Christmas

Evie's second Christmas was definitely double the fun! The Tuesday before Christmas Nicole brought Evie her present, a shiny red fire truck to match the one Riley also received for Christmas!


Then on Christmas Eve we headed up to Phoenix, hung out with my family, drank glog and watched bad television...

Christmas itself of course was the main event. Evie woke up to the booty from Santa... a new playground and (as promised) a new doll! After some awesome french toast made by Mina (aka my Mom) we, or rather Evie, opened all of the other presents under the tree. She did a very good job of being the elf... passing out and then opening everyone's presents for them.



Later in the day we went over to my Aunt Betty and Uncle Jim's house for the big Rimsza get together which is always a wonderful chaos. Evie was a bit shy at first but warmed up after awhile. Her favorite parts of the afternoon were my cousin's new dog and the Madeline doll and book my Aunt Betty bought for her.



Evie was so mobile and vocal it is hard to believe it is the same kid as just a year ago... but I imagine I will feel that way every year :)

Winterhaven

How is it that I have lived in Tucson for going on 5 years and it wasn't until this year that I managed to make it to the spectacle that is Winterhaven? All I have to say is thank goodness for children as the motivators to do cheesy holiday stuff because, with Evie as an excuse, I am having a ball this Christmas!

Last night we celebrated the Solstice by going out to dinner with the Erickson clan and then traipsing around Winterhaven. It has to be the most ridiculous (and I mean that in the best way) display of holiday spirit I have ever seen. For those of you who don't know, Winterhaven is a neighborhood in Tucson where every Christmas the whole place is shut down to cars and the people go absolutely nutso with the house decorations. It is such an event that there are even hay and trolley rides through the neighborhood. There were many unique houses but here are my top four: the house completely re-made to look like a gingerbread house, the house with so many lights it looked like it was daytime (on the picture posted here), the house with the phenomenal two story high AIDS ribbon and one story high words HOPE and the house with the timed bellagio style water and lights show. And, because we are just that cool... or rather because our nanny Nicole is just that cool, we got a behind the scenes tour of the water spectacular show house because she is a friend of a friend who lives there. (And we were lucky enough to spot her car as they drove in...)

You would not believe what this guy goes through to put together this house... he starts in September and programs into a computer program a 12 song show with water fountains and lights. He said last night that every song takes him about six hours to put together. It definitely goes down as my favorite random hobby of the year!

For those of you who do not live in Tucson y'all are welcome to come and stay with us sometime and witness this event...they really should put it in that one million things to do before you die book....unbelievable :)

More pictures from Grandma Nicole

Here are the pictures from Grandma Nicole's visit!

Grandma Nicole!

This week Evie had a fabulous treat! Her Grandma came all the way out from Baltimore just to hang out with her all week. They were very busy, lots of trips to the park and library especially. Nicole took some super cute pictures of Genevieve that I will post as soon as I get my little hands on them :)

On Nicole's last night here (she actually left later that night) we all went out to Zoo Lights at the Reid Park Zoo. Evie's favorite part was definitely the mariachi band. She danced and jumped and squealed to the band along with a couple other enthusiastic kids... very cute.


My favorite (or I thought it would be my favorite) was taking Evie to visit Santa. As we waited in line we totally prepped her for the experience, explaining how it would all go... rehearsing her line, "I would like a doll, please Santa." She had it down pat and seemed ready for her debut but then, I am sad to say, got cold feet when it came time to preform. Not only did she not manage to get out her very important request but she also was too scared to even sit on the big guys lap. Worry ye not though we still have a picture of the whole event. Oh yes, a great photo op of Santa and I smiling nice and big for the camera and Evie looking down at her shoes and trying to get a candy cane open... ahh Christmas memories.

Mmmm Cookies...

This blog is dedicated to my dear far-flung friend Annie.... making Christmas cookies without you just wasn't quite the same! Next year we will have to send you some seeing how you have an address again and all :)

On a whim this past week I decided to put out a call to cookie arms to a few friends of mine. My call was answered in droves and as a result we had quite the army of cookie makers in our kitchen this morning (over 10 people!).

Now I am not an experienced cookie maker... when I did this in the past Annie did all of the heavy lifting, i.e., the cookie dough prep and cooking. Lucky for me though the cookie making brigade was quite accomplished and helped me through my first Christmas cookie baking extravaganza. Bridget came armed with her baker's knowledge (and managed to rescue some really sad sugar cookies that I had prepped earlier in the morning... last time I try a cooking light recipe), Alicia came armed with aprons and chefs hats as well as a million cookie cutters, and Rachel came armed with much needed cookie sheets (you don't even want to see the state of mine) and even more cookie cutters.

The kids (not to mention my kitchen) got all messy and quite a bit of dough and icing (the best two parts of this endeavor) were eaten by all. Three cheers for cookies!

Santa!

So every year Patrick's work has a little shindig complete with an appearance by Santa... who arrives on his Harley. Now I have always known somewhere in my heart of hearts that the whole joy of Christmas (Santa included) is one of the reasons I wanted kids... let me just tell ya today's encounter with the big red suited guy just confirmed all my suspicions.


I went down to Patrick's office around 4 pm and Nicole and Riley came too. We hung out for a bit eating the good food when a bunch of the older kids decided they needed to wait outside for Santa. Evie, Riley, Nicole, Patrick and I decided to join them. About 2 minutes later we heard the roar of a motorcycle and the kids went nuts... then up pulls Santa, blaring Feliz Navidad on his stereo and complete with a toy sack on his Hog.

He then goes inside and proceeds to pass out the goodies... taking each kid on his lap and helping them unwrap their present. Now Evie wasn't scared of him per se but she still wasn't keen to sit on his lap at first. He gave both girls fancy toy riding horses (a pretty dangerous gift in a place with glass tables... Santa...) As he passed out the other gifts Evie got used to him and then finally after about 20 minutes decided it was OK to sit on his lap for a (brief) photo op. Then after all the presents were passed out and the pictures were taken, Santa hopped back on his ride, pumped up the tunes and rode off to a gaggle of kids jumping and waving... I swear it almost brought a tear to my eye...Partially because it was touching and partially because it was the most ridiculous, awesome event I have witnessed in a long time...

HealthyToys.org Lead Check

Just added this widget to the site... a great resource for all you Santas out there!

Pre-school musical

Lately my life feels a little like a musical. At any given moment, particularly the emotionally charged ones, you can catch us breaking into song. Is Evie refusing to put on her diaper again… well then better sing the one foot, two foot all feet in the diaper song. Or perhaps she is utterly thrilled about going out for a walk, then she will burst in to the cactus song (to the tune of row, row, row your boat and with the only lyric being the words cactus and row). All this singing has made me nostalgic for the last musical I was a part of… so as homage to days gone by:

What good is sitting alone in your crib?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Jamboree, small one,
Come to the Jamboree.

Wipe off the frown
The glare and the scowl.
Time for a holiday.
Life is a Jamboree, small one,
Come to the Jamboree.

Come taste the juice,
Come hear the band.
Come blow your whistle,
Start celebrating;
Right this way,
Your sippy cup’s waiting

No use permitting
some cleaning of room
To wipe every smile away.
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Jamboree, small one,
Come to the Jamboree.

I used to have a dolly
known as Joliet
With whom I shared
Many hours on the toilet

She wasn't what you'd call
A blushing rose...
As a matter of fact
She wore no clothes.

The day she got stuck in the mud
My parents came to scoff:
"Well, that’s what comes
from too much playing with your shoes off."

But when I saw her wash up pretty like a Queen
She was the happiest...dolly...
I'd ever seen.

I think of Joliet to this very day.
I'd remember how'd she turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting alone in your crib?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Jamboree, small one,
Come to the Jamboree."

And as for me,
I made up my mind back on the toilet,
When I go, I'm going like Joliet.

Start by admitting
From dawn to dusk
Isn't that long a day.
Life is a Jamboree, small one,
Only a Jamboree, small one,
And I love a Jamboree!