Merry Christmas Everyone!

So we are heading to Indiana a little earlier than expected. Apparently a blizzard is coming to the Midwest by 3 pm tomorrow. So we are leaving as soon as Nick gets home tonight with hopes we will beat it. I have been too busy with all the fun things about Christmas to post regularly and it will be a while before I post again probably, so I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before we leave town!

We spent the weekend celebrating Christmas! On Saturday morning Santa had come (he must have heard about the blizzard heading to the midwest and decided to come early) and we had our little family Christmas together. Sunday was spent with my family! Here is Anastasia and her new zebra she always wanted. :)

I bought Nick a harmonica just for fun, but he actually played it quite well and loved it!Here is Isabel and her stocking (and me of course) which had a few rattles and a little lamb for her enjoyment.So I have wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer for a very, very long time but they are SOOOO expensive. My uncle (who is a notorious collecter of everything) found a Kitchen Aid at a yard sale and asked if I wanted it. HECK YEAH!!!!!!! I am SO Excited about it! My aunt cleaned it up so nicely for me and it has a nice dough hook and a couple other attachments so I CAN'T WAIT until we come home and I can actually try it out! It compliments my retro tupperware so well! Santa was really looking out for me this Christmas!

Tis the Season

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks and a day! Over the weekend my Aunt Donna, Cousin Caitlin, my dad and I took the girls to see Santa. It went a bit better than last year as Anastasia didn't pout or cry! She still wasn't too sure about him. Isabel just enjoyed all the pretty decorations so she didn't mind Santa too much. Later that day we ended up going to the Fredericksburg Christmas parade which was entirely too long.... and very cold... and even snowing! Isabel was a bit fussy but stayed warm. Anastasia enjoyed it up until a point, and seeing as the end of the parade was no where in sight, we left as Anastasia had a meltdown. Poor kid. We have decided we won't try going for several more years.

We don't have a Christmas tree yet as it seems we have been busy or sick on the weekends. Now I don't even think getting one is a very good idea because we are going to Indiana in less than 2 weeks and there will be no one to water it for 6 days so I am thinking it will die completely. I am sad not to put all our ornaments up... but I think I am the only one who really would appreciate the sentiment. I did make Isabel a stocking though with her name embroidered on it. Thanks to my little house I made, I am no longer afraid of embroidery, nor do I dread the task. So I am looking forward to getting some ornaments embroidered this week!

We just recently started watching the tv show "Heroes" via Netflix' "Watch Instantly" feature. Now we are totally addicted!!! AHHH! It is kind of nice though because we all watch it together in the evenings and Anastasia and Isabel fall asleep right away almost, so it feels like a bit of quality grown-up together time. There isn't too much of that these days. I don't mind too much though :)Isabel in her Santa hat

Anastasia shopping at Ten Thousand Villages

The Gnome Home

I FINALLY finished Anastasia's fabric dollhouse loosely based off the tutorial here. I also made some super cute little peg gnomes. The house turned out pretty crooked and I had to take it apart several times because I tried to make it more complex and it didn't work. That being said, I am still completely in love with it and hope Anastasia will be too. Here is the front of the house and the family that lives there:The gnome family:
Daddy gnome doing laundry without being asked by mommy gnome (only in a perfect world, eh?)

Blurry shot of the inside and back yard:

and a shot of the fireplace:

Unfortunately the uneven walls and floor make the inside look really weird but thats okay. I don't think my almost-2-year-old will mind. It is SO nice to be finished.

Look who's 2 Months!

Isabel turned 2 Months old on Wednsday!! What a big girl!! It was funny that her first smile was on her 1 month old birthday and then today at 2 months and 2 days she laughed her first laugh!! I beeped her nose and smiled and she thought it was hilarious. Glad she has such a good sense of humor.

"back in my day..."

This is how I remember Candy Land:

I must be getting old because this is what I found at Target last week:

I wanted to get Candy Land for Anastasia since it was on sale for $4 at Target. I was so enraged when I saw a modernized, drugged up looking Candyland! Yuck. Then today I went to Walmart and saw a collectors edition of the Candy Land that I had as a kid and it was described as "Retro"!!!! I felt so old!!! Retro is the 1960's!!! Not the 1990's! I think I will dig through my parents game collection for my old game. They have modernized Carebears and Strawberry Shortcake too. What will they come up with next?

The Quiltmaker's Gift

So as I had mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to do a Christmas book and activity for each day of advent up until Christmas. There is a nice book and craft list at the Crafty Crow right now. Only most of her crafts are a bit advanced for a less-than-two-year-old. So today we read The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau and I made a little fort for Anastasia out of all our quilts (and a comforter) and the table. I put pillows inside and she made sure to fill it with more pillows and toys and pretty much didn't care about it other than that.

I made sure to also include snuggle time by the woodstove under the quilt made for me by my Great Aunt Marie (who passed away about 3 years ago). My mom's mom died when I was very young and my mom was in her very early twenties. My Great Aunt Marie took my mom in under her wing even though she had her own 8 or 9 kids and countless grandchildren. She made every single one of her grandchildren a quilt that she was saving for each of them for when they got married. She had arthritis and was going blind and made atleast 15 quilts. Apparently she had done the same for my brother and I. She gave us our quilts the Christmas before she died because she knew she didn't have much time left.

Now when I snuggle under the quilt, I have a link that surpasses time, and even death to that woman who survived the great depression, several wars and raised her 8 kids in a humble Virginia farmhouse. I will never forget one of the very last things she told me a few months before she died, "I do not envy you young people having to live in this world you have inherited." (I am paraphrasing a bit because I don't remember her exact words.) We live in a culture so obsessed with youth and she aged so gracefully and didn't fear the death we all want to run from. Instead she felt sorry for us young people who have to grow up in such difficult and uncertain times. My great aunt Marie lived a very modest and simple life and took such great joy in being with her family and loved ones. I hope all of you, my faithful blog readers find that same joy this holiday season and may you reflect on those memories and people dearest to your heart.

The Yuckies

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. No drama. No fussing. Just food, chit-chat and fun. Unfortunately Sunday Anastasia woke up with a nasty little stomach bug that has managed to pass through all of our systems. So I have spent the past 3 days cleaning up puke, puking and soothing an upset baby. Needless to say, Advent has been off to a bit of a rough start. And I had so many plans to read a Christmas book with Anastasia each day and do an activity or craft every day until Christmas. I barely managed to pull out the Christmas decorations today and the cardboard advent calender a day late. Ah well. Most (if not all) of my holiday shopping is complete and now I just have to craft away. :) Hopefully I will have some completed projects to post this week.

Off to bed I go... with hopes that everyone will be healthy tomorrow.