Fleece on Earth!

I could not resist! My sister sent this card to Andrew and it's too perfect not to share with you.

Wishing you the joys of the season, cherished time with family and friends, lots of love and laughter and of course, more Christmas music than you can possibly stand - it's your last chance people!

xoxo,
P

Through the eyes of a child

 Christmas is magical. Don't even think about trying to convince me otherwise. I love everything about it - music, wrapping, cooking, giving, etc. It reminds me of my fondest childhood memories and simply makes me happy. And watching my kids love the holidays makes it even sweeter. Truth be told, I'm not sure if both of them still 'believe', but they're faking it well if not. The other day, we received this amazing Gingerbread House as a gift from our realtor (now that's good marketing, right?) It's huge and chock full of more sweets than you can imagine, kind of puts our graham cracker and frosting shacks to shame! We ceremoniously took turns taking the first few pieces off, now it's a free for all, but I guess that's part of the fun. When I was little we had a gumdrop tree and I loved putting the gumdrops on it; one for the tree, two for me - ah, that explains why the purple ones are disappearing.

I tried something new this year - I let the kids do 95% of the ornaments! For those of you who know me well, that's huge; I'm a bit of a tree freak - you know, not too close together, create theme branches, spread out the snowmen and sock monkeys ... I figured, I got to put the lights on the way I want them, who cares if one branch has five ornaments on it. It's our most creative tree to date, but honestly, they got so much out of being the masters of their own domain, it was worth it. Besides, I'm still the wrapping-nazi!

Today was 'the littles' Holiday Concert at school. They were so excited and looked like little gentlemen in their cords and sweaters (read: looked really cute, but not all that happy about it). Lucky for us, we have really tall kids, so finding them in a see of red and green was a piece of cake. The concert was fantastic, and as always I cried (wimp). Friday night is Andrew's Holiday Concert, sure to be another great performance like last year.

Anyhow, we're swimming in the spirit and looking forward to sharing time with family and friends.

Health and happiness,

xoxo,
P

It's Treesicle Time Again

I can't believe it's December, how the heck did that happen. (I seem to be surprised a lot lately, what's up with that?) Anyhow, as evidenced by the abundance of wreaths, swags and trees everywhere I go, it's Christmas time in New Jersey. I'm singing my way through every store, smiling everytime I smell something sprucey or minty, and generally excited about the holidays. This year we're breaking out the lights and garland; really gonna swag it up! I even bought some plastic (yuck) ornaments so the kids can decorate the tree outside. This weekend we'll make our trek to Sickles and hopefully the same Norman Rockwell guy will deliver our tree in the same old blue truck; although Andrew's kind of ruined my 'fantasy' because apparently the guy's name is John. And I promise no 'treesicles' this year.

I still can't believe that we've been here a year. I guess that's the beauty of hibernation; time flies when you're holed up inside. With the turning of the leaves, and the subsequent falling, 'the piles' are everywhere. (And by the way, this picture is nothing compared to what we see here!). Remember I told you how we get to rake/blow/shove our yard waste to the curb and just leave it there for pickup (more like scrape up)? I read somewhere that New Jersey is the mulch capital of the US, not sure if that's true, but I tend to believe it is as I'm, literally, dodging leaf piles driving on River/Ridge/Rumson Roads. We had our fair share of piles this season. Funny thing is, we don't have any big trees in our yard, go figure.

As of December 1st, we're officially banned from any overnight street parking (you know, so the snow plows can make their way easily through the drifts!). Last year we were scrambling and ended up double parking in our one-car driveway (nice WT people from CA). This year, we're good to go. With our expanded driveway (yipee) 2 cars fit with room to spare, and I get the garage. The kids are so excited because they know we'll never have to scrape the windshield or sweep off the doors! I'm kind of loving that too.

Last important tidbit, Andrew was inducted into the National Honor Society last night at Rumson Fair Haven High School. Turns out, his stellar achievements followed him from CA and he got credit for his 'time' at Pinewood. Scholarship, Character, Leadership and Service. Way to go Andrew, we're all so, so proud of you.

happy day all,
P