A visit with Santa Plause (part II)

On Wednesday, we went to Macy's to visit the annual Christmas display and see Santa Claus(see previous post for details). These are the pictures from that day.

Oh Christmas Tree. . .

We don't go out into the woods and cut down a Christmas tree like my family did when we were kids. We don't even go to the tree lot and pick out a Christmas tree, like we did the first two years in our house . . . There are people (who shall remain nameless) who have issues with the tree lights and perfection. The issue being that they never look "right." Which amazed me, is there really a right way to have lights on the tree? Much to my surprise, there is. I digress . . . the second year we had a real tree, there were very few needles left on the tree because the lights were never "right" and were taken off and put back on the tree FOUR, yes FOUR times. I refused to go through that again and went straight to my local Menards and bought a lovely pre-lit tree that comes out of the box each year. . . it may not look "right" but we have it up and decorated in 24 hours, rather than 24 days . . .
On Saturday after decorating cookies, we celebrated Emily's birthday by having homemade tortellini alfredo for dinner and watching the Polar Express with popcorn. We also put up the Christmas tree. Emily and Louie LOVED helping put their own special ornaments on the tree. Each of them already have their own box full of ornaments. Here's a few pix from that:











Even Ted loves the Christmas tree.

Long post today . . .

I had big plans today to get all updated with everything that went on in the last week, but Blogger isn't allowing posts with photos right now.
Sorry.

Blogger finally is cooperating with me . . .
Emily's birthday was Saturday, December 6 and she had a great birthday weekend. On Friday, she brought cupcakes to school and celebrated with her friends. She wore her fun birthday hat and got a button and a book from school.
Saturday, we decorated cookies with Bailey at Carol's house. The kids had to much decorating and playing. We had a great time with them, but Emmy and Louie really missed Carol's husband George.
On Sunday, she had her birthday party and she was all about the party! It was really fun and she received so many awesome presents. She is really being a great big sister and sharing them with Louie too.

The Holidazzle that wasn't

We planned to go to the Holidazzle Parade last night, Elmo and Grover were the Grand Marshall's. On Wednesday, when we went to visit with Santa Clause, Emily started complaining that her ear hurt and everything was too loud. Uh oh, she's getting an ear infection. Well, I put the magic drops in her ear to ease the pain and gave her some Tylenol. She said that she felt fine.
On Thursday, she woke up with a bad cough that was so bad, she threw up from coughing. So, she stayed home from school and rested yesterday. Bottom line, no Holidazzle last night. She's going to the doctor today to get checked out. Clearly she's got an upper respitory infection. Emily is so susceptible to upper respitory infections, I'm sure that is due to lung development when she was born. They assured us that she was fully developed when she was born (6 weeks early), but something tells me that she might have another side effect of that. . . .
anyhow, the FAO Schwarz catalog came in the mail today and Louie was in heaven! he sat in the chair studying the catalog trying to figure out what he wanted for Christmas. The kids watched "The Polar Express" again today, new favorite (what's not to like about that movie, I love it!)and when Santa was on, he asked him again to bring some Thomas socks. There was a page in the catalog that has a picture of Santa on it and he pointed and said, "Santa, please please bring some new Thomas socks!" (if anyone knows where I can find some Thomas socks, please let me know!!!)

A visit with Santa Plause

I took the day off yesterday and we made out annual trip down to Marshall Field's (I hate that it is now Macy's!) to see the Christmas display and visit with Santa.
Emily and Louie both have an understanding of the Santa Clause thing this year. However, they call him Santa Plause, instead of Santa Clause.
What a great time! We got there at 9:30am (FYI, that is the time to get there, NO ONE there) and met Sara and Charlotte. We walked through "A Day in the Life of an Elf" and then went right in to visit with Santa. We have been talking to the kids about what they would like Santa to bring for them . . . Louie wants new "Thomas the Tank Engine" socks (his old ones are too small and we told him that we gave them to Baby Lorenzo) and Emily would like a doll house with furniture and a family in it. So, we got in to see Santa and Louie asked him for the socks, etc. Well, there was a misunderstanding because he thought that Santa would be giving him the socks right then and there. Needless to say, he had a complete meltdown when he didn't leave with socks!
Emily loved seeing Santa and gave him a huge hug and kiss when we left.
After our turn, Charlotte had her turn on Santa's lap. She wanted no part of sitting on Santa's lap. She didn't scream or cry, but she kept shaking her head NO! whenever Santa held out his hands to hold her. So, Sara sat next to him with Charlotte in her lap.
We're 4-0 in the freaking out with Santa department. No pictures of crying babies with Santa.
After, we went up to the 12th floor to the Skyroom and had lunch. Louie was in HEAVEN, there was watermelon on the salad bar.
I'll post pictures later. I was too tired last night to upload them.

We were going to head down to the Holidazzle Parade because Elmo and Grover are the Grand Marshall's tonight, but Emily is home sick from school today. She "spilled" this morning before she got dressed. Maybe Louie and I will come down by ourselves, we'll see . . .

Very exciting news . . . .

or potential news . . . . for Dan's division 3 college reffing crew: if Mount Union (Ohio) defeats Wheaton College (Illinois) on Saturday, Dan's crew just found out they will be the officiating crew for the 2008 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia on December 20, 2008. The Stagg Bowl is the national championship for the division 3 football!

It will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 10:00am CT.

I know nothing about either team, but GO MOUNT UNION!!!

Happy Birthday Emily!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago, Emily was born . . . time flies!
Here's a recap of Emily on her birthday:
I look back at this picture from when she was born and can't believe that she was that little when she was born. She was born 6 weeks premature and still weighed in at 6lbs 13 ozs. She would have been a jumbo baby, just like her brother if she'd arrived on her due date!

These are a few of my favorite things. . .

With the Christmas season in full swing, I have to share a few of my favorite things. Candy cane Joe-Joe's are so delicious, if you have never had one get to Trader Joe's STAT and get yourself a box and maybe a separate box for your loved ones at home or sitting in the cart wondering what they are. Cranberry Lime Sierra Mist really needs no explanation. It isn't available in enough places and in cans in diet form. Ugh, but I'll take what I can get. Love it.
Chocolate crinkle cookies, delicious! and my beautiful vintage Rudolph cookie jar. The December that Emily was born our next door neighbor was nearing the end of his battle with cancer. He gave me that cookie jar as a thank you for taking him to the ER in the middle of the night and staying there with him (while I had a 3 week old newborn at home). I love this cookie jar and even though he was a crabby man, I have fond memories of him when I look at it.








We haven't put out tree up yet, but will sometime this weekend. But first, we've got a birthday party to throw for the birthday girl!!!

Thankful

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend. On Thursday we drove up to Larsmont, a couple of miles south of Two Harbors.





We hit the road around 10am on Thanksgiving Day and got there a little after 1pm. We had to stop for lunch in Hinkley and there was NOTHING open. Louie was ready to get the heck out of dodge. He found these beach sunglasses and didn't take them off the whole way there. He loves wearing them.


We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, and all of the Tapio's. Elsie and Melvin were leaving on Saturday for Texas, it was nice to see them before they go. Emily was sitting down next to her Auntie M and learned the proper way to eat olives.

On Friday, the Tapio's went to El and Mel's place to celebrate Christmas. While they were gone, the cookie baking began. I think we baked a total of 125 dozen cookies on Friday and Saturday. CRAZY!

Before we left on Sunday afternoon, I walked down to the lake and took a few pictures. This picture is straight out of the camera. It was pretty cool.

We put up out Christmas lights before we left, it was nice to come home to them on, the house looked so nice.

Last night, "Shrek the Halls" was on. Our kids LOVE Shrek, we don't watch it too much because there was a lot of "shut up donkey" being yelled in our house . . . but Louie had to wear his glasses while he watched it.

We're getting ready for cookie decorating with my friends from St. Kate's on Saturday. It was so much fun last year.
Then we have Emily's birthday party at Grandma's house on Sunday. Another busy week!