Christmas Stocking, A Family Treasure

There is something about a Christmas Stocking which brings back great memories of your youth. Maybe you remember the color, if you made it, if someone made it for you, how much it held. It's always in the beloved family pictures Christmas morning....children reaching in to find the treasures from Santa.

My mental picture is of the "5 fingers" that stretched out from the Christmas tree across the floor and ended with our stocking. Because our stockings had our name on them we knew where we were to sit and which row of presents we were able to work on.

During my mom's visit in October she gave me the stocking that I had grown up with. This stocking is really special to me because it was made by my great grandma Irene. She made one for each member of our family and was even smart enough to make an extra without a name just in case there was to be another member of our family after she left us....which of course happened. Chelsea has her own stocking without her name on it.


This year my stocking has been moved from place to place. I gave it a home but Samuel keeps moving it to where he thinks it should be. Lucky for me it fits right in with my color motif for the season.

Besides for the fact that this is like a family heirloom I remember it being the best stocking ever. Because it was knit it stretches allowing for it to be filled with lots of great treasures. I can't wait to see what Santa brings this year.

Seriously, It's December?

November was a wonderful month. We were able to spend lots of time together as a family. Chris recovered from his head injury quickly and without any underlying problems. Thanksgiving at Samantha's came off without a hitch and the weather allowed us many days outside at the park. We are grateful for the blessing we have had this year.

Here are some other highlights from the end of our month.
After a small meltdown after seeing someone's 3-D presentation and thinking that we needed to start over from scratch Jonah and I managed to put together a great poster representing the Lakota Sioux. He decided his mixed media presentation was all that.
Samuel enjoyed making fruit salad for his Thanksgiving feast at preschool. He did however let me know that he didn't eat any of it. Hopefully not being afraid to touch the food will someday lead to actually eating it. I loved these great costumes that they made in class for the special occasion.

I especially enjoyed the macaroni necklace. Apparently they had made different ones but traded with another "tribe" as part of their festivities.
I spent the days up to Thanksgiving gearing up for the bake off that always happens in December. Thankfully I was able to rescue these delicious sweet rolls from doom. This was my first attempt at making bread and after I started adding flour I realized I had not proofed enough yeast....after a quick fix everything turned out great and I'm not to turned off by my bad luck to try again.
My other almost mishap took place while creating this lovely creation. This year I decided to make my own crust. I know. What was I thinking? Everything was going great until I went to pull out my pie plate and it wasn't there. I vaguely remember breaking it earlier in the year....so hear I was with pecan filling and two pie crust....I just happen to have to tart pans.

I think that they turned out great and so did our good friends who were the recipients of the second tart.

So as I start the baking season which is December I hope that all my baking problems are behind me and things are smooth sailing.

Misunderstood...Seasonally

No one has ever asked me what my favorite season is. I think if you asked a variety of people what my favorite season is you may get a lot of different answers. Someone thought that summer was favorite season because I was so sad to see it go. My own mother thinks fall must be my favorite because Halloween is a favorite holiday.

After reading my SIL Samantha's blog about why she loved fall so much I really thought about what my favorite season was.

The Answer: All of Them

Seriously, I can't think of one that I love more than the other. That is probably why people are so confused. I'm always sad to see a season go but then once I start to enjoy the next I throw myself fully into loving it just as much.

Maybe it's wrong but I think it's great to fully embrace the moment and enjoy the season whatever it may be.

Here are a few of my favorites from each:

FALL
Crunchy leaves while I walk
The smell of leaves when I'm at the park with my boys
All my fun fall jackets that don't require another coat on top
Marshmallow Pumpkin candies
Decorating for Halloween
The first cups of hot chocolate and apple cider
Pumpkin and Chocolate together again
The start of the new TV season
FOOTBALL

WINTER
Christmas songs
Laying by my tree in front of the fire
Being together with family
Bowl Games
The anticipation and arrival of the first snow
Playing in the snow
More time to read
Fresh Pine Wreaths

SPRING
First blooms peeking through the snow
Cherry Blossoms in DC
Long drives in the country to see new life
New babies at the farm
Purple blooms from some tree that I just love!!!
A chance to wear something not so bulky
Maybe a first pedicure

SUMMER
the Ocean
Flip flops
Freedom of schedule
More time to just play with my boys
Long days at the pool
Fun skirts
Visits from or to family
Fireflies
Thunderstorms
More time to watch movies I missed

This list by no means is comprehensive of what I love about the seasons but as you can see there is a lot that I can think of quickly. Sure there are drawbacks but I think they are much outweighed.

So for all of you who think you know what my favorite season or time of year is guess what? You're right, but then you really can't go wrong.

Three Word Thursday

Mom I'm Stylin'

I know I'm not the first mom to do this but I thought I was on top of things like this. Sam has found a favorite pair of shoes. They happen to be hand me downs from Jonah, they were a size 11. I thought they had to be small since the pair I had bought at the beginning of the year was an 11 1/2.
So when he kept telling me his newer shoes were to tight and that he wanted to wear his blue "Jonah" shoes I thought it was just a ploy.

During our errands yesterday I decided to pop into a shoe store to see what they had and check Sam's shoes size. Ummmm, drum roll here. 12 1/2.

Needless to say we left the store with two new pairs of shoes. That's where things get interesting. As we were getting ready for preschool he was determined to wear one of each shoe so he could show his friends how cool they both were. He kept telling me it's stylin' mom, it's stylin'.

I was not ready to give in but grandma said why not....and just this one day. So I sent Sam to school with two different shoes on.

When he returned I asked in anyone had noticed he had two different shoes. Yes, mom, Annmarie did. Well what did she say? I'm stylin'.

Things change right before your eyes.

I'm not a big complainer of the changes that have happened in our grocery stores with this new economy. Come on people, everyone is just trying to survive. I guess because I'm usually buying meat, fruit, veggies and make the smart trip to Walmart for cereal I haven't been to effected.

So, this purely makes me laugh. I don't care, I'm just laughing.

Most of you may have seen the new product that came out that actually sticks in your fridge and is suppose to be changed every three months. It cost about $2.

These old .69 boxes are really hard to find in your store and have changed their packaging. Nope, it's the same size, now it just suggest that you change it every month instead of every month. Go figure.

Chelsea Visits D.C.

It's always fun to have a sister come into town, especially one who's never been to D.C. before. So when Chelsea came to visit there was a delicate balance of visiting the tourist sites, being a mom and just chillin'.

Of course we took time to go to D.C. We visited the Holocaust Museum, most of the monuments and ended with a personal tour of the Library of Congress with Chris. It was an awesome day and thanks to my good friends Marci and Saige I didn't have to worry about my kids.Then there was the rainy day and a chance I had been waiting for to go to Fredrick for Bruster's Ice Cream. Yes, it's worth the 45 minute drive. It also gave me a chance to show off the beautiful less suburbia side of Virginia and Maryland.
Lucky us, when it's raining or snowing your second scoop is free so even Samuel enjoyed the huge scoops of ice cream. Yes, that is Sam's personal ice cream. No, none of us finished what we started but it was really really good. Whenever any of you want to go there. Let me know, I'm in.
No trip would be complete without a stop into historic Leesburg. There are so many cute little shops you can go to. We only hit a few and couldn't help trying on hats to make us feel the part of the those who came before us. Then a stop to Lola's for cupcakes and a quick trip to see Samantha and baby Oliver.

No trip to visit our family would be complete without going to see one of Chris' bike races. Well this weekend he was part of a relay triathlon team. It was fun to watch, the weather and company were great and THEY WON!!!! It was a fun way to spend time together and see what life if normally like with us.

It went by really quick but we had a great time and I hope it's not another 10 years before she comes to visit again. Living on the opposite side of the country from my family can be a drag sometimes but it's always great when they come and visit....

Luray, VA: Camping and Caverns

I grew up in a family that did a lot of camping. Starting at age 3 we use to back pack in camp and hike back out. My dad was in the Forest Service so it was in his blood and in mine.

Chris and I have always enjoyed the outdoors and talked a lot about taking our kids camping before we even had any. But, sometimes even the best ideas don't come to fruition as fast as you thought they would

While in NYC I went camping several times and I've also participated as a girls camp leader.
Chris on the other hand is not a big fan of the actual sleeping in a tent part. He'd like to do "camping" activities and then go to a nice hotel.
He has however been a trooper and taken the boys to the Father/Sons camp out sponsored by our church.

So when I told Chris that I wanted to take the boys to Luray Caverns he suggested making a camping trip out of it. I was very excited about this because of course I love to camp and this would be our first camping trip as a family.

I fretted about the weather since we were having a really nice storm here at home but the weather report for Luray showed no rain. So we took Jonah out of school on the 4th day and headed out for our first family camping trip. It was a perfect evening. Not over crowded and just the nice chill you want on a camping trip.

We did all the usual camping things, boys had hot dogs, we had tinfoil dinners. An no camping trip would be complete without Smores. When we left the next day Chris asked the boys if they had a good time and would want to do it again. Of course they said yes!!! Chris said he was afraid they'd say that.

Excited about the hike to the river.

Tired and ready to be carried.

Hanging with dad during story time.

More Smores Please

We found these great battery powered glow sticks with a neck strap and whistle. After a while the whistle had to be controlled but the boys had fun taking lots of pictures similar to this.

Luray Caverns were amazing. I've been in many caves and this by far was the biggest and best I've ever seen. Pictures can do no justice for this natural wonder, but here are a few for you to look at.

This last picture is what happens when you ask someone else to take a picture for your blog. Chris didn't understand why this fascinated me but it did. This is a 6 foot body of water inside the cave. Over the years people have thrown thousands of coins and actual dollar bills into this "wishing pond." The amazing thing is that they started dredging up the coins and decided to donate them to a different charity each year. What the sign shows is how much money they donated each year. It started around $1,700 the first year and the last year they had on the sign was 2007 which was over $130,000. I wish you could actually see the sign. (If you click on the picture you can actually see the numbers.) It's amazing to think how fast small change adds up and what a difference it can make. They said sometimes there would only be a foot of water left in the deepest parts before they cleared the coins. Now they have to clear the coins several times a year.