Our New England storm

We survived our first New England storm. In fact, I didn't even realize it was going to be such a big deal until I got an email from my parents asking about our snow, then I checked the weather forecast and learned it was more than just a dusting. We got about 12-24 inches depending on which part of the yard you were in. Kent had a long day snow blowing a pathway out for our cars in case we needed to go somewhere. Luckily we don't have anywhere to go for a while. The kids enjoyed getting dressed up in their snow gear. Thank heavens they got some new snow clothes for Christmas. Hayden's old boots were too small so he had to tip-toe hobble around with his heel sticking out in his old ones. Hayden went to town eating as much snow as he could. He got stuck once up to his hips in snow, crying, and needed to be pulled out. Sawyer was the last one out of the snow. He loved shoveling it, and had a blast when the snow hill was ready. McKinley helped shovel for as long as her tiny arms could stand it. She was the first one to go inside. Sadie was jumping around in the snow and having fun.

We've got plenty of food, our electricity didn't go out, and we've got no where to go. It was a good storm :)

Christmas rundown

We had a great Christmas this year. The kids have been sooo excited. On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner of marinated chicken, baked potatoes, rolls, and asparagus. We watched the Polar Express while I made dinner. We were going to play games before we opened our exchange gifts, but McKinley was feeling sick again so we skipped that and just opened our exchange gifts. I made cookie dough and let the kids cut out a few cookies for Santa. Then we frosted them and put them on a plate. The kids all slept in the boys room, and went straight to sleep without a peep.

Christmas morning McKinley and Hayden woke up around 7 and Sawyer got up around 7:20. We line up from youngest to oldest to make the grand entrance to Christmas presents. The kids have to open stockings first, then we take turns opening one present at a time. When all the presents were done we then opened each toys ties and packaging so the kids could play.

The Aftermath

What the kids got and love this year:

McKinley: squinkies, zoobles, zoobles case, Blythe pet shop, clothes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, art sketch pad, scrapbooking materials, zhu zhu accessories, baby zhu zhu pet, Japanese erasers, Miranda Cosgrove CD, tinkerbell DS game,

Sawyer: Criss Cross Crash hot wheels track, color changer bath tub hot wheel track, custom motor hot wheels, Hot wheels DS game, Nascar die casts, hot wheels die cast, motorcycles, soccer ball, clothes, r/c car, tool set, a handmade afghan

Hayden: Buzz, Woody, Batmobile custom motor, Batcave trio set, Toy Story 3 DS game, Indiana Jones legos, Indiana Jones hat and whip, Toy Story game, r/c car, Nascar die casts, a handmade afghan

All kids: Let's Draw DS game, Memory, and movies.

I got some lovely pots and pans to replace the Teflon ones that are scraped and leeching black stuff into our food, a nice juicer, an immersion blender, a hat and scarf, lotion, and some slippers.

Kent got tools for his compressor, and sleep machine, and a certificate for a compound mitre saw. We both got a new mattress and a generator.

It was a fun Christmas, and we spent all day playing with toys, staying in our jammies, and watching movies together.

Merry Christmas

the Christmas cards should be arriving soon...I was late this year.

The yummiest snowflakes

Advent Calendar activity: make homemade marshmallow snowflakes.

Soft and delicious! And not as hard and involved as I thought it would be.

The Sweet Shoppe

On our advent list was a visit to Ridgefield's Main Street to see the decor and visit the Sweet Shoppe. The kids got to pick out one treat to have. With the 29 degree weather plus the wind chill factor they all of course picked ice cream. I chose marzipan and Kent chose nothing. He's not much for chocolate and ice cream is developing into an allergy for him. I wish I could develop an allergy to junk food.

A tour around town

We live about 1 mile south of Ridgefield, CT and we're right on the border of NY state. I am falling in love with the charm of this place more and more each week. I think it will actually break my heart a little to leave here when our time is up. It looks exactly like the kind of place I've always wanted to live. It's very Norman Rockwell-esque. We drove to Ridgefield's Main Street to get a treat at the Sweet Shop, see the decorated street, and look at the beautiful houses. Here's a little tour of some of my favorite charming houses around Wilton and Ridgefield. Keep in mind that my house looks nothing like any you are about to see, unfortunately.

This one is just up the street. It is adorable and I love the red door.

One of my very favorites is this one below. It has a wrap around porch and sits on a ridge overseeing a valley. It's plenty big for us, but not too big to be ostentatious. It even has an old wooden sled adorning the front porch.

the back This house in Ridgefield actually is used as a community center for nice parties or receptions. But it's gorgeous and used to be a house.

I love the colonial styles. But I also like the smaller farmhouse styles around here. Many of the farmhouse style homes have plaques on them telling you who used to live there in the 17-1800's. This colonial is on St. John's road coming back home from Ridgefield.
On Silver Spring Road, this one is just south of us. I can see it from our front yard. I love the blue door.
On St John's road too. The wreaths were made of lemon leaves or something (not fir trees) which made them look classic but modern.

The style of decorating around here is wreaths in the windows outside, and candles (battery powered) inside each window. Not many light strands hung on houses. I really like the "old" style of decorating. We put up the battery candles in our home and it feels like the old days. And it saves a bundle on the electric bill. Did I mention Connecticut is the 2nd most expensive electricity in the country (behind Hawaii).

There are a million red barns and converted garages. Isn't it picture perfect.

And a little red school house dating back to 1756. It is just oozing with charm!

3 books

It looks like I won't make it to my 32 books for the year (the goal I set last year). I'm going to blame it on the move :) I'll have to try again next year!
Anywho, here are the last 3 books I've read.

The Grimm Legacy

by Polly Shulman

About teens who work in a special library where there's a "Grimm" section with magical fairy tale items. Of course antics ensue. It was alright. I'm sure it goes with the Percy Jackson genre, but a little less interesting to me. I would recommend it to pre-tweens and tweens.

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

The story of a little girl and her Jewish friend in WWII Denmark. Another interesting perspective on the war. Denmark had a very successful safe people smuggling rate. I know we are in an economic downturn, but it is nothing compared to what they went through some 50 years ago. I can't even imagine rationing food, shoes, and electricity. We really don't have it that bad after all.

Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks

Based on a true Plague town that quarantined itself to prevent the spread of the disease. This is the fictionalized story of what it may have been like. I liked reading about the plague and how it might have been like for those poor people. The heroine of the story Anna, starts out as a mindless waif and turns out to be a modern minded strong woman. I felt it may have been a bit out of context for the days and just bent to form to modern times idea of what a woman should be and what she should want for herself. Maybe there were truly people like her, but it felt very modernized and I wished it would have been truer to the period in that regard. I was also discombobulated when someone who was kind and good throughout was vilified in the last 20 pages and left for naught. It was disappointing. In all a good story about the Plague life and the way it changed life as they knew it.

Tis the season

Our only presents under the tree so far are these beautiful ones that McKinley has made, and packaged herself. She is so excited to be secretive and give something to everyone in her family. I used to do this kind of thing for my family when I was little. I remember scraping together my allowance to buy little presents like rootbeer, or gum or some candy bar I knew they liked. It always made me so happy to give something to everyone. I'm glad she thought to do this herself. It's very sweet. I love my little girl.

These are a few of my favorite things

Brown paper packages tied up with string.

Two sweet packages arrived this week from kindred spirits (I'm dying to open my Anne of Green Gables DVD's that I'm getting for Christmas but I'm supposed to pretend that I don't know anything about--I had a dream with an appearance by Gilbert Blythe this week...but I digress).

I loved my surprises. I am thankful for thoughtful friends who are miles away. And my kids are giddy to be remembered too! Thanks Misty and Ashley!

And Ashley if you made that jam, I MUST have the recipe! I have never tasted a better raspberry jam in my life! No lie!

low maintenance

I love the age that my kids are at right now. They are still low maintenance with their toys. Sawyer has been playing with empty pop bottles to play bowling, or take in the shower and fill with water. McKinley keeps snatching up any box I'll let her get her hands on to turn it into something.

A little house for her Chipmunk girl, which also acts as her acorn storage :)

She made a house for "Eddie" (our Elf on the Shelf). It has a bed, a christmas tree, a light (courtesy of lite brite), and portrait of Eddie on the wall, and a picture of McKinley on the bed. He slept there one night and stayed a little too long and got caught there in the morning. Luckily he scurried away to another spot later in the day.

I am grateful that it doesn't cost a lot to make them happy and I hope it lasts MANY more years!

The first snow of winter!

The first real snow of winter came today! There have been dustings a couple times before, but we got about 1.5 inches of super-powdery-non-snowman-making snow!

That meant a "late start" day due to "road conditions". School was postponed for 2 hours this morning. The kids got a real breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes as a result. (Yes, most days it's cold cereal. I hate mornings.) They went right out after breakfast to play in the snow. I found out we need to update our snow clothes sizes. Sadie even got in on the action chasing the shoveled snow and eating all the puffy mounds on top of railings. It was enought to be pretty, and not enough to be a nuisance. A nice first snow of winter (I know it's not techinically winter until the 21st but it's close enough for me).

How Fancy

On Saturday the author of the Fancy Nancy books came for a little book signing event. I like Fancy Nancy books, but truth be told, McKinley is past these books. When I told her about it she REALLY wanted to go. Yay! So we did. Jane O'Connor talked to the kids a little bit and then read her new book. The kids got to go on stage and practice their posture with bananas on their heads (just like in the new book). With two little brothers I wonder if we'll ever get good use out of our Fancy Nancy books, and our Pinkalicious books. McKinley never fell head over heels for them, but I did.

with the author Jane O'Connor, who turned her head back down at the wrong moment! boo!

this week...

my christmas tree this year---from a different perspective :)

I'm not really going to update daily what we've been doing for our advent activities. While I was putting together my blog book I realized I don't want it over and over every day, every December. It gets a little redundant.

But I do want to remember, so I'll update it here and there.

So here's what we've done this week...

5- Dutch Christmas Eve- We ate dutch pancakes, put our shoes and carrots out, and got yummy chocolate coins and a chocolate initial in the morning. Sawyer says it's gelt (like the Hanukkah chocolate coins, there's a lot of Hanukkah learning here.)
6-Mail Christmas cards- I had the kids make little drawings on papers to insert with our cards. The cards aren't mailed yet, but it was a start.
7- Make fondant- YUM, but only McKinley, sometimes Hayden, and I eat it.
8- Draw names
9-Get a new Christmas book- We got the "Oh David!" Christmas book. David reminds me of my boys, and the books remind me how much my kids must hear the same things that David does. The Christmas one did not disappoint :)
10- And tonight is our p.j. party sleepover with pizza and a Christmas movie (the kid's chose Rudolph, but I think that's on the calendar later this month. I might try to rent the Christmas Carol one from redbox)

My buddy

I love having this kid home every day. He is my little buddy and I can't get enough of him!

The City at Christmas

Our advent calendar activity for Saturday was a Christmas visit to the city (the locals call it "the city", not New York City, or New York, just "the city").

This is by far our busiest and most time consuming activity for the month.

We decided to take the train to try the city out on our own the first time. I think next time we'll drive.
We drove to New Canaan to get on the train, but it was having technical difficulties so they bussed us to Stamford. We got on the Express to Grand Central Station (standing room only). Grand Central Station is a beautiful building. We ate a bite of lunch there. Then I followed our http://www.hopstop.com/ subway directions, but that station was closed. All my subway directions went out the window from there.

Since we were already on 5th Ave and that was the bulk of our plans for the day, we just walked everywhere. It's a few miles round trip. That's kind of far with small kids and no stroller. They almost all made it the whole way though. Sawyer got whiny toward the end, but kept walking. Hayden was of course complaining and got carried by both of us a lot of the way. He fell asleep (=dead weight) in Kent's arms from Rockefeller to 42nd St. McKinley made it the whole time!

We looked at the stores decorated holiday window displays. Saw a lot of nice, expensive stores (that we didn't go in) but had fun seeing like Gucci, Louis Vutton, Cartier, Tiffany's, Etc.

We were going to make a stop at the American Girl store but the line was out the door and down the block. I promised McKinley we'd come back in the spring when we could bring her doll with us. We did wait in the FAO Schwarz line though that was out the door and around the block. I guess it's a little nuts at Christmas time. The kids were of course in heaven. There were lots of overpriced toys that were the same that you can pick up at Walmart for a lot less. We were hungry and let the kids get a little treat at FAO Schwarz. They got a Charleston Chew (regular sized) for $2. The kids got the experience of dancing on the Big Piano (like in the movie BIG).

watching the Barbie fashion show

Then we walked back down 5th Ave past Bergdorf Goodman's windows. It was starting to get dark now and the buildings began to light up their Christmas lights. It was really pretty. There were also a lot of people now. Much more crowded than earlier in the day.

We walked down to Rockefeller Plaza to see the tree. No ice skaters were out on the rink. It was very crowded in the Plaza. I took a picture of 30 Rock (oh Liz Lemon!)

the Swarovski star

We couldn't catch a cab, so we walked back to Grand Central. Oy vay our legs were tired. We took the local (aka stops at every stop) back to Stamford. Then we had to wait for 40 minutes to catch the next train to New Canaan so we could get in our car and drive home.
We learned that it would be much more convenient to just drive our family to the city and pay for parking. Now we know.