Countdown to Christmas

'Tis the Season! Here is a rundown of what the family has been doing...

It's baaaack - the Star Wars Christmas tree. Yes, the tree is black. Yes, that is a Yoda tree topper. Yes, we have a Star Wars tree skirt. And, yes, what the photo does not show is that Joe now has a Star Wars Christmas village! He has joined a club that sends him a new piece every 6-8 weeks. His building range from Jabba's Palace to Yoda's swamp house. It is in its early stages now, so not very decorated. Next year we will post a picture.

Ho Ho Ho - Santa Ethan! This is the beard from the Mr. Potato Head Santa.

Decorating our family Christmas tree. Joe was on ladder duty for our 10 foot real tree. He is very much in the Christmas spirit at this moment (checking his iPhone)!

The finished product!

Olivia and Enid during a family snuggle/Christmas movie night.

"All I Want for Christmas is My One Front Tooth"! Olivia lost her third tooth not long after Thanksgiving. While the second top tooth is also loose, we don't think she is going to lose it before Christmas.

On December 12, Springfield received about 2.5 inches of snow. Here is Olivia with her first snow angel of the season.

A great picture of Ethan in mid-throw of a snowball.

The kids love how fast they fly down the slide in their snow pants!

Olivia pulling her friend Kaitlyn on the sled.

Ethan and Joe sledding "Illinois style" (no hills).

Olivia, Ethan, and Kaitlyn had created a snow village, and here they are destroying it.

Olivia and friends participated in a gingerbread house party with their school teacher. Here are the finished results. Olivia was thrilled to make a house with REAL gingerbread - not from a kit. I will say, there is no comparison with the smell - the entire house smelled wonderful when she brought it home.

For our family gingerbread project, we used a "princess castle" kit. However, as you will see, our results were very different from what was promised on the box!

I don't remember what the kids were so entranced with in this picture, but something is fascinating to them!

About 3/4 of the way through decorating, our castle caved in on itself. Luckily, the kids took this catastrophe rather well.

At least we had the beautiful gingerbread house that Olivia made with her teacher!

Olivia and friends at their school Christmas party making reindeer food.

Ethan and I making chocolate covered cherry cookies. We made 15 dozen of these cookies in 2 weeks. He is quite the helper in the kitchen!

Olivia in her Christmas dress prior to her Sunday School program. I was too busy video taping the performance that I was not able to take any actual pictures of it!

Ethan in his Christmas outfit. He will participate in the Sunday School program next year.

Merry Christmas!

Grandma, Grandpa, Olivia and Ethan.

Grammy, Grandpa Brett, and Uncle Brennan celebrated Christmas early with the kids. I think that this picture shows that the grandkids are just a tad spoiled!

Ethan and Grammy.

Both kids received a Paper Jamz guitar from Uncle Brennan. Here they are "rocking out"!

Joe and Ethan in their somewhat matching sweaters. Notice Joe's braces - we are almost certain that they will be taken off before the end of 2010 (except now I have probably jinxed it!).

Ethan and I attempting to make a snowman with the snow from the earlier pictures. According to weather reports, we should have plenty more snow soon to build another one!

Olivia and her snowman!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving festivities began with Olivia's class Thanksgiving recital. (Olivia is the pilgrim girl on the far right). She played a very convincing "letter R" for the importance of the holiday in alphabet terms!

Olivia in her costume before the class party began. She loved this costume so much that she wore it for the rest of the day - until it literally ripped off of her. Otherwise, she may have worn it the following day as well!

We hosted Thanksgiving this year, which meant that all of the baking and prep work took place in my kitchen. Here are the kids making pumpkin pie filling. They both love to help in the kitchen!

Great Grandma came to spend the holiday with the kids. They had a great time showing her picture albums from our recent vacations while the pies baked.

The finished pie result! While I would like to directly blame Joe for the Star Wars pie, he had nothing to do with it. Sadly it was all my idea (although if Joe did not have the Star Wars cookie cutters in the house I never would have done it!).

Thanksgiving morning - watching the Macy's parade with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Rachel, also while looking for shopping deals.

Yes, I'll admit it - we use the canned cranberry sauce. We have tried the homemade sauce a few times at the holidays, but we just keep coming back to the can. I love it.

Mmmmm, turkey!

After the kitchen had been cleaned up, we traveled to the Festival of Trees with the family. We have come to love this event almost as much as the Jack Spectacular at Halloween (but not quite). Here is Olivia with Santa.

And Ethan with Santa. He became a bit tongue tied while on his lap, and didn't manage to talk with him about what he would like at Christmas. Star struck I guess!

Olivia's favorite tree at the Festival - the Bakery Shop.

Olivia and grandma on the train.

I have no idea how grandpa fit in the caboose with Ethan and all of the other kids!

On the day after Thanksgiving the family visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum with great grandma. Here we all are with the famous family!

And the kids really like playing in Mrs. Lincoln's attic while at the museum.

And, finally, Thanksgiving was finally done when the kids broke the wishbone. Ethan won this year, much to his delight!