Christmas Tea

This year, Amelia got to join her Grandma Debi and I for our annual Christmas Tea. It was wonderful, as usual, and even more special because Amelia was there. I could rave about the tea sandwiches for hours. When we arrived, a big red SUV was pulling up to the valet, and its licence plate said "CLAUS." Sure enough, the most beautiful Santa jumped out, and later he visited Amelia at our table.

Here is a photo of Amelia and Debi in front of a giant gingerbread house at the hotel. Debi had just shared some of her lipstick with Amelia, but she was so tired, and had sipped SO much hot chocolate by this point that she was entirely unable to smile.

Up in the Air

While in AZ, we visited Brian at the fire station and took Mike and the kids up in the "bucket" on the ladder truck. It went amazingly high! The kids loved it, and loved every minute of hanging out at the station with Brian. He even slid down the pole! Thanks, Uncle Bobo!

Mazu Kan

Sarah threw a terrific family Christmas party this year, with amazing rack of lamb, a beautifully set table, a darling nativity for the kids, and a white elephant game for the grownups (after the kids went to bed). Lauren's contribution to the game was this hilarious no-contact fighting game called Mazu Kan. She predicted that Mike and I would want it, and she was darn right! After we won it, we graciously opened it and shared it with the group. Vicious fighting ensued. I'm proud to say I was the only girl who humiliated herself participating, and thankfully no one took photos.

Little Angel

Colin's preschool had its annual Christmas Pageant early in December, and Colin got to participate with his class as an angel. He looked absolutely adorable, and the pageant was fabulous. Unfortunately, lazy little Colin sat down on the risers every few minutes until a teacher told him to stand up, but he'd always sit down again after a little while. It was pretty funny! Colin didn't sing at all during the songs until they got to Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star and Happy Birthday, and then he jumped in. Despite the sitting, I was so proud of my sweet little boy and am looking forward to seeing him perform in the pageant again next year.

Here is Colin and his wonderful teacher, whom he loves.

ADEQ Visit

One of the first things we did after we got to AZ was to visit Mike's mom at work for lunch. The kids had a lovely time visiting and coloring with G.G.'s highlighters. The trip ended with a candy bag from under the ADEQ Christmas tree.

Squirrel Breakfast

Mike took this photo this morning of a large bird eating a squirrel in our yard. After some very brief internet research, I think it might be a Red-tailed Hawk. We are always amazed by nature out here in PA.

Home Again

We're home! After two glorious weeks of flip-flops, short sleeved shirts, family time, EATING, presents galore, and Jack finally learning how to walk, we ripped ourselves away to return to the cold blast of Philly. The bags are unpacked, the Christmas decor is down, and we are looking forward to getting back to normal. I took 400 pictures (really!) and will be posting up a storm in the next couple of weeks to catch up. The kids are struggling a little with the time change and missing family, but overall seem glad to be home with their armloads of new toys.

Here's a photo of Jack, up to his old tricks emptying the spices from the cabinet.

Adventures with a felt tip pen

Colin walked into the living room today with drawings all over his arms and on the sides of his mouth. He was also clutching the offending blue felt tip pen. He very calmly stated, "Mom, I'm a catfish, see my whiskers?" He had such a sweet and innocent look it was impossible to be mad, and also it was pretty creative! The pen didn't show up so well in the photo, but it was actually pretty dark. This is his fish face.

Morning of Horror

Yesterday, still in our jammies, the kids and I took a rug outside to shake on the grass. Then Colin de-pantsed me on our front porch. I think we should move.

Thanksgiving, North Carolina Style

For Thanksgiving, we made a trek down to North Carolina to see the whole Chin clan. It was a wonderful, albeit quick, visit! We arrived Thanksgiving Day to an unbelievable feast at Aunt Mary Ellen's house. There were more side dishes than I've ever seen at one meal, and some of the best egg rolls ever (so I'm told- I'm still mad at Mike for forgetting to put some on my plate). Friday we toured Grandma Chin's wonderful new apartment, and then we hung out with the fam. All the kids fell madly in love with cousin Christopher again. Especially Amelia- they were best friends when it was time to leave. And we ate. More. Then went out to a delicious Italian dinner. And ate. The next day we woke up and took the kids over to the mall to see Santa with Grandma Debi and Grandpa Chin. Amelia asked for some Littlest Petshop toys (she's in a rut, she asked for them the last two years) and Colin said he wanted, "presents." Afterward we ate. At a yummy buffet. Finally, having stuffed ourselves beyond belief, we headed home to Philly. Thank you Chins for a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Today was the Thanksgiving feast for Colin at preschool. He had a great time, sat by the teacher at the feast and wolfed down "pa-tate-uz." (That's Philly speak for potatoes. Colin's teacher's accent is starting to rub off.) He dressed in an Indian costume that they made in class, and he looked fantastic.

Here he is in costume. Is it just me, or does he look a little Bing Crosby-ish?

At school he made a little feather that said "Colin is thankful for___" and they wrote in "The Holy Gospel"! I asked Colin if that's what he said, and he said no, that he'd actually said, "the Lord." Either way, he's turning out to be quite the spiritual guy! He cracks me up!

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

We have a leaf problem. A BIG leaf problem. Those trees which are so darling all spring and summer become pretty troublesome at the end of fall. We were so desperate for help with these things that we got the kids involved for a morning of leaf raking and removal. Judge for yourself how effective they were.

Amelia was deadly with this rake. Colin and I took a few blows. The car did not come out of a tussle with her unscathed.

Colin making headway with his broom. Slightly less dangerous than the rake.

I know this photo is blurry, but this is one amazing leap!

Swimming.

Bathing.

A motorboat.


In case you are wondering, no, we are not done yet.

Mom at Valley Forge

A couple of weeks ago, Mom came out to visit. We had a wonderful time, hit all of our usual spots, and shopped, shopped, shopped! Mom loved Valley Forge, and here is a cute photo of her with the kiddos.

Jack is a neat nick

Today Jack grabbed this diaper off the floor (I hadn't gotten around to throwing it out yet) and crawled it over to the diaper champ and put it in. All of this with no prompting! This is the first, and probably last, time he will ever voluntarily clean anything up for me! I was amazed.

Fall Foliage

Fall has come to our backyard, and it is beautiful! Just when you start to take the scenery around here for granted, there's a new season and everything is different and lovely. We haven't spent a lot of time outdoors (too rainy) but here is a photo of the kids on a dry day. Hopefully we'll brave the brisk temperatures and get outside this week.