Christmas Cheer

Christmas concert tonight.  M and three classmates (and friends).

PUZZLE!!

This one's for Noelle, who got the kids this 3000 (!!) piece puzzle for Christmas.  It took us about 12 days, fully admitting that Mark and I did spend some late nights unable to stop obsessively searching and sorting the pieces.  Have you ever dreamed in puzzle pieces?  Next up: 1000 piece Sunday in the Park.  No big whup.

Some December doings...

So it's been a month since I posted.  Sorry!  It was the holidays, ya'll, plus I was working on a new venture: becoming a partner/co-owner with my pal/colleague Jenny at Studio Z!  So I am now a small business co-owner!  So I'll be making even less money!!  Ha!  But I am thrilled to join Jenny and so glad she agreed to have me join her.  We've kinda been partners anyway, so now it's official.  I think we are a good pair...she is the creative ideas woman, and I take care of details.  Whee!!

I already posted about M4's bday, but we also had M3's choir and band concert in December.  None of my photos turned out, so here is one a friend took with M3 in full voice:

I also took terrible pictures at Christmas, and I succeeded in taking none of Nana and Boppa who made the trek here to spend the holidays with us.  What is up with me and photography?  Ugh!  It was a muted Christmas, because M4 developed an extremely high fever and was fighting it for days.  Not much fun.  But he recovered in time to back to school, poor kid.  We did manage an afternoon of ice skating in Iowa City, but that was about it for the fun stuffs.  Here is a bad Christmas photo:

 And here is a cute photo of M3 in her gift from cousin V.  Stylin'!!

Christmas

Yay! for Christmas! We had a good one! There was the PERFECT Christmas Eve snow...falling gently all day, warm enough to play outside. The only downside: it wasn't sticky enough to make snowmen. But that didn't stop M & M from creating an elaborate "kitty town" in the backyard with paths and storage areas, etc.
Christmas morning!
M3 with her big present: an iPod Nano with touch screen! Woot woot! I must say, the touch screen is pretty cool! It's much nicer than her Shuffle: she can make playlists and store photos.
Rumpus with his gift: a water fountain! Maybe he'll keep his grubby mitts off the counters now.
One of M4's gifts (although not his "big" gift which was a Playmobil Pyramid. It is wicked awesome.). But the Rock-em Sock-em Robots are pretty fun, too!
It was lovely to be home for Christmas morning. We had a relaxing day and then had our friends who had been in DC for the fall semester over for Christmas dinner. The day after Christmas we headed to KC to hang with everyone, which was ever so fun....and I forgot my camera. Gah! Will have to get some pics from my moms to post. Suffice it to say, it was great to play with cousins and aunts and uncles, to play games, to consume massive quantities of booze and sweets, and to enjoy the warm weather in KC which allowed M & M to use their new scooters and us all the get outside and play!!

I got new poles for my XC skis and am now impatiently waiting for the snow to ski on!!

Down with the crankies! Up with the tree!

OK, got some Christmas shopping done...hope to finish most of it this week so as to actually enjoy the rest of the holiday. My friend Andrea joked with me about forming a "Less is More" support group, but I am all for it!! I feel like one of the few people on the planet not getting all electronics for their kids. I know there are others of us out there...we must band together.

M3 had her first swim meet last Saturday and did a great job! It's always fun to watch her swim. The next meet is at home in Grinnell College's gorgeous new pool. I will definitely try to get some pictures. After the meet, we went and got our tree at our new favorite Christmas tree farm:
Deer: "Whaddya you lookin' at?!"
Reindeer like apples!

Not enough snow for the toboggan, but they tried!