Another Christmas

Yesterday was the "big" Alexander family Christmas gathering. I'm not sure what the exact count was, but lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and outlaws were present. Unfortunately, some bad weather and long distance driving prevented Laura and her family from being able to attend, and we also missed Sandy, Edwin, and Elijah, but we hope Elijah is feeling better.

So I'll start off with these boys who played so hard that I thought the house would fall down a couple of times. Jacob, Wayne, and Cole were inseperable the whole day. I like to call this photo, "The Table of Trouble." I'm just kidding. They were all very well behaved, but they did have a lot of fun together.
Here's the big girls' table. Lizzy, Alex, Katie, Chelsea, and Lauren.

And here's the little girl's table. Heather was the only little girl.

Eliza and Curt. My camera was having trouble here form some reason. Sorry for the fuzziness.

After the meal, Peter had a game for us. It was kind of a popculture quiz with multiple choice questions about Christmas movies, tv shows, and songs. Please be sure you notice his headset and speaker.

Jeanne makes friends with our new cat, Patches.

Lisa and Dan during the "grading" of the quiz.

Paul and Martha won the prize - a left over item (candelabra) from the Perron reunion auction which had been donated (to the audtion) by Cedric. Wes had bid on it as a joke it for some reason but ended up winning the auction bid. It had been in our garage all these months and Wes tried to give it to Peter as a Christmas present - Peter then tries to pass it off with this this game.

Then the desserts - tons of pies and cookies, and candy, and chocolate cake!

Hanging out in the living room. A few gifts were exchanged.

Then Wes, Danny, and Wayne went out to shovel off the ice on the pond. Here's Wes pushing Heather after he's done shoveling.

Martha ventures out to watch the skaters.

There was a big hockey game.

I pushed Heather and tried to keep us out of the way of the game.

Martha, Danny, Jacob,

After the ice skating we all went in for hot cocoa, coffee, and more desserts.

I have two videos to upload, but I have to get to some high speed to do that. Maybe tomorrow.

Heather ended up having a low grade fever by the evening and a croupy cough so she had kind of a rough night, but seems to be feeling ok now with a little honey for her cough and Advil for her fever

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Vacation

Here is a funny little video of what the kids have been doing with their Christmas vacation. It clearly illustrates the three different levels of skating ability among them.



Wayne is obviously headed for the NHL; this was Heather's first time on skates; and do you think Cole's skating lessons are paying off?

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning started around 7 a.m. Outside, there was no new snow, but the trees were coated in crystal from the fog that rose and then froze in the night. It was eerie and beautiful.

Inside the house it was noisy and happy. Santa had come and filled all the stockings to their brims.

Heather took her time opening and looking at each little stocking present.

Here she is modeling another one of her gifts from under the tree. A fairy costume complete with crown, wings and wand.

Later in the afternoon Peter, Jeanne, Katie, and Lizzy came over. Here are Lizzy, Cole, and Heather in Heather's sparkly, gauzy canopy that came with her costume.

We had a great day, but unfortunately I didn't get many pictures. Too busy trying to keep up with the wrapping paper I guess!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just a couple of random shots from recent days to get this Christmas Eve underway. The kids decorated the tree last weekend. Heather is really into taking her clothes off lately. Usually she takes everything off, but on this occasion, it just the bottom half. I tried to censor the photos a little.
At least they enjoyed decoarating, even if it is a Charlie Brown tree and all the oranments slid right off the spindly little branches.

Can you tell that I forced them to stand in front of the tree together?
Sometimes Little Miss "I'm a big, big geel," needs a nap afterall.

Have a peaceful eve and a merry tomorrow.

Big and Little

Isn't this a breath of springtime in the middle of December?

Heather will be 3 on Saturday. We'll be at Grampa and Gramma's house in Maine. She's a big girl, but when it suits her she'll say, "But Mommy, I'm still a wittle bit wittle. I am."
Happy Birthday little big girl.

Gingerbread, Royal Icing, and Santa on a Fire Engine

First of all, just a cute picture of Cole and Spike. Cole was home sick a week or so ago, and Spike proved to have a very good "bedside" manner. Therapy dog in the making?
So this is what we've been up to all week - our gingerbread house for the annual contest hosted by the library. Here's Wayne cutting some pieces.

Cole makes...something - I don't know what, but Heather is very interested. This is a good view of her self-inflicted haircut.

Heather thinks it's play dough.

The next day we make royal icing.

Heather plays with leftover dough. Turns out it IS a good substitute for play dough.

Cole makes cookies.

The decorating of the gingerbread house. Can you tell what house it's modelled after?

Heather made her own little graham cracker house.

Here's the finished product. It must be the worst looking gingerbread house in history.

The other side.

All kids who enter the contest get a little stocking filled with little toys and candy canes. Heather got one for her graham cracker house. She was very proud. She thinks she won the whole contest.

Unfortunately there were not very many entries this year - only four in all and we won third place. This bottle of syrup is our prize. I reserve the right to regift.

Before the contest, we went on a fire engine ride with Santa (Frank Daigneault). I have no idea who this kid is, but none of my kids would get anywhere near Santa so this is the only pic I could get.

Inside the fire house there were snacks and hot cocoa. Cole was in heaven.

A shot of the engine from the outside. Yes, we were riding on TOP of it. It didn't feel as dangerous as it looks.

So that's what we've been up to this week. Now to get ready for Heather's birthday and a possible trip to Gramma and Grampa's next weekend...

One More Short

Here's one more video of Cole that I had tried to upload yesterday.

Last summer Wes ran over Heather's tricycle, but Wayne realized that it was not a total loss. He removed the squashed rear wheels and replaced them with little plastic skis. All these months later, there is finally some snow and so Cole decided to take it for a test ride. Before I took this video, he had a couple of runs that were more successful than what you see here, but you'll get the idea.

Shorts

The following are some very short videos of fun in the snow.

Wayne does some "snowboarding," with a little help from Spike.



Another try.

I have one of Cole too, but I accidentally uploaded two of Wayne and ran out of time at the library. I'll try again tomorrow. It's a funny one.

The Last Vestige of Babyhood

Heather is officially no longer a baby.

I held onto her babyhood as long as I could, but now that she's about to turn 3, she's reached a couple more milestones. For one thing, she's given up her naptime. After many nights of her being awake in her room until 9:30 or so, getting out of her bed to play with her dolls or sneaking into Wayne and Cole's room to see what they were up to when they all should have been sleeping, I decided It must be time to let go of the nap. It was not easy (for me) but now she goes to sleep as soon as her head hits the pillow in the evening.

For another thing, not only can she give herself a haircut, but she can also get dressed (almost) all by herself. See how proud she looks. You can't really tell from the picture, but she has two shirts on, and one of them is on backwards with the tag sticking up. She doesn't seem to mind. When she looked at her outfit in the mirror, she said, "It's perfect." She wasn't a baby for very long.

The kindergarten class took another field trip to a Catamount Arts performance of Hansel and Gretel, by the National Marrionette Theatre.
This was a gentler version than the original, while still holding somewhat true to the story. Their real mother lets them go into the forest to find berries (rather than a stepmother abandoning them in the woods.)

Angels protect them in the forest until morning.

After being pushed into the oven the witch turns into a gingerbread woman.

Cole is home sick today and the rain is rinsing all of our snow away. I have a couple of videos of W & C sledding for sometime when I get to the library.