Twas the Night Before Christmas

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Clement Clarke Moore
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself
;A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Christmas crafts- the naughty or nice edition

Our crafty cuties!

So it's the time of year for crafting- at least for me. Trying something you've seen in a magazine or cookbook and letting your friends and family stand back and marvel at the creation. Sometimes it's beautiful and a big hit...

Other times it's just a big bomb and just looks homemade! (and in case you're wondering these are shepard's pies with faces.) Great in the conceptual stage- yummy to eat... I'm not so sure about the appearance though... Big in the under 5 crowd!

And finally, sometimes it's just about the process! I made sugar cookies from scratch with the kids and thought it would be so domestic to spend the day baking away... I was totally unprepared for the destruction! The cookies turned out great though and I'm sure Santa will love them!

Blog-a-palooza

Patrick slept 6 straight hours last night and so did Mommy- so there is a clean house today and Christmas blogs! Scroll down because there are SEVEN new ones (starting with Turkey Review)! Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Santa Claus is coming to town! In case you didn't get the message, most of America has been busy preparing for this present blitz since sometime in September.

We got a chance to see Santa last night. Rebecca was very excited! Patrick was not so sure... Rebecca told Santa she really wanted Barbies and a computer. Too bad Santa just heard about Barbies for the first time last night... Now the real question is does Santa expand the budget to include the Barbies or hope that the 3 year old with the steel trap mind just forgets about the Barbies?

Here's hoping you're just as excited as we are!

My little pony- LIVE

Is this a scene from a nightmare? No! This is My Little Pony LIVE! We were lucky enough to have Rebecca win to tickets to this show recently and we all got to go. It was 90 minutes of pure bliss for the under 5 crowd of girls and some strange form of torture for the grown-ups.

Suffice to say if you have the opportunity I recommend it only if the tickets are free! Dancing life sized ponies really belong in the dreams of little girls!

Pictures speak a thousand words...

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

We have had snow several times since I blogged last- totals on the ground were at one time 22 inches!! It's a little less than that now due to the beauty of the Colorado snow. Rebecca has discovered snow angels- She makes a really good one and the front and back yard are covered in them!

A Gingerbread Christmas- superstar edition!

Rebecca's a preschooler now. And preschoolers do all sorts of things- like practicing a Christmas pageant since August. We were lucky enough to receive an exclusive invitation to go to this fantastic, Broadway style production. Whoever decided that 3 year olds could handle public scrutiny en-masse was highly medicated. Rebecca did great- she was the most beautiful, talented and wonderful preschooler of the bunch. Well, sure beats last year when she waved her dress up and down the whole time...









Patrick and dad made a great audience and the show went off without a hitch (if you don't count boys fist fighting, girls purse beating and general mayhem), ending with delicious gourmet treats like prepackaged gingerbread and orange juice from a paper cup....

You know the other funny thing about preschoolers is that they can be very tricky. We knew she had been practicing since August. We knew she knew the songs. She sang them day in and out... Check out the video below to see what we thought we were going to hear...

But the thing is- it was a big fat lie. We heard songs about Gingerbread and the days of the week- So, I guess you never know what you were going to get- but bravissima Rebecca!

Trimming the tree

Now that we are homeowners, we leave the tree up year round in the basement. So the spiders and other basement creepy crawlies feel like it's the holidays year round. The weekend after Thanksgiving we carried it up for the big unveil. Patrick was immediately drawn to it but discovered he hated to touch it. But he must touch it- but oh how he hated the feel. Even today he won't touch it- although his new fascination is pulling ornaments off and trying to put them back on- without touching the tree...

Rebecca is loving all things Christmas- she is quite the Christmas princess this year! She helped mommy decorate the tree and did a great job putting the ornaments all around without missing any bare spots. She loves all things dressy and sparkly so this is her season!

And my final throughts for this day are that we hope you aren't spending your Christmas in jail. Poor Patrick spends a lot of time behind bars- and although he's jolly most all the time about this particular predicament... I'm hoping your Christmas is celebrated in freedom!

Turkey review

Ok- so a month later, here I am in review. I have come to accept the chaos that is two kids. Sort of. Kind of. Okay- I'm just trying to make my peace with never completing anything.

We went back to Peoria for Thanksgiving week to spend time with family. It was certainly an event to be thankful for! We got to see everyone on both sides of the family. And I forgot my camera. Or at least I thought I forgot my camera (remember that two kids and chaos thing?). Turns out it was in the bag with the portable DVD player. Anyway, we got a few pix- so enjoy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So here at our house, the winter season means a few things- sick kids and CHRISTMAS! Since everyone has been asking what we want for Christmas, I thought the quickest way to pass around the Christmas list was to publish it on our blog. So in the name of useless materialism and societal self-centeredness here is our list...

Eric:
- 1 high paying job starting July 2009
- Enough money to not have to use Quicken ever again…
- Massages once a week for a lifetime (without the happy ending, thanks! :))
- Very cool very fast sports car with shield making it invisible to police radar
- Hair?

Susanna:
- Maid service 2x/week including laundry
- Health for my children
- World peace and happiness for all
- The ability to go completely green including modifying the house to null electric, gas and
water bills, all organic food, clothes and products for the whole family GEESH.
- And did I mention I would like a HUGE organic garden where we live sustainably from
our own backyard

Rebecca:
- My own computer
- My own camera
- A baby sister (HA!!!)
- A puppy dog
- A swing-set bigger than the park with lots of flags in our backyard

Patrick:
- The ability to eat everything everyone else does- especially pizza and other messy things
I can pick up and maybe throw
- A life without sleep so I don’t miss anything
- Full body armor for a life full of risk without the pain
- A mommy that has nothing to ever do but me
- Speed so that I might get to things before they take them away

So if any of these things catch your fancy or suit your budget let us know...

The Morning After Edition...

So trick or treating ended with a darkness last night on our street. Everyone turns their lights off to tell the little ghosts and goblins it's over and it is down-right creepy to look down our street and see nary a light anywhere. Everyone in our neighborhood has lights on every night so it's really a change...
Rebecca and Eric trick or treated until she couldn't walk anymore and the candy was too much for her to carry... Our total was 107 and we turned out the lights when Rebecca went to bed.

My stash is so large I can't cout it all!

So I guess now it's time to turn our materialistic tendancy towwrds the next big Hallmark holiday... We got our first Christmas ads in today's paper. Who needs to celebrate Thanksgiving when there is only so much shopping time left until Christmas?



If you haven't already... Scroll down to check out more of the little goblins...

Trick or Treat?

Patrick's gone sumo....

and Rebecca is a princess with power!
Happy Halloween everyone! We are just getting started on the night here with trick or treaters pouring in- we just passed 50 and we're not even 1/2 way through it! We have seen in all from princesses to pirates to some scary looking guy from the movie Saw. I'm not so hip anymore. I haven't even seen Saw...

Can you feel the love?

So you might think it's a treat or a trick but I'm only going to post a few pix now... you will have to wait until tomorrow to see the stash....

Kicking back

We spent today at home.

Thought I'd share some cute pix and video of the kids...


With Grandpa here, Patrick is tad distracted by the t.v.... Grandpa kept having to draw his attention to the task at hand.


Patrick is also the sensitive type of baby. In case you don't get it- Grandpa hides the paper, Patrick cries, paper returned = happy baby.


Finally, the red pepper spin really got both kids spun up...

Grandpa is spinning his red pepper spice bottle to get both kids through dinner so mommy can eat. Rebecca thought it was funny. Patrick laughs when she does... or is he crying? You be the judge.

Having Grandpa is Heaven 2007

He's here! He's here!

Grandpa is here! His long awaited visit has finally arrived! We have actually had him for a WHOLE WEEK but I have been selfish and not blogged about it...

My dad is making a tradition of traveling across the country to spend time with his kids and grandkids and after a stay in Canada, he's with us now! And we are so glad to have him!

We celebrated Christmas in December with Rebecca's sand and water table! Rebecca loves it and even when she is down or the weather is freezing she begs to go and play. She could play outside all day with this cool new toy! And as you can see, Daddy can still make the boats go faster.


We dreamt of a white Christmas in October and the Colorado weather made it happen.

We've made girl bands, shown off what we can do and in general partied hard. Grandpa is spoiling us for sure!

Splish Splash

We have a wonderful community center here- complete with an indoor splash playground and swimming complex. In an attempt to reveal healthier selves, we have joined. We took Patrick for his first swim- he was not much of a fan. His sister however is a veritable fish!

Catch us if you can...

Spills of Aspens at Twin Lakes

So we went to Aspen. I am not going to embarrass myself by telling you the date, but let's say it was sometime this fall. While we are in Colorado, we wanted to see the Aspen trees turn gold and one of the prettiest areas in Colorado is the drive from Denver to Aspen.

The drive up Colorado 82 is not for the timid of heart. In our newspaper, they call it "mountain biking for cars" and I have to agree. You pass up these steep switchback passes to reveal these incredible swatches of Aspens along the way. There are no guardrails and the weather was less than pleasant. Thank God Eric was driving! I was able to sit back and enjoy the breathtaking views...

At the top of Colorado 82 is the highest paved mountain pass of the continental divide, Independence Pass. It was cold and snowy when we were up there- Patrick's first snow! Rebecca and I played tourist at the Independence Pass sign just to prove that we had been there. Eric braved the path out to overlook the continental divide and I have to believe him when he said it was awesome!

After an eight hour scenic ride in the car with our angel children, we arrived in Aspen. It was gorgeous. A small little town with scenic views, posh stores and delicious eateries. We fell in love with it. That being said, I think it is probably too much in the winter... But if you ever have a chance in the summer or fall you should make the trip.
We continued to play the tourist and went up Aspen mountain on the Silver Queen Gondola. Rebecca loved it! Eric was a little sea sick, particularily when we were told the ride would be a little longer due to the exceptionally high winds. GULP. But the views from the top were gorgeous- some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.