Taking Down Christmas

Daphne finally went back to school today.  There wasn't even a delay!  I have to tell you it felt VERY weird to be all alone.  In a good way.  But there is so much that needs to be done now that I have time, that it's hard to know where to start.  So, today, I started with Pilates.  I even wore my new Pilates toe socks, which are warm, surprisingly comfortable, and make me feel like a Muppet.  In a good way.

After Pilates, I usually feel really great, and today was no exception.  I can do ANYTHING after I go to Pilates.   So I came home and took down Christmas.

I hate taking down Christmas.  It makes me sad.  Plus, it's a giant pain.  I have to bring all the bins up from the scary basement and load them up and drag them back down.  

I tried to be really organized about it this year.  I went around the house and collected everything, then put it all on the dining room table and put it away as neatly as possible.

I noticed that the Town is also taking down Christmas today.  Some workers came by and undecorated the lamp posts.  I wonder if they were as sad as I was.

Next, I took all the ornaments off the tree, arranged them on the table, and put them away.  All except this one:

We'll put that one in a special place.  We're going to miss Doug.

Here is what he looks like now.  Only the lights are left.  That's Kev's job.  There are going to be needles everywhere, but that's OK.  Really happy that we had a real tree this year.  Thank you, Doug,

Tomorrow, I start taking back the house.  Room by room.

Yes.

Scenes from the Polar Vortex

No school Monday.  No school Tuesday.  The Magic 8 Ball said it, and it was true.  So. we made the best of it.  Daphne got very bored, and then she got creative.  On Monday, there was a big puppet show when Kev got home from work.

On Tuesday, she got out all of her plastic animals, arranged them, counted them (124!), and played with them.

I did a lot of this:

And we busted out this:

I decided that since there was nothing I could do about the snow day*, I would just embrace it, and use the time to bake something with Daphne.  We had all of the ingredients for pumpkin bread, so that's what we made. 

I got a kitchen scale for Christmas, so Daphne got all Alton Brown and weighed the flour and sugar.  

The pumpkin bread turned out great.  I can't stop eating it.

Daphne is at a sewing class downtown now.  We walked.  It was COLD.  Most of me was fine, but my face was numb by the time we got to the Finch.  I got a ride home.  And Daphne has a ride home too, so I don't have to go back outside until tomorrow.  I am sure the kids will be going to school tomorrow, although I guess it's conceivable that school will delayed an hour or two.  I guess I could consult the 8 Ball.  But I think I'd rather be surprised this time.

*For the record, there is not really much snow to speak of.  School was cancelled for "unprecedented low temperatures" due to the polar vortex.  Um...OK.  On a happier note, citizens of Loudoun County were asked to refrain from such things as dishwashing and laundry to conserve energy.  Thank you, Polar Vortex.

The New Year So Far

Well, 2014 has gotten off to a cold cold start.  On New Year's Day, I sneezed for hours.  Then we took a walk outside, had some tea, and I took a nap and woke up feeling fine.  I don't know if it was the walk, the tea, or the nap, but I am thankful for whatever it was.

Then on Thursday, it started to snow.

It snowed more and more.

Until it looked like this, so they cancelled school for Friday.

All night long, the wind blew.  Santa was missing the next morning, but I found him face down in the corner by the back door, cold, but safe and sound.

We made left-over Guinness Beef Stew into pot pies.  

We've been playing with our new Christmas stuff.  There are rocks tumbling in the basement in the rock tumbler - a gift from Mimi and Papa.  Daphne had a friend over to help her make bubble gum with her bubble gum making kit.  And she sewed an owl during the snow day with only a little help from me.

Today, Kev helped her assemble a trip-wire that sets off an alarm when you open her bedroom door.  I cringe with anxiety every time I go in there.  It's like Buddy the Elf testing the jack-in-the-boxes.    That's me in the doorknob.

Kev got some new speakers and he got to play with them today.

He also assembled a pinhole camera from a kit he got for Christmas.  He took a few pictures, but they are pretty dark.  There is a learning curve with pinhole cameras I guess.

Kev gave me a copy of my blog from 2009 in book form, and I read the whole thing already.  I also read some crafty books I got from my parents and listened to some of my new CDs/LPs.

Daphne's new Magic 8 Ball from Santa has gotten a lot of use, and so far, it has been right pretty much every time.  It's starting to freak me out a little.  I'm afraid to ask it if there will be school Monday. I don't want to know if the answer is NO.

What really needs to happen is a Big Clean.  Christmas needs to be put away, and then the organization will begin.  Something's gotta give.  There is just too much stuff.  It's weighing me down.

We will finish off the weekend  watching Star Wars and having spaghetti and meatballs, with Ben and Jerry's Milk and Cookies Milk and WOOKIES for dessert.  Daphne has earned it.  She's growing up.

Look at that sweet little face.  I am a lucky mommy.

Lots to look forward to in 2014.  Family camping, a Tab Benoit show with Kev, visitors, and trips to Indiana and New York, new episodes of Sherlock (Jan 19!!!), sewing and knitting and bottle cutting and drilling holes in things.   But right now, I'm looking most forward to the cup of coffee I'm about to have. Happy New Year!

Christmas (Day)

Early Christmas morning, I got up and had a few quiet minutes alone by the tree with my coffee.  During winter break, there are very few opportunities for quiet minutes, so I get them when I can.  Doug, our tree, is so pretty.  I will be sad to see him go.  Sitting by the tree with coffee is one of my favorite things about Christmas.

I also really love Me and Kev Gift Exchange Day, which I think was on Christmas Eve Eve this year.

Kev always picks out the best gifts.  I got some great new music to listen to, a drill (!), a new bottle cutter, and lots of things with birds on them and things made of wood, as well as some new clothes and gift cards and other nice things.  We usually do this after Daphne is asleep, but this year we let her play Santa.  Kinda fun.  But maybe next year we'll do it when she's asleep again.  A little less chaos.  But I am getting off the topic.  Back to Christmas Day.  ACTUAL Christmas Day.

After my quiet cup of coffee with Doug, we packed, had breakfast,  loaded up the car, and headed over the river and through the Poconos to Kev's Aunt Barbara's house in New Paltz, New York for Christmas dinner with Kev's family.  The drive was nice and quick.  No traffic, good weather, a well-behaved Peanut in the back seat.  Dinner was good, and there was some of Mimi's famous Christmas Day Trifle.  YES!  After dinner, we went to Hyde Park and opened gifts and played with cousins for the next few days.

We celebrated Kev's birthday with BBQ chicken wraps from Coco's and a Carvel ice cream cake.  Kev and I got to go see a great movie (Inside Llewyn Davis).  There was snow.  And lots of cookies.

Some prankster stole the "E" angel this year and replaced it with this pink gremlin-y thing.  I have no idea who would have done something like that!  Usually, the letters just get re-arranged. 

I managed to get in a little knitting time.

And I found a small bottle of THIS to hold me over until I get my delivery of two big ol' bottles from my friend Tracy from Queens.  She hooks me up with the Ronnybrook eggnog, and I give her Samoas at Girl Scout cookie time.  It's a good trade. This is the best eggnog ever.

We didn't take a lot of pictures, but Kev's dad did, and he has promised us a CD with copies of them.  It was a nice trip, and good to see everyone as always.  My niece and my nephews are awesome, and growing up WAY too fast.  The little ones are hilarious.  I miss those kids.

It's good to be back home, though.  Daphne went back to school this morning, and Kev went back to work.  It's quiet here.  There is a lot of cleaning up to do.  Piles of Christmas in every room, and decorations that need to be put away.  That will have to wait for another day, though.  Today is grocery store day.  And catch up on blogs and email day.  But maybe now, I'll get a cup of coffee and go sit with Doug for a few minutes.  I hope you all had a really great Christmas.  We had THREE!  I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Christmas (Eve)

Back to Christmas.  Or Christmas Eve, I guess.  Because Santa came a day early to our house, and on Christmas Eve morning, Daphne looked like this (above) because she saw this (below) when she came downstairs.  Quite a nice little pile.  A few gifts from Mommy and Daddy, and a few from Santa, including one in doggy paper, especially for Quincy.

Daphne got some books, Scrabble, a Crayola Melt and Mold Factory that she wished and wished for, and a Magic 8 Ball.  No big stuffed dog from Santa, though, which is what she asked for in her letter.

She DID get a nice little note from Santa, who ate almost ALL of the cookies we left!  He must have been hungry!  I guess he doesn't get as many cookies on the practice run.

But, it turned out that the REAL surprises were upstairs in the attic.  Remember the teepee we set up the night before?

 Daphne was SO excited when she saw it.  But we were ALL surprised that in the morning, things had changed!  You may notice some little white feet inside the teepee that weren't there before.

What is that black and white furry thing in the background, behind Daphne?

It's the newest addition to Daphne's family of stuffed dogs!  Meet "Dasher" the Border Collie. Thank you, Santa Claus!

Kev and I were just as surprised to see him as Daphne was.  That Santa sure is a sneaky fellow!  And Dasher, being a Border Collie, had herded all the other dogs into a circle.

Daphne was one happy and excited little girl.  And, she got to spend the night in a teepee that night.  Pretty cool.  I love Christmas magic.

Project 365 Revisited

 My family has talked me into doing the 365 Project again this year after a two year break.  So, on my other blog (link on the sidebar), I will post one photo every day in 2014.  This is the one for today, from a stroll down the trail.  It was nice but would have been more fun if I wasn't so sneezy.

HNY

Happy New Year!  The blog will return to tales of Christmas, but I wanted to start off 2014 with a New Year's post.  Last night, our little family had a mini New Year's Eve party, complete with signs and fancy clothes.  Sign by Daphne.

While Kev made dinner, Daphne and I took pictures of ourselves in our NYE hats:

Dinner was Tapas-style.  Spanish cheese, ham, Spanish omelet, quince paste, grapes, and mushrooms with melty manchego. Delicious.  Place cards by Daphne.

I wore my owl sweater and Kev wore a tie. Fancy.  Because it was New Year's Eve.  Photo by Daphne.

And I made chocolate mousse.

Then we played Scrabble.  Kev and Daphne v. Mommy.  I won, but only because I got the Q, Z, J, and X.  Daphne is really good at Scrabble for a 7 year old.

Here is her favorite word of the night.  She came up with this move all by herself.  You should have heard all the Beavis and Butthead snickering going on. A proud parenting moment.

So, on that note, Happy New Year to you, wherever you are.  Let's have a good 2014.

Heh heh heh.  She spelled TOILET.  Uh...huh huh.  Heh heh.

Gearing Up for the Big Day

This was a good Christmas season. Even though we didn't have an Advent bag to open everyday, we still packed in all of our favorite activities, as well as some new stuff.

As usual, there was the Christmas parade.  

Frosty and Santa were there on the fire truck, just like always:

And of course, everyone's favorite Christmas character, Ronald McDonald.  ???!!!  What the heck?!  So creepy.

Daphne and I had a camp-out by the tree one night.

And we had our Brownie Christmas party.  Woohoo!

This year, we were invited to our friend's winery where we got to see the Loudoun Hunt Club hounds and horses.  And Santa. 

This was one of the coolest things ever.  Especially for Daphne.  She didn't even really care that Santa was there.  It was all about the dogs.  I have never seen her so completely full of joy.  She was really sad when they were paraded back to the kennel.  But then she got some cider and a candy cane, and all was better.

It was extra special, because Grandma and Grandpa were here visiting, and they got to go with us.  We had a nice visit.  We were too tired to make our traditional batches and batches of real cookies, but we made one batch of slice-and-bake-chocolate-chip-embellished-with-Reeces-peanut-butter-cups cookies that we happened to see on Pioneer Woman.  Thank you, Pioneer Woman.  So easy and tasty.  Make Cookies with Grandma - CHECK!

There was a rousing game of HeadBandz, which Daphne and I won handily because Grandma and Grandpa were pretty terrible at it, and Kev...well...

...Kev was a unicorn.  Which is really hard to guess.  

 

There were lots of nice gifts from Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jeff.  But it was weird not to have Jeff and the puppies there with us.  Especially since it was his birthday.  People should really all be together on people's birthdays.  Daphne got tons of American Girl stuff, and I got Finch money and Pyrex, and other nice things, and Kev got some gift cards and stuff too.  Jeff gave us some CDs and records, including an LP copy of Astral Weeks, my favorite record of all time.  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jeff!

Grandma and Grandpa headed home on Sunday, and we put the final touches on Christmas.  Daphne got her letter off to Santa:

We had to email him to make sure he could put us on his "Practice Route."  Most people don't know that Santa has a practice route one night early.  And if you contact him in time, you can get ON the practice route, just in case you have to, say, drive up to New York on Christmas Day.  That way, you can open presents on Christmas EVE morning and play with them all day before you have to head out of town.  It's pretty great.  It probably helps that Daphne is such good friends with the mayor.  But if you ever need more info about the practice route, I can hook you up.

So, on the night before the night before Christmas, we got all of Santa's cookies and milk ready, and carrots for the reindeer, as well as some handmade gifts that Daphne left for Santa:

Kev and Daphne went out and sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn:

And we went right upstairs to read The Night Before Christmas and get Daphne to bed.  And Kevin and I had to get to bed too.  But not before we listened to this:

And put this in the attic:

Daphne's big gift from us was this teepee, so we set it up, hung some lights on it, and went to bed.  But you will not believe what it looked like the next morning!  Tales of Christmas magic still to come!