Having fun

A few highlights from December in Pennsylvania.

Everest found another purpose for Mexican Train Domino tiles.

He decided to write Leaf and Aurora's name, but he ran out of tiles. Being the resourceful boy that he is, he got a stack of Uno cards and finished her name.

One of the boys favorite past times, playing in pillow cases. They use them for all kinds of things, Leaf was running around the house in this one.

Papa went with us to Hershey's Chocolate World. He and Leaf sat in the back of the car and Everest and I sat in the front. If you are ever in Hershey, Chocolate World is worth going to and it is free!

The cows that sing throughout the ride.

Everest had a great time watching how chocolate is made. This place has some meaning to us, because Papa put in the duct work. He got to show the boys all the work he did.

There is an enormous tree the boys wanted their picture in front of. (yes it is blurry, it was really dark in there and I had a hard time focusing.)

Decorating Nonnie's tree. Leaf put all the ornaments in this one spot.

Everest helped and, of course, he put all the ornaments there too.

Mom's Montana nativity.

Polar Express...Santa

 Aurora, sporting her Christmas pj's, is excited to see Santa too.

 I love my aunt Teresa!

Santa enters the train and the crowd goes wild!

Everest and the conductor waiting patiently for Santa to make it to our seat.

Santa sits with each family and talks to the kids. Everest said he wanted a Lego log truck. Leaf wants a scooter.

He asks them if they believe in Santa, when they say yes, he hands them a bell and asks them to shake it. Aurora tried to hold off, but she was too hungry and missed Santa.

Everest got a bell for Aurora too. The boys had fun ringing their bells after Santa left.

Ornaments hung from the roof of the train. They swung as the train moved. Aurora was mesmerized by them.

We had a good visit to the North Pole. Too bad we can't get to Alaska that quickly when we go for vacation.

The Polar Express

We drove 2 hours east to ride the Polar Express to the North Pole to visit Santa. The kids were so excited. We watched the movie the Polar Express the night before. Nathan had some work to do near Indy so he met us at the hotel. The boys got new robes and slippers and I made all 3 kids Christmas pajamas. The only thing that was missing was the Candy cane hats I started to knit for the kids but never finished. Santa hats would have to do instead.
Leaf in his ball robe on the train with Roar and daddy. (Aurora has a pumpkin hat on).

Everest got a camo robe and slippers. Aunt Teresa got to ride the Polar Express with us. She and I drove to Pennsylvania the next day with the kids. Nathan had to work through graduation and he flew out on the 21st.

Watching for Santa. Look how red his hair looks.

Family picture on the train. Teresa asked if we wanted a picture without her. Nathan told her we couldn't break up with her, she was going to be our sister no matter what, we can't break up with her. Although when you get our Christmas card you will see, I cropped the picture. This is the only picture I have of our family.

 My handsome 5 year old.

 Everest was too excited about the train to be in too many of the pictures. We got hot chocolate and a cookie on the ride.

The conductor had a star shaped hole punch. He punched the kids initials into the ticket. Very cool!

 Even Aurora got a ticket.

 Santa's workshop. We were not able to get off the train, but we had a wonderful surprise, Santa took a break and joined us on the train.

More pictures of Santa soon.

On the seventh and eighth day of Christmas

 Yesterday we had a picnic dinner by the Christmas tree and then finished decorating it. We have a Ficus tree we use as our Christmas tree. It was given to us by my Aunt Pat and Uncle Dave when they moved out to their house in Oregon. It was given to them many years ago, so we are not sure how old the tree is. The tree has been with us in Montana, Utah and now Indiana. Some day when we have land again and live in Montana, we are going to get potted Christmas trees and then plant them each year. For now, we love the Ficus tree. We usually have white lights on it and the extra bells from our wedding. This year we changed out the lights and have colored ones on. 

The boys had fun decorating it.

 Leaf hung all the ornaments on one branch. He would walk away and bump them and they would all fall. He didn't get upset, he just walked back over, picked them up one by one and hung them in the exact same place. He did this at least four times, before Everest came over and took all but one and hung them somewhere else.

 Aurora and Daddy hung out on the couch and supervised.

 What do you mean I can't help yet!

On the eighth day of Christmas, we worked on a fire fighter helmet pinata. Everest is the coolest 5 year old. We won a birthday party at a Lafayette fire station last Spring at the Montessori auction. We are having the party on Friday. We were limited in guests and it was a hard decision on who to invite. We are very excited! There will be 2 fire trucks and 8 fire fighters at the party. The best part is that we get to ride on the fire truck! The party will be at a training facility so we will ride around the property. How cool is that?! We typically do a small party at home, but when we saw the kids get to ride on a fire truck, we had to bid on the party. If you know Everest you know how much he LOVES fire trucks and vehicles in general. We will share pictures this weekend.

On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Day of Christmas

 We have been busy with holiday fun and playing with friends. Nathan was away last week so we spent a lot of time with friends. Thanks for making the week go faster Jeaneen and Heather.

We decided to do Santa pictures one day (although we only go to Everest). He had so much fun making different beards.

 Everest has been making Aurora laugh. She is such a HAPPY baby...they do exist! She laughs at him with her whole body. It is so cute. He loves having her attention.

The Griswalds went to the biggest parade in the state of Indiana. We went with our neighbors...the Benharts. We both had more stuff than we could carry, blankets, chairs, strollers, hot chocolate, extra clothes, etc. We had a wonderful time. It was freezing. Last year we went with my sister. We biked to the parade, it was cold, but beautiful.

There was a Breast Cancer float in the parade. We were thinking of Aunt Gina. We love you!

My littlest angel. She really is, if all my babies were like her, I would have a lot more kids. Sometimes I am thankful my boys are as difficult as they are.

My middle devil....I mean angel. His hair really looks red. Can you see the deviousness in his eyes??? He really is a great kid, he is going to have such an amazing personality, very strong, but wonderful.

Just realized it is technically Nonnie's birthday. Happy Birthday Nonnie. We love you. Can't wait to see you and we didn't get your gift finished...surprise, surprise. Some day I will be on the ball and start in August. Miss you. (it is also Pear Harbor day today)

On the second day of Christmas...

Well, I can't share with you today, because we are making a gift for Nonnie's birthday (December 7th). We will share after December 7th, if all goes well. 

I thought I would share a special holiday decoration with you. It is a plastic Alpine Village...I know a little cheesey. It was my Grama Hockman's. When she died we were all asked what we wanted of Grama's. This is what I picked. It is probably the cheapest thing she ever owned, but it reminds me so much of her house. I loved this little village as a kid. It had lights to go with it, one light goes in the back of each house. Grama would have some white material under the houses, all the other lights were covered by the material, so it looked like the "snow" was glowing. This is the first year I have had a place to display it. For next year, I want to get another set of lights and some white material for the snow, just like Grama. My Grama always had a Christmas party at her house. I loved going. I have not been able to go in many years. We live too far away. Now the Hockman Christmas Party is held mid December. Even when we do go to PA for Christmas, we are never able to make it that early in December. I want to wish my family a wonderful holiday season.

Miss you Grama, thanks for watching over me and my family.

On the first day of Christmas...

Nathan left for DC this morning, and will be away for 4 days. I decided to do something fun while he is gone, to help the time pass faster for all of us. I happen to come across a blog where she does the 25 days of Christmas with her family. Each day they do something fun for the holidays. Nathan and I discussed it and decided to start our own 25 days of Christmas.

My first year at Penn State, my mom sent me something little in the mail every day for the month of December. She would send 2 things for Saturday so I had something to open Sunday. They were little things, like pencils, barrettes, pins, magnets, socks, etc. I loved that December. It wasn't what she was sending me, it was the fact that she was thinking about me every day. I have wanted to do something like this for the kids, but never seems to be organized enough to make it happen. (Since Aurora was born, my goal has been to be more organized in life).

Fast forward ...welll....many years and I am finally doing the same with my kids.

December 1st brought the first snow fall. We have had flurries, but no accumulation.

An envelope with today's surprise activities was waiting on the table.

 Starting the advent calendar is on our list, along with reading the 12 days of Christmas and watching a Christmas movie.

Leaf watching the snow fall. He had to close the door and settle for the window because it was too foggy.

Everest was making pizza and macaroni and cheese flavored ice cream for breakfast. So much fun had and all before 8am. Ah the pleasure of having kids who rise at 6am (or earlier). We even took Nathan to work today so he wouldn't have to leave his bike there for the week.

 I will try to blog our activities every day. No promises. Aurora is an amazingly good baby, but she is still a lot of work. Now with the cold, it adds another element to getting ready...coats, gloves, hats, and boots for all.