Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

We went to the Christmas Tree farm this weekend. We each had our own favorite trees, and one of us won.  This was Sydney's favorite.

Sadly, she did not win. Although it is a mighty cute tree with a ton of Charlie Brown Christmas potential, it's just a wee tad on the small side. The tree we did finally choose actually had much of the same Charlie Brown character -- more on that later!  But for now, enjoy this sweet photo, for it is one of the few moments in the field (is it a field? it's not really a forest?) where Sydney was not screaming in protest. More on that later, too!

Just one more reason to love the Muppets

Seriously.



LOVE THEM.

In the words of Miss Piggy...

...Christmas is coming! (and the goose is getting fat!)

And how do I know Christmas is coming? Because Mark endured a 5 hour battle with a crabapple tree. He has scrapes on his hand. Gouges in his head. There is mud on my kitchen chair. The plastic triangle play thingy was tortured by said kitchen chair as said kitchen chair catapulted Mr. Warrior higher up in the tree.

Yes, it was an epic battle.

But in the end, Mark the Christmas Warrior won out. Or did the tree? Or did I? Or did the neighbors?

I think it's fair to call it win-win.  I love our pretty tree. It's a sure sign that Christmas is coming!  Let the baking and visiting and decorating and christmas card writing and caroling and shopping and (sometimes stressing) and praying and celebrating begin.

PS - I've been singing John Denver and the Muppets for a week straight, hence the Miss Piggy reference. Best CD ever. Elisabeth now sings it with me.  What more could a mom who was born in the Muppet era ask for?

A century minus one.

Alternatively titled "Fun With Walkers".

My Grandfather turned 99 this October.

99!

I KNOW!

I can hardly believe it myself. Many of us that are able have been going to Florida for years to help celebrate his birthday, and each year it means even more to us. I remember leaving his 90th party and crying on my Dad's shoulder because I thought I would never see my Grandpa Marvin again. Little did I know he had no plans of slowing down!

He still gets around quite well. He is sharp as a tack. His hearing is going a little, but hey if that's the worst of your problems at a century minus one year old, I think that's pretty darn good. 

This year my brother and his family were able to come celebrate too!

We all went to visit Grandpa in his apartment the day before the party. Helloooo, chaos! That room is NOT meant for 11 people.  2, tops.

 

After we sucked all of the oxygen out of the room, we went for a walk to one of the common areas.

This is Josephine, our niece. Isn't she cute?

Josephine was enamored with Grandpa's walker.

Sydney got in on the action as well.

What is it with walkers and kids?

 

The next day we had a big family party. There were 25 of us that came to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. That's the biggest turnout yet! I wonder what his 100th will be like?

My Great Uncle Bill and Great Aunt Dorothy even came down from Duluth, MN to help celebrate their big brother's birthday. Bill, who hasn't been able to see his brother in 9 years, had been saving a free ticket for Grandpa's funeral someday.

He had just a few people make him rethink that one.

Why not celebrate life while it's still here?

On top of a pretty neat sibling reunion, there was cake at Grandpa's party.

(do you see that smile on my grandpa's face? that's pure happiness.)

There was plenty of visiting.

 

 

 

There was admiration

by 7 great-grandkids.

 

There was random chicken dancing.

There were traditional whiskey Manhattans had by all.
Grandpa's favorite.

There were gifts (A special sand dollar being one of them, given by Elisabeth).

There was a looking glass

There was random picture taking by a certain almost 6 year old

And there were four amazingly blessed generations.

We really are blessed to have such an awesome family. It's a family that I'm honored to be a part of.

Sunny Days...

...Sweeping the clouds away...

Sweet and savory

Yesterday afternoon Elisabeth and I had a girls' afternoon and I took her to get her hair cut.  She was fairly set on cutting it short, which took me by surprise, considering how long we've been working on growing it out.  I think I must have told Mark how sad I was that she was going to cut it off, but eventually I succumbed to her wishes and decided that it was her hair and it would be cute no matter what.  I guess I forgot to tell Mark that I was okay with it, because he convinced her one night during her bath that she should keep it long, as she wouldn't be able to create her beautiful "updos" in the bathtub if she had short hair.  So, this is what we ended up with:

A simple trim.  Totally fine by me. She's cute no matter what.  And more important than how her hair turned out was the experience of being out together. As we held hands and walked around the outdoor shopping mall together on what is sure to be one of the last few beautiful fall days, the sun warming our backs, listening to and singing along with the Plain White T's "1,2,3,4" that was coming through the mall's speakers, Elisabeth got quiet and then said this:

"Mom, I wish I had a camera right now, so that I could remember this moment with you for a weally long time".

Funny, I had been thinking the same thing. I love moments like that.  I'm thankful for our (fairly) sharp minds, so that we do remember that moment for a weally long time.

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And as for Miss Sydney, who is full of toddlerhood right now, some of which I could do without but most of which is so endearing, well she gave us a good smile in church this morning. During the start of another regularly scheduled temper tantrum (this one brought to you by the letter C), I diverted her and asked her to find the beautiful, hand-carved dove that was hanging in the room. She found it and said "beeeee!" which is Sydney speak for bird.  After the tantrum started gaining momentum again we asked her to find Jesus in the appliqued wall hanging that a church member made years ago. She found it and said "JuJu"! which is Sydney speak for Jesus.

The two together seemed to be enough to keep her occupied, and you could see her mental gears turning.

The next thing we heard from Sydney was this: MAMA! Jujubee! DADA! Jujubee!

Just one more reason to continue eating candy, because obviously it's filled with the holy spirit... :D

The latest Sydney speak

Now that she can speak fairly well (albeit in her own dialect), Sydney likes to tell us all about her friends and daycare teacher.

So on that note, Miss Sydney and I would like to introduce you to a few of her classmates:

Cacah (Rocco)

Addah (Abbi)

Deee (James)

Taytay BEEEE! (Sydney B)

Beh (Ben)

Ahnah (Miss Erin.  My personal favorite, of course)

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The girls each picked out a piece of candy tonight after dinner. Sydney found a bunch of chocolate "eyeballs". Mark let her eat both of them and so she came to tell me this: Mama, Ahbah Ah Gahh! Clear as day to us, she had said "eyeballs all gone".

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And as I type this, she's going around to each of us with my white eyeglass cloth and continually trying to wipe our noses while saying "mah no? mah no? mama mah no? ah dew wah? dada no?" Can you guess what all of that means?

I love toddler talk. Heck, I just love toddlers altogether. (Even when they've been battling the attack of the 2 year molars.  Uff da.)  I know for a fact that there is still plenty of cuteness ahead of us, but it's still so sad when they outgrow this stage!

Happy Halloween!

I'm pleased to announce that I survived the month of October, and only have two new gray hairs to prove it.  So, now I can finally start cleaning my disgusting house again post pictures of our many halloween adventures that I've been patiently (and responsibly, I might add) waiting to share.

First, let's talk fashion: Elisabeth was a witch and Sydney was a chicken this year.  Elisabeth looked ravishing in a mish-mosh of Target (does anybody else besides me read that as "Tar-jay"?) plus one handmade tutu, which was so fun to make!  Sydney was stunning in a hand-me-down costume that Elisabeth wore when she was 3. Old Navy.  Love them!

Among the Halloween festivities was Elisabeth's kindergarten party, which I was lucky enough to help with. Oh my gosh, those kids are so stinking cute. One of my big roles was to pass around a jar of plastic Frankensteins and ask each child to guess the amount. There were 24. I recorded guesses that ranged from 1 all the way to 1 million.  I wish I could help out in the class more often. I could just eat them up.

Here are a slew of neighbor kids and Elisabeth out Trick-or-Treating on Saturday. All of the parents were with us too on the sidelines.  I am not sure why, but the kids stood on this porch for a while waiting for the parents to answer.  Only problem was...it was OUR house! Although the kids got jipped by those loser parents who weren't answering the door, I was provided with a pretty good photo op!

The big event that we look forward to each October is Truck or Treat.  It's on the beach at Crystal Lake and the kids can check out all kinds of city trucks, police cars and fire engines up close and personal. And get candy, of course!

Sydney ran into her doppelganger at Truck or Treat, and it was quite a show.  Both chickens stopped in their tracks and started checking each other out.  Elisabeth actually ran into her chicken doppelganger years ago when she went dressed as a chicken, too. The pictures are almost identical to one another, just a few years apart!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!