A Quiet Little Christmas.

Christmas Eve was spent watching Elisabeth sing in the church children's choir.

And keeping Julia quiet by letting her draw on the floor (something I distinctly remember doing as a preschooler in church).


I made a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner--The Feast of the Seven Fishes.
And, we left cookies and a gatorade for Santa (dude, he has to be sooo dehydrated flying at that high altitude).

Santa left his loot.
And the girls woke up very eager to see what he'd brought.

Julia received her big, red ball.
Elisabeth fell in love with her bee pillow pet.
Other gifts were opened.





After we opened everything and called our families in Illinois, we hung out all day and enjoyed our new gifts.

And took a much needed nap.
A quiet, simple Christmas was probably my favoritest gift this year. We are very blessed and extremely full of cookies.

Pink Baby goes to the park

Virtual Coffee

Hi! It's Tuesday!!

What'd you say? Oh...it's Wednesday...hm...

Hi! It's Wednesday! Time for a belated virtual coffee.

I'm sorry, but I totally forgot about it being Tuesday and then when I did remember, I felt that I had nothing to say so I just didn't post. Today though, I feel more chatty.

So, if you were really having coffee with me today, I'd be shocked that you could see the streets to get to my house because it looks like this outside:

It's freezing fog and it's bone chilling. I know this because (of course) I had to go out and take some pictures. Look at my poor tomato plant.
But, it really does make it all so pretty and wintery.
If we were really having coffee today...I'd tell you that I've struggled parenting this past week. I had a total melt down over the weekend due to the sibling bickering and the sullen pre-teenager that is my 8 year old and the tyrant that is this child:
Sure, she looks all sweet, but dear lord, that girl is going to be the death of me. So, after losing my ever-loving mind and crying and telling Evan that we either need to have a solid game plan for how to deal with them over Christmas break (and even afterwards) or I was shipping out, we brainstormed and came up with some new expectations about how to deal with each other (softer voices, nicer words, compromising) and new stricter rules about tv time (2 half hour shows a day with the ability to trade a show in for computer time for the elder tv addicted child), I feel better. And the girls were better. Yes, there's still fighting and there always will be, but I feel like I have a few more tools in my parenting tool belt. I also feel like that them seeing Mommy lose her mind and cry into a Mommy puddle might have also been a bit of a wake up call to them...or a definite trip to the psychiatrist when they're older.

We'd talk about how Christmas is in 3 days. We've wrapped up all the school Christmas parties and extravaganzas. Ebeth had a Christmas party for her dance class and parents were asked to come in a watch them perform.
She also had a Girl Scout Christmas thing. They decorated cookies and made ornaments. I swear this child does not make normal faces any more.
She was super excited to dress up for it though.
I would totally have to show you our finished gingerbread house if you were here! I will be showing it off in a different post, but as will always be the case, Evan did all the main planning and constructing while I did all the baking and decorating.
Did you watch the lunar eclipse the other night? We woke ourselves up at 1:00AM and then got Ebeth up to go and see it for a while. If you click on this picture and make it bigger, you'll be able to see what we saw:
Thanks for stopping by for coffee today. I'm sorry I was late. Have a fabulous weekend and hopefully I'll be ready next Tuesday when it actually is Tuesday. :)

Tea Tour for Two...er...Six!

I don't know why, but I totally forgot to tell you all about the tea tour we went on when Jana and Keith came to visit us over Thanksgiving. We spent a day in Boulder, CO and went to Celestial Seasonings for their tea tour.

Jana does so enjoy tea, so I knew she'd like the tea sampling at the end. The whole place was fantastically interesting! This dress is made out of tea bags:
The tour was free but they gave out "tickets" to show we were part of the tour.
I want this teapot in my home.
For the actual tour of the factory, you had to be 5 and older. So, Julia and Evan (who was in a lot of leg pain because we hadn't found out about the "big ass" blood clot yet) stayed back and hung out in the tasting room while the rest of us toured the tea factory.
No pictures were allowed of the inside of the factory, but no picture could have captured the pure awesomeness that was the peppermint room. You see, Celestial Seasonings not only makes your regular old black teas; they have a huge selection that has green, white and herbal teas as well. And one of their most popular teas is their peppermint tea which they have to keep in its own separate room in the warehouse because it is so potent that the other teas would soak up the scent and would then be tainted. Not everyone enjoyed the peppermint room. Keith found it more irritating than heavenly. It cleared my stuffy nose (I had a cold) in a bout 3.4 seconds and I wanted to stay and do some deep breathing exercises for about an hour, but the tour guide had other places to take us.

The tour was very interesting. Boulder, CO is the only place that Celestial Seasonings is made so it's the only place you can tour. If you are in the area, I definitely suggest you check it out; especially because at the end of the tour is a tea tasting!
You got to pick from almost all of their teas. The lovely ladies at the counter were helpful in trying to help you find teas that would make your taste buds sing. Elisabeth sampled about half a dozen fruity teas.
Jana was in tea heaven. We all found a few favorites that we needed to purchase before we left.
Even Evan, who is not a huge fan of flavored teas, found a couple that he actually liked that weren't just plain black. Of course, one of them was a high-energy tea with hints of coffee and cola.
If you do take a tea tour and then sample, please remember one thing--you will all need to go potty before driving 2 hours back to your homes. Otherwise, there will be some pit stops on the route home.