december photo project

My kids had a great Christmas! And I must say, Christmas is way more fun now with kids. One of Ellis's favorite presents is his fire station duplo set. And really, what Christmas is complete without Legos?

And so ends my DPP 2009! It's been real folks.

It's also been kind of fun, because I did the whole thing on my iPhone. All photos and editing were from my iPhone. It doesn't do a half bad job! And it definitely has portability and accessibility in its favor. But still not quite as good as a real camera. (ya think?)

Oh my, I really failed at the last two days of December Photo Project. Well, that's what happens when you're Santa Mom. So, before the end of the year, the last two days of DPP.

It says "To Poppy, From Ellis" (for the uninitiated). Ellis had a lot of fun making some gifts and writing their gift tags. I had fun getting him more involved in that aspect of Christmas, even as he has begun to anticipate his own loot more.

We all have them. The ornaments we made in school when we were little kids. I think mine was made of pipe cleaners and beads; it was supposed to be a wreath.

Ellis came home with probably the best school ornament ever. The ILY glove--a little handing signing "i love you." Yes, it is proudly displayed on my tree!

I seem to be posting two by two lately. It's been a rough week. Hard to actually get to my computer. And posting blog entries is the one thing I haven't figured out how to do from my iPhone yet. That and cook dinner. I just can't seem to find the "cook dinner" app. I'd gladly pay for that one.

Anyway, much fun to be had on the Tuesday before Christmas. Well, not as much fun if we hadn't had to reschedule the party we were going to have due to much snow and no plowing on our street--hence, nowhere to park. Next week, hopefully, we'll see lots of kiddos, glitter, sugar, moms, and fun at our house. But we still had some fun. I opted for Fun Mom for the afternoon, which, of course, meant total disaster kitchen. Paint all over the floor. Water everywhere. And then I opted for Loser Mom and turned on umpteen episodes of Kipper (the best little dog cartoon, by the way), while I cleaned it up and made a super yummy dinner for my friend who came over to join us for the evening. At which point I looked like Super Mom, because I had fresh bread and lasagne made with fresh pasta.

I can't decided between these two pictures.

This of Ellis painting pinecones (and pretty much anything else he could find, including himself--love you, washable temperas!) and Marlowe trying to crawl into the sink where he is playing with his most preciousssesses water and bowls and stirry things. It all looks so angelic. And scary.

Then there's this one. Fresh pasta=a well of flour holding eggs. Whisk the eggs gradually drawing the flour in. Then knead and knead, and then either run through a pasta maker, or roll and roll it out for lasagne, which is what I did. I love that moment, though, where the eggs are poised in their well of flour.

Happy Solstice!!! The shortest day of the year. Welcome Winter! I love celebrating the season's changes. God is faithful in ordering the seasons.

Yesterday we went over to Whole Foods to pick up a few things. The boys wanted a snack, so when we were done we sat in a booth and broke into the Clementines. The light was so pretty and the boys were so goofy.

p.s. Like Ellis's TRex Tshirt? That was fun to make. He's into dinosaurs lately.

Eek I'm getting a little behind here. Well, the snow finally stopped on Sunday morning. We were so snowed that the morning service at our church was cancelled. So they bumped the evening service up an hour and then we were able to have our Christmas concert that had to be postponed from the night due to much swirling snow. I'm glad, because we've been working hard, and at our dress rehearsal on Friday night I think that we hit that sweet spot, where you're ready, but not over-ready. I love our little church choir. We have a phenomenal conductor, so it doesn't sound too churchy. Just like a nice, little choir. And she picks great music that's fun to sing.

So now we've been digging out of snow on snow, snow on snow. And, no, our street didn't get plowed. There's so much snow everywhere. Somewhere around 20 inches, plus or minus.

Today's december photo project is brought to you by Snowpocalypse '09. It's been snowing for about 15 hours with another 15 hours predicted. There's a lot of snow out there.

I love the reflection of the Christmas tree in the window.

Our backyard.

I was happy to see this yellow bus pull up yesterday. It meant that we were spared a very cold morning walk, and that Marlowe and I got to spend a little extra time in our jammies. And after this past week, we needed it! And Ellis this it's way more fun to ride the bus that walking anyway.

I got a little help from my mom today and holed up to work on Handmade Holidays. So lots of creating in my neck of the woods, but nothing I can share yet. I'm sharing Marlowe's creativity from yesterday. I had Ellis and Paints and Handmade Holiday action going yesterday, so I put a couple of drops of liquid watercolor into a bowl of water for M, and he had so much mixing and pouring, basically his two favorite activities.

Ellis had his winter program at school yesterday. Each class did a presentation based on the universal theme "things that move." One class had a "wheels on the bus" thing, another "how animals move", and Ellis's class, well, they "got down, D-O-W-N!!!" They each got to show us their moves. It was hysterical. I had tears rolling down my face.

I did manage to snag my little snowflake for a picture afterwards. I'll try to post a video on Flickr or FB later. It was just so funny!!