Eli verses Gingerbread

Behold Eli's gingerbread house invaded by mutant, zombie gummy bears! It was not an easy task to wield the gingerbread or the mutant zombie gummy bears to his will, but Eli was valiant and courageous in his quest and he was triumphant.

In the beginning there was a boy with a vision. A vision of a gingerbread house that he and his mother planned to make from scratch. They found a recipe and purchased ingredients but those ingredients sat in the dark cupboard and in the back of the refrigerator forgotten for most of December until one evening around10pm just a week before Christmas the boy said to his mother, "Mommy, remember we were going to make a gingerbread house?" And the mother looked up from her book (or perhaps it was her knitting) and said, "That's right my dear boy, we need to get to work," or something like that. And that is what they did and it looked a little something this...

Eli the next day after he put the finishing touches on his Gingerbread house, meaning he skewered a couple more mutant zombie gummy bears with toothpicks.

Later on in the week Hannah and Jerusha, inspired by Eli's gingerbread house made houses of their own.

On Dasher...to Christmas

Do you sense the anticipation of the most wonderful time of the year? Christmas Morning when the house is full of joy and cheer and the groaning of a teenager as she collapses  upon the ground spent from the effort of climbing the stairs from her basement bedroom to join the family at the early hour of 10am.

It's CHRISTMAS!

Eli still eats the wrapping paper. (Not Really).

Jerusha contemplates her gifts from Chonie Clause.

Baconny Goodness!

 After opening stockings and gifts from Santa - also known as Chonie Clause because of his tradition of bringing a new pair of underwear (known in our home as chonies) for each of us - we take a break to indulge in a new Christmas tradition,

CHRISTMAS BLT's!

 I'm interrupting Christmas morning with a flashback to Christmas Eve when I was introduced to Daisy. As Eli put it, "At first Daisy was a little creepy and freaked me out but she's really quite beautiful." So it was not long after we arrived at Paul's home for our traditional Christmas Eve gathering that Daisy was  crawling in my palm and I have to say that I had warm fuzzies holding her, literally.

Back to Christmas Morning...
and it looked a little something like me tackling Jerusha. Okay, that is pretty much what happend. I mislabeled a present for Hannah with the name of my other daughter, "Jerusha". I realized my mistake too late, that is after Jerusha opened her art pencils and I realized Hannah did not have her art pencil shaped wrapped package in her unopened gift pile. I did ask first, sweetly, for the mislabeled gift. Jerusha refused stating, "If it has my name on it, the gift is mine." So I demanded, to which Jerusha replied, "The gift has my name, it's mine," and she snatched the gift pressing it protectively to her chest. So that is the exact moment I pounced, leaping over gifts, crumpled wrapping paper and a small child named Eli to tackle Jerusha in the attempt to wrestle the gift out of her clutches forgetting that she regularly wrestles with her father and fights dirty - biting, scratching, and kicking. So as you can see, our festive morning was interrupted by a... Beat-Beat match!
A special thanks to Aric for capturing this beautiful moment - Jerusha kicking my bum, which for the record hurt, real bad!

So may your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmases be full of 

collapsing teenagers, 

new chonies, 

baconny goodnes, 

warm fuzzies, 

which all equals 

a totally butt kickin' celebration!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Presenting...HALLOWEEN

Behold, th Lion Tamer.

Every Lion Tamer needs a lion.

 Presenting a most anticipated event...

Halloween 2011.

Halloween Pizzas

 On Hallween, Jerusha kicked us -Aric, Hannah, Eli and me (Mom) -out of our house so she could host a private, invitation only, she-she event...
Jerusha's Teenage Halloween Party. So after work and school, Eli, Hannah, and I hustled out the door to our own party with the Reads. It was scary to leave our home in the hands of six 13 year old teens, horrifying actually, but it is Halloween!? Jerusha had her party planned, the pizza on the table, drinks in the fridge, teenagers in every room transitioning to frightening monsters, or did they arrive that way??? Hmmmm....and with a hug, kiss, and a promise to call me every hour she shoved me out the door.  She dazzled all of he friends with her party hostess drill sergeant style, "Move it, move it, move it, we have 13 minutes to change, inhale pizza, and hit the streets for candy!" I would like to add that Jerusha had spent the previous week on a reconnaissance mission, biking the neighborhood, scoping out Trick-or-Treat routes. Judging by the full pillow-cases, the mission was a success.

Eli! Willow! Look behind you!

Bloody hands that will soon be in the punch.

At our own party, we made Halloween pizzas and drank bloody punch with frozen floating bloody hands. It was disgustingly delicious! After our first round of pizzas it was time to take "Duck-Girl" and "Eye-Girl" trick-or-treating.

Could that be "Eye-Girl" and "Duck-Girl"? Why yes, I do declare it is.

Oh look, an unguarded bowl of candy. Eye girl, you be the look out and I will hide the candy in my bill. Wonder twin trick-or-treat duo trick-and-treat.

Snowy was forced to join in the Halloween festivities.

After a few hours running around in the dark and taking candy from strangers, it was time to inspect the loot. 

So you are wondering, as I thought you would: who is "Duck-Girl" and "Eye-Girl"? I will reveal the identity of our two characters: "Duck-Girl" is not a girl, but Eli and he is not a duck, but an Army Penguin! And "Eye-Girl" you ask? Well she is a she and none other than Willow, but the "Girl" who is a girl is not an "Eye-Girl" but a...look at the picture closely, the red on her black sweatshirt is a clue...

a black widow!

And finally if you are wondering why I referred to these two trick-or-treaters in quotation marks, well I will tell you the tale. On a Halloween Night two unsuspecting children in homemade costumes made in part with their very own hands, knocked upon the door of a very old house and when the door opened there stood before them a very old lady who had a very loud voice. When she saw these two little characters she exclaimed, "Well look who we have here! It is Duck Girl and Eye Girl!" And so born from that ear piercing, heart pounding exclamation were two amazing super heroes: "Duck-Girl" and "Eye-Girl" endowed with the super power to dazzle strangers in the night, one "girl" armed with a bill, the other "girl" armed with eyes, and both destined to receive hand fulls of sugary goodness! 

And to all a good night....

oops, wrong holiday.

BOO!

Hannah's Violin Recital

 Hannah had her first violin recital on December 6, 2011 at our friend's, the Reads, home with Willow, a violin student, and Mara, a cello student. All three girls have been studying with Deborah the past 6 months.

Hannah playing Lightly Row with Deborah.

Hannah also played a French folk song.

We were all very proud of Hannah and were delighted to gather in recognition of Hannah's, Willow's, and Mara's hard work and dedication. It was a lovely musical evening shard with family and dear friends.

A special thank you to the Read family for hosting and to Deborah!