Happy New Year!

The kids toasted the new year with cranberry & orange juice before I put Amelia to bed:

New Year's Eve Day At The Aquarium

I took the kids to the aquarium today, for New Year's Eve day. They even enjoyed lunch at the aquarium and a treat from the gift shop, both rare occurrences since we usually pack a lunch and forgo the gift shop. 

Since I have to work tomorrow I'm enjoying a cocktail or two early, then heading to bed, but Mike and Charlie claim to be staying up until the ball drops. And Amelia fortunately is oblivious to the New Year's Eve proceedings, so will be going to bed on time. 

Here are the kids at the Aquarium:

Sunday Game Day

We spent a rainy Sunday afternoon playing games with the kids -- Mike taught us all to play Yahtzee, and then we played a few games of "Pengaloo", a penguin memory game that we impulse bought at Marbles: The Brain Store on Saturday night and that the kids love. 

Xmas morning 2013 Video (Belated)

Christmas 2013

We had a nice Christmas Day; the kids got pretty much everything on their Santa lists (except for weird items like "hat makers") and both proclaimed it "the best Christmas ever." Amelia is at a great age where she proclaims everything to be "just what I always wanted !!" no matter what it is, so it makes gift giving fun. Among the present highlights were an iPod touch and rock tumbler for Charlie and a Barbie extravaganza for Amelia, which included the Barbie RV set, a bunch of Barbies, Barbie's sister, horses and even the Barbie movie that features said horses, sister & RV....

We headed over to Phil & Sue 's for Christmas dinner and more present exchanging, and got home late, considering both Mike & I have to work tomorrow. The kids are both going (un showered) to Amelia's pre-school tomorrow, since they run the older child program during school vacation week. 

Here are pictures from this morning. The annual Christmas video will follow at some point, hopefully tomorrow. 

Christmas Eve

Santa's helpers were pretty organized this year thanks to a few late night wrapping sessions, so their Christmas Eve work was done pretty early this year...

Gingerbread Cookies

We made some very special cookies for Santa this afternoon!

Christmas In NH

We had a great Christmas visit up to Grammy & Grampy's today. The kids were spoiled by Grammy and Grampy, who got Amelia a polar bear throw rug (which she has named Mr. Snuggles) and Charlie an electric train set which we discovered spits out real smoke when we set it up around the Christmas tree this evening. 

Uncle Tom also spoiled the kids with a Disney princess book collection and Melissa & Doug puzzle for Amelia and a board game and encyclopedia Britannia set for Charlie, which comes with an electronic pen that "reads" aloud when tapped on any of the captions or colored text in the books. 

While Uncle Phil, Andrew and Kyle were there, we didn't exchange presents because we'll be heading over to their house Christmas Day. 

We also had tons of yummy food!!

Here are some pictures, which unfortunately are mostly blurry because I forgot I had turned my flash off the other day for some reason or other...

Off To Celebrate Xmas In NH!

Charlie's Christmas Card To Amelia

Over Half A Foot Of Snow....

And Charlie still has school. (Damn snow plows!)

Bourbon Balls & Peppermint Bark

I spent the evening making tins of bourbon balls and peppermint bark to give as holiday gifts -- more of the same tomorrow night!

BRRRR....

This morning at the bus stop it was 6 degrees with a windchill of -4. To top it off we are expecting 4 more inches of snow today!

Here is Amelia fairly oblivious to the weather:

A Good Day To Bake Grinch Cookies

After 6 or so inches of snow last night, an inch or two of rain on top of that & then a deep freeze to top it off, there was not much to do this afternoon except make Grinch Cookies! (With Andes mints, green food coloring and mint extract, yum. )

First Real Snow

We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday -- only about an inch - but with the temperatures absolutely frigid and snow predicted for both Saturday and Sunday, I'm afraid the white stuff is going to be with us for a while...

Keeping Secrets

Mailing Our Santa Letters!

Santa Letters

The kids got personally addressed letters from Santa today:

This prompted us to write our own Santa letters, which we will mail tomorrow at Santa's mailbox in Quincy Center. 

Charlie's Santa list was pretty much what we expected, and Amelia's was pretty much in left field. But not as bad as last year, when pee-pee and poopy made her list... Here they are:

Double Ear Infection Girl

(Clearly nothing a cake pop from Starbucks can't fix.)

Just A Dusting

(But the kids were still excited.)

A Night On The Town

(a.k.a So Hung Over)

I spent the night in Boston last night celebrating my friend Erin's 40th birthday with two of our other friends, Lauren and Julia. 

We rented a room at the Liberty Hotel, which from 1880 something to 1990 was the Charles Street Jail. It was converted from the prison to a luxury hotel in 1990 and is the home of The Alibi and Clink, a very popular upscale bar and nightclub respectively. 

We had a super time and today I am definitely hurting for certain!!

Here are some pictures:

Reading

And The Elf Has Arrived!

(Absolutely no thanks to me, who totally forgot to put him out last night!)

Christmas Tree 2013!