advent

For the first time in three years, we will
be celebrating Christmas down south. It is the first time in 14 years since my entire family has been together for Christmas! We are pretty excited about it!

As we won't be here this year, we decided to get a tree early, just after Thanksgiving. There is always a tree stand about 4 blocks from our house run by French Canadians. Sterling loved touching the trees and Hudson helped me pick the perfect one. It is a but shorter than our usual, but still a really pretty tree.

We kept the first cut so we could count how old the tree is...15 years!

We put the lights and all the fragile ornaments on that night and let Hudson and Sterling "help" with the non-breakable ornaments on the lower portion of the tree. 

I know colored lights seem tacky to some, but it makes it feel like Christmas to us!

I also decided last minute to put together an Advent calendar. I used oval green stickers from Paper Source and wrote with a gold Sharpie. I guess all that lettering practice from my architectural classes paid off. The stickers were then affixed to brown bags in which I slipped a treat or an ornament or a small gift inside. As the bags are not sealed, it has been helpful as I didn't have to have everything done by day 1.

Red mini clothes pins hold the paper bags to ribbon I had on hand. We hung one row over the mantle...

...and two rows above the cabinet. It actually has been festive and it is the FIRST thing Hudson asks for when he wakes up in the morning. Actually during the day, he also asks for tomorrow's number. 

We've been turning the bags around when they are empty or replacing them with Christmas cards. Great thing is that we can use them again next year!

We also got to go to a cookie decorations party at Luka's house. I used to work with Luka's mom and they moved to the neighborhood in the summer. Hudson and Luka love having play dates. Luka is also going to be a big brother very soon!

Best part is eating them!

it's snowing!

We got to commute to pre-school in the snow this morning! Oh the joys of seeing things anew through your child's eyes!

Lucky boy gets to take a train to school...

thankful

We have so many things we are thankful for, especially these two:

We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with Ben & Megan & EB and their family this year. It has become a bit of a tradition, and it has been really fun. This time last year, EB was only three weeks old and tiny. This year, he was enjoying the meal with the rest of us! Isn't that frisée salad pretty?

I'm always trying to get a good family photo (everyone looking the same direction looking somewhat pleased). This is very difficult whit two active children. As you can see from the roll below, Hudson is photo bombing with a fish toy, that I end up taking and he then looks for...

Never a dull moment! They boys love playing in EB's playroom. The novelty of OKT (other kid's toys) never seems to wear off!

They especially enjoyed making music with the ukulele and moraccas. 

The meal was delicious. I made , popovers and stuffing. Megan & Ben did everything else (turkey, kale & collard green gratin, roasted root veggies & mashed celery root) which was so yummy! 

She also made pumpkin & chocolate pecan pie as well as homemade ice cream which were all decadent (so much so that they were gone before I remembered to photograph them!). Our lovely hosts!

We are so blessed to have such lovely, gracious friends. And we did manage to get this family photo.

blue birthday bash

 So I went a little overboard this year. Hudson expressed interest in a blue birthday. And I decided to have a little fun! Pinterest pretty much feeds any creative need and I found some great templates and ideas to pull it off

 The paper geo globes held a medley of blue m&ms. The menu also included blueberry & almond butter sandwiches, frittata bites, veggie plate, blue chips & salsa and a kale salad.

 These cups worked out great - just mason jars with cut balloons to look like they were dipped in paint. I used paper as the topper and we wrote each kid's name on the glass so we knew whose was whose.

 And the piece de resistance - the cake (and meringues)

 The cake was a blue velvet with cream cheese icing (Hudson helped make it). I cut out a 3 out of paper and used it as a template for the sprinkle decoration. It was easier than I thought it would be and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

 And check out this cutie too!

 We tied a green balloon on him so we could keep track of him at the party.

 I also made the triangle pennant banners hung around the house. More details on the goodie bags shown below in a future post.

More details - a hat for Hudson:

 And the guests arrived! Ben & Megan with EB.

 Luka having fun with a bus

 Maddy with Emma & baby Corrine talking with Megan

 Dave playing with the blue goop we made for the kids. The blue tape was a road for the kids to play with. Bryden loved putting cars and shapes in the goop to make imprints.

 Sterling & Emma & Corinne hanging out. Corinne is just 4.5 months and is up on all four rocking back and forth already!

 Brittany & Ilija with Luka and Chelsea holding Bryden

 Veronica and Emma playing with a giant tube Dave brought home from work...Hours of fun. We were so happy that Veronica made it as her mom just had a baby brother three days earlier!

 Everyone singing 'Happy Birthday' to Hudson

 Blowing out his candles.

 And diving into the cake. This is pretty realistic to the color. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too sweet. The blueberries in the center layer were really a nice addition.

 Yum.

 Everyone having fun in Sterling's crib...

 Every kid's mouth was blue by the end of the party. Not kidding.

 Bryden is such a cutie with the green froggy socks!

 Sterling & the green balloon...

 A smile from Emma!

 All in all it was a great party. It was fun to put together and even more fun to hang out with so many good friends.