Pre-Christmas activities

I'm trying to get all of the 2018 blog pictures up here before the end of the year, which is just a few days away.  Eeek!  We are having a nice week full of family time and lots of hanging out.  Glenn and I went back to work today but the kiddos were entertained by Christmas stuff and grandparents.  Here are a few things that have happened in the past few weeks. 

I have baked my butt off the past few weeks, pardon the indelicate expression.  Besides the German cookies that are part of the Pauley family tradition, the kids and I made some sugar cookies to decorate. I also made a few batches of chocolate covered pretzels for Reina's school party and neighbor gifts.  When I made the sugar cookies, the kids were really interested in picking out shapes and decorating.  Will insisted on the Christmas pig seen in this picture.  I guess there were farm animals at the manger?  

Christmas cookies and ye olde fashioned Christmas pig!  

We have had some wintry weather and even had a little bit of snow over the weekend. All three pets chose the couch that's directly across from the stove for a warm nap.  Smart pets. 

A few weeks ago, Will had his science fair at school.  Parents were invited to come by and watch the kids give their presentations.  Will did a good job on his presentation and even made eye contact with me when I took the picture.  No smile, but a (slightly) enthusiastic thumbs up.

Will's groundbreaking scientific experiment involved hammering nails into different types of wood to see which one was the hardest.  

A few Saturdays ago, Will and I zipped down to Denver for the Broncos game.  Will's streak of only attending winning games ended abruptly and you can imagine how thrilled he was about that.  Spoiler alert:  not thrilled at all.  Despite the scoreboard results, he and I had a fun evening together that involved a pedicab ride to the stadium and lots and lots of french fries.  Here's hoping 2019 brings more W's for our favorite teams. 

We still love the Broncos!  

Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas Day is winding down.  Reina and I are watching one more Christmas movie while the guys play a video game that was technically purchased for Glenn and then became a joint present and now I've yet to see Glenn actually playing it as Will has taken that part over.  Video game wrangling aside, it's been a very nice Christmas.  The kids woke us up at 6:00 a.m.  Last night we told them that they couldn't wake us up until 6:00 a.m. and they followed that rule at least.  We opened up some family presents and then the rest of the Hansen and Fry gang came over by 7:30.  We ate the year's best breakfast and opened up more presents.  The rest of the day was a blur of napping, a chilly jog, playing with new stuff (not just for the kids!) and cooking a pretty darn good turkey. We're getting ready for some family boardgame time in just a few minutes but I wanted to memorialize the day really quickly.

Will's favorite present - his new microphone and headset for his Xbox.  (This year, he didn't ask for any Legos and my mom heart was a little bit smaller.  Big kids are fun though.)

Reina wants it to be known that she likes all of her presents equally and she is unable to pick a favorite.  She received a mix of toys but also some big kid art presents and she has enough crafts to keep her busy for the rest of the vacation.

Glenn's favorite present is a cookbook.  Yep, that's a real statement.  Following his close instructions, I ordered a book on cooking game meat authored by the host of one of his favorite hunting shows.  Yep, those are all real things too and thank you internet!

Lucy is feeling very thankful for all of her generous family members and is going to pull a Reina and say that she can't single anything out.  She's psyched to have some gift cards for future shopping, some new books to read and a lovely pair of Carhart coveralls for cold football games thanks to Glenn who is very thoughtful and also slightly tired of me being cold. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Photos of Reina Singing, part 900

Monday night was Reina's fourth grade Christmas program and it was delightful.  The kids sang four songs :  Rudolph, Deck the Halls, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. That last one makes me tear up every single time. (Yes, I know that's a weird one to cry about.)  We enjoy watching Reina sing - she's so expressive and she knows every word.  Happy Holidays from my favorite fourth grader!  

Where did this grown-up kid come from?! 

A quite moment before the singing begins.  She looks so serious!

The whole group (well except for the poor kids I cut off in the photo)

Enthusiastic hand gestures and expressive singing

ditto 

With props! 

Reina and her two besties 

Weekend stuff

Another week in December is wrapped up.  Yesterday, Glenn cheerfully pointed out that Christmas is two weeks from Tuesday and yiiiiiikes.  I need to get a move on.  The shopping is getting close to being done but the Christmas card is currently two lines of gibberish in a draft word document, none of the presents are wrapped, none of the packages are even in boxes to be mailed and every morning I race to move the Elf on the Shelf before someone in the house wakes up and looks for her.  So there's a lot going on.  On Saturday, Reina and I met Aunt Vicky and Grandma and the cousins to see the unveiling of a new playground in the mall that Vicky helped fundraise for and we also squeezed in some shopping.    

Aunt Vicky, Reina, Spiderman and an unaware Grandma.  

Unicorn girl doing the floss.  

Another shot of the serious Spiderman. 

Another one of my daily chores every morning is to pick up all of the Christmas ornaments that mysteriously fall off of the tree during the night.   

What (who) could possibly be the cause?  What a conundrum! 

Finally, this picture popped up in my FB feed over the weekend and I was instantly transported back to our first Christmas as parents and these two sitting under the tree.  Be still my heart.  

Kicking off the holiday season

On Saturday, we continued a tradition that started a few years ago.  Reina played a few Christmas songs on the piano following the Tree of Remembrance event hosted by Aunt Vicky's office.  Reina ended up going first, which she was pretty nervous about but she did terrific job.  She played "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Up on the House Top" and "Deck the Halls."  I'm really proud of how much she has progressed with her piano playing.  She's not crazy about practicing but she's really come a long way.  

Reina takes her piano playing very seriously.  This is not a time for smiling. 

Still not smiling while her piano teacher plays accompaniment.  

The other holiday tradition we have is to jam as much shopping into as little time as possible at the mall. On Saturday, we all came to watch Reina play but there were also some college football games that Will wanted to watch, Glenn has a general aversion to shopping at places that don't feature outdoor items, Reina and I had some good coupons to use so we all wandered off at times to do some shopping.  Will's basketball season started this week so he needed new shoes.  I encouraged Glenn to take on this important task because I'm still haunted by last year's search for The Perfect Basketball Shoe for Tweens.  In case you were wondering, last year's shoes fit for about 6 months.  In related news, Will and I are very close to wearing the same size which I know will excite him beyond belief because nothing says COOL like being able to wear your mom's shoes.  

Hey Will, we can share shoes now!  

So it was a nice weekend.  We put up the tree which is Coco's favorite day of the year and within an hour, I was reminded why I don't hang up shiny, breakable ornaments on the bottom third of the tree.  The weather was appropriately seasonal and I started some Christmas baking.  And to top it off, we got to spend some time with Aunt Vicky and the little monsters. Not a bad way to start off December.