Christmas 2008

We have returned from another wonderful Christmas in Louisiana. This year's trip was a little short, but we made the most of it! As usual we had our get together with the family on Christmas Eve, where we all enjoyed Mackie's double dinner (both Nadege's and my favorite meals) and exchanged presents.


The kids had a great time with crocodile dentist :-)

On Christmas morning, the boys awoke to find this in the living room from Santa:

It's skeet/whirl/alley ball (it goes by many names) and was the source of many hours of fun for kids and adults alike. I don't think Santa put enough thought into where it would go once it returned home, however. We need a huge game room :-)

After breakfast at Nadege's, we headed to Grandma's, where we ate too much, exchanged more presents, and relaxed. I tried to teach Andrea how to crochet...she did get a little bookmark done.


Later that night we drove past Nadege's neighborhood, where this was a great house with these lights that went in time with music. Very cool! We also visited the Messengers, who have been creating a holiday wonderland since the 60's. It was even better than when I was a kid.


We also visited Phil and family, but we forgot to take any picturesl! They're well and just moved into their new home, that Phil practically built by hand. It's gorgeous! After we spent the day with Tammy and all. The kids played Hyper-Dash for a while, and got their butts soundly whipped by Tammy and me. If you don't know about this game, look it up on Amazon...it is a great energy burner!

"B" Is For Box, Oh What Could It Be?

On the last day of school before the holiday, the kindergartners put on a little show for us. There was a bit of waiting in the beginning...

There was much singing and dancing, and E's major part was to come out and deliver his "B" line. Following the performance, we enjoyed a great international potluck (I made Belgian waffles).
And here's E w/ his little buddy, Ben, who unfortunately for us is moving far far away, to a very cold land.

Do You Want to Rock at the North Pole?

This afternoon Elijah's afterschool program put on their Christmas show: Elfis and the Sleigh Riders. E was one of the elves, and yes indeed, he wants to rock a the North Pole! The first two songs are cute, but that last one is the best. I'd been wondering where his new air guitar routine came from; now we know :-)

Reindeer Run

Bright and early this morning E and M went out for a little run at the (2nd annual?) Reindeer Run. It was nice and sunny, but very chilly. M ran the Tot Trot (100 yard dash) and chased down some poor guy in a reindeer costume. E and I ran the Reindeer Run, which was a mile around the park. E did very well, ran the whole way! I think he could be a long distance runner if only he'd learn to pace himself.

Snow in Louisiana!

My family back in Louisiana is enjoying a snow day. I so wish it would have waited a couple weeks..oh well, I'll try to just enjoy the 70's, gray skies and rain we have today. Sigh.

Savannah, Noah, and Hailey

Belt Test

Last Saturday E and I had our belt test. E double tested (to make up for the one he missed in October) and I had my last public test. He's moving right along, working hard and getting more confident in class. I'm in review mode now, getting ready for my next test in March. Here's a video of our katas:

Oh Christmas Tree

Last week we trekked over to Littlewood and got our Christmas tree.


Today we started decorating said tree, and Merete was introduced to the holiday tradition of clustering all the ornaments on one branch and not being allowed to touch the breakable ones. One slipped by though, and came crashing down (sorry Beau, it was one of yours). Despite that one scare, the boys had a great time. Elijah remembered some of the old ones finally, and it was fun to hear him reminisce.

This year's new ornaments were pretty obvious :-)

Cookies in the Morning

For E's first Christmas we got a great advent calendar, with little ornaments and little drawer for goodies for each day. Since then I've slipped in a cookie with the ornament and it's been E's favorite Christmas tradition. We were both very excited to introduce M to the calendar, and E was gracious enough to let M go first. As usual, the ornament was all but ignored and the cookies were the biggest hit. That's ok, I like to hang the ornament myself ;-)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a multi-day affair this year, with both E and M having a special meal at school, and then of course we had out own little Thanksgiving celebration at home. First up was E's Thanksgiving lunch, or should I say brunch? E's kindergarten class is one of the first to lunch in the cafeteria, at 10 am. Seriously, who eats lunch at 10am??? It was fun, as always, to hang out with a bunch of little 5 year-olds. Lunch was the typical Thanksgiving yummies: turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and bread. Not that the boys noticed, they were too busy looking around at all the other kids and chatting (no wonder E barely eats his lunch). M's fete was a potluck, and we brought sweet potatoes, which were a big hit due to the many marshmallows. We also discovered that M loves corn on the cob, and E had fun hanging out in his old classroom. Finally we had our own little dinner at home with the 4 of us and Carrie, who came down for chow and a very early day of shopping. The big surprise of the day was how great the vegan pumpkin pie was! It was a huge hit with E, who scarfed each piece down in record time. M didn't go for it, but he enjoyed the gingerbread cookies :-)

SYTYCD

Last night Carra, Jen and I drove down to Tampa for the So You Think You Can Dance show. It was amazing! First of all, we got there very early and had no problem finding parking. We walked around downtown Tampa and found a great little Mediterranean place for dinner, where we loaded up on pita,garlic, feta, more garlic, and dessert.

But on to the show...our seats were actually pretty good. Granted, we were far away, but our view was unobstructed and we could see all the dancers. Turns out this was the last show of the tour, which made them all somewhat weepy and it was all very touching.

The first announcement was that we'd be seing none of this...
...because Twitch apparenlty hurt himself at the last show and would not be performing for us.

Still, there was plenty of Will and Josh and Mark and Katie and the others...
They all did a solo, and a few group numbers (5 Guys Named Moe, and that awesome Mia Michaels routine). Gev was clearly the little brother of the group, as he did relatively little dancing, but came out dressed in a variety of dresses so the others could make fun of him. The one thing I really missed (other than Twitch's dances) was the Pas De Deux, which sadly was not performed.


All in all, it was great to see them all live. These are kids at the top of their game, hopefully about to embark onto bigger and better things. They've started the auditions for next year's show. Not sure how they'll top Season 4...then again, I say that after every season!

One Month Already

So it's already been a month since we got home with Merete. It's amazing how quickly he has adjusted to his new life. He's a fun loving, easy going kid, so that certainly helps! He and Elijah are having a great time together, and Elijah is proving to be a wonderful big brother. Of course, there are the rough spots where someone gets tackled, some toy gets taken, and even who makes it to the bathroom first is a competition. Still pretty funny though :-)












M's English is getting better and better every day. He loves to imitate us, and he's now even speaking in "full" sentences every so often (you know, like a typical 3 year old). He's adopted all of our catch phrases, so there's plenty of "uggrrrrr" when things don't go his way (courtesy of E), "oh jeezz" (courtesy of Han), and "oh come on!" (I think that's mine). He's also still growing and gaining weight rapidly...I have no idea what his ideal weight and height are, but he's well on the US charts now. And he also got a perfectly clean bill of health from his doc!

Among the other fun activities we've shown you in the past month, the boys have also gone to a birthday party for one of E's classmates:


The biggest new development is that Merete has started school part-time! Last Monday, E was off from school and we had them both go to M's new school (which is E's old school) so M could get used to the place with his big brother there to watch over him. I heard from the teachers that M had a wonderful time, and that E spent the entire time protecting his brother, showing him everything and introducing him to other kids.


Over the next couple of days M kept asking about school, so on Friday we decided to let him go on his own. E heads off very early, so when I got back I figured M and I could go for a walk before he went to school. His response: "No! It's a school day!" with a nice "duh, Mom, get with it" look on his face. Even today he kept pointing towards E's school and saying "Elijah", and then pointing in the other direction and sayign "Merete's school". I'm trying not to take it personally, but he can't wait to get away from his boring parents to head off to play with his new friends! I am grateful that he is so happy there.

Finally, I'd be in big trouble if I didn't show off Leonard, Elijah's fancy turkey: