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.