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.

A Sunday drive

Each Sunday when we drive to church we take a dirt road through the woods from Connecticut through part of NY state, then back into Connecticut. A lot of the time we get to see some critters like these in the woods. There are a lot of deer around. The local magazine we get in the mail said the population is about 60-75 per square mile. I haven't seen THAT many yet. The magazine said they encourage residents to allow hunters to hunt on their residential properties. I'm not sure that is such a good idea though. There are also a lot of wild turkeys. I think it is illegal to hunt those here.

a little deer in the woods on the road to the church

and a gobble of turkeys

Advent Calendar

The annual advent calendar has begun. My other one was a little hashed and I was sick of it, so I made one for this year. I wish I could take more time and make a more crafty one. I just print out both papers, then exacto the color christmas balls so they open up for a peek underneath, then write each activity in the empty Christmas balls. Stack the color copy over the outline copy, stick into a frame without glass, and voila! The first day we "put out Eddie the Elf". Today is "make a Christmas chain". It's becoming one of my favorite traditions! I'm not tech savvy enough to enable this to click for others to download in the right size, so if anyone wants a copy email me.