Holidazzle Freezing Cold Fun!

The Holidazzle Parade is an outdoor, evening Christmas Parade that takes place every year in downtown Minneapolis. Only in Minnesota would people stand outside in freezing cold weather to watch a parade at night! But, we do, and we love it! We planned on going to Macy's before the parade to see their nutcracker display, but the line was over a hour long so instead we went and staked out our spots outside Barnes and Noble. Armed with extra blankets, lawn chairs and hot cocoa we claimed a spot on the curb and waited for the parade to begin. The photos are really fun as some are clear (auto focus no flash) and some are not (night time setting, no flash). I actually like the blurry ones the best as it gives a great feel for the parade. Calvin thought it was about the coolest thing he had ever seen and he was practically jumping off my lap trying to see the next float!

Saturday Christmas Day of Fun!

On Saturday, we officially started vacation! Bryan stayed home and we dedicated the entire day to having fun together. We started things off with breakfast at my favorite spot - Jensen's, where Calvin consumed his weight in chocolate chip pancakes and sausages.

From there we headed to Murphy's Lading in Shakopee. It is part of the parks system and has a Scandinavian village set on acres of land bordering the Minnesota River. We took a horse-drawn carriage ride to the village and then spent a couple of hours walking to the different houses to learn about how different cultures celebrated the holidays.

Sophie's favorite spot was the Swedish house as she had just learned about Sweden in school and entertained the hosts there with all of her Swedish knowledge. Max liked the general store where they had a game of checkers set up in from of a wood burning stove. (There were a lot of wood burning stoves in these little houses. I was sure we were going to end up with some child getting burnt, but they all emerged unscathed.) I liked the old church were they put on a little program with sing a long carols and a telling of the Christmas story, the Hanuka story and a reading of the night before Christmas. Bryan enjoyed the town hall where a gentleman was demonstrating different instruments and tunes native to Minnesota at the turn of the century. After traipsing through the snow for a few hours, we warmed up in the depot with a cup of hot cocoa and then caught the carriage ride back through the woods.

After piling back into the car and turning the heat to full blast, we drove to Minneapolis to see the lights and the Holidazzle Parade.

Crafty Kids - Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas to you all! We hope Christmas found you surrounded by those you love. We had a simply beautiful Christmas and I'll get to that today - I hope! I have dedicated this day to tackling the 20 loads of laundry and six loads of dishes and about 12 trips to the recycling bins - and to catching up on blogging!

We spend the week before Christmas wrapping and cooking and mailing (so sorry to all the moms whose gifts did not make it on Christmas Day!) and crafting. On Friday Sophie, Natalie and Calvin set about to make collages with some of the scraps from Mommy's Christmas gifts she made. I thought they did a pretty good job and I only had to take the glue away from Calvin a couple of times for excessive gluing.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about Christmas and refuse to travel ever again during the Christmas season! I get so much joy from decorating our home for the holidays. I love just being home, baking and wrapping, listening to the Nutcracker with all of the Christmas lights on and this year, making a lot of gifts.

I love our home in December. I have been collecting Christmas decorations for years (I only shop for them in January when the stores are practically giving them away!) and we have so many little trees from garage sales all over the house that for the first time this year we did not cut a live tree. I kind of miss the fresh smell of a real tree, but we really did not have room! The presents are located under all of the small trees in the living room.

This year Sophie and Calvin are really the ones who are so very excited about Christmas. Max has decided he does not believe, (sniff) though I am working hard to convince him otherwise. Sophie and Max both have advents on their doors and every night before bed they excitedly tell each other how many more days until Christmas! Sophie and Max are also amending their wish lists daily much to the frustration of their parents! Max added pocket calculator, any number of books and kisses and hugs (the real ones not candy) to his list and Sophie wants Cinderella 3 DVD. Calvin is the only one who has been completely consistent as he only ever wants Thomas the Train!

I am a faithful girl

Elder Ballard wants us to blog. I feel very righteous!

Dinner with the fam

Bryan's brother David, his wife Trisha and two kiddos, Joshua and Nickolas came over for dinner last Sunday. I made a big lasagna and Trisha brought over a yummy salad with spinach, bacon and oranges and for dessert we had the always delicious and guaranteed to make you chubby, bread and butter pudding. We had a nice time catching up with them and hearing about the new baby on its way. The kids took to their cousins like they see them every day and were literally running through the house non-stop together. Max was not his happiest self that evening, but that happens. Actually, that happens with a lot more frequency lately. Is this a phase? Please say yes!

We also made gingerbread cookies with the kids. I tried to take photos, but here is the problem. I cannot get good indoor shots - especially at night. My family room is painted a mustardy color as are the curtains in the kitchen which gives all of the photos a yellow tone. I need to figure out how to take a decent shot with the camera I have or find out what I need to get in order to take a great shot indoors in the evening. So, here are truly the only photos worth posting and they are not good. Sorry!

Max's Wish List

1 bucket (big)
6 double A batteries
1 watch
1 gift card (worth $10.99)
6 triple A batteries
2 9-volt battery
2 D batteries
4 C batteries
1 cookbook
1.5mm zig ball pen
any number of surprises
1 charizard Pokemon card


Mommy: Max, why do you want a bucket?
Max: Moooooooommm (rolls eyes) - to hold the batteries!

Santa Clause is coming . . .

I had to run to the Mall of America last week. Frankly I'd rather eat liver and onions than go to the mall in the month of December, but there were a couple of specialty store there that I needed to visit, so off we went (we being me, Calvin, Natalie and Johnny). We met up with Ken and Kelly to make a quick stop at Santa's workshop. Natalie and Johnny jumped right up and chatted with Santa, but Calvin was very hesitant about the whole thing. He was a very nice Santa and he read Calvin a book or two until he would sit on his lap. Head on over to Kelly's website for more photos!

Crafty Kids: Christmas Ornaments

This is a craft we did sometime last week. It is a kit from Michaels that is 50% off this week and I must say it was pretty easy. You could easily just buy the wire and use beads from home. The end product was cute so I give it a thumbs up! You do have to help the kiddos wrap the wires together to make the snowflake but even Calvin could easily string the beads.

Naughty Blogger

As you can see from the lack of posts, life got away from me this weekend. Let's catch up together.

Last Sunday Bryan and I performed with the Minnesota Mormon Chorale at the Mission Home Christmas Fireside in Bloomington. On Thursday night we had our normal MMC rehearsal. On Friday we performed with the MMC in Lakeville for our Christmas concert and then again on Saturday in New Brighton for another concert. Sunday morning we had two rehearsals for ward choir and then sang with the choir in our Christmas program. We have filled our quota for Christmas caroling and are looking forward to having the next month off!

Sunday's Christmas program was marred by the antics of our youngest. Bryan and I were seated on the stand as we were singing 3 numbers with the choir. Our kids were doing fine on the bench until the start of The First Noel. Calvin decided he needed to come up on the stand and he climbed up onto the bench behind me (we were standing). Then he started jumping up and down on the bench and losing his balance and crashing into the other singers. I decided I'd better pick him up (while singing) before he knocked one of the sopranos off the stand. When I picked him up, I had Calvin on one hip and I was holding my music in the other hand. Calvin decided at this time to start undressing me. He unbuttoned my entire sweater and then started to stick his hand down my shirt. Did I mention that I stand in the front row? I abandoned the music to re button myself with one hand while singing from memory. Then Calvin decided he did not like my singing so he kept putting his hand over my mouth. Needless to say, I was grateful when the song ended and I could pass him back to Bryan to be carted off the stand!

It has been really fun to be in the MMC chorale together, but it is also a challenge. We have to have a babysitter (thank you Emily!) every week from 6:00 until at least 10:00, sometimes later as we get closer to performances. Bryan drives from work and I drive up with Susan from Eagan, and most of the time he returns to work after rehearsal. We also have to pawn our kids off on friends for all of our performances. Koo took all three kids for us on Saturday. She offered to take Calvin, but when we got to her house Sophie and Max really wanted to stay as well (I was planning on taking them to the concert) and Sophie burst into tears when Koo said no. Koo melted and let them all hang out with her from about 3:30 to 10:30!! Thank you Koo!

The photos above were taken from the MMC website - they were taken before Bryan auditioned.

The Barfed Up Lung Returns

When Greg and I were in High School, Greg was enrolled in pottery class. I really cannot remember at this time why I was not in pottery class - will have to ask Greg.

Greg made all sorts of varied and lovely pottery creations. In 1989 he graduated from beginner pinch pots to multiple pinch pots connected. He made this lovely creation with the help of a decorative pie cutter and a complex multi-glaze technique. When he proudly showed it to me upon it's completion, I remarked that it looked like a barfed up lung. I stand by my assessment. The lung shockingly did not make the senior art show.

THIS is what I found mere days after Greg's visit! We have been trading back and forth this work of art for the last 17 years. I think Greg has had it for the last 8 or so and he has been waiting for the perfect moment to unload it on me again. What do you think? Should I leave it on the bookcase until I can slip it back to Greg? Wait, people might think I made it!

Crafty Girl: Teacher Gifts

This is what I made for teacher gifts this year. Each package includes 10 thank-you notes and 10 envelopes tied with ribbon. Max has three teachers, Sophie has two (one is the same as Max's so that helps) plus one piano teacher and one dance teacher and two preschool teachers. Obviously I miscalculated since I only made 6 sets of these. Oh well, I'll think of something else!

Max's Spelling List - aka: My 7 year old is smarter than me!

1. Fahrenheit
2. Constriction
3. Cam Tensioner (um, what?)
4. Encompassing
5. Encouragement
6. Endeavored
7. Energetically
8. Hydro electricity
9. We're
10. Whole
11. Why
12. Write

Icy, Icy Cold

As we left the house this morning, I noticed the beautiful frost clinging to every branch. It was so lovely that after dropping Max and Sophie off at school, I ran outside with my camera to capture a few shots. See, there are merits to living in a climate with a serious winter. So gorgeous - it made my day.

Crafty Kids

The other day my girlfriend Nola was over making Christmas cards with me so I needed something for the little ones to do to keep them occupied. I decided on a Christmas painting craft. Yes, painting. I don't really know why I thought this would be a good idea, but they had fun and made a huge mess!
Here is the scene of the crime.

Calvin's creation. We filled them with Christmas mints. You know, they kind of look like Hanukkah crafts. Ooops - maybe we should have used red paint.

Messy, messy, messy. The bathroom sink was completely blue when they were done with it!