Christmas Songs

A new school means a bunch of fun Christmas activities for the girls.  There were dress up days, activities, gifts, shows and so much more.  Not even my iphone calendar was doing a good job of keeping up with all of the activities happening around our house.  A month later and I am still trying to figure out how we made it to some many events in just a few short weeks.
I don't have pictures of everything, but I thought that I would include a few.  The girls dress up days at least twice a week at school, Santa and Mrs. Claus came for a visit, they made gingerbread houses and lots of crafts and finally there was a show by each of the classes.  Penelope was up first and those little toddlers were hysterical.  Little P was really excited to be on stage and didn't try to jump off which is a success in my book.  A's class was one of the last ones, but she got up on that stage and sang her heart out.

PJ day

Ms. Julie's class of toddlers

Can we say excited.

Next time someone says A isn't that little for her age I am going to show them this picture.

Pinterest crazy crafts for the teachers.  Lots of hot glue, pencils, paint brushes and crayons.

St Augustine

We all live in a special part of the world, but I find that many of us don't take advantage of all of the lovely sights around us.  This family is one of those that doesn't always take advantage to all of the activities and sights that are practically right in our backyard.
St Augustine is a short 45 minute ride away through the back roads and over a few bridges.  It is also a place that we only go a few times a year, mostly when we have visitors.  Yes, I said the magic word VISITORS.  Since this is the year of visitors we have a few more to add to the 2012 roster.
First up was Mike, but Adelaide decided she wanted a formal relationship with him so around here he goes by Michael.  This was the first time that we were meeting Michael and as soon as A laid eyes on him she decided that she was going to test him out before being friendly.  It took a great dinner at the Floridian and then a stroll to see all of the lights before A was hooked.  Next thing we knew they were holding hands and she had declared him her friend.

Second stop in St A was with another fun crew, the Gasbarro/Tutor Family.  The guys went golfing earlier that day and then met up with us for a stroll down the beach.  This was the first time that Greyson and Preston played on an Atlantic Beach which made it a little more special.  It was too cold to take our shoes off and jump in the water, but to say we were on the beach on Christmas weekend makes a Florida Christmas special.  Most of our friends and family were excited about the snow on the ground over Christmas, but I prefer that the only white under my feet be sand.  Penelope and GG missed the beach party, one of them were taking a nap in the car.

After our fun on the beach we were off to dinner at a little hole in the wall place that ended up being really good.  One last stop to downtown for some spectacular lights.  In true old town fashion the best way to see the lights is from a carriage.

A Little Snip Snip

A long running tradition in our family is that babies are not to get their haircut until they turn a year old. Why this is a tradition, I don't know but I follow it.  When Adelaide was about to be one we couldn't  get her haircut fast enough.  She was rocking a hockey mullet and had a full head of black hair that was driving me insane.  My little opposite turned one months before we took her to get a first cut and to say it was a necessity is far from the truth.  P has no little curls or a need for a constant hair bow.  Somehow this little one turns a little lighter each day, must be my side of the family kicking in.  

P was a champ at sitting still in her two second little snip snip.  Of course if P was getting her haircut A had to as well.  I'm pretty sure we had half of Salon 2000 watching the two little girls put on their cute show.  Best part for the girls...a cookie surprise at the end.

Tasting Time

Grant and I always try to have some kind of get together each year, but this year we decided to throw our first real holiday party.  Every good party has to have a theme so we went with a beer and wine tasting.  We asked everyone to bring either a 6 pack of beer to share or a bottle of wine while we supplied everything else.  The only rule was that it couldn't be a domestic or run of the mill beer, the point was to let everyone try something new.

The party was the first weekend of December and the weather was perfect.  The last thing we wanted was for the party to be stuffy and boring so we moved everything outside.  All of the patio furniture was moved around the fire pit and we had all of the food and drinks on the patio.  Of course part of any party has to be in the kitchen too.

Let me set the tone for you...party is to start at 7:00 and at 6:55 as I am running around the house, bossing Kari and Grant around to help me finish everything and I managed to burn my feta crustinis and the fire alarm goes off.  In true Kari reaction mode she immediately knows what to do because guess what, she has burned more than a few things in the oven.  First guests arrived at 7:10 and literally kept rolling in for the next hour and a half.

We shared appetizers, desserts, beer, wine and sangria with 25 of our favorite Florida friends.  I was really happy that there weren't any real cliques and everyone mingled.  There were lots of house tours, corn hole tournaments and just hanging out.  Next thing we knew it was 10:00 and most of the guests were gone.  Of course our Matzoballs hung out for awhile longer to entertain us or maybe it was Grant entertaining them.  By 12:30 the house was empty and I was ready to hit the sheets.

I am highly disappointed in my lack of pictures, but the night just went so fast that I forgot until the food and the people were practically all gone.  I really wish that I had taken a picture of all of the empty bottles.  I know we threw away three garbage bags of beer bottles and about 20 empty bottles of wine.

We were really happy with the turn out, it felt like the perfect amount of people.  Get ready folks, because I already know how I want to change it up for next year to make things even better.  Only 10 more months to plan!

S'more Please

What is the best dessert in the world...s'mores of course.  Ordering them at a restaurant or making them in the microwave isn't the same as roasting or in my case catching a marshmallow on fire outside.  We don't have a lot of opportunities in Florida to sit outside by a fire and make this yummy treat, but when it is cool outside watch out because some of us have an obsession (me mostly).  

There is one more thing that makes this little treat extra yummy and that's friends and family to share it with and we had just that.

The other thing that I wish we had s'more of is nights without the kids and with both of my sisters.  Yes, we actually escaped the house and left Hannah in charge for a few hours.  She managed to get the babies all settled in, but next time we are going to hide Brooke's phone from her because apparently my house makes noise and may be creepy...