Wednesday at the beach.

Tuesday at the beach.

1. We ate just hash browns at Chick-fil-a for the second day in a row.
2. I got my eyebrows waxed.
3. I found five goodies at Goodwill.
4. We all spent rest time at home...resting.
5. We went to see The Princess and the Frog as a family.
6. I knit 14 rows on my latest knitting project during the movie.
7. Mario and I both cried when the firefly died.
8. We created meatballs for Wesley with mama made spelt bread crumbs.
9. The kids went to bed together in the same room at the same time.
10. We figured out how to give Clare her medicine: mixed in ice cream.
11. We made a pot of chili.
12. We had a chips and salsa date with Bubba Garcia's take out.
13. I wrote a letter to a friend and mailed it.
14. It was really cold outside.
15. I craved hot chocolate with marshmallows.
16. Two kids got baths.
17. I didn't take any pictures.
18. I finally settled into the no agenda routine.

Monday at the beach.

Sunday at the beach.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Chief Wesley!

After.

Christmas Eve

These kiddos hope that you are having a great Christmas Eve. They are hyped up, excited, and even volunteered to go to bed early. Wesley crashed at 7:15 PM and Clare went down around 7:30 PM. Mario and I toasted our excellent parenting with a bottle of wine by the fireplace. 15 minutes later we heard Wesley yelling, "Daddy!!! I wake UP!!!" from his bedroom. A short conference later about it still being dark out and there not being any presents here yet gave us more quiet and time to work.
After an attempted mass, a semi successful Christmas Eve service at First Presbyterian, dinner out, the tour of lights, a home rendition of Silent Night with candles, matching Christmas pajamas, a fire, and leaving cookies out for Santa we are officially ready.

Merry Christmas from the Lima Bean Family!

Yes Zone

Yesterday I found myself with a quick tongue and short temper with these two wee ones. They are beside themselves with energy, disrupted routine, treats and sweets, taunting wrapped gifts, and winter magic. Somehow all of this energy translates into a lot of shrieking, bouncing, fighting, and chaos. By 3:30 p.m. I was done. Totally done.So I took a few deep breaths, loaded everyone in the car, and started driving. We didn't have an exact destination in mind (earlier in the day the van pointed towards Harbison which was not the place for mamas and toddlers!). We ended up going to the library downtown with the added bonus of parking in front of our church. The kids were enthralled with the nativity scene and we spent about 10 minutes checking it out and discussing who was who.

Then we walked down the street to our library, my favorite YES zone in town these days. The kids requested books about superheroes , princesses, ballerinas, Christmas, and the Nutcracker. The 2 children's librarians knocked themselves out filling our book bag with 30 titles to lug home and enjoy. While they searched for books we settled in at the tables making paper ornaments and doing puzzles. Wesley enjoyed YES zone privileges to run and attack stuffed animals and to play with scissors. Clare had the YES zone free to punch holes in colored paper and glue make a glue stick mess. I had a YES zone magazine from the second floor to look at while they did their thing.
I even got a chance to check out a few books to bring home. While the kids slept last night and Mario went out hunting for stocking stuffers, I curled up on the couch to flip through my new books. In the end our little outing not only stopped the screaming in my head but also did a great job of refocusing all of our energy off of Christmas and on just being together.

*Added bonus: this morning they are loving the huge pile of books about things they love in the middle of the living room floor.

Reindeer Day

The kids are loving this Advent calendar. Today the card read: Reindeer Day which really means that we got a mini break on the activity front, handed them some $1 store antlers and called it a day. They're happy with it and we only have two more cards to fill!
This is the response I get when I want to take a picture now. Clare's got her camera ready to go and thinks it is great fun to 1. take pictures of me taking pictures and to 2. take pictures of the shows on the television screen.

Date Night with Diego

Men with tools make my heart go pitter patter. Rather than waiting till Christmas Eve Mario went ahead and assembled two bikes last night. Ahh...now all we have to do on Christmas Eve is sip wine and enjoy the fire. Wesley will be riding in Diego style and Clare will have some pink and purple bike love to keep her moving. I see a lot of trips to Finlay Park for bike riding in our future.

Christmas with Grampin'

We did Christmas with Grampin' on Saturday morning and we did our best to do it just like Christmas. We had a real Christmas Eve meal, built a fire, and read holiday books before bed. When the kids woke up it was Christmas and we all opened presents in our pajamas. Clare and Wesley helped each other and everyone else open their gifts. We gave them the starter family lesson in 'open one gift at at time' so everyone can see. They seemed willing to go along with the rule as long as they were the ones opening the gifts.

Wesley's top picks: a remote control car, a hockey stick (who knew?), puzzles, and fire trucks.

Clare's top picks: a Tianna dress, the princess dolls, and a kid digital camera.

Wesley has spent the past few days working on his slap shot in the hallway while Clare plays princess dolls and begs for a turn with the remote controlled car. Mental note: she needs a remote controlled car on Christmas morning.

Thank you Grampin' for all of the fun! We enjoyed the celebration with you.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Boy child Santa report: he yelled 'SANTA!" and went sprinting towards him, jumped in his lap, and told him that he wanted a Diego present.

Clare's Santa report: she kind of sort of but not really got close to Santa. Definately no knee sitting but she did tell him she wanted a princess thing when prompted. Considering that Grampin' gave her all SEVEN princess dolls we the parental elements have no idea what that might be. Family Santa report: all went well and we got a cute picture of the four of us together.

Today's Advent card: go to the zoo and see the lights. So we did just that in our winter gear. I'm relieved to check that one off of the holiday list because it seems to get crazier and crazier as the holiday draws near.

A budding photographer.

Guess who got a new kid tough digital camera for Christmas yesterday? Our world will now be captured from the waist down and we will invest in many packages of AAA batteries. I really like seeing what she captures and am amazed at the speed that she acquires photos. Grampin' got mama a dedicated photo printer for Christmas so we can now provide instant gratification for our little miss photo.

10 Things.

1. Wesley has an ear infection. He complained of ear pain this am and again as we were passing the pediatrician's office after school. 5 minutes later we were being seen at the office.
2. I want to go to the 6:30 p.m. yoga class tonight.
3. We are decorating Christmas cookies today after rest time.
4. I love all of the fun mail of this season.
5. I made green rice krispy treats for Wesley's class party.
6. Is it too soon to wish for daylight savings time to end? I want to go running in the evenings again.
7. Yesterday we had friends over and made Christmas trees out of poster board and holiday bows.
8. There is beef stew cooking in the crock pot for dinner tonight.
9. Our children are not eating anything these days. Well...they eat crackers and fruit snacks but that's about all.
10. Grampin' arrives tomorrow to celebrate a mini Christmas with us this weekend.

Fa La La La La

Today's card: sing Christmas Carols. We all bundled up and walked over to the Lutheran church 2 blocks away for some caroling fun. The group welcomed us with hot chocolate, a song booklet, handshakes, whipped cream, and marshmallows.

The kids were a little shy but once the music started they got into it. Jingle Bells got the most smiles from Wesley and Clare as everyone jingle jangled their keys. We enjoyed feeling like we were part of a community event and being able to walk to something fun.

Our December schedule remains relatively clear leaving us plenty of time to have random holiday fun. I discovered this event on my way home from running this afternoon and swapped out the advent card in time for us to go singing. Wesley enjoyed the music but he also really enjoyed eating marshmallows out of a cup since the cocoa and whipped cream were off limits.

Polariod Fun

I had a lot of fun this morning using this polariod ornament tutorial. Now the good stuff can live on our tree year after year.

Wrapping

Where does Christmas live in your house?

This year the holiday took over the master bathroom, specifically, the jacuzzi tub. We keep dumping bags of stuff in there and covering it with a giant red blanket. We hope that we can keep things contained and private until I can get them all wrapped.

Yesterday during rest time I brought all of my wrapping supplies into the bathroom and set up shop. I love to wrap gifts, there's something soothing to me about taking all of the bags and bundles and making them pretty. I had a great time cutting and taping and now look forward to getting the gifts ready to ship out.

I think I'll take a nice warm bath with a glass of wine to celebrate the return of my tub someday soon. If the someday soon doesn't come soon enough I may have to evict Christmas to under the bed or the closet just so I can do that bath and wine thing.