Day 220 | Post-Party Pleasures

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A few of today's joys after yesterday's celebration:

1. Beautiful flowers: my mom and dad gave us one arrangement, a couple of sweet friends brought two bouquets, and my mom braved our holly tree (we have a holly tree!) to round out the collection. These flowers make me SO happy. 

2. A clean kitchen: something about the accomplishment of cleaning up a huge mess that feels so good. 

3. Leftovers: as I mentioned yesterday, we had lots LOTS of food left over. I guess that's better than the alternative, right? Well today, the amount of food left over is an amazing reward. Snacks for days, ham for an egg scramble for lunch (amazing!), and sweets that I should be avoiding but are too good to pass up. Yes, sir, I will take another handful of chex mix. 

Day 219 | Holiday Shindig

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We hosted a little holiday party tonight and I am exhausted. It was a wonderful evening full of friends and family, yummy food, and festive cocktails (thanks to my bartender husband).

The kitchen is semi-cleaned up, the food is semi-eaten (why didn't people eat more?!?), and I'm semi-awake. Well worth all the time and energy dedicated to the event, though. Couldn't have been more enjoyable.

Special thanks to my mom and dad for helping out in innumerable ways to make the evening a success. We are grateful.

Day 218 | Holiday Train Tour

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It was time to take our holiday spirit on the road. Off we went to the Botanic Garden for their annual Season's Greenings exhibit. The trains (Thomas even made an appearance!) and the foliage didn't disappoint again. Definitely a must-visit holiday stop in this city.

From there, we headed over to Union Station to check out its holiday model train display. A significant step down from the trains we saw earlier in the morning, but still a festive excursion. We even made time to overlook the real trains loading up passengers.

I wouldn't say it was Chase's perfect day but with all the trains, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa in attendance, and lots of holiday activities, it was pretty close.

Day 217 | The Taste of Christmas

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I managed to squeeze in baking a batch of my favorite Christmas cookies into today's chaos (school for Chase, airport trip to pick up Dad, lots of cleaning, etc.). They are perfectly unique and festive for this time of year.

Here's the recipe but I use craisens and orange zest as a substitute for the cherries and lime. 

Highly, highly recommended. 

Day 216 | Felted Acorns

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Aren't these the cutest things ever? I'm obsessed with them.

A little pre-planning (think acorn hat hunting with Chase), an experienced felter (that's you, mom), roving, hot water, and Dawn dish soap. That's it. 

Take a bit of the roving, get it wet under hot water, add a teeny bit of dish soap and roll. Squeeze out soap/water, rinse a bit, keep rolling. Eventually you end up with a cute little oval of felted magic. Let it dry and find the perfect acorn hat to fit on it. Add a little hot glue to make it stick. 

You might be wondering what I'm going to do with these...sorry, that's a surprise. 

Day 215 | Sock Snowmen

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Chase got in on the action with our latest craft: sock snowmen.

I won't reveal who is receiving these beauties, but it's safe to say they probably aren't checking the blog. 

The snowmen are made from baby socks (white for the body and colored for the hats) stuffed with rice (which Chase was an expert at and kept him very focused) and then decorated with googlie eyes and a scrap-fabric scarf. Ta da!

The cutest snowmen around. 

Day 213 | The Sight of Christmas

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Our tree is all decorated. The lights are in place (thanks, Chris), the ornaments are hung (thanks Mom, Chase, Robbe, and Chris), and some of the ornaments have been ripped down again (thanks, Robbe).

And, we added a new train (well, very old train, actually) to our tree set up this year. So excited to add this treasure from Chris's family to our family tradition. 

Day 212 | Festive Artwork

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My latest craft...are you getting sick of these posts yet? I'm not!

I found these canvases at Michael's at a three for one price so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some holiday art. Here's what I came up with. I might add another layer but you get the idea. I'm pretty pleased about how it turned out. 

Now to find the perfect place to hang them. Challenge accepted. 

Day 208 | Handprint Turkeys

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Chase has been busy making lots of different versions of the classic handprint turkey.

The two on the left are crafts he did with me (one is going to be part of our Thanksgiving table setting and the other was a Thanksgiving card). The one on the right is from a placemat he made at school. Let's just say he was practically an expert at that point. The prayer he says before snack is included. Hearing him say it is about the cutest thing ever. 

Day 206 | Fall Isn't Over

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The warmer temperatures today (and forecasted for tomorrow!) served as a reminder that Fall isn't over yet. Even though we're definitely in the holiday spirit around this house (Chase is already on his holiday book kick, after all), we broke out of the house today and enjoyed some quality outdoor time.

After playing at the park, we filled two landscape bags full of leaves and it looks like we didn't make a dent. For what it's worth, a toddler using a shovel to "help" rake isn't really that helpful. I was surprised, too. 

Day 205 | The Sound of Christmas

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I held off another two weeks, but decided today was the day to break out the Christmas music. Here's our first (but hopefully not last) family Christmas dance party of the season.

Chase selected, Frosty the Snoman for Robbe's first Christmas song. Probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but I let it go. See? I'm flexible.

Day 204 | Favorite Things Tees

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One of my craft project Christmas presents I've been dying to cross off my list is this fun faux screen printing project. I made both boys favorite things t-shirts using freezer paper and fabric paint.

Here's the tutorial I followed. It's super easy and a quick craft that leads to a great sense of accomplishment. I made Chase a fish tee with this process last year and he wore it a ton. It actually went through the wash just fine. Shocking, I know.

As you can see, Chase's favorite thing right now? Trains, excuse me, "choo choos." And Robbe? Shoes. It's almost an addiction the way he beelines for them. 

Day 203 | Happy Hunting

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As most of my family back in Wisconsin heads out on their annual deer hunting adventure, let me say three things:

1. Be safe. 
2. See lots of deer (notice I just said "see").
3. Have fun. 

I've never been a part of this tradition (I was never the type to enjoy sitting outside in 20 degree weather and using an outhouse), but I love that my dad and brothers take part in it. It makes me happy without even being there. 

Special note: the face of the deer above is my palm, in case you can't figure it out. 

Day 202 | Like a Sponge

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It's amazing what a little mind absorbs at this age. Just in the past few weeks Chase is learning so much. And before you think we've been holed up running flash cards, I have to admit that I've done practically nothing to encourage his new spurt of knowledge. Here's what he's caught on to (and the method of/reason for the learning):

  1. States: thanks to a lovely placemat, Chase can now identify 19 states and the District of Columbia.  He can also differentiate between Washington, D.C. and Washington state. This is beyond impressive to me since I was *ahem* much older when I grasped this concept. 
  2. Spelling: Chase dug out our Bananagrams game the other night, Chris spelled out M-O-M, and all of a sudden he's into spelling. Here's his list so far (pictured above). 
  3. Telling time: ok, he's more just identifying numbers on the clock but he started asking about when Chris would be home so I recently began answering with "when the little hand points to 6." Now we eat with the clock at the table and every so often (about every five minutes, you might guess), he shouts, with enthusiasm, "it's [the big hand] touching the 4 [or whatever number]!" 

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: he's probably a genius (she says with a wink).