Christmas 2008

Christmas Morning with the Boys

xoxoxo
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We had an awesome Christmas here Chez Sullivan, though it was a minimalistic one. (On our end... not exactly so for our overwhelmingly generous friends and family, as you can tell by all the gifts under the tree!!) We were taken aback, to put it mildly.

On Christmas Eve, we took the kids for a drive to look at lights after our dinner of leftovers... (the leftovers are not typically a holiday tradition, but you never know how these things start! haha) Everyone got into their Xmas jams and we piled into the car. It's always a good way to chill everybody out a little before they get into bed for the long night of waiting! We saw lots of pretty lights, but we always have our favorite neighborhood that looks like this:

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When we got home, the kids quickly checked in online with the Norad Santa Tracker before zipping up to bed... About thirty minutes later, Owen was downstairs again to ask us to leave the house alarm off because he was waiting for The Polar Express and didn't want to set off the alarm when he opened the front door to board the train. *giggle* After he was safely back in bed, Skip and I enjoyed a few christmas cocktails and watched Fred Claus whilst finishing up our Christmas preparations.

Christmas Eve Treat:
Chocolate Cake Cordials
mmmmm
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Oscar's picture for Santa-
left with the milk and cookies
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We were up again much earlier than I would have cared for (and as you can probably see by the picture of the boys and I... not exactly feeling my most lively in that photo!) Oscar didn't buy anyone an inappropriate gift this year, which I must admit I really missed... (See Decembers 2007 - the lacy panties year- and 2006- the girly outfit for Rocco year) but both the boys did a great job buying gifts for the family, anyway!

Oz & Owen giving hugs after swapping gifts with each other
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Both Owen and Oscar insisted that no one open gifts until they had ample opportunity to search for evidence of Santa's presence at the house... Oscar came downstairs armed with a magnifying glass! We didn't find a lot (Santa is pretty stealthy) but we did see some ashen bootprints near the hearth... along with little, chewed bits of carrot in the snow in the backyard... and some tiny glimmers of fairy dust that shimmered in the early morning sunlight! Oscar brought in a leaf that appeared to have some sparkly dust still on it and demanded a photo:

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Wrapping paper from Oscar
for his clay coil pot he and I
made together in art class-
he gave it to us all for Xmas
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Christmas Crazies
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Rocco
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That's all Skip right there :)
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Lola got banished to the deck when she
continued to open everyone's gifts without permission...
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But she didn't mind when we let her have her
special bone from her cousin Dave!
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Now some other Holiday Photos...

Rocco attempting to peek into
the advent calendar house
The boys all rotate days and it was not his turn!
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Rocco digging his new bathtub bubble machine
from Grandma and Papa
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Peppy with Uncle Skip
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Rocco and Penelope at our family christmas celebration
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**Some of you may have received duplicate invitations for access to the blog- sorry about that. Technical glitch. Since the original invitations have expired, I was sending invites to those of you who haven't been able to access the blog but who might like to read.**

A Fond Farewell, One Degree and Two More Days

Cute Xmas card from Keall and fam this year!
(front and inside)
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We've been a whirlwind of activity lately. Most of which involves either the boys' Christmas concerts (adorable!) and/or me frantically finishing craft gifts. However, we did have to say goodbye to Skip's grandfather Daniel last week, so that forced us to slow down. He was a truck driver for a local grocery store chain and he was a proud member of the Million Mile Club. (That's a lot of time in a truck!) Grampa was super sweet and I just adored him.

Skip & I with Grampa at his 80th birthday party
(two years ago)
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However, as is so often the case when you have kids, you aren't allowed to wallow for too long since kids' schedules continue whether you like it or not!

Oscar had his first Christmas concert on Friday and he was too cute. He's a little on the shorter side so he was in the front row and easy to spot. (The doctor likes to say Oscar is a square, since his weight is about the same in pounds as his height is in inches.) Anyway, he was too cute- sandwiched in between two girls in his class. They performed the same show as Owen's wing of the school, which was called "Melton, the Warm-Hearted Snowman." ("We'll call him 'Melton' cause that's just what he'll do!") Owen had several speaking lines in it, which he performed with a small amount of enthusiasm... You'd never have known how excited he was for the show or how much he loves singing to watch him, but he was pretty proud of himself up there and so were we.

from Aunt Laura and Uncle Butch-
a picture of their bunny, Luna, decked out as an angel
The kids loved this one!
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We had a great "holiday" with my parents and sister and her family this weekend... And, as usual, it was all the smaller stuff that brought the kids the most joy. Someday we'll get smart and just stuff the tree with matchbox cars and be done with it!

Last night we had a delicious lobster and steak dinner with friends at their house- yummmm. We swapped gifts and drank wine and couldn't have had a nicer time. Rocco was thrilled to have a fresh selection of construction vehicles and cars to play with, so he kept himself pretty entertained for most of the evening- awesome!

So, I'm always a fan of having a white Christmas, but this is just overkill. It's one degree outside at the moment and the deck has about 18" of snow on it. I've already shoveled it twice in the last week and I'm putting off doing it again until this afternoon. I'd put it off longer, but it's supposed to rain tonight and I don't want to deal with that. At least at the moment it's pretty light and fluffy. Just a whole lot of it! Bleck.

Well, I should beat it now since I still have wrapping to do and this is the kids' last day of school before vacation. I'll be bringing cookies to Oscar's class party this afternoon, too. His teacher invited me to attend, saying "Please join us at our celebration on Tuesday. It's sure to be a hectic affair." Sounds like a cry for help, doesn't it?

Hope you're enjoying the merriment of the season where you are and that you can feel the love coming from our house to yours!

from Oscar's 2nd- grade, school reading buddies
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Let the Christmas Card Parade Begin

One of today's cards...
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First, let me thank you, Darling Readers, for being so kind as to not mention my lack of posts in recent weeks. Months. Who's counting?!

Next... let me apologize for having such a lengthy absence only to finally return with such a brief post now. Let me set the scene for you, though: it's late (11:30pm, if you're wondering...) I'm tired and coughing... I'm supposed to be volunteering in Oz's class in the morning... and I'm afraid if I don't just get something up here tonight, then it will never happen at all. So, I'm keeping it short and sweet here- in hopes that it's just enough to jar my typing fingers back into action!

I have been obviously remiss in keeping you apprised of this year's Christmas advent calendar from Mom & Dad... But I'll tell you about what was behind today's door anyway. The calendar scene is a very jolly and cute Santa kickin' back in his armchair by the Christmas tree. Door #10 happens to be Santa's boots- I lifted it up to reveal Santa's stocking feet underneath... Red & white striped socks with green heels and a hole in one big toe. Very cute.

I think I'll randomly select a different Christmas card to highlight each time I write between now and Christmas. (I'm being optimistic and planning to write at least a few more times between now and then!) So far we've received 7 Christmas cards... A slow start to the season, but that's the way it always goes! There will be a mad rush of them in another five days or so!

Today's card is from Skip's folks... They sent each of the boys their own Christmas card, too. Very cute!

Hope you're getting plenty of holiday cards where you are, too.

xoxo k.