Go Wings . . Go Wild? . . .Go Wings!

I love hockey. I played hockey in high school and am trying my best to get my kid to like it too. I dream about being a hockey mom. One of the best perks about my jobs is getting to go "work" at the Wild hockey games -- which basically means we get great seats (Ken gets to come too), I get a pass that gets me ANYWHERE in the arena (I haven't been able to find the locker rooms yet, though believe me, I've tried), and once in awhile I have to go see a patient and decide whether they need to go to the hospital or now. My average number of patients over the last 3 games? zero. I work hard. I love , love, love the games -- watching them skate, everyone yelling, mini donuts and kielbasa, cheering for fights. I love hockey.

I finally, finally got to see a Red Wings game for the first time in my life, when they played the Wild a week ago. They are so amazing to watch -- I can't tell you how excited I was (I'm a total dork, I know). The only problem was -- who to cheer for? The team I followed as a kid or the team I cheer for now? Mostly, I just yelled for everyone. Ken wore his Red Wings sweat shirt so that kind of made up for it. But I was secretly a little pleased that the Wings came out on top!

We were all very, very good.

We certainly must have all made the nice list, because Santa was very, very good to our family this year. I feel blessed and very, very spoiled.

Here's what Santa brought:
Luke -- a car garage that a very cute elf built in our basement. This is all he wanted for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa have one that he has loved ever since he was a year old. They brought it to our house last year for Christmas and it was all he played with. Last Christmas, we were all sitting around visiting watching a lovely snowfall outside and all of a sudden Luke exclaimed "Look, mommy! It's so beautiful!" The snow? no. The lights on the Christmas tree? no. He was staring in awe at all of his cars lined up in little, neat rows parked in the car garage. So know we have our own. And the best part? It folds up like a toy box. Thanks to elf Danica for the painting job. He also got trains, Cars slippers, and some great clothes.

Evie - baby toys and a ton of great outfits (maybe more a present for Mommy!)

Ken -- a Wii! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Walton! I was sort of anti-video games -- right up until I played Guitar Hero. I'm seriously addicted. I love it. So now we have a Wii. It's so, so fun.

Me -- a great purse from my hubby (does he know me or what?). Plus some Seven jeans (which he got on great sale but I would still only drool over and never buy for myself. I really, really love them). My folks brought us the Wii (thanks again -- really, really, really), my own set of tools from my in-laws, a great sweater.

Thanks again, everyone. We are very, very spoiled!

Why we love Christmas (but we're also glad it's over!)

Instead of many Christmas blogs, I have one huge, gigantic one. Complete with about a million pictures. I won't be offended if you fall asleep half way through it!

To start off, a few random pics:

Luke and Evie with cousin Ryan

Yay for cute, matching pajamas -- a first year tradition that I think we'll be keeping.

Now for the list, why we love Christmas:

- We got to see everyone (I mean everyone!) in our family. Ken's parents came last weekend, then my parents and sisters came over Christmas. Luke loves, loves, loves his grandparents. And we basically had a week straight of presents! Luke was so sad when my parents left today, he was in tears. There isn't anyone who can hold a candle to Grandma in that boy's eyes.

Evie with Grandparents Walton

Luke and Kevin posing with Grandma Barringer

- It came with snow (and lots of it). In my opinion, if it's going to be cold, we may as well have snow. Which left plenty of opportunity for sledding (the big snow plow pile makes a perfect 3-year-old sled run), snowballs, and showing our Floridian grandparents why they should miss the snow too.


- We only had two fires in the kitchen. Yes, that may be 2 more than last year (or any other year, really). But there were only 2. We lost a blue plastic plate in one (it was stuck to the bottom of a kettle. It really just melted, but there were actual flames so I think it counts). The second was full on grease fire in the bottom of the oven -- which filled our kitchen with smoke and gave the fire alarm a work-out. But hey, at least our fire extinguisher works! And Ken only made a few comments about my cooking.


- Our first real Santa experience was a hit. Luke was so excited on Christmas eve he was literally running in circles and spinning in break-dancer manner on the floor. He got really into Santa this year and was excited to leave out the milk and cookies. My super-stylish Mom made it a tradition to have very fancy, coordinating "Santa wrapping paper" which basically meant that all the gifts from Santa had their own wrapping paper. A tradition she tried to get rid of when my sis was 13 (putting me right around 18) but we would have none of it. It continued till we all graduated from high school. And now, the "Santa paper" lives on in my house.


- We ate great food and visited with great people. Thanks to Stacey for more great desserts! (Check out her blog for some recipes). I think I've now had my 2nd or 3rd dinner with at least 20 people in the house in the last 2 weeks. Another gift from my mother -- the entertaining bug. I really do enjoy it and love to have our filled with people and laughter.


- Our first Christmas as a family of 4 -- Evie was a huge fan of the shiny ribbon and silver wrapping paper. Plus, she looked like the little princess she is in her collection of great Christmas dresses.


- My kids learned a little about Jesus. We did a family home evening on Christmas eve with little puppets of the nativity and talked about Christ. Luke especially enjoyed being the shepherd. I hope he can remember at least a little bit what it's all about.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I am, however, a little pleased to be going to bed in our house with only our little family, knowing that I can keep my pajamas on as long as I want tomorrow and I don't have to go anywhere near the mall for a long, long time.

Santa Claus is Comin'

We took all the kids (ours plus cousins Kevin and Ethan plus Stacey's kids) to the mall to see Santa with Grandma and Grandpa Barringer and they were champions. This is Luke's approximately 3rd time to see him this year, but as I didn't have any pictures yet (what?) I convinced him (by telling him Santa might forget what he wanted - still a car garage with cars and trucks) that he needed one more trip to see the jolly old man. This was really one of the best Santas I've ever seen.

Evelyn spent most of her time just staring at him with this sort of "what in the world are you?" face -- but no screaming. A little flash back to Luke 3 years ago (and just a few key weeks older). Aaaah, I can almost hear the wails. Wait, I can really hear wailing. Maybe I should go check that out . . .

We love to party!

The Holiday Party last weekend turned out to be an absolute blast. Really, really fun. There are a ton of work people there (and I'm conviced that ER people are the best to work with!) and a great cover band that played a lot of good tunes. I work with a great group of girls and we had fun just dancin' the night away. Plus, I was finally able to convince Ken (whose folks got into town that evening) to come up after everyone went to bed and we got to do a little dancing -- something we haven't done for a while. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the red shoes. But they were fabulous, trust me! Party on, everyone.

What to wear: Christmas Party

My work is having a (sort of) swanky Christmas party tomorrow night and I'm having the "what to wear that's appropriate but still looks sort of cocktail-ish" dilemma. I have looked everywhere under the sun for something that works and finally am back to this dress that I bought for graduation last year. Kind of a jersey knit that fits really well but definitely needs a little dressing up.



I feel like I could spice it up with these shoes from Target (check out their new Hollywould line -- they have some great, cheap stuff!).

Now I need a couple of good jewelry pieces. Any suggestions?

Christmas Pics

Here are the Christmas pictures of the kids, from in front of our Christmas Tree last Sunday. I took literally 200 pictures and had approximately 2 where they were both looking at the camera and actually smiling. Yay for digital photography. Seriously, what did we do before this? I can't even remember.

The first snowfall of the winter

This is the best part of winter -- the first snow fall. And it was a pretty good one -- 6 or 8 inches over 2-3 days. Luke is finally old enough to really, really enjoy playing in it and is so excited to get outside. The snowplow makes a huge pile in the middle of the road -- perfect for sledding down and playing "king of the mountain." He's also got a great arm and spent about 45 minutes chucking snowballs at me while I chased him around with the camera. For about the next 3-4 weeks, I love living in Minnesota. I love the snow and I don't mind (well tolerate, really) the cold. Of course, in February I'll be kicking myself. But for now, it's great.

Throwing the perfect snowball:

The wind-up (including cheesy mommy-I'm-going-to-get-you grin):

Midair:

Watch that follow-through:

Totally a baseball star of the future.

One fluffy puppy

10 months going on 16

I can'believe she will be a year old so soon. She's already got a little attitude -- which I think is why she won't crawl. I think she really could, as she can rock back and forth on all fours and scoot herself backwards when she's really mad -- but instead she lays her head on the floor, looks up at you pathetically, and starts wailing. Really wailing. I have never seen such a cuddly, hold-me-now-how-dare-you-put-me-down sort of girl. I do secretly love it :) I really meant to take some 9 month photos but somehow life has been CRAZY and I have never made it to JCPenney to do it. Here are some pics shot on our couch a few days ago -- I think these will have to do!

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Countdown Till Christmas

I love advent calendars. I think it stems from all the chocolate-filled cardboard advent calendars we used to open as a kid. We have a big wall hanging one you put candy in that I got from Pottery Barn Kids on a great sale a couple of years ago but I really wanted another one. Then I came across this idea on a blog -- basically you take envelopes and fill them with different activities. I like this because it really focuses on us doing things together as a family and getting our little kids into the spirit of Christmas. Luke was so excited that he snuck out of his room early a few days ago and opened ALL of the envelopes. But luckily he can't read yet so it didn't spoil anything. He loves it -- and that's the point, right?

I downloaded the template on line and used my scrapbooking scraps to make the envelopes. Then I just hung it on a ribbon on our piano.

Here are the activities we're doing:

1. Have fun at a Christmas party and tell Santa what you want for Christmas.
2. Write letters to Santa
3. Buy a toy for a child in need
4. Read Christmas stories
5. Play Christmas music and dance around the kitchen
6. Draw Christmas pictures to send to Grandma and Grandpa
7. Watch a Christmas movie together
8. Go visit Mommy at work and eat cookies together
9. It’s family game night!
10. Candlelit dinner together
11. Make Christmas cookies together
12. Take Christmas cookies to the neighbors
13. Pick out a favorite stuffed animal and Mommy or Daddy will make up a Christmas story
14. Go see the Christmas lights downtown. Don’t forget the hot chocolate!
15. Go outside and throw snowballs at each other
16. Sing Christmas carols together by the piano
17. Bake another batch of Christmas cookies and share with neighbors.
18. Have breakfast for dinner.
19. Make a list of ten things you are thankful for. Hang it where you can see it every day.
20. Make and hang edible gifts for the birds and squirrels.
21. Have a campout around the Christmas tree.
22. Call all of your Grandparents and tell them you love them.
23. Go outside and look at the stars. Have hot chocolate together afterwards.
24. Unwrap one present after dinner (mom and dad get to pick which one) and read the Christmas story.
25. It’s Christmas Day. Remember you have a family who loves you. And that’s the most important gift of all.

You can download the template and get more info here: http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=1244. You still totally have time to do this for the 12 days of Christmas.

Breaking in my new toy

I plopped the baby down in front of the Christmas tree and tried to snap a few photos. I'm mostly using the auto focus setting now, but on my down time at work I've been scouring the web for helpful tips. Maybe I'll get brave enough to break out of auto one of these days. I'd really like to figure out how to get better indoor shots (key in Minnesota - especially this time of year!).

Here are a couple of good ones (at least I think so!)

Mama - razzi

We did it. In the name of "family Christmas present" and via a great deal on Amazon, we got our digital SLR -- a Canon Digital Rebel XT. It is sooooooooo lovely. Of course, I have absolutely no idea how to use it. Okay, all you photographers out there (professional and amateur alike), got any ideas for me? Or at least any good websites/help books/super photographer mentors?

I've been playing around with the autofocus features and have gotten a good start, I think. However I've been home and awake for like 6 hours only every other day this week so I haven't really had time to play much or post the pics. Please someone help!