Merry Christmas 2010

Is it possible?  Could I possibly get Christmas pictures up the actual day of Christmas??  I’m going to do my best!!!

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house a little bit of smoke billowed from the oven from overcooked cookies…(that doesn’t rhyme, does it?)

We started a tradition last year and continued this year by decorating cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.  Of course, all of the slice-n-bake cookies were sold out, so I had to improvise.  They weren’t great, but at least the second batch I flattened so that they could be decorated a little easier.  See if you can guess who was responsible for each cookie.  Hint, Jenna didn’t do any…

 

Not too unbelievable, but I didn’t get a picture of Hunter’s bike??  He was very excited.  And he also enjoyed unwrapping his helmet, which Santa decided needed to be wrapped in tin foil…very creative, that Santa…

 

Hunter was very helpful to Jenna in unwrapping her gifts.  And I mean that…he didn’t take them away from her, but helped her gently.  THEN he took them away.  :)

  

Note that Jenna has one of Hunter’s gifts beside her in that last pic, so he wasn’t the only one “sharing” toys.  :)

And I managed to get some video on my camera that easily syncs to this computer, so you get the joy of some video footage of the little ones.  YAY!!!

 

Merry Christmas to everyone, and thanks to everyone who sent beautiful Christmas cards.  Our Christmas wall of cards really brightened the family room and I loved seeing everyone’s families or reading your Christmas letters.  Enjoy the rest of the holidays with your loved ones.

 

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Hunter and Santa

I’m not sure if all 3-year-old boys are like mine, but Hunter is not a very well-behaved child.  I thought surely our “Elf on the Shelf” would help this year…the threat that Gussa (our elf) would go to the North Pole at night to tell Santa how naughty or nice Hunter had been…not so much.  It works occasionally, but not as often as I would like.

Nonetheless, Hunter did get to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.  Here was his list (in order of appearance):

1.  a Buzz Lightyear as big as the Christmas Tree (this was nixed from the list before sitting on Santa’s lap, thankfully)

2.  a bike (we trained him well)

3.  a car (the kid has at least 40 cars, but alas, he wants more)

4.  a transformer (this was added after he sat on Santa’s lap, but was appropriately communicated to Gussa to relay up the chain)

The reason Jenna’s name is nowhere to be found in the title of this post is because she refused to get within 3 feet of Santa and kicked and screamed when I put her on his lap.  Thankfully, we hadn’t stood in line long at all because this was an unexpected Santa sighting at our community center on “snow day” which was very cool.  I felt incredibly guilty for taking pleasure in all of the activities, having come empty handed since we were just walking to the park!!

Jenna will get good reports from Gussa though.  He sees her pick up her toys (and Hunter’s) every night, without any complaints.  He sees her go to her daddy for night-night wishes and kisses like the sweet angel that she is.  Gussa hears her trying so hard to say words like “Hunter” and “football” and succeeding at saying her favorite “mama” as well as dada, shoes, ball, nigh-nigh, bye-e-e-e-e, and a handful of other words.

Hunter also had a very successful Christmas caroling presentation at school last week. I actually didn’t take any pictures apparently and only got video, which I will have to work on getting on here because those kids are just awesome!!  And Hunter was very good at yelling to his friends when he spotted their parents (“Emily, there’s your daddy.”  “Landon, I see your mommy.”).

New York New York

I’m very sad to say that I did not get a picture of my highlight of the trip…we went to Restaurant Marc Forgione to eat dinner the night we went to Caroline’s Comedy Club (see pic below).  If you don’t know who Marc is, he is the latest winner of The Next Iron Chef on Food Network.  He hadn’t won when we were there (early November) but he was one of my favorites, partially because a coworker went to school with him and knows him well enough to tell him we were coming to his restaurant.  He became my absolute favorite that night because he not only cooked an incredible meal, but he was SO humble and kind when he came out to say hello.  I really, really should have begged him to let me take a picture with him because I’ve been obsessed ever since.  Best celebrity meeting ever!!

Some pictures around Times Square…

From Top of the Rock observatory…

The first pic below was this neat little playground in Central Park.  I was sitting on a huge rock formation just behind it.  It was a GORGEOUS day!  The next two pics were also around Central Park.

  

Various statues and fountains…

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, outside and in…

  

Another best part of the trip that we don’t have pictures of was our Wicked experience.  Best play ever!! The actors in this musical were the best I’ve ever seen on stage, especially Galinda.  We had terrific seats too.  It was a fabulous evening.

The rest of our trip consisted mainly of eating great food…and of course, catching a movie one cold afternoon when we were tired of shivering outside.  It was a great trip and I hope we continue this November ritual!

Company Picnic

     

Had a blast at the zoo back in October.  We even ran into Hunter’s best friend, Landon, and his family.  Small world!!  Of course, you couldn’t miss us in our bright blue Swift shirts!

Halloween 2010

It was Toy Story year for the Smith kiddos.  Hunter was Buzz Lightyear and Jenna was Rex the dinosaur.  Here are some pictures from their Fall Festival at school and from Halloween night, after we were done trick-or-treating and were handing out candy at the house.

Fall Festival

Hunter and his best buddy, Landon.  Hunter says that Landon is the REAL Buzz Lightyear.

          

Waiting for more people to come ring the doorbell…they liked giving candy almost as much as getting it! 

I actually took quite a bit of video Sunday night, but who knows how long it will take me to download it…maybe in 2011…

Vacation - August

Wow!  I’m behind.  But I blame my camera because I had to get a new battery just so that I could download the pictures from it!!  Plus, I’m about to go on another vacation, so I should probably post the pictures from the August trip before I post the November pics, right??

Hunter first – pool, beach, lunch with Mommy, all so much fun…

   

And sweet Baby Jenna.  She loved the beach so much….such a happy baby…

    

Hands always up in the air.  She was cautious, but at the same time, she LOVED the sand.  So much that she tried to eat it.  :)