Pre-Christmas Activities

We're tradition rich here, so Christmas preparation could not go without a gingerbread house creation, Christmas cookies, and goofy snowmen too, of course! Although Nana does not debut in any photos, we were lucky to have her here to help with the festivities.

 Christmas Cookie Decorating.

 The Cool snowmen.  Note one has a beer in his "hand".

Check out our Christmas Cards (yes plural).  I was so unorganized that I didn't order enough, so I had to order some extras last minute and the originals didn't come in small batches.  Hence, two versions of the Lennons for 2011. Same pics, just different cards.

Holidays in Review

Well hello.  I do still exist.  A couple things to confess...
1.) I kicked off being healthy again right before Thanksgiving, meaning something had to give if I was going to fit in working out.  The give was the blog (among other things).
2.) Our home computer (circa 2002) is limping along on its last breathe, making it difficult to do almost anything on it, like writing a blog entry. :)
3.) We had 8 straight days of visits around the holidays.  Wonderful and fun visits, but there was definitely no time for blogging during that time.
4.) Did I mention my baking addiction that sucks up any other free moment I have that I am not working, with the kids, or working out?
5.) I am already back in the swing of 2012 craziness at work and about to kick-off 6 trips (yes, I said 6). I am dreading them.

So, here I am, remembering the reason I started this blog was to serve as a way to keep folks up to speed on the kids as well as serve as the baby (and growing child) book I never made. With that in mind, I can't really get away with "skipping" December.  How would I explain that to the kids as they read the archives? So let me catch up in brief.

We chose a new tree farm this year for our Christmas tree. While the place we've going to for the past two years was really pretty spectacular, we were feeling like we needed to give them a break to grow some more trees. Last year felt too much like a tree hunt. Not sure why we think us not getting a tree there will enable them all to grow back, but it seemed like a good argument at the time. :) Drawn by their free hot chocolate and cookies, we found another place that sounded great just 15 minutes away.


No snow for the event this year.  In fact, we've had three snow falls of significance to date (as of Jan 9th).  I'm not complaining, but let's just say it's not quite a normal Winter here in Maine. Below we search for the "perfect" tree.  I have to mention that there were several dozens of perfect trees at this tree farm.  It almost made it harder since there were really too many to pick from.  They must shape their trees as they grow.  Every tree seemed perfectly tapered.

Posing in front of "the" tree.

 Enjoying the post-cut hot cocoa.

 Hot cocoa happy face!

That afternoon we visited Santa in the usual red hut.  Finn, Lex and Heath practiced what they would say to Santa on the car ride there...

Lex: A head lamp (yup, we officially live in Maine and her dad does work for LLBean after all)

Finn: A race car he can drive in (hmmmmm)

Heath: A choo choo train

The visit went over well. No tears and everyone sat on Santa's lap (including Heath this year), and asked with their best pleases and thank-yous for their items they practiced.   

Part IV - The Never Ending Halloween

Finn and Heath also had days they were invited to wear their costumer to school.  With those days and all the others I have shared with you, by the time Halloween came around, the kids' costumes were well broken in.  Halloween was a chilly night, as snow still covered most of the ground from the unexpected early storm. We spent some time at a neighbors annual Halloween party and then headed out with friends for some trick-or treating.  Everyone had a blast, despite the cold.

Neighborhood clan.

So long Halloween!

Halloween Part III - The Extended Holiday

You probably remember from last year's Triple Treat post that IDEXX invites employee children to trick-or-treat through out the building. While a bit crazy, it's a blast. The kids love to trick-or-treat with out coats and no darkness. Top it all off with a pizza party in the end.  Makes for some pretty happy kids. 

Spidey Finn makes his Halloween debut.

No shocker that nanny extraordinaire, Trish,  stepped up to make Heath the most amazing Train costume! We couldn't get him to wear it beyond the pics below, but I'm sure it will stick around for dress up for awhile. Quite amazing, with a real light in the front that turns on and off. Records for wheels. She could go into business doing this stuff really.

We were able to convince Heath that in order to get candy he did have to wear the conductor outfit.  He'll do almost anything for candy.

Halloween Part II - Pumpkin Fest and More

 LL Bean does a great job giving back to the community and Pumpkin Fest is yet another festival they provide that I'll add to my list of annual Fall traditions. While we truly only had a glimpse, as the temperature were dipping and we were ill-prepared to stay warm outside, I did snap a couple pictures of the amazing display of jack-o-lanterns.  Over 6,000 total lit the night on the parameters of the LL Bean flagship store.  It was an amazing and beautiful site and an event I will look forward to returning to next year.

As we fled home from the festival shivering, we sped passed houses where people frantically raked leaves and brought lawn furniture in to prep for the impending snow storm.  Later that night, just days before Halloween, the storm arrived.  Well hello snow.  It's been just a short 6 months since we saw you last and really, we are not quite ready to have you back..Certainly not all 8 inches of you. But with a deep breathe and kids jumping with excitement we were also reminded of the newness and delight of the first snow fall of the season and had to take advantage of a day without power and a snow covered yard.

Nana came to visit just in time for the storm.

We even got to sled in our back yard!

Halloween--An Extended Holiday

In our house Halloween always seems to become an extended holiday.  Sure, trick-or-treating officially takes place on one night, but that's not usually the end (or the beginning of it) for us. Like most families, it's tradition for us to carve pumpkins and indulge on roasted pumpkin seeds together.

I know it looks like the kids have big knives, but they are actually kid-friendly carving tools.  Promise.

Lexi's school hosts a Halloween parade for all their Kindergartners to adorn their costumes and march across the baseball field for all the first graders and parents too.  It was quite a site, watching 7 classes of kids brimming with excitement as they marched around the field.  The 1st graders, remembering the day well from their participation just one year earlier, cheered as they paraded past them.

Below she makes her debut as Jazz-Man.  Yes, that's how she pronounces it. You may have noticed that Lexi is making her way through each Disney princess for her Halloween costumes year by year.  The funny thing about Jazz-Man, is that Lexi's actually never seen Aladdin.  When she put on the costume, she pulled on the top and said, "mom, it's too short." I had to tell her that it was supposed to be that way, BUT that we would be wearing a shirt underneath.  I'm not really ready for her to be showing her midriff.

After the parade, the parents were all invited to the classroom for Halloween treats and the children sang a song with a choreographed dance.  Pretty cute and worth every moment.

More on our extended holiday next post.