christmas is over

Whew! I can't believe I haven't filled in on all the Christmas fun. Everyone made it to my parents and we had a nice family weekend before the holiday. We opened some presents Christmas Eve as my brother was leaving early in the morning. We went to church Christmas eve after writing a letter for Santa which surprisingly included a number of items not previously included in any prior Christmas listss or discussions!! Charlie promptly fell asleep at Church and Heather threatened to burn the building down with her lit candle and under Grandma's supervision but we all made it through. The kids loved waking up christmas morning to find a note from Santa and presents under the tree. The kids were delighted with MORE presents!! and seemed to have enough to enjoy. Charlie almost went into spasms after opening a few wiggles gifts while heather was more subedued in her reactions.

jeff and I packed up the car and toys and headed up to his brother's in the early afternoon for a few hours of fun with cousins and dinner before heading the rest of the way to his mom's in Cleveland. His brother and his family joined us the 26th for yet another present opening session and more ooh's and aahs. the kids always have a blast with their cousins and all managed to share the new toys pretty well.

Jeff, his mom and the kids went to teh movies today while I worked on my reports and Charlie came back to report, "ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas...WAIT...Christmas is over." jeff's prompting I'm sure had something to do with this declaration.

We enjoyed reading christmas cards, seeing pictures, and e-mails from everyone who kept in touch. keep up the good work!

cookouts for christmas

We've been in Ohio for a few days now and the weather has been cool but not really cold. The kids have been able to do some hiking up the hill behind my parents house (not much for a real hiker but good for a 2 and 4 year old!). My parents had some limbs cut down so they made a bonfire in teh back yard and we cooked hot dogs and marshmellows. Ohio weather is so crazy!! My sister comes in tonight and Jeff will make it in tomorrow for a nice break from work.

working from Panera

As I type I'm sitting in Panera with my earphones on and my dinner next to me :-). How did I get here you might wonder!! We made it to Ohio on Monday with a brief overnight stop with college friends on Sunday night. We never have enough time but the weather and the parents were waiting...yesterday the kids and i spent in Athens doing some fun stuff and just catching up. Today I had to go shopping and attempt to close a Craigslist deal to get Heather her desired Dora castle with rooms. an hour before I was supposed to meet the lady she called and apologized saying that her daughter was hysterical about giving it up (she was going to be nicely rewarded!!) and she just didn't know if she could talk her into it. So I nicely said I understood and would try to work something else out. I was sooo disappointed that I went to ToysRUs and found the rooms there. It ended up costing more than I thought but since the tearful girl was not budging...and who could blame her--Dora is sooo cool! I managed to finish up the last few items on my list (the kids have a lot more items on their list...) and headed up to Polaris to finish the rest of my list. I had to take a shopping break and am not in Panera poised to work on a report to offset some of this maddness! It's kind of nice, we'll see how productive I am with so much people watching and online distractions available...

holiday party and on to Ohio

Jeff's holiday party was tonight. It was fun but I really missed some of the people who used to work in CE that have moved. We won a paper shredder in the raffle (Jeff always wins something :-) but since we already had one he gave it away...The kids had a good time at a friend's house and they got to watch the wiggles and christmas movies so it was a good night for all. Sunday the kids and I head up to Ohio, hoping to avoid most of the snow as it falls. I hope that there's some on the ground for the kids to play with when we get in on Monday as the rest of the week looks like rain (not fun at all!). If it's not going to be sunny then it might as well be cold enough to snow...as long as it's not the days that I'm driving...

School presentation

Despite the beautiful weather we are having the holiday season pushes on. Heather and charlie had their school "christmas preformance" this morning. The kids in the older two classes did a song with their class, a song together, and then Heather's "dance" class did a dance. It was all very cute in a preschool way. Heather seemed to have a good time and Charlie showed us the things they made and the decorations he did which we got to take home. Heather's group did a prayer before snack which was sooo cute and their sweet little voices were perfect for the blessing.

We're getting packed up and ready to head to Ohio. Tomorrow night is Jeff's holiday party which will be OK but not as fun b/c in the past there were other spouses or signigicant others that we saw every so often. Now pretty much everyone with wives have moved or left :-(. It will still be a dinner without the kids and with some adult conversation.

We met santa!!

What a busy holiday weekend! Saturday we did breakfast with Santa and the kids got an up close and personal view. He came in, then walked all around the room and talked to each kid and gave them each a treat. Then he sat in his chair and the kids could sit in his lap, take pictures, and even got a present (Heather doll and Charlie car). the kids smiled nervously so the pictures were less than perfect but they did seem to have a good time. There were plenty of games to play and cookies to eat so it was fun.

Then Saturday night we went to a christmas singing celebration at the Methodist Church. It was a really nice presentation complete with a bigger than life christmas tree and singing pupets. It was about 90 minutes and the kids made it through the first 75 with flying colors. The last part was a bit slow for them but they did great.

It's been 70 degrees outside so we've been playing at the park and taking in the sun and warm air! The kids have enjoyed naps with dad the last two days and I think he might have enjoyed it as well. We're busy making cookies for the cookie drive for the airmen that live on base, putting together goodie bags for the kids class parties, making treat boxes for their teachers and some friends, and making gifts for family as well. It's a busy week but a lot of fun!

santa has arrived

The kids and I put up our Christmas decorations yesterday and although we don't have a tree (well we have a 2 foot fake thing that doesn't really count to me) our living rooms looks a bit festive. Tonight they did the "official" tree lighting on base and we arrived just in time for them to count down to the lighting and see Santa arrive (with Sparky the fire dog) on the fire truck. The kids got to go in and have cookies, hot chocolate and sit with Santa for a minute. Heather sat in his lap, looked a bit uncomfortable, and smiled weakly for pictures. She did tell him she wanted a doll and thanked him for the candy cane that he gave her. Charlie would have nothing to do with the guy and when I sat next tohim to try to take a picture he totally refused to look at Jeff (kept his eye on Santa--smart kid).

Then we went downtown for the christmas parade which had a few bands, step groups, cheerleaders, and lots of church and community floats. it was about an hour long which was kind of long in the chilly evening. The parade also ended with Santa who brought cheers from teh kids. We met up with a few friends to shiver through the parade together. The holiday spirit is moving in, even the air was a bit crisp today!

disney princesses

Jeff had a long week of work this week and even worked both days this weekend until 4 and 3 respectively. He did manage to spend some time with us on Friday night when we went to the base assignment night when some of our friends found out where they would be going (or actually staying!!). On Saturday he got off just in time to go with us up to Tupelo to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. It was a last minute decision to go but it was a really good one! The kids both had a great time. Heather loved guessing which princess story was starting and naming all the characters that came out to skate. The music was good, skating fun and characters really cute! Charlie asked when the princesses would stop dancing so that the other people could come back on. His favorite part was when the "fire" went pow, pow, pow. They had some lout special effects.

The rest of the weekend the kids and I spent working on some holiday crafts and trying to clean up the house enough to get the decorations out and work on some more projects.