Christmas Eve

Here are some thoughts to go with all these photos (so many days later!)

Christmas Eve 2007

The kids were home and were so excited they were kind of bouncing around. They kept asking about the rituals that we have done for the holidays, going over everything they could think of again and again, asking the same questions, again and again.

Can we open a present because it is Christmas Eve? Yes.

Can we pick the present? No.

When can we open the present? When Dad gets home.

Same questions every year, same answers every year.

When they weren't thinking of the present they get to open, they are double and triple checking about our plans.

Who is coming over?
When are they coming?
What are we having for dinner?

Well Slade worked a half-day and picked up Phil who had flown in for a few days from Chi-town. Auntie Jill & Asher were coming, and Erika. Erika came over in the early afternoon to help make the meal. We made boudin (the traditional chicken-veal sausage), some kind of red-meat roast thing, Erika made an amazing mushroom sauce that we had with polenta, and other stuff i can't remember. Jill arrived with so many hors d'oeuvres we couldn't even put them all out. She gave us this amazing dessert wine that was amazing. We had it every night after that until it was finished. Just a few days. Yummy.

the kids were thrilled to open Rock Band as their combined x-mas eve present. actually we needed to give zane a present to open because he couldn't do the rock band. the kids really wanted slade and i to the the rock band with them and it took until this past weekend for us to do that. it was really fun actually. our first song slade was lead singer, i was bass, graham guitar, cody drums. then we switched a few times. the drums was the hardest for me. luckily the songs are all very good. maybe some of you don't know what Rock Band is? It is a "game" that is played with their Xbox. It is two guitars, drums, mircophone, You are your own band. It is really fun to hear people do the lead singing. Slade was really rockin'.

We had a great x-mas eve spent with Phil & Jill, who we have spent many holiday meals with, but not many in recent years. It was nice to add Erika to our holiday time! We were so thrilled to have Phil come up and spend a few days with us during this time. it was also great for me not to go to mid-night mass. jesus and i aren't the best of friends.

slade and i were happy that we didn't have any elaborate toys to set up before going to bed, and when we turned on the tv to fold the clothes that were piled high on the bed - Miracle on 34th Street was just starting. it took almost the whole movie to get everything folded (but not put away). it is one of my favorite holiday movies, and i love watching a good movie late at night, so a perfect ending to the day.

Christmas Day

Sugar

Seby and Zane being amazed at how MUCH sugar I was putting in for the buttercream. I am making 4 batches at one time, so it is an amazing amount of sugar. It was bedtime and Slade was putting them down - but they had to wait until I got the water in - so they could watch the sugar dissolve.......



Here is the buttercream (with all that sugar!) made and ready to sit until we decorate the Bush de Noel cakes tomorrow. There is no room in the fridge (and we also already have stuff out at Erika's) so I am using our last resort fridge/freezer space. It is the corner cabinet in our dining room. It is 9.6 degrees outside (at this later hour)!

Happy Holidays!

New Orleans

Does anybody out there have some ideas about doing volunteer work in New Orleans?

I'm hoping that next spring for Cody's spring break (which is different dates then his brothers) he and I will go do some volunteer work in New Orleans.

I have been looking at some ideas, but would love to hear others.

Crows

The black crows are flying around. Erika told me about a walk she went on early the other morning. She said there were a ton of crows in the trees by the Minneapolis Art Institute. Well it looks like this afternoon they were over a few blocks.

A Christmas Carol

Here are the boys at the Guthrie during intermission of A Christmas Carol. We went to lunch at their restaurant, Level Five Cafe. Slade and I have season tickets and usually have dinner at Cue, the restaurant on the main level. Level Five Cafe was more of a burgers and sandwich stop - which was perfect for our crowd.

Zane was a bit scared by the performance -- and I lied to him (didn't mean to). There were really four ghosts, not the three I told there would be. Remember? Ops, bad mommy.

It was a very fun day and we can't believe that this is the best picture of the many we took.

Community Service

Pictures of the kids doing Community Service, of course!

I went with a group from the JH to do some community service at the local public elementary school. We read to a class of 2nd graders. It was in the school's library. The kids picked out books and then found someone to read to them, or we approached them. They were all very eager to have someone read to them. Then we spent some time with them in the computer lab, where they had to log onto a network and do a typing program. It was great to watch the JH kids - Graham, Sam, Oliver, Lena & Ingrid - interact with the younger kids. I look forward to doing it again with them in the spring.

I meant to take pics of the JH kids reading to the 2nd graders, but I spent the whole time reading also! There would of been some great shots of each one of them!

Snow!

It is been snowing all day. We got about 6 inches on Saturday and at this point I think we have another 3-4 inches - with the snow stopping late this evening!

Doorbell - oh cool, I just got our UPS driver to pick up a large pre-paid package!

The snow is awesome. Zane has been going out in the back yard the last two mornings to play in the snow before going to school - where he also gets time to play in the snow!

I had to take a pic of the house and carraige house for our insurance company.



Don't you love the wreaths that Erika made? She and Graham hung them this morning. I have forbidden Slade to put out the Santa, etc this year. This year we will have tasteful holiday decorations!



Here is the carraige house.



We put up a lot of the holiday decorations this past weekend. Zane is loving it. We still haven't finished putting on the ornaments and he isn't too happy about it.

Here is the pic we are using for our holiday card this year (first one is too many years!)



This pic was taken at Muir Woods in SF when we were out visiting in October.

Ok, the kids are all getting off the bus - so I must run!