We have just come back from 2 fantastic weeks in Maine, our big Christmas holiday, which is always jam-packed with loads of fun and excitement and yumminess a
nd family! Ian and Suzanne are there with Aidan and Eli, and the kids can't get enough of Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie. It's fun that we're in Maine for a full week before Christmas (baking! wrapping! relaxing! wrapping!) and another week after (eating leftover cookies! playing! watching movies! playing!). Maddie is still a bit young to understand about asking Santa for gifts, but Ollie came up with a modest list this year, which consisted of three items: sticker books, some Fireman Sam books/dvds, and a "dino-grabber." We had an interesting time figuring out what a "dino-grabber" is... we pretty much determined it's one of those long gadgets that you squeeze the handle and the other end clasps stuff. We
passed that on to Santa, and he came through!! It was sticking out of Ollie's stocking, and he was so pleased with it that it's likely he wouldn't have cared if that was his only present all day. But back to Christmas preparations... as usual, mom did most of the baking - she made 4 loaves of Finnish coffee bread, 2 different kinds of butter cookies, lebkuchen, almond cresents, and chocolate saltine bark. All I made was a big batch of gingerbread cookies, which Ollie and I cut up into girls and boys, trees, stars, angels, and - of course - lobsters and ducks! Rolling, cutting, and frosting them was pretty much a pain in the tookus; I would love one day to find a a cookie recipe and a frosting that I REALLY like.
This year for the first time, we decided to stay overnight at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve, because there's a lot of special stuff that happens after dinner, and we didn't want to have to rush home and get the kids to bed. Dinner was our now traditional lobster feast, followed by a massive cookie selection. After that we all headed to the liv
ing room, resplendent in the twinkley glow that only a 12-foot Christmas tree decorated with hundreds of sparkley ornaments can give... we opened our Christmas Eve presents (everyone gets new jammies), hung our stockings (which Grandma has knit; mine is by far the smallest and least stretchy!), put the kids to bed (exhausted by then, and sooo excited), then snuggled back into the sofas for some steaming hot gluug and a reading of Dylan Thomas'
A Child's Christmas in Wales. This tradition began many years ago, when my granddad always read it aloud for us; it definitely wouldn't be Christmas without it. I think next
year Ollie and Maddie will be old enough to sit quietly for the whole thing.
Christmas morning -- the kids were up at 6:30, but we couldn't open stockings until almost 8:30, when Ian and Suz finally made their way over to the house! Stockings on Grandma and Granddaddy's bed, lovely breakfast, then presents, presents, presents. Maddie got an Mp3 radio from Grandma Carole and Granddad Maurice, as well as books and a soft fleece sleepy suit, a stick
horse and a big stuffed kitty from Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie, and from Santa a Leapster 2 with a Thomas the Train game, and some castle building blocks. Ollie got a projection planetarium from Carole and Maurice, a big set of
Roy Toy building blocks from Patty and Richie, and Santa came through with the sticker books, a big set of Fireman Sam dvds, and a Leapster Explorer. It had snowed a few days before Christmas, so it was nice to still have some snow on the ground, but the best thing was that it actually started snowing on Christmas morning!! Definitely a white
Christmas, so we didn't even mind that it changed to rain by the evening.
The week after Christmas went really fast, of course... a highlight was a big family outing around "the head," which is a gorgeous little mini-peninsula we can walk to from mom and dad's house. We all bundled ourselves up and had such a good time. Maddie walked the whole time, except at the end when it gets a bit tricky. Ollie had loads of fun with Aidan and Eli, but was definitely ready to head home when the time came. Another highlight of the holidays for me was spending time with Chloe... never enough time, but we're grateful for whatever we can get.
We had ANOTHER lobster dinner on New Year's Eve! The night before that was Grandma Patty's birthday, and she and Granddaddy hosted their annual "Soup-off," a party that features 4 different kinds of soups! Granddaddy made borscht, Grandma made carrot-coriander, Andy made broccoli-stilton, and Ian made spicy corn soup with candied bacon. Andy's was sooooo good (he got major accolades) and Ian's is always a hit. The borscht has a cult following, and mom's was a new additio
n this year, a soup I make quite often that always comes out yummy.
All in all, Christmas is glorious, and except for missing our family in England, it couldn't have been nicer. Happy 2012, everyone!
he'll be dressed for it and we'll be ready to go. Only then do I realize that he has no sneakers. So we left home this afternoon with an extra half hour or so on our hands to dash to Kohls and pray they had something that fit at a reasonable price. I was shocked to find most of the decent sneakers there were at least $45 (??!!), so when I found some at $32 that I didn't loathe, we went for it. These are his first ever shoes in a boys size 1... a bit step!! I think he has a bit of room to grow into them, thankfully... hoping they still fit him fine for spring soccer in several months. He had a great time today with Pre K Kickers, already can't wait for next week.
he'll be dressed for it and we'll be ready to go. Only then do I realize that he has no sneakers. So we left home this afternoon with an extra half hour or so on our hands to dash to Kohls and pray they had something that fit at a reasonable price. I was shocked to find most of the decent sneakers there were at least $45 (??!!), so when I found some at $32 that I didn't loathe, we went for it. These are his first ever shoes in a boys size 1... a bit step!! I think he has a bit of room to grow into them, thankfully... hoping they still fit him fine for spring soccer in several months. He had a great time today with Pre K Kickers, already can't wait for next week.
