Christmas Magic

Each year as I got older Christmas seemed less and less magical. There are not so many holiday traditions to carry on as an adult. I needed a child to accompany me, lest I seem to appear as one of those ridiculous adults that never grew up. (What's wrong with that anyway?) 

When we had Norah we could not wait to see that excitement on her face and to experience everything with her all over again! This was our chance to relive our childhood. OK, maybe I shouldn't speak for Colin, but this is totally how I felt. 

Her very first Christmas she was only 4 months old. It didn't matter to us that she was still a tiny baby that slept most of the day and couldn't quite sit up on her own yet. We brought her to the Macy's 8th floor display (which she slept through), made cookies with for her, and brought her to see Santa who gave her presents that we "helped" her open on Christmas morning. She could barely chew the oh so special Christmas morning waffles.

Fast forward to 2012. Norah is a very wise 4 year old who finally really gets it. She asks "How many days is it until Christmas Momma?" every morning. She wants to read Christmas books and watch Christmas movies. She memorized all the reindeers names. She notices when there are 3 Santas within 5 blocks in our neighborhood and asks why there are so many. So far she is satisfied with "He is magical and can be multiple places at once". Clark seems to understand more than Norah did at his age, but I attribute that to being a little copy cat :) 

So this year we did it all... We took the kids to Madeline's Christmas where they fell head over heels in LOVE with Madeline. We went to the Nutcracker (Norah is now in ballet class), saw the Macy's 8th floor display, made cookies, sang Christmas carols all day every day, went to the Holidazzle parade, visited Comet & Cupid (Santas real live reindeer), made presents for dad at "Paint Your Plate", ate waaaaay too much candy and celebrated with three sets of family. It seemed that almost every day I found myself thinking about how lucky we are to be able to bring this magic back.

I have to say that the most magical moment this year was when Norah and I were getting out of our car to go into Aunt Pattys house Christmas Day. As we turn around from the car to cross the street we see Santa Claus walking toward us down the sidewalk. Norahs eyes were instantly as wide as could be and she fell silent (she never stops talking). Santa walked up to us and said "Merry Christmas! Are you having a good Christmas so far my dear?" Norahs mouth dropped open and she barely made out a nod. He was carrying one present and had his empty sack slung over his shoulder. He continued to ask us if we had seen his reindeer. He was on his last house and had one last present to deliver. His reindeer were tired and they needed to get home. Norah remained speechless and wide-eyed, so I told him that we had not seen his reindeer, but that we hope he finds them soon. I whispered to Norah to say "Merry Christmas" and after a minute she said it with a grin from ear to ear. 

Norah and Clark trimming the Charlie Brown tree at Grandpa and Nonas house. The one photo I got! My camera had gotten all fogged up when we brought it in from the cold :(


Santa went a little overboard on presents this year :)




Norah made this present at school... I need to take a picture of it - it is the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen on a thick piece of styrofoam to look like a canvas!


Clark and Norah wrapped Daddys gifts all by themselves!








Norah and Nana (and her new doll Audrey). Norah loves Nana to pieces. 


Audrey taking a nap on the couch. 


Norah actually took this picture! We just have to work on her focus skills a bit and she's all set :)


Laughing with fun Auntie Leesie.


Norah finding Grandpa in a good old fashioned game of Hide and Seek.


My family has so much musical talent. Every single one of them!


Daddy and Norah cuddling on the big cozy chair. 


Here's Aunt Kathy about to pop her brother with this ball that shoots out of the reindeers mouth!


Cuddling with Grandma Renee on Christmas Day evening watching Polar Express.




Drinking hot chocolate with Izzy. 

Merry Christmas
Love ~ Renee

Traditions, The Nutcracker & Cookies

I love traditions. If there's something you love to do and it only comes around once a year, why not make it happen every.single.year... for the rest of your life? My aunt Kathy used to take me to see the Nutcracker Ballet when I was young and I loved it. It was one of those things that sparked your Christmas spirit. It made the season exciting and beautiful. So, for both selfish and non-selfish reasons this will hopefully be a tradition for Norah and Clark as well. 

Grandma Renee, Jodi, Steph, Ella, Norah, Clark and I all made our way to see the Nutcracker this morning. It was beautiful and the kids had such a fun time. Ella and Norah just happened to be dressed up in almost the exact same dress. There is nothing little girls like more than to be alike :) They looked so cute and were so very well behaved! After all, it is a 2 hour production and we only had so many snacks and lollipops in our purses. 

Just the week before, I had taken Norah to watch a ballet class to see if she was really interested in signing up. She sat on my lap the entire class with a very intense look and a bit of a frown on her face, refusing the sporatic requests from the instructor to join in anytime if she wishes - it's a very laid back class :). I asked her a couple of times what she thought and if she liked it or was interested in being a part of the class. She would reply with an excited "Yes! I really love it Mom!" but then would return to her slump and frown. I asked why she didn't look excited and she said it was because Daddy wasn't there. I think it was because she was dressed differently than all the other girls and wanted to join them, but didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb!

Anyway, this morning at the Nutcracker Steph told me that she'd asked Norah what she thought of the ballet and Norah replied with something like "I may not look like I enjoy it, but I really do!". That's my little poker faced girl!

After the Ballet we all went to Snuffy's Malt Shop for lunch where the kids got to share the giant strawberry malt and the Moms shared the giant chocoffelatte malt :) mmmmm...

Because all of the lollipops & snacks we continuously fed the kids to keep them so well behaved at the ballet weren't enough for me, we then went home to make gingerbread boys & girls!  















Love ~ Renee

A Very Belated Birthday Post...

for my 2nd child whose mother also forgot to take any pictures at his birthday party!! What has happened to me? I suppose I got distracted with all the excitement. And since we have Thanksgiving at our house and only 4 days to prepare, I immediately went into Thanksgiving mode. 

Clark - if your older self is reading this, please accept my sincerest of apologies... I really do love you and your sister the same!! You really did have an amazing party with almost all our family and friends. Hopefully the "dump fuck" cake I made you makes up for it too :) 

I did take a couple of pictures before anyone got to our house, and "Frama" took some great videos. I'm so glad she did, because otherwise I would have never seen Clark's face look quite this way... as if he were thinking "This is all for me!?" He sang the Happy Birthday song for a week after this!

I might as well throw in a Happy Thanksgiving in there too... next time I'll go for an all-in-one holiday post! 







Love ~ Renee

Our Fall Extravaganza of 2012

The older the kids get, the more fun holidays are... and this year fall has been one big holiday! 

Norah and Clark helped us deck out the house for Halloween, inside and out. They each had very strong opinions on where everything should go, and each night at dinner they have to turn on the Halloween village with all it's spooky sounds and lights (we love Halloween).   

For an entire afternoon, we jumped in the tallest heaps of leaves and screamed the loudest kinds of giggles. If we hadn't gotten so hungry, we could have stayed out there forever throwing leaves on each other and piling them all back up again!













I got the kids all hyped up about making caramel apples. We dug through the halloween candy and crushed up some good stuff to sprinkle on top. The kids helped shove the sticks into the apples and waited patiently at the table waiting for the caramel to heat up, sneaking sprinkles when I wasn't looking. We dipped the apples, sprinkled them up and put them in the fridge to save for after dinner. When it was finally time, time to eat these delicious treats we had so much fun making... Clark took a big excited bite. He immediately stopped. His mouth hung open and drool oozed out. Tears began to form. He hated them!! You could see the disappointment in his face, poor guy :( So daddy gave him some ice cream while we all ate the apples. All is right in the world when there is ice cream.







Clark is telling Norah here that they should try one right now, and Norah is telling him that they have to wait until after dinner :)


We went on a spooky costumed "frolley" (trolley) ride where an author read one of his books to the kids who were all dressed up in their costumes. After the book was over he drew pictures of the characters with help from the kids on how to do it. I was so proud of Norah for sitting separate from us - up front with all the other kids! Clark even made his way up there. He would turn to the other kids, and with a tilt of his head and a touch of their shoulder, he would tell them what was being drawn, as if to say "Isn't that awesome!?". As if that wasn't enough trolley for us, on another day we took that same trolley to Farmer Ken's "pumpkin patch" too! 










Scary Faces!


"Roar" Face


Clark just kept picking up pumpkins to move them to a different spot.





Last, but not least, we spent the entire morning at the neighborhood hay day. We walked through all the shops trick or treating. The book store had a chocolate milk fountain and cake, and there were llamas at the hardware store!! Then we went on a hay ride and ate pizza while a band played some indie rock type stuff. Norah was mesmerized by the three girls singing in the band. She talked about them for the entire day, telling us that she loved them so much and wanted to know if she could see them again! This girl LOVES to sing :)


Woody & Jesse!




Llamas at the hardware store


It took Clark a bit to work up the courage to get on






Hay Ride!


Walking Galloping home...




Daddy says Norah carved this all by herself - I did see her carve the eyes, but that mouth!? Wow.


Clark had a little help with his :)






HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 
Love ~ Renee