Christmas 2011

I was so caught up in the excitement of Christmas morning, I only took a few pictures and videos.

One advantage of buying pjs a few sizes too big is that they get to wear them two Christmases in a row. 

This was Fletcher's face after he realized the really big present was for him. 

They sat still long enough for a quick picture, then it was off to play with new toys.

These videos capture the personalities of our children when they wake up. We later found out that Fletcher had been up since 4 am (but didn't come out of his room until 7). We had to wake Luke up a little after 7 for fear that his brother might burst with anticipation!

Luke


Fletcher

Merry Christmas!

From all of us on Snickelfritz Lane!
Thanking God for family, friends and the best gift of all - Jesus!

The Christmas Story

According to an 8 year old...


And according to a 3 year old...

We are happy to report that the angel has only a mild concussion and is recovering nicely.

Neat Idea

Isn't this the neatest idea?  I made one of these for one of our former college students who got married.  Of course, I was so excited that it turned out so cute (since I have limited crafting abilities) that I mailed it to her and forgot to take a picture of it.  The photo below was my inspiration.  In case you can't tell, the strips of paper inside the glass ball are pieces of a wedding invitation.  Isn't that cool for a first Christmas together?  Makes me want to go find one of our old wedding invitations and make one for us too. 

More December Love

I was part of our puppet team when I was in our youth group at church.

Puppets have come a long way since then.

December Love

Thought I would post a few Christmas-y things on the blog over the next few days. 

This song is wonderful and the video that goes along with it is really neat (the whole thing is done in sand).

Christmas Vacation

When my family got together in Louisiana, we thought it might be fun to play some of the Minute To Win It games like we played at Fletcher's party.  We laughed and then we laughed even more.  But that was after our ukulele concert courtesy of my brother David (yes his shirt says "Real Men Rock the Ukulele" - a gift from his kids).

Just so you don't think we've completely lost our minds and just so you know what you are looking at, here a few explanations of the games:

 The Face The Cookie game has contestants place an Oreo on their forehead then get it from their foreheads to their mouths without using their hands. 

My niece brought her boyfriend to meet the family for the first time.  He may not be back.  However, he was a good sport especially since he was selected to play Junk in the Trunk where a tissue box is filled with 8 ping pong balls and strapped to the contestant's waist with a belt.  The contestant then must move in such a way to get all of the ping pong balls out of the box.  Jason was sucessful.  Amanda was not.  Not sure what that means. 

One of the harder games that we didn't play at Fletcher's party was Caddystack where the contestant had to stack three golf balls in a tower and they had to stay standing for 3 seconds.  No one got it in the alloted time frame, but my niece Traci finally did it.  We realized that in order for it to work the golf balls had to be different brands. Originally we were trying to use all the same kind and the dimples (?) weren't lining up. 

Enjoy!

Thing 1 and Thing 2

There's a new show on PBS Kids called "The Cat In The Hat Knows Alot About That!" (you'd think they could have come up with a shorter title.  Just sayin')

Fletcher and Luke both like watching the show and have learned alot about various animals from the show.  Just like the original book, Thing 1 and Thing 2 are in the show.  They are the Cat in the Hat's helpers.  Fletcher and Luke pretend to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 which cracks me up since Thing 1 and Thing 2 are twins and Fletcher and Luke are nowhere near twins. 

Well, Christmas rolled around and my sister was asking for ideas for gifts for the boys.  I told her about the show and how they like it. 

My niece Traci and Aunt D made these for them.  I think they are probably one of my favorite things they received this Christmas. 

 Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts and matching pajama pants.   Traci's son Bear saw them at his house when she was working on them and asked if they were his.  So they made him a pair too and let him be The Cat in the Hat. 

They all wore these almost the entire day.  Bear even wore his to bed.  They get lots of use at our house because of course if Thing 1 wears his to bed then Thing 2 has to put his on too or vice versa. 

What a fun idea!  Thanks Aunt D and Traci!

For those of you who may be wondering why the blog was quiet at the end of last week, Luke ended up with a double ear infection and I ended up with a sinus infection and an ear infection.  We've been wiped out!  I haven't felt like getting on the computer.  We are on antibiotics now and will hopefully be feeling better very soon.  It is supposed to snow alot today (Monday) so hopefully we will have some fun snow pictures to show tomorrow. 

Little Surprise

One of the things I was most excited about on our trip was getting to meet baby Evie for the very first time.  She is my great niece.  She was born in April and even though we've seen lots of pictuers of her, this is the first time we've gotten to see her in person.  She did not disappoint.  She is as cute as she can be.  Toothless grin.  Sweet brown eyed girl.  Crawling on her belly military style.  And interested in everything she is not supposed to be getting into.  Both Fletcher and Luke loved holding her although she didn't sit still for long. 

This is Evie with her brother Bear.  I was ready to take her home with me on the plane.  I tried to tell my niece (her mom) that babies fly free, but she wasn't buying it.  Evie almost had me convinced that we might need a little girl around here, but then I had to sit in the Dallas airport with Fletcher and Luke for almost an hour layover and I realized two kids are about all I can handle ThankYouVeryMuch. 

Well, my nephew and his wife (does that make her my niece-in-law or what? So confusing.) were expecting a baby and due on January 23.  I was glad we would get to see Katie and her pregnant belly over Christmas,  but I was bummed that we probably wouldn't get to meet the baby until she was older like Evie since we won't be back to Louisiana for awhile.  Well, through a series of kinda scary events (preeclampsia and an emergency c-section), baby Alice Elizabeth was born 3 weeks early on December 28, 2010 at 8:08 pm weighing 6 lbs 11 ounces and 20 inches long.  She was perfectly healthy with no time in the PICU.  At that weight, I can only imagine how big she would have been if she would have gone full term.  We got to go to the hospital and see her.  There's nothing like holding a newborn baby.  She is just beautiful.  I know Thom and Katie were shocked and surprised by her early arrival (Thom had just finished the crib the day before she was born).  But this Aunt Rachel is really glad I got to meet her before we came home.  She seemed so tiny especially since Fletcher weighed 9 lbs 3 oz when he was born and Luke was 8 lbs 13 oz.  The were like linebackers compared to her little almost 7 lb self! 

Now on to the pictures:
Baby Alice Elizabeth (love her name)

Proud new dad (Thom) and my dad (Alice's great-grandfather).

My mom (Alice's great-grandmother)

Great Aunt Rachel and Alice

Introducing Alice to her (second) cousins Fletcher and Luke.

Alice with her Gran Dee (my sister).

At the hospital (I was starting to not feel well - can you tell?)

Alice in her going home outfit.

Family photo (Katie, Alice and Thom).  They are going to be such great parents. 

P.S.  Happy Birthday, Grandma! 

Christmas Recap

 A few of the fun new toys they received.





Happy 2011!

We had a great trip and a great time visiting with our family in Louisiana.

Unfortunately, I returned with a nasty cold that is wearing me out.  I have some pictures and videos to post from Christmas Day and our trip.  Stay tuned this week for those. 

In the meantime, here's our little traveler looking over the emergency flight procedures.  He was fascinated by that brochure every time we got on a different plane.  When we were getting on the plane, he got to say hello to the pilots and look inside the cockpit.  One of the pilots pressed a button and the plane "talked" to Luke.  Very cool. 

We actually flew out on Christmas Day afternoon.  We weren't sure how that would work, but it wasn't bad at all.  The kids had plenty of time to play with all of their toys.  We ate a non-traditional Christmas meal of grilled burgers and fries.  The only bad part was finding a parking place at the airport.  All of the long term lots were full and most of the garages were full too.  We finally found a spot.  No weather delays either way. 

It snowed the day after Christmas here.  Our neighbors took a picture of our house and sent it to us in Louisiana.  We were bummed that we didn't get to play in the snow, but we were glad that the snow held off and didn't mess up our travel plans.

I Wonder If Santa Has This Much Trouble With His Elves

Don't miss Luke's big finish at the very end. The boy has some lungs!

Christmas Cards

I love getting Christmas cards in the mail.  I love seeing pictures of family and friends from all chapters of our lives. 

This year we didn't do Christmas cards. I had every intention of doing them.  Even bought coordinating outfits for the photo.  But then Tucker went into the hospital and suddenly what mattered most was helping our friends during a tough time (Tucker is home and is recovering very well, by the way).  We also heard about a family through our church that needed some help this year with basic stuff so we decided to spend the money we would have spent on cards and postage and help them instead. 

So our "card" this year won't come in your mailbox.  Instead it will be some photos on the blog and on Facebook of two of our biggest blessings in our lives. 

From all of us on Snickelfritz Lane, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Note to self:  Next time you find really cute elf pjs, don't wait unti December 21 to try and find matching elf hats or Santa hats because they only sell them in stores in July!

Baby It's Cold Outside

I like this song and I especially like this rendition by this husband/wife duo.  She has a great voice. 

Here We Come A Wassailing

Well, I guess we call it caroling.  But wassailing is just one of those words that you only get to use around the holidays so when opportunity knocks I am all about throwing out a fancy Christmas word.

Some members of our church went Christmas caroling Sunday night to some of the senior adults in our church family.  Fletcher asked earlier in December if we could go Christmas caroling sometime so this was the perfect opportunity.  We had at least 40 people crammed in 11 vehicles and we went to 7 houses.  Our repertoire included the first verse of these five songs:
O Come All Ye Faithful
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
Joy To the World
We Wish You a Merry Christmas

As the temperature dropped throughout the evening, we shaved seconds off our singing time.  It was seriously cold!  I did have a hard time taking our music minister seriously.  He was wearing one of those fur hats with the ear flaps.  Every time he started singing Joy to the World I couldn't help but think about Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation singing that same song when he went to plug in his lights after the drumroll. 

I told Kevin that I couldn't remember the last time I went caroling.  I remember doing it when I was in the youth group many years ago, but I don't think I've done it since then.  The people we visited were so thankful we had come.  Many of them joined right along in singing with us. 

At one point after about the third house, Luke had been watching and listening.  He started "singing" too.  He didn't know all the words so he was just belting out nonsense sounds as loud as he could.  Everyone around him was cracking up laughing.  The Bible does say "make a joyful noise" and doesn't exactly specify that one has to use words!  :)

What a fun Christmas memory!

Silent Monks

Postings to the blog in the next few weeks may be very random.  I'm trying to slow down a bit and take time to reflect on what Christmas is all about.  This is Fletcher's last week of school and his birthday too so our week will be filled with school parties, teacher gifts, birthday celebrations and fun. 

In the meantime, here's another great rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from some high school students.  Creative, yes?

Gettin' Your Craft On

If you are into making gifts instead of buying them and if you need some fun, cute gift ideas for teachers, friends, family or neighbors, check out these sites:

I especially like the photo ornament shown here (scroll down past the mistletoe).

These 30 gifts are corny, but fun and inexpensive.  Great for a white elephant party.

This Question Jar is great too.  I love her story behind how and why she made it. 

I am always amazed at just how creative people can be. 

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas

We put our tree up Friday afternoon.  Since we will be traveling some over the holidays, we decided to get a pre-lit fake tree.  I found a good deal online during the Cyber Monday sale.  It's a 7.5 foot tall Blue Spruce with 1000 lights.  It fits in the corner (well, not really the corner) of our family room quite well.  It took us awhile to shape all the branches, but I think it will work out great for us.  Since we live near lots and lots of tree farms, we should let our kids experience the joy of going to the farm, cutting down the tree, strapping it on top of the car, etc.  But not this year. 

Fletcher has always enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree.  This year Luke really got into it too. 

Luke thought the ornaments looked best if they were "weally, weally cwose to each udder."  I tried to move them, but he would move them back so I'll just let them stay that way.  Our tree has no theme.  We've just collected ornaments through the years.  Some are even ones Kevin made when he was a kid. 

The boys and I made these this year with some friends. I painted their 4 fingers and the top part of their palm with white paint.  Then they grabbed the ornament and their fingerprints made four snowmen.  We added hats, scarves, eyes, noses, etc.  They turned out so cute.  We found the instructions here.  However, we couldn't find shatterproof ornaments so these are glass.  They are waaaaay up at the top of the tree.  I am so afraid they are going to break. 

Luke's

Fletcher's

I did manage to get one small video during the decorating process and almost caught Luke on tape singing "Jingle Bells" but then he quit. 

Forever and Ever

By now you know I love a good flash mob.

Here's a great one to kick off this Christmas season.



I still get goosebumps every time I hear this song.

Someday I hope to either participate in a flash mob or be randomly surprised by one.

Run, Run As Fast As You Can, You Can't Catch Me I'm The Gingerbread Man

Thanks to Grandma and Papa Charlie, we were able to have some fun on Christmas Eve decorating some gingerbread cookies for Santa.

I had to mix up the icing (pure sugar with a splash of milk). Fletcher begged to lick one of the beaters. I normally don't let him since what I am making usually has raw eggs, but this time I said yes. I thought Luke would enjoy it too. Boy, was I wrong. He would not have anything to do with it. You would think we were making him eat collard greens or something. You can see from the picture below that he was not happy.

Then things changed when we broke out the candy and started decorating. He used every single gumdrop on his cookie.

Then he decided to use every single candy ball on his next cookie. You can just imagine how frustrated Fletcher was getting since Luke was taking all the candy.

Note the death grip on the arm. Brotherly love at its finest.

Kevin decided to get all biblical on us. Can you guess what Bible character he made?

Joseph and the coat of many colors.

Our finished products for Santa. I let Fletcher have the frosting bag to do whatever he wanted. You can see his creation at the top. That's the one Santa chose to eat.