Our REAL Christmas Present . . .

On Monday morning this will be the sunrise we'll be waking up to. . .  You see, we (Jon and I) have had a secret from the kids for the last few months. On Christmas morning we gave the kids a card that said, "This year we are giving you the gift of memories. Good things come to those who wait." The kids didn't really do much with it other than toss it aside and go on playing with their new toys. Little do they know! Tomorrow morning we are heading to Hawaii for a week (Thanks to really low airfares!). I am SO excited for them! I guess because Jon and I go every year they talk about it ALL the time. Collin has been twice, the first time when he was 2 and the second for Jons brothers wedding when he was almost 5. Grace has been once when she was just a year. I'm hoping that it's going to be as good as I've been hoping!

I think this is a pretty good first anniversary of blogging post, don't you? Hopefully we'll have a few minutes to post while we're gone. 

Flash back

Do your kids (if you have them) like looking at old photo albums? Mine do, and I do too! It seems when we have a holiday we inevitably end up looking at pictures. The kids love to see themselves when they're little. 

Yesterday I looked at Grace doing some school stuff  . . . 

And saw my little 18 month old baby but with longer hair. . . 

I think it's so fun to see kids do the same things they've always done. It's fun being a mom!

Got Wii?

With it being our first post of the new year, I suppose I should be saying something profound . . . then again, it is pretty profound that we succumbed and bought a video game console!!!! Which is also why I haven't posted in so long. We have been having too much fun bowling, boxing, dueling in tennis etc. to do much posting. (That and the fact that I have been sore from my neck to my feet since Christmas!) So without further ado let me introduce you to my little friend . . . 

I have taken a lot of pictures of us playing on the wii but pictures don't capture the "3D" of playing on it. We also have video of all of us playing (videotaping is Collins new hobby), but that should not be shown to those outside our family. SO, I think this video will do justice to the excitement and complete dumbfoundedness (is that a word?) the kids had about it. You have to realize that we have always had a "no video games" rule in the house. I am posting this even though I am showing how bad and crabby of mother I am. In case you forgot, Collin is a Lego fanaAtic, so he was building his latest set (which absorbs his whole mind and body) and Grace had started opening it (does that give me some justification?) . . . 

After all the excitement, Collin immediately returns to the Legos . . . 

So long tooth, so long 2008!!

Before . . . 

After . . . 

And so officially ends the baby/toddler/little kid stage in our life. STILL DON'T miss the diapers or nursing in the night, DO miss feet that fit in my hand and little bodies that fit in my lap. 

Parental Tip: As soon as your child's tooth becomes loose, have your payment plan ready, even if it takes 3 months for the tooth to finally come out! You don't want to get caught on a Sunday night at 8 having your child's tooth, and FIRST tooth at that, coming out. Telling them that the tooth fairy doesn't work on Sunday's doesn't work because they KNOW for a FACT that she does too. I said she probably wouldn't come tonight so not to get her hopes up. Jon (the little kid in a big kids body) couldn't NOT let the tooth fairy come. So he scrounged up some quarters so she wouldn't be disappointed (we usually give $2 bills for the first teeth and big teeth and dollar coins for all other teeth). What a good dad!

Wishing you all a fun and safe New Years Eve and Happy 2009!!

Christmas . . . Part Deux

We had a great Christmas! We ate lots of good food, played games and spent the whole time together.  This batch of pictures is from Christmas

 morning . . . 

Collin, having the biggest stocking of us all, trying to see all the way to the bottom . . . 

Grace getting excited about some chocolate (definitely my girl) . . .

Jon with his Bear pate and me with my new blue slippers. . . 

Collin gives the best reactions to presents! Grace gave him the Star Wars lego set, so she's trying to see if he likes it or not (like there's any question!).  Grace with her new Barbie turn-little-girls-into-consumers cash register set (again, my daughter . . . I loved cash registers when I was little). . . 

Another great Collin shot . . . 

Grace is too busy opening everything and ripping tags off to give good reactions, so for her, showing she likes something is how absorbed she is with it. Also, we have pictures from every Christmas of the kids sitting in matching positions. And Collin is always building some lego set. . . 

Our traditional aebleskiver Christmas breakfast. We have also had nonalcoholic gløgg the last few years, which is warmed, spiced fruit juice with slivered almond and raisins at the bottom of the mug. I grew up eating cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast so this year I decided to make some to bring back the memories. YUM!

Christmas . . . Part One

This is the first installment of the deluge of pictures to come. . .  these are leading up to and including Christmas Eve.  We had Jons brother and family come into town and I guess we were having too much fun to take any pictures!! The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. It's one of their favorite things. 

This is Jons latest artistic endeavor. I guess since we don't have a spot big enough for a real koi pond, he decided to paint some . . . 

Singing a song on our very last Advent last Sunday. . . 

Opening the advent calendar on Christmas Eve morning. . . 

Our traditional "very Danish" Christmas eve dinner of frikadellar (ground meat patties), potatoes, rod krohl (red cabbage) etc. Yummo. 

Jons family has a great tradition of having a white elephant gift exchange on Christmas eve, but with food treats (see why I married into this family?). So this is after we were done with our "loot" as Collin likes to call it. . . 

Another one of our traditions is to give the kids "jaminas" on Christmas eve. Grace has ALWAYS buried her face in hers in excitement . . . 

Collin seeing his . . .  I love that they still get excited about them . . . 

The sweet potatoes . . . 

After getting cozy in the new jaminas we pool our white elephant treats and settle down to watch The Nativity Story DVD (if you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest it) and then settle in for a long winters sleep. . . . 

December Randomness

For those of you that don't know, we are now doing Scribble out of our house . . . 

What used to be our dining room is now our production room . . . . 

As I was going through my camera, I came across some that I didn't take and had to laugh at this one. Grace's turtle . . . in a bowl . . . I love being a mom!!

Grace with her new set of wheels . . .

Grace outside trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth. I let them stay in their "jaminas" all day since it was so cold . . . 

See all the snow? The kids kept saying, "it is snowing SO hard!"

Advent

One of our favorite things about this time of year is celebrating Advent for the 4 Sundays before Christmas. We read Christmas stories and sing Christmas songs and eat a treat. There need to be about 30 Sundays for all the cookie recipes we want to try every year. Tonight was Almond Crescents. Delish. We used to have my sisters come over to do it with us and we made song books for each of us that I've been adding to every year. We love Advent! But we also miss having the kids aunties with us. Maybe next year . . . 

Tagged

I just read on my sis-in-laws blog that she tagged me to list some 8's. That is just too many for me so since I was 4th on the list, I will do four things. . . 

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:

17 Kids and Counting

Little People Big World

Jon and Kate plus 8

Kids by the Dozen

(notice any themes here?)

4 Things that happened yesterday:

1. IT SNOWED!

2. Shipped a vinyl wall decal out

3. Rode my exercise bike

4. Experimented with some essential oils

4 Things I'm looking forward to:

1. Advent Sunday

2. Having Jons brother and fam stay with us soon

3. Christmas!

4. A trip in January!

4 Things I love about Winter:

1. A fire

2. Layers of clothes

3. Baking yummy things

4. Making soup

4 Things on my Wish list:

1. ummmmmmmm . . . diving next year

2. . . . . . . . . going on a great trip next year

3. Seeing all of my family soon

4. I'm sure as soon as I post this I'll think of some great things, but for now, I can't!

"The Christmas Miracle"

                              

IT SNOWED YESTERDAY!!!!! Ok, there was never any on the ground, but the roofs were white!! The kids were SO excited and kept saying how hard it was snowing, and I even took pictures, but you can't see the flakes, so you'll have to trust me. (I swiped the above picture from the local newspaper). We had a fire going all day it was so cold - 35 degrees. 

Grace was running around all day yelling, "It's a Christmas Miracle!!" I'll have to post more pictures later . . .