One more to go

 
This past weekend we had three family Christmas celebrations. Lucky us! As usual we were spoiled with great gifts and we hope our family and friends feel the same way. Maggie is still a bit young to understand what Christmas is all about but she did enjoy spending time with family, the presents, and of course all of the attention.

Our next and final celebration is with Chad's family this weekend and we're really looking forward to the trip.

Happy New Year!

From Our Home to Yours

 

We are off for a bit to spend time with family but didn't want to miss out on wishing you a merry Christmas. Enjoy the holiday!

Float Your Boat

We have had rain since Friday here at our house. There have been a few breaks in the clouds, but for the most part we've just been wet. Sunday we drove to my folks' house to pick up Maggie. To our surprise, here's what we found going on across the street. The normally green park filled with soccer players and running dogs has turned into a lake! With boaters! There were four boats when I ran to get my camera. Such a funny and strange sight.

Holiday Party

We have attended a number of fun Christmas parties this year. Most recently Chad and I went to his station's holiday party. My parents watched Maggie so we could go and we had a blast. Food, friends, djs, dancing, gifts and awards all amount to a good time. Then on Monday Maggie and I went to her little play group holiday party. The moms went all out and had tables with crafts, snacks and cookie decorating. Santa and Mrs. Claus even took the time out to make an appearance. They read two Christmas stories to the kids and handed out bells and a personalized gift to each child. (The gift was a book each child's parent bought, wrapped, and gave to Santa before the party.) Maggie received Olivia from Santa this year but unfortunately she'll never know that. She loved hanging out near Santa, but when he called her name with her book she wanted nothing to do with him. She ran to me screaming. It was hilarious. I didn't get many photos from the party because we were too busy having fun. Sorry for the dumpy quality of these shots.

Santa

Maggie's second meeting with Santa wasn't nearly as adorable as her first. She wasn't thrilled with Santa this year and the visit with him was fast and squirmy. As you can see from the photos, she initially thought he was sort of OK, then she didn't at all and wanted off his lap within about two seconds.

Players

Maggie and I have been really busy this past week. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to bring my camera with us so I haven't had many updates for the blog. I did remember, however, to bring it today for a fun little rainy day playdate with friends. We all played with Oobleck in the kitchen and as the kids were wearing down from all the playing and toys and horsing around, they enjoyed watching the rain from the couch.

Baking

This past week Chad left town on business and my mom came and stayed with us for a few days. Maggie, Mom and I managed to fit in shopping, a hair appointment and still found time to start and finish our holiday baking. Maggie and I had a great time. Below is what we ended up with in our kitchen:

Chocolate Covered Pretzels








Ginger Crackles

Rocky Road










Caramels

Decorating

Now that December is here we decided to decorate the house for Christmas. This time though we didn't use all of our decorations like we have before. It was getting to be too much and the house started looking junky and cluttered during the holidays. No one wants that look in her home for an entire month, right? This year we chose to put out our favorites and keep it simple. Maggie enjoyed helping Chad put the ornaments on our little tree. She doesn't quite have an eye for aesthetics and symmetry yet, but she was able to quickly figure out how to put the ornaments on the tree, so we are happy with that.

Christmas Light Parade

Saturday night was the annual Christmas light parade in town. I was a bit apprehensive about taking Maggie because I wasn't sure how she'd react to the activity. I knew she'd love it, but I wasn't sure if she'd want to run around and end up out of control. You never know. Anyway, turns out I was completely wrong to worry. We brought chairs and a big blanket and once the parade began she sat on my lap for the duration. She waved to the kids with a huge grin on her face and loved it all: the lights, the dogs, the horses, the kids, the bands...all of it.

 Self Portrait

 Who is more excited to be here?

Maggie and Chad after the parade

Christmas Tree Lane

When you live in the suburbs you get to experience events for the holidays that don't seem to make it to the more urban areas. And while I so miss living in a hip-happening place there are some local festivities that are pretty hard to beat. For example, while nearly everyone gets festive to some extent with lights and decor outside their home, a few neighborhoods in town really go wild at Christmas. We are lucky enough to live just over a mile from one of them and Chad, Maggie and I took the opportunity to check it out last night. Taking photos of lights at night proved to be a difficult task for us but here is the best of what we shot. As you can see there is no-doubt-the-world's-greatest-bow-of-all-time on one of the houses. Man, I would love to have one of those on our place. Also, you'll see the holiday wish-list that Chad and I have signed in years past. This time Maggie signed it and apparently she wants a pony. Other wishes on her page? Video games, a hot rich boyfriend, a genie, 100 more wishes, toys... Finally, one of the homes had this little dancing mechanical animal band which inspired some kids to have an impromptu dance party. Maggie said, "What? A dance party without me? No way." And she was off to get her groove on. That girl can and will dance to anything. Even to a dorky dancing mechanical animal Christmas band.  

Party Harty

Last night Chad and I went to the annual Best of Fresno party. It was lots of fun and the food was delicious! My parents watched Maggie for the day/night and we were able to enjoy the evening to ourselves. Mike Scott, one of the anchors at Chad's station took this photo of us and put it on his blog.