Happy New Year!

I fell down on the job. These were literally the only pictures I took on New Year's Eve. It was a ridiculously crazy day. Our friends came here because of James's leg, but in the morning I had to drive him to Bethel to the doctor, where Ethan and I went out for a treat. Then we went to the imaging place for an ultrasound before we could come home and clean the house. So I didn't think much about photos. Anyway we had a nice visit and E was thrilled to open the Christmas crackers we got for the occasion.

Snowball Fight!

We packed a lot into our day off. Ethan and I went outside and had a snowball fight. I'm sure it would have lasted longer if he had his way, but it was very wet and turning to ice so I was a bit afraid of him getting hurt (or him hurting me!) so we went back inside and worked on our thank you cards, which Ethan decorated with original drawings. He also was lucky enough to get ANOTHER package of gifts, and he found the packing was just like an additional present. We also made this awesome parrot marble maze. 

Bethel Woods

We met up with Uncle Tom, Aunt Heather, Uncle Bill and Aunt Jean at the museum at Bethel Woods, where the Woodstock festival was held. It was an interesting exhibit and we had a good time. After that, we headed to a nearby restaurant for a leisurely lunch, and then to the distillery next door to buy a few after Christmas gifts.

Christmas Afternoon

Some of James's family joined us for the afternoon/evening. Ethan was especially excited to play with his cousins Gavin and Max. They got out the playmobil. They also got to open presents and ice and decorate their own sugar cookies.

Christmas Morning

As you probably guessed, Santa did visit our house. I think that the elves must have worked extra hard this year, because he was extremely generous. Ethan was thrilled to get the miposaurus. I managed to make him a few things despite my lack of a craft area since spring, including the minion hat, the peanuts pillowcase  (yes, I sewed a relatively straight line!) and an invention kit. I think his expression demonstrates that the minion hat was the clear favorite. We had a nice relaxed morning.

Christmas Eve Tradition

Even though I don't get to have any of my childhood traditions for Christmas Eve anymore, I always tell Ethan about them. About how we would all (and by "all" I mean all of my White relatives- my dad's 6 living siblings and all of their 20some children) go to my Grandma White's tiny little house. We would all bring food, and make quite a ruckus. When it got too hectic and noisy, we would head across the street to see the dear folks in the Chicken Coop, Aunt Gina and Uncle Harland and their kids. We'd enjoy quiet time appreciating Noel's decorations, and eating peanut brittle. But one other thing we always did, usually before we left for visiting, was that my mom would let us each open one present. I think it was usually something like pajamas. So I figured I can at least keep that tradition going. Ethan opened one present, pjs, bubble bath, and A Christmas Story. Hey, it was all in one package :)

Christmas Village

Ethan and I headed off to the Christmas Village, despite impending showers, to see Santa one more time and visit Mrs. Claus and the reindeer. We figured the line might be short because of the weather. We were wrong. It was the longest we've waited, two hours. We finally left there around 6:30. I sent James a message and told him what to do to start dinner when he got home since he would probably beat us. It was raining gangbusters, pouring in sheets, cats and dogs and all of that. We took it slow and were almost home by about 7:15 when we saw a police car blocking the road just before our turn. I thought that was strange, but wondered if maybe we could still get through, so I pulled over and asked and she said she would let us go. We turned down our road, and I thought about how James usually comes home in that direction and hoped he had gotten by there already. Then I saw an ambulance go by. Got home, no James. We got in the house and there was a message to call him when we got in. So I called him, and he was fine, but he was in that ambulance I saw. A car headed in the opposite direction came across into his lane and hit him. He finally got home from the hospital around 1am w/ crutches- he hurt his knee pretty good. So that was the start of our Christmas "Vacation."

More Craft-a-Day

We made a stained glass owl, a few Christmas cards, and painted some wooden shape ornaments. We also made paper ornaments with brads and strips of paper.

Birthday Weekend

We went to Doylestown for my birthday. First we visited the Mercer Museum, then we had lunch and headed to Fonthill. Sunday before heading home we went to the Moravian Tile Works. Aside from forgetting our suitcase at home, it was all a fun time. The Mercer Museum had a giant Lego exhibit where we built a Lego castle, tried a catapult and jousted. When we went to the tile works, Ethan got to help make a tile. Unfortunately, they take a very long time to cure and be fired, so there's no way to buy the one you make. We did get one just like it though.When we got home, we had peppermint ice cream cake from Rich Farm.

More ornaments

Special Baking Project

Bet you can't guess what we were doing.

Lots of Christmas

We started off the morning by having to break Ethan out of his room. His crazy elf gift wrapped his door! We managed to finish decorating the gingerbread treasury, and complete a couple of ornaments from the Christmas countdown bags. Then we took a break to head to the gingerbread village in Middlebury. There were lots of cool creations, and E even made a gingerbread zombie.

Here's the story from the gingerbread treasury, in his words:
"It's a treasury, not a gingerbread house. That food truck is the robbers truck, but it got taken over by policemen. And one went fishing, but when he was reeling in, the fish flew off and landed on his head. Ker-splat! This bunny is trying to knock down the roof tiles but it keeps bouncing back and hitting him instead, because the police reused it as a personal whacker. The gingerbread man accidentally lassoed another policeman, who is in the chimney. It just snowed, too, so there's snow on the gingerbread man's back. P.S. the fishing pole is not a fishing pole. It is a thug catcher, and there's also an extra coil of rope and the tree got knocked down because the guy who's tied up, he chopped down the tree while he was trying to fire his starburst grenade which he dropped when he got lassoed, which is that peppermint stick thingy, with the life savers gummy and sour patch kids guy. And there are also some bombs and nun chucks stacked up next to the guy with the shredder who's about to get jumped on by the policeman who's on the truck, who also wants to knock out the bunny by firing that bomb on top of the burger. There's also some wall guards, which are those things that are under the jelly beans that are supposed to get whacked, but the bunny gets whacked instead."
"Those two orange guys have gotten knocked out by those spikes that are near the pathways. There's a snowman trying to break in with a lock pick even though he can't pick that lock, he doesn't know how to pick locks. There are also two other thief catchers, not including the fishing pole. Try to find them, they look like monsters. Betcha can't find them." 
"The Burgerlar was supposed to be called The Burgerlars, but Mom couldn't fit the 's". PS the frosting isn't actually green, it's just white but the green sugar made it look green." 
"Whacko!!!!!! Whacko, bunny. Even though you're trying to get yourself knocked out, but you don't know why. P.S. where's your scar, I thought I gave you a little scar behind the eye. Huh, that's strange." 
"Help. I'm getting tied up! Help!!!"
"Hey, who's lassoing me? Are you a burglar or are you a policeman? If you are a policeman, when we get back to the station, you're going to pay! I'll put you in handcuffs! You'd better be a thief, or you're not going to be happy!"  

Evening with Santa

Ethan and I went to the evening with Santa put on by the Women's club again this year. We made some crafts, made reindeer food, and shared a list with the big guy.

Ornaments

Days , 9, and 10

More Crafts

Tea light snowman, egg carton reindeer, and bent candy canes. The last was interesting- there was about a 3 second window between when they were too hot to touch and too hard to bend. We reheated, which made them brittle, then again, which made them melt. It was more of a science experiment than a craft, and we're good with that too.

Festivals, Tree

Despite his first winter cold, Ethan was a trooper. We did my favorite Christmas festivals in Bethlehem and Woodbury, then we came home for a little rest. After that we headed out to chop down a tree. If we finish decorating it, I'll take a picture.

Christmas Countdown

This year I made Ethan a reusable calendar by sewing little bags. Instead of candy, it's a simple craft project per day. We still managed to fall a day behind. Mostly he seems to like it, though he might have liked candy better. The point was to make sure during this busy time to slow down and do something together, so it's working.

Day off!

Ethan had the day off from school so I decided to take the day off too. I worked with another mom on the some things for the bulletin board, then we had lunch and ran some errands including our Friday library trip. Then we got to work. We had glued our house together, and decided it's really a treasury, and made a graham cracker food truck. We sorted all the leftover Christmas candy (no lie) from last year together with the Easter and Halloween candy, and came up with a plan. This could take till Christmas to finish.

Twister

The dinos spent their last day playing twister.

Santa

We went to Rich Farm to see Santa. Of course we may have gotten a little ice cream too. I forgot to photograph the dinos.They were sleeping in the teepee.

Potato head

Yesterday the dinos played with vehicles. Today they found the potato heads. I'm not sure if they were trying to assemble them or eat them.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving, started off with our traditional cookie baking while watching the parade. Ethan's cousins Amber and Jonathan joined us. After we put away a considerable amount of food, we decided to work it off before dessert. We headed for the falls for a little hike and an acorn fight instigated by Pa. We came home for dessert, featuring a peanut butter pie in honor of Granny. We had apple and pumpkin too. The pie had funny bones on it, which was one of her favorite treats. Don't worry, the dinos didn't take the holiday off. They decided to just hang out.

Crafting

Today was a half day so we did some crafting. We made Turkeypoleon and his army. And, surprisingly enough, two gigantic dinosaurs appeared in the basement.

Another Tooth?!

Ethan lost another tooth last night! The tooth fairy gave him some gold coins. The dinos were playing restaurant. When Ethan got home from school, he had a big surprise in the basement. Grandma made him a teepee, and she and Pa set it up.

Legos

Today they got into the legos and the playmobil.

Parade

Ethan and Pa were crazy, they untied the meat eaters. Of course they went crazy, trying to eat all the other animals. We went to the Thanksgiving parade in Stamford. The weather wasn't too bad, we saw lots of cool balloons and made our escape with relative ease. When we got home, Ethan worked on potato heads with Grandma Jo Ann.

Errands

The meat eaters were still tied up, so the herbivores had more fun with them. We ran some errands in the morning, Ethan had to go pick out glasses! We also bought a turkey and he got a hair cut. After that, the guys went to the UConn game.

Surprise!

The herbivores tied up the meat eaters!

And, when I picked up Ethan from school, guess who was with me? We had to get Pa a snack, so we stopped at the bakery. He finished his and tried to eat Ethan's.

Desk Raid

The tooth fairy left a $2 bill and a nice note explaining how her money came from savings, and that she took over when the previous tooth fairy retired. She does not have a boss. The dinos raided Ethan's desk.

Tooth & Duplos

Ethan lost another tooth today. He had lots of questions for the tooth fairy, so he left her a note. The dinos got into the duplos and built sculptures of themselves.

Shout Out, Karate, and Dinos

Ethan got a shout out from the principal today. Yesterday his friend, who is ordinarily in a wheel chair, was sitting on a bench for "rug time." The friend fell, and Ethan tried to catch him, resulting in his own fall and wack to the head on a desk. He was none the worse for it, and his friend was just fine.

Ethan's been taking a karate class through Park & Rec twice a week. He enjoys it I think, but two days is too much. We'll have to see if we can find a less intense option.

The dinos got into Ethan's clay. They made fossils.

Silly Dinos

The crazy dinos tried to build a giant dino robot. As Ethan pointed out, they can't read instructions. They have tiny brains.

Cousin Time

Ethan went bike riding with Gavin and Max, then we had some dinner at Maggies and they came over for dessert. I tried to get a picture of the three of them, but as soon as two sat still the other moved. Then came the sillies.

The dinos decided to play suspend. They didn't clean up the dominoes.