Odds and Ends

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the girls have kept busy wrapping, making presents and, most recently, putting together a beautiful gingerbread house.

Elizabeth wrapped (and made) all of her own presents. 

Working on Christmas ornaments for our family.

Their very own gingerbread house.

They were both very good with the details.

Finishing touches.

Where in the House is Nick: Week Three

Nick found some unique hiding places during his third week in our home:

Nick was on Emily's bureau on Monday morning.... 

...And in her stocking on Tuesday morning - I think he wanted Emily to know that Santa had his eye on her....

On Wednesday morning, Nick was hidden in one of the living room curtains - probably to keep warm, as it was so cold outside. 

On Thursday morning, Nick was peaking out from the Christmas cards on our mantel garland.

On Friday morning, Nick was "camouflaging" in the poinsettia.

On Saturday morning, Nick quickly hid in our 1/2 bath (Lee almost caught him on his way back from the North Pole).

On Sunday morning, Nick was on our coat rack.

Pre-K Christmas Celebration

On Friday, Emily's pre-school class held its Christmas celebration.  They sang songs, recited poems and did a cute version of the Christmas alphabet.  Emily was responsible for the letters "L" and "M" - and wouldn't you know, "L" is for Lambie....or close enough.  She did a great job when it came to her letters and was so adorable.  Auntie Kathy and Uncle Peter made the trip down to see her performance and she was very excited to see them, too.

Emily was very excited to see all of us.

Reciting a Christmas poem - with animation! 

Her turn at the microphone....

Straight Out of Their Mouths

- "It's going to take you TWO HOURS to run the 1/2 marathon?!  It takes two hours to drive to New Hampshire."  Thank you for your support, Elizabeth.
- "Can we get a minivan?"  No.  "But they are soooooo awesome!!!"  It's a good thing that the girls are not in charge of our car purchases.
- "We're eating Wilbur!" grinned Elizabeth one Sunday morning as she stuffed bacon into her mouth.  I'm glad that reading Charlotte's Web hasn't turned her into a vegetarian....
- "Halloween is over.  Next up - Thanksgiving!"  Not that these kids are in a rush to get to Christmas or anything.
- "I LOVE to eat!"  Not surprising, really, considering the genes.
- "Daddy, will you read to me?"  "No."  "Why not?  You're just sitting there doing nothing."  A very observant Emily just will not let Lee catch a little nap.
- "I don't want to go out to eat if I can't have dessert.  I would rather stay home.  I LOVE dessert!!"  Elizabeth knows what she wants and she's willing to turn down dinner at Chili's in order to have a cookie for dessert.
- "Daddy and Mommy are the King and the Queen and I'm the loyal princess."  Elizabeth has our family hierarchy down pat.
- "Mom!  Rudy's drinking out of Elliot's water dish and spreading germs!!"  Already an excellent tattletaler (she takes after her mother, clearly), Elizabeth even tells on the poor dogs.  To her credit, however, Rudy was sick when he was drinking from Rudy's water and she truly was concerned that he would get Elliot sick as well.
- "Emily is a playing machine and I am a sleeping machine."  Well, not really, but for the first couple of weeks after we turned back the clocks, this was actually true.
- "Mummy, you know that the people in the tv can't hear you, right?"  Emily pointed this out to me when I was talking back to Kayne West, who was being interviewed on the Today Show.
 - "We can't move to New Hampshire.  You and Daddy can't buy another house - it's too expensive.  At least $300."  At least.
- "Mummy, we had a meeting at lunch today too," said Elizabeth after listening to me tell Lee about something that happened at work.  "What did you talk about?" I asked.  "Well, it went kind of like this: blah blah blah blah blah blah....."  It looks like Elizabeth is already qualified to work at an insurance company....
- "I wonder what Santa will bring me...."  Emily is still at that wonderful age where she doesn't want anything and opens every gift with delight.  Elizabeth, on the other hand, knows exactly what she wants.
- "If I pray on a Christmas tree, will my prayer come true?" Elizabeth already knows that it's better to pray than wish.
- "Do you know how God makes the moon?  He takes the fire out of the sun, puts it back in the volcano and then pushes it [the sun] into the dark sky."  Emily has a wonderfully creative mind.
- "I'm afraid I'm not going to get anything from Santa," Emily wailed.  When asked why, she responded "because I haven't been very good...."
- "Next year, I'm going to be Mary," proclaimed Elizabeth, after attending her first Christmas pageant rehearsal.  Aim high, kid.
"Do you know how God makes it snow?  He cuts a hole in the moon, scoops out the snow and then pours it over the earth."  Again with the creativity.
- "I am Mary and Lambie is the new born king...."  The Christmas pageant really got to Emily.
- "Boy, they've really pulled the wool over everyone's eyes."  I couldn't resist adding this one, which Lee said.  This was after a week of pageant rehearsals and a parent teacher conference in which just about everyone we came in contact with told us how unbelievably great Elizabeth and Emily are.....

Believe

As the girls get older, we struggle to make certain that they understand that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus more than about Santa.  Their participation in our church pageant really aided our efforts this year and we have noticed that they have a renewed interst in the Advent Calendar as well as the creche (the one in our house and the ones at church and Sunday school).  I am hopeful that they are beginning to understand that to Believe has as much to do with Santa as it does with the true miracle of the season.

Emily loves to look at the mini Creche we have at our house. 

The advent calendar (which is also a version of the Creche) is a morning must. 

Emily's turn.... 

Christmas with Grammy and Grampy

Last weekend, Grammy and Grampy came down to visit and exchange Christmas presents with us.  Usually, we exchange presents in January, but they are spending the month in Arizona, so we had to do things a little bit early.  The girls loved getting some Christmas presents extra early and they especially loved their gifts.  We had such a great time with Grammy and Grampy.

Emily got a new game for her Leapster. 

Elizabeth opening her presents. 

Emily reading a new Knuffle Bunny book. 

Cutest little elf.

Elizabeth and Grampy watch as Emily masters her new game. 

Lee got some new lifting gear. 

Grammy and Elizabeth read the directions for her new (grown-up) camera. 

This video is funny for so many reasons.

Winter Iron Domination

Below is a video of The Refuge's enormous success on Sunday.  If you are not interested in watching the entire video, you should at least skip ahead to the last 15-20 seconds or so.

Winter Iron

On Sunday, Lee and several other members of Team Refuge competed in the Winter Iron meet in Wallingford, Connecticut.  The team did great - every member that competed brought home at least one trophy, which is such a great thing for The Refuge.  Lee dominated the submaster push/pull once again, benching 385 lbs and dead lifting 550 lbs, a new personal best.  It will be a quite a while before the team competes again, but it was a great way to close out 2010.  Congratulations to Lee and his teammates!

Lee and Nick 

385 Bench 

Spotting one of his teammates. 

550 Deadlift 

With Emily during the awards presentation. 

Team Refuge

385 lb Bench

550 lb Deadlift

Where in the House is Nick: Week Two

Nick's adventures from week two in our home:

Monday - on the headboard of the guest room bed.

Tuesday - on the shelf in the living room.

Wednesday - in Elizabeth's stocking.

Thursday - on the bookshelf in the sun room.

Friday - high up on the curtain rod over the kitchen window (so Grampy wouldn't touch him!).

Saturday - on the dining room curtains.

Sunday - in the hallway mirror.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Our home is beginning to look more festive every day.  Now if only we could get a little snow....

Hanging some of her special ornaments. 

Emily hangs her tap shoes. 

As the girls get older, we can finally get rid of some of our crappy ornaments (that we didn't care if they broke) and replace them with nice ones.  This year, I bought us each an ornament to represent our interests - the girls picked theirs out, and then they picked out mine and Lee's.  Emily loves tap. 

Elizabeth picked swimming. 

I, obviously, love to run.

And Lee loves to lift (poor Lee - he was not as excited about this ornament as we were about ours). 

The decorated tree - smaller than last year, but still fills the room. 

Here's where we could use some snow....

Candy Cane Hill 2010

Last weekend, we made our annual trek up Candy Cane Hill at the Jones Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree.  In the days leading up to our trip, Lee mentioned several times that we simply could not get a tree as big as last year's - that the roof rack on our truck (which we didn't have last year) would not hold the weight, that he didn't have anyone to help him with the tree once we got home and that last year's tree was simply too, too big for our house.  I am ashamed to say that I relented - but only a bit.  We still got a huge tree, but it is just a bit smaller than the 2009 tree.

Heading for Candy Cane Hill. 

The perfect tree. 

  

Hauling the tree. 

   

Elizabeth and Frosty.  Emily wouldn't go within 50 yards of him....