Saturday morning dress up

Surprise!

Last Sunday Adam and I went to a surprise birthday party for my friend Shelly.  Her birthday is in the middle of December, and when she walked in and saw everyone she just kept repeating, "But it's still November!"

Cass, me, and Shel

Dave telling everyone a tall tale, I'm sure!

Enjoying a night sans kids!

Mmmm!

Fun times

We went to our good friends' annual Christmas cookie exchange last night.  A great time was had by all, once again!

The kids started off the night by decorating Christmas ornaments with glitter glue and pens. Glitter ended up everywhere, as you can imagine!

Here's Lauren, getting ready to play dress up with Sierra's collection.

Owen was manning the BBQ, true to his Daddy's roots.

Lauren and Kove, double trouble!

The kids all got to decorate sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

Owen's getting ready to enjoy his masterpiece.

Lauren and I hyped the Santa talk all week, but when it came right down to it, Owen wouldn't sit on the big guy's lap.  He did let him know what toys he was hoping for, and he made sure to say thank you for the gift - a Lightning McQueen coloring book - and candy cane.

Lauren hopped right up on Santa's lap and let him know what was on her wish list this year.  It included the princess doll and horse the girl right before her opened!  She was pleased with what he brought her that evening, though, a Tinkerbell coloring book.

Owen was more than happy to take pictures with Santa, as long as he didn't have to sit with him.

The cookie exchange in process - so yummy!

These two here are so stinking cute together!

In the corners of my mind

I'm completely reminded of Noni, my mom's mom, and Grandpa, my dad's dad, at this time of year.  

My noni was the best cook and every year she'd make lots of different kinds of Christmas cookies.  She'd store them in the biggest Tupperware containers I've ever seen.  My favorite were her snicker doodles and sugar cookies.  We're putting up our Christmas tree today, and I'm reminded of her more than ever, since we're living in her old house.  

The Sutter Cancer Center is on the same block downtown as Biba Restaurant and when Noni was doing her chemo she would always talk about Biba.  She even took a few cookbooks in for Biba to autograph.  Earlier this week I went to lunch with my coworkers at Biba's.  While there Biba herself came over to our table and I was completely verclempt, thinking about Noni and how much I missed her.

My Grandpa loved Christmas and loved spending time with his family more than anything else. When he passed away in 2006, ironically in December, he left behind not only his beloved wife of 59 years, but also 8 children and their spouses, 22 grandchildren and their spouses, and 6 great grandchildren - what a legacy!  

My Uncle Larry and Aunt Susie made a video slideshow years ago of the whole family through the years, and there is a good chunk of it devoted to Christmas pictures and songs.  Every time I hear "Celebrate Me Home" or "I'll be Home for Christmas" I think of that video and am reminded of what wonderful memories I have from my own childhood and what I want for my children.

What are you thankful for?

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving...

Daddy and Lauren preparing the turkey brine.

The table is ready for the gang!

Owen and Papa working on a puzzle.  Yes, Owen does indeed 

have purple pants on.  He had a wardrobe malfunction!

So true...

Just heard this song and had to share.

Too cold to play outside?

Here's our solution!

Doing our part for the energy crisis

The dishwasher is on its third load of the day.  Homemade mac-n-cheese for our preschool feast yesterday, extra cheese sauce for leftovers, banana waffles this morning with Daddy, banana loaf with leftover waffle batter, bean and ham soup, and cornbread - lots of dirty dishes!  I love to cook in the cold weather!

New kicks

So I've always been completely against characters on my kids clothes - with the exception of Lightning McQueen.  Today I had to go buy Owen a new pair of tennis shoes and was planning on a cool pair of Vans or something like that.  Except when he saw these light up Go Diego Go ones he HAD TO HAVE THEM.  He actually wore them out of the store and you should have seen him walking through the mall - he thought he was the coolest kid ever!  He's been running laps around the house all day, showing me how fast he can run in them.  When Adam took them off him to change him into his jammies he cried and wanted them back on immediately.  We'll see if he sleeps in them tonight or not!

P.S.

That is a rug burn on his forehead.  The other night we were doing a deep clean in both the kids bedrooms and we were having them go under their bunk beds to pull toys out.  He had his hands full of toys and couldn't crawl out backwards, so I grabbed his legs and pulled him out.  He ducked his head so he wouldn't bang it on the bed rail and came out with a nice red forehead.  Oops!