Things I Love About Christmas...

in no particular order...

• big colored lights and tiny twinkly white lights
• all the great Advent and Christmas music at Mass
• driving around, looking at Christmas lights
• decorating the Christmas tree
• taking a walk down memory lane with each ornament that has meaning
• my mom's Christmas morning brunch - yum!
• baking cookies
• seeing family, especially my cousins
• sending out Christmas cards
• Christmas parties and brunches with my friends
• going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert with Michael and friends
• replacing my everyday dishes with the snowman dishes
• the little trees that go in the kids rooms - I love how they decorate them!
• putting out my Nativity
• going shopping at the Mall with Maddie's special needs class
• decorating gingerbread houses at the Fuller's annual gingerbread party
• wrapping gifts
• making the Reis family calendar
• I love that Lucy wears a Christmas shirt almost every day in December!
• hanging up the photo cards we receive on the banister garland
• listening to Christmas music
• the giant walk-through wreath on the front of my parent's house
• trying (unsuccessfully most of the time!) to find the pickle ornament before my sisters do
• watching the kids unwrap their gifts
• wine slush
• Christmas Eve Mass
• playing games and hanging out on Christmas Day
• meeting Pam and her kids for our annual Christmas Skyline Chili lunch
• St. Nicholas Day

A Visit with Santa...

Today, Sam got to see Santa for the first time this year.  He has been anxious to tell the big man what he wants for Christmas!  We were at Kenwood Station Elem. for Lucy's choir concert and the school's winter carnival.  Sam had no hesitation in seeing Santa and told him he wanted GeoTrax trains for Christmas.  But he expected Santa to dip into his bag and pull it out NOW!  He threw a major fit, as only Sam can do, when we tried to tell him that he would have to wait until Christmas morning to see if Santa brought him a new train. Patience is something the boy is sorely lacking!

Hiking at General Butler

Sam and Hannah studying for a science test!

Sam was "helping" Hannah study for her science test. It was so cute to hear him pronouncing all kinds of big words!

A little Christmas Fun...

Look what Tracy and I made :)

A Week of Firsts

Last week, lots of growing up went on in our house. First was Hannah ... she has spent the last several weeks trying to talk (I mean beg!) me to let her shave her legs. Since when did she get so big?!?! I kept trying to put her off but after talking to other moms of girls her age, I decided I had been the mean mom a little too long. Last week she had strep throat so on a trip to Walgreens to pick up her meds, we also picked up shaving supplies.

I asked her if she needed me to show her how to shave, but she quickly informed me that Nikki (her BFF) had already showed her! She was so excited that she only ate half of her lunch before informing me that she would finish after she shaved. She was a little annoyed that I wanted to take photos, but quickly relented when I informed her that if she wouldn't let me take photos, she couldn't shave. Ahhhh...I love bribery!!!

Our next big milestone was getting Sam to give up the pacifier. I will have to admit that I really hate for him to give it up - he's my baby after all!!! I knew we'd have to go "cold turkey" because Michael and I couldn't get on the same page about the rules of pacifier use. So one of Sam's playgroup teachers suggested that he gather up his pacifiers and take them to the store and pay for a new toy with them. What a brilliant idea! Sam is a HUGE Thomas the Tank fan so I was pretty sure we'd have his buy in on this one.

That day he found all his pacis (we think!) and put them in a bag. Off to Barnes and Noble we went.....

Once we got there, I made sure the clerk knew the plan. He was so kind to go along with it!

Sam had a really hard time deciding what to purchase! In the end, Michael and I had to narrow his options down for him. He walked away with Harold the Helicopter and a musical caboose. Not a bad deal for only 5 pacifiers!

Lunch with the Boy

Today's photo was taken at lunch with my little man. I love sitting down with him and hearing about all that is going on in his little world. Today he reminded me that Daddy took down the tree and the Santa Train. He is having a hard time letting go of Christmas, thus the Santa hat!



Yesterday, I got so much accomplished around the house so my photo is the newly cleaned and mostly organized loft.

A Slow Start

It's Tuesday and I haven't journaled yet - so much for that! I have taken photos for Sunday, Monday and today - they are following. The photo I should have taken for today was Michael leaving for Paducah. But it was at 5am and I just didn't have the gumption for that! He finally got an opportunity to change careers and is in Paducah training for it. He will be selling educational software to schools and school districts. He is so excited about the potential for this business! Short term, we will still be struggling since he is 100% commission but the long-term potential is much better than anything he has seen recently. I am so happy for him - he has needed this for a long time.

The picture I chose to take today is one of Maddie and Lucy in my bed (since Michael is not home). Hopefully there is room for me! Lucy loves to sleep with us when the other is gone, and since Maddie has been coming down in the middle of the night pretty much every night, I just let her sleep with me all night. The photo from Sunday is ice skating with Girl Scouts and yesterday's photo is Sam totally enthralled with a chip clip! He figured out that if he clipped one of his animal magnets, then opened the clip, the magnet would fall to the floor. He laughed every time! Great physics lesson!

New Year, New Ideas, New Everything

I love the beginning of every year. It is such a great time to take stock of the past year, figure out what worked, what didn't, and how to make the new year better than the last. This year shouldn't be that hard! Last year, we went through a very challenging year, as most people did. Michael was in his 2nd year of transitioning jobs, I started a new business, and I still felt like we needed to keep things the same for the kids. That led to me doing way too much and ending the year feeling very worn out. So, I have lots of ideas for this year.

One is to journal more. I want to be able to express my feelings better and journaling is a good way to do that. Practice makes perfect, right? I spend a ton of energy on taking photos but not so much on adding the words and feelings to the photos. That's what I want to focus on this year. This blog might be a good way to do that, which leads me to the next idea - Project 365. I have read about it and am ready to put myself to the challenge. Take a photo every day for a year. By uploading the pictures to this blog, and adding the words to the photo, I might be able to kill to birds with one stone - write better and become a better photographer.

These are just two of my great ideas for 2009. The others have to do with organizing our home, being a better mom, wife, friend, improving my prayer life and taking better care of the only body I have been given. Seems like a lot - I hope I can get to it all in some fashion. In the meantime, I will start my photo and journal project tomorrow. There's lots going on, we'll see what photo I choose to post!