Monday, December 31, 2012

Gianna & the Giants!

My niece Gianna is a Sandy Hook Elementary School student and she, along with her entire school, was invited to attend yesterday's Giant's game! They went on the field for the national anthem and slapped hands with all the players and then watched the game from the Pepsi box! AND she was on the jumbo tron. She said she had a great time:)


That's her in the red scarf :) Her mommy is behind her to her left in the white vest.



Red scarf on the left...




 Then today we all got together for lunch at Big G's house (that's their Great Gramma).  Phone calls were made beforehand to plan this fashionable day :)  Picture taken on Uncle Mark's cell phone...


Then Mark took Max, Mimi, and Gianna to his house "for an hour", but it looks like I may not be getting them back until tomorrow afternoon!  Oh well...
Happy New Year!

Friday, December 28, 2012

This Moment AND some fascinating details of Egg life.




What we've  been up to this week...

Staying up way past bedtime
Reading chapter books out loud
Dressing and brushing American girls
Playing Chinese checkers
Catching up on 30 Rock & Downton Abbey with Nate at 3 AM
Sliding in the slushy snow and then drinking hot chocolate
Watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (twice so far...)
Eating Christmas leftovers in various creative ways
Planning a special girl's 6th birthday
Coloring in our new coloring books with our new crayons when Nate falls asleep (my favorites are Backyard Nature and Pond Life)
Attempting to catch up on laundry and cleaning
Being excited for Pa (more to come on that...)
AND...
Being happy to have my kids home for the whole week and appreciating every minute!


And some bonus pictures...

Checking out Rivka Malka's website and trying out some tichel tying on Pip


Watching Willy Wonka and perfecting a Veruca Salt attitude


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Our first Christmas with Nathan!

I think this was the best Christmas ever! We got to stay home (which I do love so well, though I also love our Christmases visiting family) so the kids got to play all day with their new loot. My amazing husband made most of the Christmas dinner, which was really, really good!  Max also did a lot of helping. He peeled tons of potatoes and mashed them, and also went with Pa to clear the snow.  I made Mary's broccoli casserole, which came out pretty darn good.  Then we watched Ralphy about 7 times. It just never gets old for me :)

Here's Pip in her new Renaissance dress and Maxwell's new guitar!  It gets more gorgeous the closer we get...





Here's Max hard at work peeling potatoes with Pa.





We had no choice but to swing little Nathan into dreamland while we got dinner ready...





Ready to eat!!!




Those carrots were soooo good, Pa.  I think there were enough mashed potatoes for 25 people. That was my fault, I just kept on peeling...





These are the pictures that the kids took! 
Max took this one of Pepere...



...and this one of Mimi...



...and Mimi took this one of her new little fairies arranged on a burp cloth held over from Maxwell's baby days. Notice the stitching says "Maxwell", a whole set made by Sister V :)



ice cream cake for dessert :)




Santa left me this very cute light-up dancing reindeer.



Hanging out after dinner and watching Ralphy (again).




We made these gingerbread houses at school.  I actually managed to come and help in both Max and Mimi's class!  It was a miracle.





Mimi and Mommy in our new matching pj's! 





And the next day Mary and Phil stopped by and the boys did some bonding :)
Really the best Christmas ever, because we have our little Nateskins!!!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Eve's Eve and Christmas Eve

Pa was really wiped out on Sunday, so he went to bed at 4:30! So the kids and I spent an evening eating frozen pizza in the living room and watching Ralphy and being silly!










Then some snuggling in Maxwell's bed...





Christmas Eve! Mimi gets Ruthie from Mary!






Gianna gets her American Girl look-alike...



Playing school...




The shattered remains of the major award...




End of the night :)




Back at home...
Santa came!