Category Archives: Holidays

O Tannenbaum

Posted on by
3

On Wednesday night we decorated our Christmas tree.  I’m finally posting about it today, because after we got the last ornament on, I realized my camera battery was out of juice and I didn’t feel I should write a post about decorating the tree without having a picture of the final product.  At last, I have said picture, so let the fun begin!

How to Decorate a Christmas Tree with a 19 Month Old

Step 1: Bring the Ornaments Out of Storage

I love our Snapware ornament box.  It keeps the ornaments securely in one place, but the trays separate for ease of packing/unpacking.  Alethea liked it because she got a sneak peak of what was coming, before we even opened the box.  She kept saying “Ball, ball!” and pointing at the round glass ornaments.

Step 2: Pick Out an Unbreakable Ornament for 19 Month Old to Put on Tree

At this point, things were going well.  Alethea was happy to try her hand at getting the toy soldier to stay on the tree.

Step 3: Console 19 Month Old After She Realizes She is Not Supposed to Take the Ornament Back Off

In this case, the picture says it all…

Step 4: Distract 19 Month Old with a Different Ornament to Put on the Tree

This step worked especially well when the ornament had a picture of Alethea on it.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 2-4 Until 19 Month Old Loses Interest and Requires a Caramel Corn Break with Daddy

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of this, but it was really cute!

Step 6: Put 19 Month Old to Bed and Finish Decorating the Tree

Step 7: Stand Back, Admire the Finished Product and Then Flop Exhaustedly onto the Couch

Done!

2010 Holiday Decor

Posted on by
3

I love decorating my house, but I especially love changing around the decor for Christmas.  When we bought our current house two years ago, we had very little in the way of decorations since we never bothered to do much beyond putting up a small tree in the various rentals we occupied previously.  But now I have a dining room and a huge mantle in the living room, plus space for a big tree and in my head I see visions of garlands flowing and Christmas cheer peaking out from every corner.

Too bad Christmas decorations are so expensive…

So this is my plan: every year, add just a bit more and eventually we’ll have a nice array of beautiful things for the holidays.

Now I’m not done with my decorating for Christmas 2010, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to.

Here is the dining room centerpiece (I just have to get some taper candles to put in my candle stick holders):

As you can see, my knock off Pottery Barn paper music stars mixed in nicely with the Christmas ball ornaments from last year:

After I ran out of steam getting the tree up and completing the dining room centerpiece, last year’s mantle ending up being a bit bare.  This year, I thought we’d spruce things up a bit… literally… those are the bottom branches trimmed from our blue spruce Christmas tree you see behind the nativity:

So with the mantle done and the dining room centerpiece nearly done, I think I’ll tackle just one more new thing this year and that is the console table behind the couch in the living room.  Here’s how far I’ve gotten:

It’s like a design blank slate and all of these ideas are floating around in my head… which way to go?  So hard to choose just one idea.

Taking Baby Steps

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve got 19 days until Christmas, 20 something days until the baby comes and I’m not ready for either one.  We did get Alethea’s curtains hung in her big girl room on Saturday.  And then on Sunday we went on a Christmas tree hunt.  No, the tree isn’t decorated yet and neither Alethea’s room or the nursery is totally ready, but we’re taking baby steps.

Speaking of baby steps… when we were packing up for the tree hunt we remembered that Alethea hates to walk in the snow, so we made sure to bring the sled.  Turns out though that she didn’t like that either, even with Mommy holding her hand:

And then Mommy let go:

Peter ended up carrying her until we found the perfect tree.  Thankfully it didn’t take long to locate it:

I held Alethea while Peter cut down the tree.  When it tipped over Alethea’s only comment was “Uh oh!”  But then I asked her if we should take the tree home, she said, “Yeah.”

So while Peter dragged the tree to the car, I carried Alethea.  But I couldn’t make it the whole way.  Something about being 9 months pregnant.  She had to walk.  At first she protested, but then it was okay so long as I was holding her hand:

However, by the time we got the tree loaded and ready to go, she had let go of my hand and was tooling around all by herself.

It’s a good thing.  She’d have a long 18 years growing up in Minnesota if she was forever unwilling to walk through snow.

Happy Halloween!

Posted on by
1

Tonight we had Alethea’s friends Ava and Judah (and their parents) over for trick-or-treating.  We had a little bit of a football theme going with the kid’s costumes:

Of course there was that little awkward moment when Ava realized she was totally outnumbered:

But Alethea soon distracted her with an impromptu pom-pom routine:

After dinner and the photo shoot we went down the block trick-or-treating.  Alethea had fun running around in the dark and riding on Daddy’s shoulders.  However, I don’t think she really got the whole ‘trick-or-treat’ concept.  True, she only tried to go inside the first couple houses that we visited, but after that she cried every time someone put candy in her bag.

We think she had a good time though because after we got home she was completely wound up and polished off two mini-bags of pretzels.  (As a kid I thought non-candy items were lame, as a parent… I kinda get it now!)

After we got her calmed down a bit, she did go to sleep pretty easily, so at least for this year, there was no sugar high to keep her up.

Over all, I’d say it was a smashing success.  We hope your Halloween was also worth cheering about!

Pumpkin Carving

Posted on by
1

Tonight Alethea, Peter and I carved pumpkins with Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Chris, Grandma Denny and Poppa John.  Well, actually, the ladies mostly did the carving while the guys mostly watched sports, but everyone had a good time, so we’ll call the evening a success.

Alethea wondered why we cut a hole in the top of her pumpkin:

We all wondered why she insisted on tasting the pumpkin guts over and over, even though she clearly didn’t like the flavor:

I wondered if trying out a pattern I found online for a puppy pumpkin was a good idea, while Grandma Debbie and Grandma Denny wondered whether they would ever cut through the surprisingly thick and hard to carve rind of the paw print pumpkin:

So after a great deal of wondering our current status is:

(Costume… check! Candy… check! Puppy pumpkin… check!)

Ready for Halloween!

A Little Bit of Everything

Posted on by
4

Maybe Alethea doesn’t know Sesame Street as well as I thought she did.  Today she was looking at the Sponge Bob towel that was laying on the floor with clothes drying on it.  She pointed at Patrick (the starfish) and said “Emo!”  I tried telling her that it was Patrick, but she was very insistent that it was Elmo.  Oh well.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I went to Sherwin Williams and bought paint for Alethea’s big girl room.  Instead of going with any of the pre-mixed options, I took my multitude of paint samples and whipped up my own color.  It only took me 8 or so tries and several hours to finally get the “perfect” gray.  Not too light, not too dark, not too blue, not too tan.  I think it’s all for the best, but the rule follower in me feels weird using an “unofficial” color.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The baby has been moving around a lot more lately.  It seems to me that her movements are a bit less forceful than Alethea’s were at about the same age, but maybe that’s just me hoping not to have two very assertive children who are only 20 months apart.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I know everyone says Alethea looks like Peter, and she does.  But the other day my sister-in-law Julie over at TheAnticsoftheThree22nds posted pictures of her youngest three at around 5-6 months.  I still think that the person Alethea looks most like is her cousin Roman.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m super excited about our Labor Day Block Party this weekend.  We are hosting it at our house.  I told Peter that I was going to do red, white and blue for the paper goods and decorations.  He said that Labor Day isn’t a red, white and blue kind of holiday.  What color is it then?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m trying to score a cheap dresser and nightstand off craigslist for Alethea’s room.  Only problem is I think I need a really narrow dresser.  The wall seemed long enough for bunk beds and a dresser, but when I actually measured it out I ended up with about 27 inches for the dresser.  I really want to keep my room arrangement how I have it planned out though, so I think I’ll keep hunting for a narrow-but-tall dresser.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Land of the Free & Home of the Litigious

Posted on by
Reply

We had a relaxing, if not terribly interesting 4th of July.  After going to church in the morning, it was nap time for me and Alethea while Peter watched the Twins game.  Then we played in the yard for a while, had dinner and Alethea went to bed.  We decided not to keep her up for fireworks, since she was likely to be scared of them anyway.  Later, Peter and I tried to have a fire in the backyard, but we gave up after the mosquitoes drove us inside.  Like I said, relaxing, though not that interesting.

I did get a kick out of seeing Alethea dressed up in her 4th of July outfit though:

Alethea had fun taking off the outfit and running around in her Splash and Play mat:

And Peter and I both cracked up over the mat’s warning label:

“No Diving”… Is that really necessary on a toy that has 1 inch of water at its deepest point?  Apparently someone in the Fisher Price legal department thought so.

Happy Easter!

Posted on by
1

Sorry for not posting more this week.  Things have been a little crazy.

So, besides piano lessons and normal stuff, this week I was also part of the dramatic reading for the Good Friday service at our church.  It was a cool reading, but I’m glad I’m done having drama practices.  The service went well though and I have to say, I think Good Friday might be my favorite service of the year at our church.  It is always so thought provoking and meaningful.

Saturday we prepared Easter dinner.  Alethea was very helpful, patiently watching me cook from her high chair.  She was even so gracious as to taste test the mashed potatoes:

Saturday evening we had our friends Chris, Amie and Drew over for an impromptu dinner party.  I was a little worried that Alethea would be upset when Drew played with her toys, but she wasn’t at all.  She just seemed interested in watching what he was going to do with each toy.

This morning Alethea got dressed up in one of my childhood dresses to go to church:

We went to church and attended a lovely service.  Then we came home and had our Easter dinner with Peter’s brother Steve and our neighbors Jo and David.  The menu: ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls, salad and ‘Tunnel of Fudge’ chocolate cake for dessert.  Everyone thought the food was exceptionally good, except Alethea who didn’t eat well and wasn’t very appreciative of the quality of the food offered to her.  However, her afternoon wasn’t a total loss as she was delighted with the giant pink bunny Jo and David brought her:

She also eagerly dug into her Easter basket from Mommy and Daddy.  As predicted, the grass in the bottom was as much fun for Alethea as the toys on top.

Between the two services at church, good food, and lots of time spent with friends and family, I’d say we had an enjoyable and uplifting Easter weekend.