Holiday Catch-Up

It has been so long since our last blog, that we are playing catch-up in this one. Here is a "short" review of what we have been up to lately. An early apology - I do not know what is wrong with our camera lately, but it seems that every picture I take is a bit blurry.

We ventured to the Festival of Trees on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This is a great fundraiser for Memorial Hospital. There were over one hundred trees this year, and just as many wreaths all decorated beautifully. We ran into Olivia's friend Kellan while there, and they had a good time running (literally) from one tree to the next.


Olivia and Joe riding on "daddy's train". Joe's group, Clinical Radiologists, was the sponsor for the train, which Olivia thought was great.

Gingerbread cookie time for Ethan!

More hugs in front of the fantastic gingerbread houses. This is always my favorite part of the Festival. The patience to make a gingerbread house from scratch is beyond me.

Olivia and Kellan making candy cane ornaments.

Soon after Thanksgiving we received our first bit of snow (no pics from turkey day - I forgot our camera). We ate our breakfast quickly and then bundled up to play in it (and it was a good thing, too, since the snow was gone after lunchtime). Once again this year, Ethan is not a fan of the snow (see blog posts from last winter). He would not touch it, but called his baseball a snowball.

Olivia and her first snowman of the year.

Olivia catching snowflakes on her tongue like the Peanuts gang. We ended our morning in the snow with a snowball fight with the family next door. Once our kids are older they had better watch out!

Olivia and Ethan getting into the holiday mood this past week.

Decorating our Christmas tree. This year we bought the biggest, most perfect tree we have ever had. We ran out of lights and had to make a run for more, plus we had to drag out the big ladder as the stepstool was not going to work this time. There is not a "bad" side on this tree at all, and we are thrilled with it. It was the first time that we were able to fit every single ornament on the tree.

Ethan hanging up his favorite ornament - a baseball of course! He must have "hung" this ornament a dozen times - he just kept moving it around the tree very seriously. Thus far he has been very good with the tree - he loves to stare at it and will make happy/excited noises, but has not grabbed for it.

Olivia hanging an ornament. We are not sure which one is her favorite ornament - the answer changes each time.

Ethan and Olivia proud of their tree.

This past Saturday Olivia, Ethan and I went to Edwardsville to watch a wonderful Christmas play that Uncle Brennan wrote/directed/produced/you name it. After the play Olivia and her third cousin Allie were able to go up on stage to sing and dance to Christmas carols with the cast.

As if one tree is not enough, I would like to present to you the newest Christmas addition to our house...the BLACK Star Wars Christmas tree with a black and silver tree skirt enscribed with "May The Force Be With You". This tree is one that you have to see with your own eyes. It is shiny black with white lights, and it is a great tree. It is much better than I had thought it would be. This tree is filled to the brim with all of Joe's Star Wars ornaments that we have been collecting for over 10 years.

Here is the full effect - now you can see the Darth Vader mask tree topper with red bulbs showing through for eyes.

Olivia loving her singing snowman statue.

And last but not least, today Olivia, grandma, grammy, and I went to a girls only brunch and then The Nutcracker at Sangamon Auditorium. It was great fun (even though Olivia did start to get a bit antsy at the end) and will hopefully become a yearly family tradition.