Santa at the Fire Station

On Thursday we had our traditional encounter with Santa Claus at the Plainville Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Fire Station. As always it was a great time! Santa arrives full of Christmas Cheer high up on the Ladder Truck, sirens wailing, waving to everyone through the center of town until he reaches the anticipating crowd at the Fire Station. We then stand there at the edge of the road and watch Santa climb down the ladder truck with help from our wonderful volunteer Firemen! We then race inside and get in line so we can have a visit and picture with Santa. Santa is awesome! Thanks Santa for trying to make Anneli smile--even though we all knew it wasn't going to happen. I will admit though, it was better than last year! Maybe next year she won't cry at all! :)

All Aboard the Nativity Train...

Today I was on the phone with my mom and I heard Anneli in the dining room say, "Hold on Jesus. Have fun. Bye Baby Jesus!" I was wondering what was going on so I went into the dining room and that's when I saw that she had put her plastic Precious Moments Nativity Set in the Thomas the Train we have going around the Christmas Tree. She was having a grand old time giving Jesus and the animals a ride as the Three Kings and Mary and Joseph waited for them at the side of the tracks.

Wacky Hat Day!

Today was "Wacky Hat Day" at Christopher's school. He donated a $1.00 to the Ronald McDonald House Lights of Love and was able to wear his favorite hat all day! He was very excited! Here is a picture of the "Wacky Hat" he wore! Everyone at school LOVED his idea---a Santa hat & Reindeer antlers! He is creative!

Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer---A Classic

The other night Shaun, Christopher, Anneli and I had the opportunity to sit down together and watch one of my favorite Christmas Classics--Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer! It's one of my all time holiday favorites!! I love all the songs and I so love Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman--especially when he sings "Silver and Gold" or "Holly Jolly Christmas" too.

Well Anneli wasn't as interested. She liked watching the Reindeer but when the Abominable Snowman (or Bumble, as Yukon Cornelius calls him!) she says, "I'm not watching the Snow Ghost movie." and she goes and sits in the dark kitchen. Shaun and I thought it was funny that she'd rather sit in the dark instead of watching Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer with us. After a few minutes I scooped her up and we went and finished the show. She sat with her little hands over her eyes peeking through the entire time. It was cute! Shaun, Christopher & I enjoyed the movie but we enjoyed watching Anneli watch the movie even more!

An Icey day in Connecticut

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad (aka Meme & Pepe)!

My Mom & Dad were married 31 years ago today!

Happy Anniversary! :)

We love you guys!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree....

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,

Your branches green delight us.

They're green when summer days are bright:

They're green when winter snow is white.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,

Your branches green delight us.

Our beautiful Christmas Tree is finally adorned with decorations and multi-colored lights! YIPPEE! The kids had fun digging through allthe holiday boxes searching for the ornaments and putting them on the tree themselves--with a little help from Shaun and I. It was cute watching Anneli really concentrating as she carefully put each ornament on a branch of the tree. Even though she was so focused she managed to break three ornaments! Thank goodness none of them were very sentimental. Christopher was a big help as always helping his sister and trying to get the ornaments up as high as he could so Anneli could put them on the lower branches! What a good big brother he is!!! :)