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| Daddy & Katherine Family Craft Time |
Going into the weekend Stephen was a little concerned about 3 days off and not really being able to "go" anywhere. I'm pleased to report we had a FANTASTIC weekend. At least in my opinion... and that of a sweet little girl.
On Friday evening we started the weekend off with dinner at home and then prepared some goods to go out looking at Christmas lights. This involved baking some cookies (I'll admit to needing assistance from the Nestle container!) and making hot chocolate "to-go". We made some snowmen out of marshmallows. They took a swim in our hot chocolate. =)
Stephen found a place to go to that had a light show display that was 30 minutes long. It's the largest residential light display in the area. It was pretty cool. Of course, it didn't come without a little drama. Unfortunately before we got to see the lights, the new car found its way into a small ditch. Fortunately there were some very kind people that came to our rescue... QUICKLY. They helped K and I get out of the car and then helped push it out of the ditch. The cause of the mess: Leaves covering the fact that there was a drop off. *sigh* No worries though... Soon after we were walking down the street to see the lights. Did I mention all of this occurred with the whole family being in our PJs? mmhhmm. I'm laughing thinking about it. Never a dull moment in the Aleksza house!
Katherine thought the lights were magical. Especially impressive was the talking snowman. Next year the event is moving downtown to help with easing parking concerns and the volume of visitors. I'm not sure it will be the same, but we enjoyed seeing it this year in it's original place.
Saturday we thought it would be fun to take Katherine to see her first movie. She's seen short shows in theaters at various theme parks but we've never taken her to an actual movie theatre. Thomas & Friends was playing at the IMAX theatre at the children's museum that we have a membership to. The movie was an hour in duration and we thought this would be a good first attempt at going. On the way we stopped off for some donuts (big hit) and when we got to the parking lot told Katherine what we were there for. This was her face when she heard...
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| I'd say she was excited. =) |
Movie complete we headed out for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. Also known (by Katherine) as "the macaroni & cheese place". After lunch we went shopping at AC Moore to get some supplies for Arts & Crafts. Katherine picked out some projects for us to do together, as a family.
We came home and got to work! First up was making gingerbread people... Then reindeer ornaments... Followed by starting a Christmas tree project. I knew the final one would take some time and it was a good time to break for the afternoon. We had so much fun making our projects. We also learned that Stephen is pretty crafty!! While Katherine's gingerbread person was super *I'm the mom and it's my job to think so* Stephen's was clearly top quality! His is the third one in the Ginger family. =)
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| The Aleksza "Ginger" Family & Our Reindeer |
At bedtime we shared that the next morning we were going to talk to Tootsie, Pop, Aunt Jacki & Aunt Nikki on the TV and open some Christmas presents. She was pretty excited by this and went to sleep quickly.
Sunday morning she woke up by around 7:30. We took her to our room so we could have some family cartoon time. A little Dora and some cuddles and then we headed downstairs at around 8:30. We were waiting for the FL family to wake up from their slumbers so K and I started to make some breakfast. She was QUITE the helper. =)
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| Ingredients set up on the counter... Ready to start dumping them in! |
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| "I'm the mixer helper!!" |
She loved opening presents and got very excited at each thing she opened. Lots of books including one with a recording of one of Tootsie's favorite stories, a hand-made quilt from Tootsie & Pop, an Ariel barbie and a Rapunzel tower were among her presents. Each one was enjoyed throughout the day. A friend had given Katherine a Tinkerbell scooter that she had an absolute blast with. We were outside multiple times with it to ride it up and down the street.
While we were opening presents our doorbell rang... A new tradition of ding-dong ditch has now started. K and I did our ditching a little while later but were TOTALLY caught. It didn't stop us from running and squealing on our way home. =) We have awesome neighbors!!!
The three of us tried making a new kind of cookie (scotcharoos) after lunchtime. I won't put them on my list of favorite cookies, but they aren't bad. I've never really met a cookie that I disliked completely. =)
Sunday afternoon I went for a run to try to work off some of the food I've been eating... (no way did I even put a dent in it but I was out there!) After I ran a few miles I decided to drag the rest of the family out for a run. Stephen was a little more resistant than Katherine but we all headed out and did a couple more miles together. At the end of the run Katherine sprinted home. I'm not sure if she'll be a distance runner, but our girl can run pretty fast! The whole way yelling "you can't catch me!!!" And if I started to run she'd stop and yell, "don't chase me!!" -> Babe, pretty sure that will guarantee I can't catch you!! =)
Dinner was some crockpot fare and while we were eating Katherine fell asleep in Stephen's lap. She was one played out girl! :)
Today we did our traditional day after Christmas clearance shopping. Replacing things that are old, and finding the latest things on clearance. This year our desire was some candy sticks that light up. We saw them as we were out looking at lights on Friday night and they were really cool! They're lining the driveway of this house.
This afternoon we finished up our Christmas tree project and it will become a decoration in Katherine's year, we hope, for years to come. I pray it survives storage!! I might need to save it in a closet inside the house to protect it!
I'm so grateful for a fantastic weekend with my family. Lots of fun. Lots of laughs and many memories made. As I went through the weekend I considered the many things I'm grateful for this year and thought of about 10 blogs to be able to write... Here's hoping I can remember a couple to post this week. =)
We hope you and your families had a fantastic Christmas together. Just a few more days till we welcome 2012!
Katherine is off from school this week so she's going to be home with me for the week. She's pretty excited about being able to "go to work with mommy". (I work from home!) She even told me tonight the rules about talking while Mommy's on conference calls. Eep! Funny... but Eep!!! Here's hoping this memory isn't one that scars her for life!
xo Merry Christmas (#1)!
The Alekszas
Pictures from our weekend...
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| Photo album personalized with Smilebox |
1 comment:
wore me out just reading it. :) Family time, just don't get any better than that! :)
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