Christmas Jams

Playing with the band at the Omni:

Great Wolf Lodge

Doing a little catch-up here as Christmas delayed some of these posts. The week before we left for New York, we celebrated Julia's birthday at Great Wolf Lodge. This place is heaven for kids. We started the weekend with a trip to the ice cream spa for the girls:





This was followed by story-time in the lobby and a visit with Rudolph:



And the cake back at the room - whew!:



Day Two took us to the water park where the girls dove right in to the rides and pools:




Even the little ones did a little splashing, and by mid-Saturday we were all worn out. Here is one final shot of all the kids together in the wolf-themed lobby:

Mr. Smiley

Christmas in New York

We are on our way. Possibly a few posts from the road - otherwise we'll see you in this space next week!

Advent

This year, in addition to the calender grandma and pop-pop sent, Abby wanted to make her own advent calendar (which she saw in a magazine). I think the major motivation was that you could hide a holiday activity behind each window and then every day you would do the activity you opened. The sample had things like "bake cookies" and "build a gingerbread house", which sounded just about right to Abby. Ours did not come out nearly as well as the picture, but Abby is still very proud of it and insisted we send a picture to the magazine (which we did).

Fun at the Rec Center

The Annual Holiday party at the rec center was great this year. A few pics:

Benji enjoying the cookie he frosted:



Painting a car:




Abby and her necklace:

Decorating the Tree

Definitely more of a challenge with a mobile Benji, but it came out well:

A Game Called Crash Slide

From the mind of kindergartners....

Michie Tavern

All dolled up for Christmas

Christmas Crafts

Holiday crafts, again. Fun with model magic:

Menorahs are Fun

Happy Hanukkah to everyone tonight!

Getting Excited (and dressed) for the Holidays

Tea Party

All dressed up for holiday tea at Keswick Hall. They had an ad for intergenerational high tea for mothers, daughters, grandmothers and friends of all ages, so that seemed perfect. (and as Abby pointed out - no boys allowed, which I don't think was technically true)

Seeing Santa

We had not one, but two chances to see Santa this week. First, we caught him while shopping at Barracks Rd. We took a quick sleigh ride, much to Abby's delight, then stopped by for a chat with the big man himself:





On Saturday we had brunch at the Boar's Head and Santa (or his helper, as Abby is quick to point out) was in residence there as well. Abby was thrilled for this second meeting. Benji much less so, but he was willing to take a peak from the safety of Mommy's lap:



Ho-Ho-Ho!

Snow!

The first of the season:

Welcome Brian Thomas Paquette

Our new little nephew arrived December 3rd. That makes 3 nephews and one niece.... Guess the girls will always be outnumbered!

Look Familiar?

Benji, in Abby's old coat.

All Grown In

Abby has another loose tooth! She has been wiggling away, but in the meantime, the others are almost all the way in. You can still tell they are new teeth, but they've gotten pretty tall.

Benji and Electra

After months of trying to keep Benji from attacking her, they seem to have come to a detente.

Searching for a Tree

Since the weather was gorgeous on Sunday, we decided to go looking for a Christmas tree, even though it is a little on the early side (turned out to be a non-issue). Ash-Lawn Highland (President Monroe's estate) offers cut-your-own trees in their woods. We did not get out as early as planned, but the setting sun provided a beautiful backdrop for what turned out to be a nice walk in the woods.


We inspected a good number of trees, but they were all either massive or tiny, spindly saplings, so we decided to leave empty-handed.





Still a nice excuse to get outdoors, and at least we know now that cutting a tree at Ash Lawn is harder than it sounds!

Thanksgiving Hats

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Charlottesville. Among other things, we celebrated the harvest with a locally-grown meal, and, of course, there were crafts. In preparation for the day, we made a cornucopia as a centerpiece for the table:




And also our Turkey hands:





On Thanksgiving day, we also made "thankful 4s" to count our blessings (we hung then over the table):




And, of course, hats to wear during the meal. Everyone was a good sport and wore their hats throughout the day, which provided a lot of mirth:










Only Benji refused to wear his hat, although he did let us pop it on his head occasionally:








Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!