Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve was busy as always with lots of little things to do in preparation for Christmas day. Even though I had just baked thousands of cookies, the kids insisted that Santa get a fresh batch of cookies. They always enjoy choosing cookie cutters and decorating with icing. 

The kids left out some cookies and egg nog, wrote Santa a note, and headed to bed feeling very excited. 

Levi could hardly believe it on Christmas morning when he discovered that Santa left him a guitar that was just his size. I don't think Levi moved off the couch for quite a while or even cared that there  were other presents to open...he couldn't get enough of his guitar. 

 Caleb was equally surprised by the iPod loaded with classical music and sound dock that Santa brought him. Just like his birthday, Caleb had no gift wishes, but he was very happy to be able to play his favorite music in his room.

 Stockings!!

 Adelina and Caleb really wanted to get Levi his own desk for Christmas, so Randy and I helped them achieve that. Levi was so happy!

 Adelina was thrilled to get a new pencil sharpener from Caleb.

Adelina was also very happy to get a desk for her doll Charlotte and a dry-erase board from Levi. She has spent hours playing teacher with these gifts. 

It was a great day full of fun and lots of surprises! Thanks Santa!!

Christmas Sing-a-Long

We have hopefully started a new Christmas tradition in hosting a family sing-a-long. On Wednesday December 23rd we had the Hickey, Twomey, and Davies families over for pizza (supplied by the Davies), beer (supplied by the Twomeys), salad (thanks to the Hickeys), hot chocolate, and Christmas carols. Somehow our little house accommodated everyone and we all had a great time. Caleb manned the piano and we gathered around and sang with him. Caleb and Addy even did a guitar/piano duet of Jingle Bells. Everyone went home full of holiday cheer! 

Cookie Weekend

I spent the weekend of December 18th doing our annual Christmas Cookie Extravaganza. In an attempt to be even more efficient, I made several different types of cookie dough on Thursday and froze them into logs for easy slicing. I started baking on Friday evening and by the end of the day, I already had over 700 cookies. Saturday and Sunday were intense cookie days and I finally finished bagging up all the cookies Sunday evening. In the end, I made 12 different types of cookies and finished the weekend with 2,669 cookies in all. The kids and I had a wonderful time passing cookies out to friends, neighbors, and complete strangers...definitely one of our favorite traditions. 

In the midst of the cookie baking, we took an hour to visit the Fitch Home. Caleb played piano and Adelina sang a song with him. Needless to say, they were both very well received. 

Levi's Christmas Pageant

After six years, it's hard to believe I've attended my last Rockland Christmas Pageant ever! We love so many things about the Rockland School, but I have to say the Christmas Pageant isn't one of my favorites. Levi, however, was very excited and ready to sing a bunch of songs with his Pre-K buddies. The highlight for me was seeing this Peregrine falcon on a lamp post eating a pigeon right outside of the function hall. 

 Levi enjoying some snacks post-pageant....

 ...and a quick visit with Santa.

Randy's Birthday

We celebrated Randy's birthday by having a fun-filled city day. We started our extravaganza at Taza chocolates in Somerville for a factory tour. It was a lot of fun and we all learned a lot about chocolate and had fun sampling different kinds. Then we went to Harvard Square for a walk and a big burger lunch. Since the weather was nice, we drove to Boston and spent some time along the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Santarpio's pizza and homemade cheesecake rounded out our day. Happy Birthday Randy! 

Caleb's Birthday Weekend

Caleb had a great 9th birthday weekend and was lucky enough to celebrate some with Grandma GiGi and PaPa (although I don't have any pictures). We had some nice family meals, spent some time outdoors and even got our Christmas tree up and decorated. 

Caleb and Randy ran the Cambridge Winter Classic on Sunday December 6th. It was a perfect morning for a run and Caleb was primed to set a PR and run under 21:00. Unfortunately, the lead cop car took a wrong turn and the course ended up being 3.48 miles instead of 3.1 miles. Poor Caleb didn't know the course was long and was devastated when he crossed the finish line with a time of 23:22; however, he had a 6:45 per mile pace which would have been fast enough for that PR. Next time! 

Caleb's birthday was unusually warm and all Caleb wanted was to take a hike after school. Everyone hustled to get their homework done and we were able to take a nice late afternoon hike in the woods behind our house. After piano, we had a tasty dinner at Rang and enjoyed mango key lime pie for dessert at home. 

In typical fashion, Caleb had no birthday gift requests but was very happy to get a Guinness Book of World Records and a cool running medal display. We all had a great day celebrating one great kid! 

LegoLand with Levi

I had a free pass to LegoLand at Assembly Square, so I surprised Levi with a trip there. He was so excited to actually do something fun, just the two of us. Neither of us were overly impressed with LegoLand, but we still had a fun morning together. 

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend this year. Per usual, Thanksgiving is a week-long affair in our house. Levi baked cornbread at school on Monday and then helped me roast the pumpkins that are used for the pumpkin pie. 

 All three kiddos come to the grocery store with me on Tuesday and everyone gets a job that makes the shopping go very smoothly. Everyone wanted to stay home and help out on Thursday morning, so the kids took turns coming into the kitchen to assist with the side dishes. Dana and Inge joined us again this year and we had a lovely feast together.

 This year I made a chocolate-pecan pie as well as the pumpkin pie. It was definitely a crowd favorite!

November Happenings

As was the theme for 2015, I'm once again catching up on the blog a couple months behind. Here a few photos from mid-November. 

Adelina continues to enjoy her piano lessons and seems to be progressing quite quickly. She loves practicing everyday and Caleb enjoys being able to lay under the piano and listen to her play. On this particular day, the kids had a vacation day and we spent the morning playing Twister. Like most games, it was fun for a while until the kids starting fighting. 

 I always love to see Adelina reading to Levi. He hangs onto her every word!

November was of course marked by lots of leaf raking. Here are some short clips of Adelina and Levi being silly and jumping into some leaf piles.

Levi's New Hobby

Levi recently discovered the fun of dancing at his school's Halloween party. He now dances just about every day...much to our delight! 

Cross-Fells Trail

Caleb and I had a goal to hike the entire Cross-Fells Trail that traverses the southern portion of the Middlesex Fells. Randy dropped us off at the start of the trail and we set off to do the 4.5 mile hike. We had such a great time that we ended up hiking an additional 1.5 miles back to meet Randy. It's rare that I get one-on-one time with the kids, so it was a very special day for me...and for Caleb.