Christmas tree

We have had a Christmas tree up for just about a month and a half now. As soon as Halloween is over, Alan starts pulling out the Christmas boxes and decorations. We started out with just our little tree, but we took advantage of a little Black Friday sale and bought a bigger tree this year.

We have started a new tradition of letting the girls pick out an ornament each year, and these are the ones they picked. Elsie was almost settled on getting a Darth Vader ornament before she saw the Mickey Mouse.  For Alice, we found all of the soft cuddle ornaments in the store and held them up to her. She giggled and clapped and lunged for the monkey, so monkey it is.

Wonder where Alice is?

Chances are she is right here...

We have been going through a lovely separation anxiety phase with Alice. If we set her down on the floor or get more than an arm's distance away from her, she screams bloody murder. The best part of this is not only does it happen all day, but all night as well. We have had quite a few sleepless nights around here trying to get her to go back to sleep. Most of the time she finally collapses out of exhaustion just to start it all back up again in another hour or two. To get anything done around the home I have to strap her in the backpack and wear her around while I use two hands to do everything. My arms are killing me, my back is killing me, I'm tired...

Trying to count my blessings... At least she will still go to Alan and is not fully Mommy dependent. Alan takes over with her as soon as he gets home so I can get a little space to myself.

Don't feed my baby beans

...Or else she will be up all night crying and farting.

Excuse me while I put on an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and hide behind the couch with a pillow...

So close

Alice wants to be walking so bad. She can pull herself up onto things and walk along the edge of them. She will get to the end of the couch or chair, stand and lean out - then pull back. Lean out, then pull back. Then stand and complain until some one helps her get to where she wants to go or until she sits down and starts crawling.

Happy Birthday Alan!

It was Alan's birthday on Saturday. We hired a babysitter and went out Friday night to celebrate just the two of us. We tried a little hole-in-the-wall mexican place that we have heard about. For a tiny little place, it was really good food. We stopped for some frozen custard before heading home to relieve the babysitter. On Saturday Elsie woke Alan up and brought him his birthday present. We got him Skyrim for the computer, and he was very excited. For his birthday I let him play all day with minimal interruptions from the kids.

The rest of the visit

December is just too busy! I feel like I need to rush around and get everything done right after Thanksgiving, and that's what I've been doing. All our Christmas cards are out, the kids presents are gathered, the house is decorated, and we are on our way through our 25 day advent calender. It's time to take a breather and get a few blogs scheduled to post before I get too much further behind.

Katie and I braved the crowds Thanksgiving night and went to a few Black Friday sales (since when does Black Friday start at 10pm Thursday night??). There were some crazy people out and about, but we came out on top. I came away with a new comforter set for our bed, big mixing bowls, cookie sheets, some presents for the kids, and a nice winter coat.

We took them though a tour of Epic. No visit to Wisconsin would be complete without a trip to Epic. The kids had fun running around and playing with everything.

This was on one of the bulletin boards...

On Saturday a lot of the shops around the city were having an "open house" where they offered free samples. Craig and Katie wanted to check out the city, and despite the constant rainy drizzle, we had a good time. We stopped for some free gelato in a fancy resturant, rode around on the trolly with the crazy driver, met Santa, and got pretty wet.

Santa was very baby faced...

Before they left, we looked up a local pub that specialized in house made soda pops. We tried a few different flavors while we ate our dinner. I didn't like the orange cream very much (too sweet), but the root beer and cream soda were delicious.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Alan's older brother and family drove in for the holiday. Elsie loved having her cousin Lucas to run around and play with. They got along very well for being two and a half. There were only a few shoving matches, but otherwise they played (and ran and laughed and jumped) together pretty well.

We did a lot of food preparation in the kitchen...

Preparing my first turkey ever. What you don't see in this picture is me freaking out because I have to touch a dead bird. I really hate touching poultry...

Let's cook this sucker up so we can eat it.

The finished bird. I have to say, my turkey turned out fantastic. I followed this recipe, and even though it had a lot of prep that went into it, it was all worth it. It was so moist you could eat it without gravy, even the light meat was succulent. Plus, the gravy made from the drippings was divine. I don't think I will ever cook a turkey any other way.

Alice just waiting for the food. She ate so much... she slept really well that night.

Our full menu included: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, and rolls. It was all so yummy that we didn't mind eating the leftovers everyday for the next week.

Wishing everyone else a happy Thanksgiving.

And then there was pie. Somehow, we only ended up pulling the pie out after all the kids went to bed. And then it happened again the next night and the next night... We had a chocolate pie, lemon meringue, pumpkin, and razzleberry pie. Yes, we did have a pie per person. And it was awesome.