Trimming the Tree

I LOVE Christmas! I start playing holiday music the day after Thanksgiving... and I play it through New Year's... EVERY day! (that one makes Sergio crazy!) Although we've had a real tree some years, I really require an artificial tree. That's because I want to set it up the weekend after Thanksgiving and keep it up through January. Generally I have to have it down by Valentine's Day. I know others find that too long a time frame... but I LOVE have it up and I can... so I do! :) The cold of winter just doesn't seem so bad if you get to curl up and watch telly with the glow of the tree next to you... KWIM?

A~ is lovin' the decorating part. She was SO sad when we ran out of ornaments! And this year she's big enough to hand stuff somewhere other than the bottom branches... and she can understand spreading things out so that everything isn't in the same general area. That's a big help for mom who had to sneak behind her last year and secretly rearrange things when somebody was sleeping! :)

Here are a couple of shots to get you in the spirit of the season. We took Christmas card shots last night... but that will be a surprise with your card. Enjoy!

much love,

erin

Very Thankful

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I think A~ had her best Thanksgiving yet. The weather was warm and balmy... into the 70's until almost 3pm.

She played out front while everything cooked and caught parts of the parade on the telly. I think she asked where Santa was every 5 minutes at least! Much to her relief, he showed up... although she wasn't happy to find that he was the END of the parade.

We had a great meal (what a relief!) and A~ really enjoyed the sparkling pomegranate juice I got as a treat for her. (Actually it's all gone today... so I think her and Sergio both enjoyed it a lot! Isn't it always those little things that kids find so special?!). After eating we went to the park for walking, scooter-ing, a little soccer, and fun on the playground. Then the cold front came through and gave us a lot of wind and a little rain. We headed home for pie, naps, and playing computer games. Later came more food, more games (including A~ favorite.. Barrel of Monkeys game..., and our first ever family round of "Hello Kitty" Uno with cookies and milk.

Thanksgiving's been a tough holiday to celebrate... since I'm kind of in charge of the planning and execution of it ... but this year it was a wonderful day with lots to be thankful for!

Much love,

erin

Brave little girl

On last Friday, we went to get A~'s flu shot. She was not happy about it at all. I had been mentioning it off and on to get her used to the idea... and now the time had finally come. As we got ready to go, she begged and pleaded, "Please, Mommy, can we do the shot tomorrow and not today?" She cried some more and finally decided that she would feel better if she took some fruit snacks with her (thanks, Mamasan... they came in real handy!). One package was finished in the car... and the second one was going fast, except for that last piece. On our way walking into the flu shot clinic, I was trying to hold her hand, but kept ending up with a little fist. Finally I asked, "What ARE you holding?" "My fruit snack," she replied. "It has a funny face, so I can look at it when I get my shot and it will help me forget that the shot hurts."

WOW! I wish I had thought of that!

Unfortunately that only worked until we got 2 feet from the table where the nurse was sitting. Then we were back to crying and screaming and the other nurse had to help. Once the shot was done, she grabbed my purse off the floor and headed for the door... she couldn't wait to get out of there!

Now, she says that she wants to be an angel... since they don't need shots. I think she's already an angel! I am a bit biased, though! :)

Finally figured out the Flickr feed!

Can you say "alliteration"?! :)

I am SO excited! If you look to the left you'll see that I've finally figured out how to link over to Flickr so you can see my scrapbooking layouts a little bit easier. I am taking my stuff out of the 2Peas Gallery where it was before and reloading it... and, of course, some new stuff... into the Flickr site. It's going to take a little while. I'm hoping that it will make it simpler to see what I'm working on (that's for you Mom!) so you don't have to jump from 2Peas to ScrapGoods, to More Than Scrapbooking to see things. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it in there!

Much love,
erin

Teatime!

Remember the china tea set that Mamasan got me when I was about 8 years old. I still have it. One teacup is gone... broken I'm sure.... and one saucer is chipped (I actually still have the chipped off piece taped to the plate... in case I ever want to fix it! Ha, ha!). Otherwise it is in excellent condition. A~ got a little teaset for her birthday this year while they were in Bolivia. Unfortunately it is still there. So I pulled out my old one and she has been playing tea party ever since. Some evenings she even decides that she HAS to put on a dress first... can't go to a tea party in the wrong outfit now, can we?





Enjoy!

erin

PS. I just put in a new photo... it looks SO much better with natural light! :)

Trick or Treat!

This Saturday was the Autumn Adventure at the Reston Town Center. They have face painters, and kid's activities, hay ride, balloons, entertainment, and a hay maze all for the bargain price of $5. I didn't realize that it was so far ahead of Halloween... so Thursday night I was up until 2am and Friday night I finished the mermaid costume at 5:30am. After a 4 1/2 hour nap, I got A~ up and crossed my fingers that the costume would actually fit. Come to find that the measurements printed on the pattern for length use the length of the middle skirt piece... and don't really seem to take into account the fins on each side. So in a flurry of last minute sewing I created a pair of straps to hold the fins and snap around each wrist... so A~ wouldn't have to hold them the entire event. Not bad... but we'll have to come up with something else for the Candy Hunt next weekend! :)

Much love,

erin

Final Note!

OK... so maybe it's a three for one day! I decided to put up my latest scrapbooking layout. I had a little boo-boo with the title stamping... so I went crazy with buttons to cover it up and make it look somewhat "planned"! Hee, hee! I love the papers as they make me think of vintage fabric.

You may recognize this locale... Monticello! I think this pics are from 1999... but I'm not completely sure since they were on top of the photos in the photo box due to the panaramic shots of Jefferson's grave (doesn't it look cool though?). What a nice visit with Donna and Matthew that summer! I know we saw some other sites... like downtown Roanoke and Natural Bridge... but I can't find any photos of them. I'll keep looking and see if I can put together some more pages of things other than A~. (Ironically, she asked where she was in the pictures and why wasn't Papi there?!)

Until next post,

erin