and a merry christmas to all

I don't know about anyone else, but we had a spectacular Christmas this year. We had the opportunity to see every single person in our family except one! That is a miracle considering the size of our families! And we even had a visit from Santa! My sweet nephew Charlie was NOT impressed. Check out the pictures on Flickr to get the whole story. So many good ones...it was hard to choose! The pic above is my boy and his grandfather. And Santa making his exit! The one below is of my sweet sister Kerry comforting Charlie. I love this pic because it shows how awesome of a mom she really is. Chaos is surrounding them, yet she is comforting her Santa traumatized babe like they were the only ones in the world. Sigh.

And these are Parker's blocks. Yes Parker's. Abby is in love with them. A budding architect for sure. You MUST check out the rest of these pics on Flickr. The thing ends up about 6.5 feet tall. So fun!
How were your holidays?

its over

A big thank you to everyone who has listened to me rant like a lunatic for the past month. My sanity (relative term) has returned. Nutcracker is over for this year. This is an amazing time of year for us, but I was in a coma Monday after all was said and done. The girls were amazing. The whole production was amazing. The picture above is from snow scene. The artistic director let me take some amazing photos during rehearsals all week. More on Flickr if you are interested.


Of course I had to post pics of the girls. Morgan was the Trumpeter in the Battle scene (a pretty decent solo) and a Polichinette in the Dream Scene. Abby had her first Pointe part this year as an angel. She took my breathe away. How could she be getting so grown up?

And the sweet Miss Lori braved the snow and drove in from Lawrence with her super sweet family! Now on to Christmas. Sigh. I love this time of year!

i think we'll stay in today

I suppose God has his ways of slowing us down this time of year. We woke up this morning to sheets of icy draped over our little piece of Kansas. Nutcracker is this upcoming weekend and this little day of peace and quiet is welcomed. The kids and I are watching the Polar Express and drinking hot chocolate today. Perfect.

I can't for the life of me figure out what to get our almost 11 year old daughter. She wants a cell phone or a laptop. After a bit of nudging I got her to make a realistic list last night that included her own bakeware, a sewing machine, and ballet "stuff". I can work with that. What I want to leave you with is the list that Parker made. Mind you Santa has been done shopping for this kid for a month.

1. Rocket ship with BIG windows
2. Jet pack
3. Boy Christmas tree (apparently ours are too feminine)
4. Chocolate toy
5. Toy kitchen
6. Another shirt
7. Drink holder
8. Piano

Poor kid. I didn't get him a single thing on his list. Sigh. I missed the mark on the jet pack. Staying warm in our new light wale cord blanket today!