holidays

yea, so those last two of DPP? They aren't going anywhere, so I'm going to recover from my guilt-fest. Post them already, and move on to New Years posts and all that.

December 24

I thought that after the cardboard box "presents" under the tree picture, I ought to prove that the children were, indeed, well-endowed on Christmas morning. Much thanks to the paternal unit for doing pretty much all the wrapping. (Though I had to rewrap a couple that Marlowe "practiced" opening while we were waiting for Grammy and Poppy to arrive on Cmas morning)

I hereby declare today Swedish day.

My energy is waning, and the to-do list is getting short either by completion or deletion. I needed to keep today a little bit simpler. My main task for today was to make Swedish Coffee buns (after the Rayburn's recipe). My college roomie and I bonded over Christmas and our shared Swedish heritage. I love these coffee buns she made every Christmas. The secret is cardamom. I made a pile for our Christmas breakfast and sent a text to her. She was making them, too.

Ellis is into playing Santa. He rides around on his Tonka truck (aka Sleigh) delivering cardboard bricks (aka presents) to good little mommies and daddies. Then he carefully arranges them underneath the tree. Dress rehearsal?

Speaking of Marlowe and ornaments. He has to say "hi" to all his friends in the ornament aisle of Target every time we go there.

Whoops. Got really behind on posting. But I have a bunch of pictures. So here's my catch-up.

I had to use this day to share one of my new favorite ornaments. This beaded T. Rex that we got at the Natural History museum in NYC over Tday weekend. Or, as Marlowe says, T. Wex.

Got these fun lighty toys for the Wreath o' Fun. The kids are having so much fun with them. Might snag a couple for the Fourth of July, too.

My boys love to snuggle in blankets--even Marlowe, the Not Snuggly One (he takes after me). The caterpillar around the house in their comforters, and it totally drives me crazy! I don't know what it is about blanket/pillow mess. But I love their snuggling.

I'm cheating a little since I took this pic over a week ago. But I had to share the snowflake project of 2010. It's not Christmas without snowflakes. Lots of them. Creating a magical wonderland. I crossed ribbon over the dining room table around the hanging lamp. So walking through the dining room is walking under a canopy of snowflakes.

Last night we went to get the Christmas Tree. It's a bit early for us, and impulsive. But we went ahead and did it. Got a huge Douglas Fir from a fire dept tree sale. It's gorgeous and full. Ellis wanted a BIG one, and we got a big one. His grin shines brightly in the dim light of streetlights illuminating the early darkened December evening.