out how ridiculously cute these ornaments are!!!  They were made at school and feature Audrey's fingerprints and Vivian's toe prints (which I find freaking hilarious) as snowmen!  I absolutely LOVE these and think they were a fantastic project for the school to do.  I can't wait to hang them on the tree!!

Holiday Happenings

Just a quick update on what we've been doing this week.  My dad was in town and helped cross a million things off our house To Do list.  He's quite the handyman and loves to tinker with things so he installed new lighting, fixed our kitchen fan, weatherproofed our foyer and basement (gotta love 60 year old houses!), rehung window blinds, fixed two lamps....I could go on!  Not only was it fun to hang out with him this week, it's just a relief to have those things done.  When my house is in order, I feel better about life.  Yes, I might be a bit mental but I can't stand when things are broken or just not efficient.  He had to leave in a bit of a hurry today because a big winter storm is coming and promises to drop 5-9 inches of wet snow.  The rain and wind already started so even though he was supposed to leave tomorrow, we thought it was safer if he left today.  Audrey is going to be so bummed when Grandpa (or Grampy as she's been calling him lately) isn't at school with me to pick her up!  It's all good though because I've already started another To Do list for the next time my dad visits - I'm sure he'll be thrilled.  ;)

Last night I baked 18 pumpkin breads to hand out to friends, Bill's co-workers and neighbors.  I know 18 sounds like a lot but I used to bake 30+ while living in Iowa so this was a breeze for me.  I actually just got in from running around in the rain delivering them to neighbors.

Starting tomorrow Bill has 5 days off in a row and I couldn't be more excited!  We'll head to Toledo for the day on Sunday to celebrate Christmas with my family, otherwise, we're looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas with just us.  I'm already starting to panic a little when I think of all of the wrapping and toy assembly we have yet to do - Christmas Eve will likely be an all-nighter - but it will be fun!  I remember my parents' all-nighter stories so it's all on par for the parenting course, I suppose.  Although, their stories tended to involve marathon Atari game sessions until they had callouses on their hands!  Unless Bill and I get an urge to play kitchen, I think we're safe.

Hope you all are staying warm and enjoying this holiday season!

Mr. Kringle's Workshop

On Sunday after my cookie exchange, we took Audrey and Vivian to visit Mr. Kringle's Inventionasium!  This place was pretty cool and it took the kids through different stations where they could be hands on and help Santa invent and build toys.  Audrey was funny and asked us if Santa was going to be there and when we said we thought he might, she said she didn't think so.  She wasn't too sure what to make of the workshop at first and even refused to wear the little lab coat they gave her.  She finally warmed up by the end, saw Santa - he was there! - and told Santa that she wanted him to bring her new slippers!  Such the practical one.  (Of course, she had told us new slippers, a balance beam and rocket ship so maybe she didn't want to overwhelm him.)

The first room was the Imaginarium (or something like that) where kids tried to be as creative as possible by naming, and then ultimately making, things that could bounce.

Having her creative thoughts read (she said "a ball"):

Trying to make a bouncing ball with our elf guide - Scoozie:

I wonder what her thoughts were.....

At the next station making Fuzzoodles (aka giant pipe cleaners) into toys:

The Grow Snow Laboratory (this was my favorite):

The other kids in our group poured water into a beaker:

Audrey got to measure out and pour powder which turned into real, cold snow!  It was pretty cool.

Making even more toys:

In a play area while waiting to see Santa:

What I really liked was that we saw Santa privately in our own room - I think because they had multiple Santas to keep the crowd moving - but it was nice not to have to wait with the masses and for the girls to get true one on one time.

The mall had a real train that Audrey was begging to go on:

I really thought they did a great job with the workshop and we'll likely be back each year if they keep setting it up.  To leave, you had to (conveniently) walk through a gift shop so we were able to buy stocking stuffers and some of the toys Audrey played with throughout the tour.  I bought some of that snow stuff just because I thought it was so cool!

Audrey's getting a little too smart for us though.  At dinner that night she asked, "Who was that Santa?"  Bill and I both were like, "What do you mean "that" Santa?  That was him - just Santa."  To which Audrey replied, "But I see Santas at all the different stores so who was that one?"  We just told her that he's really, really busy and flies around to all of the different stores to see everyone.  I can only assume that she's thinking back to last year's visit with Santa because she hasn't seen any Santas since then (curse her freakishly good memory!).  Even if she really is questioning Santa's validity (which I doubt, although she seems so in the know with everything else!), I'll never cave because I love how magical Christmas time is and would never want to prematurely take that innocence away from her.  Nope - I choose lies.  Lots and lots of fun, magical lies. :)