Holiday Hulabaloo

What a whirlwind (but good!) December we had! The month started off extra fun with a special 25 days of Christmas treat Lem had put together for me. Each day my special advent calendar offered me a clue to a special present, note, treat or outing all the way until Christmas. I enjoyed all the little treats and especially the thoughtfulness and effort the whole project required. One of my favorite treats was going on a family date to Tastee Freeze and going downtown to look at the Gingerbread Village. This year, our church was even one of the buildings! We had so many great opportunities to put our new house to good use and host some fun Holiday gatherings and celebrations. And on top of that, we got to spend our first Holiday Season in our new house making lots of new family memories. We took in some more Dimond hockey games and Special Olympics also kicked off for me and I added another private student back to my skating schedule as well. Ella and I were featured in an Associated Press clip in a story about Bristol Palin and it ended up being used in tons of network news coverage including NBC, ABC, FoxNews, CNN, TMZ and one friend told me she'd seen it on Entertainment Tonight-go figure; another 5 seconds of fame we'd never expected. If you didn't get to see it, it's on youtube. Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i46sqlWv1L4 Lem and I were able to go on a few dates, thanks to Nanny and Papa babysitting for us. Lem finished up first semester at school and only had to bring a little bit of grading home with him over the break.

Sycely finished up her first semester at Pre-school. Lem was able to take a half day and attend her family Holiday party at school which was an extra special treat. They had all kinds of fun Holiday activities for the kids to do and then the kiddos gave their class gift to their teachers and handmade gifts to their parents and the teachers gave their gifts to the kids. After all that the families all shared a yummy feast and Holiday treats. Since we were assigned a dessert we made a giant batch of traditional Rudolph cupcakes, which were, of course, a hit. Also that same week, our hot water heater had some issues and we were without hot water for almost 24 hours. Conveniently, Ella suffered her first ever case of vomiting and Sycely woke up with a wet bed-really awesome when baths involve heating water on the stove and filling the sink and laundry is cold wash only!Sycely got to go on her very first Uncle Date with Uncle Ian who took her to see a local High School's production of Nutcracker. Since she's seen Nutcracker recently she was, of course, super excited to get to see it again and absolutely tickled to get to go on a date with just her and Uncle Ian. They had chocolate dipped ice cream cones afterwards, another first. Sycely's semester ended a week early so she was home the whole last week before Lem started break, which was really nice. It was a relief to be able to stick around the house, keeping things tidy and doing LOTS of Holiday baking and prepping. It also gave us some long stretches of uninterrupted time for her to do some "shows" and spend time working on art work and other projects. Plus, we enjoyed the added bonus of being able to keep Ella on her own nap schedule! Both the girls enjoyed helping me get things ready for Christmas, especially making fudge and baking cookies. Sycely also enjoyed helping wrap presents and write out gift tags. Her and Lem also did some pretty serious cardboard box construction projects including a castle with two towers that was somehow, two days later, converted into an airplane.

Every weekend in December seemed to be full of activity. The first weekend we got our Christmas tree and got things looking festive around the house. Lem and Sycely picked out the tree and decorated it all on their own this year as I was battling a tummy bug that weekend. I have to say, they did a perfect job, and I may just make them doing the tree a new family tradition! ;) Sycely's date with Ian and Lem's school Christmas party were the next weekend. Lem and I both played in the annual Dimond faculty broomball game prior to the party. It was a chilly day and I was dressed to the nines in all my most fashionable (read:pink) outdoor gear. I ran absolutely NO risk of getting cold, that's for sure. We had a great time and as usual suffered some post-broomball soreness the next day or two.

The third weekend in December really got busy! Friday morning I attended our Mom's Club Christmas Party which is always a super fun, girly time. Friday afternoon I had Special O followed an hour later by a Dimond hockey game. Saturday morning Sycely had ballet and it was also Sycely's BFF's birthday so we did the whole Princess party thing yet again (think all things pink, fluffy and sparkly). Sycely had a super great time with all the little princesses as usual. We went to our church Christmas pageant later that night. Sunday kicked off with church and then Sycely and I went on a Mommy date to lunch and to see the Christmas skating show. Sycely loved watching the girls and as always, performed her own moves off ice, but still can't be convinced to try it on the ice. Maybe some day. After the show we headed back to the house to get Sycely packed for a sleepover at Nanny and Papa's. Mommy and Daddy were hosting their first annual Christmas party in the new house.

What a hoot our party was. We got together with about 13 other couples (mostly from church) and a few singles here and there. Turns out getting ALL of us together at the same time, WITHOUT our kids is a super fun, enjoyable, memory-making time! We played some Holiday games like Christmas song trivia and Christmas movie trivia as well as a Night Before Christmas fill in the blank that one group of guys turned into the Mountain View Version Mad Libs Style. Everyone brought along a food or drink offering and it turns out Lem's concerns about having 26 people in our house were unfounded...in reality we can not only fit almost 30 people comfortably in the new house, but we can, in fact, fit them ALL on the staircase at the same time to take photos! We had SUCH a great time and are definitely planning on making this a Wheeles family tradition and think we may need to do this sort of parents-only gathering a couple times of year.

The next week or so was spent doing all our traditional Holiday family activities, some just us, some with family, some with friends. Our good friends Rayna and Alaina were here for the Holidays from Portland so we got to put in some good time with them including sharing some Moose's Tooth and Christmas light searching (as Sycely called it). We also got together to watch the pageant video from last summer and to "celebrate" Kwanza since we celebrate Christmas and Chanuka, we figured, meh...why not?

Christmas itself was quite a splendid affair. We got quite a bit of snow the week before Christmas which left everything sparkly, clean and white, like it SHOULD be on Christmas. ON Christmas Eve we had an informal pizza dinner with Nanny and Papa and Uncle Ian at our house and then went to church for a candlelight service. We got home and put out cookies (and apple slices, a healthier snack) and milk for Santa and sprinkled Reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) on the driveway. Once the "children were nestled all snug in their beds" Lem and I got to play Santa. We were all so excited for Christmas morning!

Sycely woke first on Christmas morning and by the time the cinnamon rolls were getting pulled from the oven Ella was up and we were ready to get this Christmas morning moving! We gathered near the fireplace, in front of the Christmas tree to open stockings, and then presents. The girls got a new play kitchen from Santa and tons of other fun things like movies and clothes and of course, there was no shortage of toys either! My amazing husband even got me a brand new laptop, and it wasn't even on my list (heck, it was hardly even on my MIND!)

We got everyone ready and headed to Nanny and Papa's for the rest of the day's festivities. I'd just like to mention here that a 90 second drive sure beats 15 minutes, especially when it comes to Christmas morning! We opened presents (even MORE toys, among other things, including spectacular new boots for me and a Wii for Lem) We were able to put Ella down for a decent nap while Lem and Ian checked out the new Wii. Lem's Uncle Gary and Aunt Lynda (and Ella's favorite, their dog Buddy) came in from the Valley to spend the evening with us. Lem's cousin, Jesse, joined us as well. We had a delicious, Mexican feast and WAY too much dessert. We had a great time visiting until it was time to head home and get two VERY tired girls ready for bed.

Sycely got to go on a Daddy Date to see Princess and the Frog and have lunch and ice cream. It was a very special day for her (she even picked out a shirt and tie for Daddy to wear and she was dressed in a very fancy new dress Uncle Ian got her for Christmas) and Ella and I didn't even feel left out as we spent the afternoon napping :) We also got to spend some time with some other friends who were visiting from Texas. The girls had so much fun playing with their kids and their cousins while us grown-ups got to catch up and visit.

We rounded out 2009 with a New Year's Extravaganza (that's how Lem and I refer to any celebration that lasts more than one day). We started with sharing yummy snacks and drinks with Nanny and Papa at our house on New Year's Eve. Like last year, we counted down to the New Year live with New York so that Sycely could participate in the celebrating. We watched the ball drop, toasted with sparkling drinks and did some poppers. Sycely even got to see some of the neighborhood fireworks display before heading to bed. Lem and I made it to midnight for the first time in so many years, we can't remember. It turns out we didn't really have much of a choice. Apparently our new neighborhood puts on quite a spectacular light show from 8:30-12:30 on New Year's Eve so we enjoyed some champagne and fireworks from the comfort of our toasty, warm, snuggly home.

New Year's Day we hosted a traditional New Year's meal (yes, there were black eyed peas). Lem's parents and some old family friends, the Williams' (and their two daughters) joined us for lunch and games. Sycely had a fantastic time playing with the older girls, but still had enough energy for staying up late at her sleepover at Nanny's.

Lem and I celebrated Faux New Year's on New Year's night with our friend Alaina. We got dressed up (Alaina and I in our fabulous new BOOTS!) and had drinks and appetizers at Simon's. We took an entertaining round of photos after dinner, picked up some champagne which somehow involved a side trip to a photo booth then picked up Ella and got her home and to bed. We spent the last couple hours of FAKE 2009 playing Wii, eating treats, drinking champagne and watching New Year's FRIENDS episodes. We counted down to midnight, toasted and did more poppers. Welcome 2010!

Turkey and Tu-tus

The month of November brought lots of unpacking, getting organized and decorating in our new house. By mid-November we were pretty well settled and feeling at home in our new space. We got all our decor details worked out, pictures hung and empty boxes off to the recycling center. We hosted our first gathering- Lem's Model UN students had a post-conference debrief meeting at our house. We served up some Moose's Tooth, brownies and sodas and that seemed to hit the spot for a bunch of teenagers. Even with all the settling in we found time to build our first snowman of the year (and at this house!)

Ella has mastered getting herself up and down the stairs as she pleases and her and Sycely have been enjoying the extra, open space with games of tag and chase as well as building forts and castles with all the boxes. Sycely been REALLY into performing "shows" as she calls them and spends hours everyday creating elaborate sets and costumes for reenacting whatever story is her latest fascination. Ella's a pretty good sport dancing along and doing her best to follow her sister's offstage cues. It's making for some really great family memories, that's for sure!

Sycely's class did a study on pets for a few weeks and many of the kids and teachers brought in their pets from home (including one girl who brought in her giant goldfish in a ziploc bag!). So, Sycely got to bring in our turtle, Mabel for her first pet show and tell. Mabel was a huge hit with all the kids (odd because they have a huge tortoise in their classroom) and they drew a bunch of pictures to decorate her pen while she was visiting-it was super adorable. Ella and I used Sycely's school time to do some Thanksgiving prep and got a head start on the Christmas shopping. It's so fun to get time just the two of us while Sycely is at school. Though we mostly just do errands, it's enjoyable to get to talk and play just with Ella while we're out and about. She's got such a joyful, sweet personality and it's fun to get to have it all to myself once in a while :)

November also brought the start of the high school hockey season so we've been going to games usually once or twice a week. Between our family, Lem's parents and his bro we're getting a big enough crowd that we almost need a whole bench to ourselves nowadays! The cheerleaders are definitely rubbing off on Sycely. I was upstairs the other night and heard her (on the downstairs potty, no less!) yell out: "EeeechOoo...EeeechOoo...Lynx in the front stand up and grunt, 1 2 3..." I have a feeling our girls are going to grow up with Dimond hockey being as much a staple in their childhood as it was in mine!

I got to go on a date with my friend Renee (Mrs Alaska) to a lovely dinner and dessert followed by attending the Miss Alaska/ Miss Teen Alaska United States pageant. Lem and I had worked closely several years ago with this year's Miss Alaska titleholder, Jessica Nolin. In 2006 she ran for National FFA office and Lem and I worked with her for several months and accompanied her to national convention it's first year in Indianapolis when Sycely was 15 months old. It's been great getting reconnected with her and seeing what a beautiful, accomplished woman she's grown into over the last 9 years or so. It was really special to get to see Jessica give away her crown as she wrapped up a very amazing year as Miss Alaska.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving this year. We had a traditional meal at our new house with Lem's parents and his brother, Ian. It sure was nice to have enough space for everyone and to be able to allow Ella to keep to her nap schedule, etc. Sycely spent Thanksgiving week making place cards and table decorations for Turkey Day and she even made the chocolate pie, pretty much all by herself. I have to admit that our table (featuring my new, fancy, snowflake dishes) was a perfect combination of elegant Holiday and homey family.

Thanksgiving weekend we had a House Blessing party and invited friends and family and our pastors to join us in blessing our new home. We've really felt that God called us into the Dimond community that we love so much and that He definitely made a way for us to have this amazing new home. We really want to be obedient to do the things in our new home that God has intended us to use it for. So far, I think we're doing pretty good. Anyway, we wanted to gather everyone together to check out the new house and join with us in prayer, blessing every aspect of life in our new home. It was a great evening and we got to give lots of tours as well as enjoy the support of our church family as we begin our life in this new location.

Also on Thanksgiving weekend, Sycely and I went on a Mommy Date to see the Nutcracker ballet at the Performing Arts Center. Sycely enjoyed it immensely and it took no time (as in, she didn't even wait to finish the drive home to start) for it to become her reenactment focus for several weeks. We'd had lunch before the show and did some shopping at the mall after Nutcracker. It was such a special afternoon for me and my little Boo Bug.

Ella's turning into quite the little cracker-upper. Her antics continually have us giggling and definitely help keep us entertained. Her vocabulary continues to skyrocket and she's adding words without us even realizing it these days. She's added "patty cake", "peek a boo", "Tinkerbell", "princess" and "apple juice" to her vocabulary in the last month or so. Her bubbling giggle is absolutely infectious and she's recently taken to agreeing with a "mmmm hmmmm" instead of her usual "yes". She's learned all her body parts and insists on applying her own soap and lotion now and I often find her wiggling herself into her sister's clothes. It's such a delight to see the relationship between our girls developing. They are both so quick to include each other and always want to be around each other. We're so very blessed to have happy, healthy children bringing such joy to our lives every single day. What a great reason to be thankful!