Full Moon on New Years Eve

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/12/31/2009-12-31_full_moon_is_a_blue_moon_on_new_years_eve_2010.html When a second full moon occurs in the same month, it's called a Blue Moon...here is the Van Pelt version....

CHEERS!!

Christmas Continues with Nannie and Papa

Christmas afternoon was at Nannie and Papa's home. Aunt Melis, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Chelsea and Uncle G were all there too. So many more presents to open!

Unfortunatley, Logan wasn't feeling very well, but the Star Wars Snuggie sure helped him feel a little better :)

The boys were all snug in their feety jammies!

And Doggie Love was all around

Later we were joined by Ryan's parents, Woody and Betty, Chelsea's parents, Alan and Carrie & her brother Hunter, and Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kelly. What a crowd!

The men kept an eye on the deep fried turkey

while the ladies gathered around the kitchen and chatted

Not really sure what Woody is doing to Ryan here?

Caden was completely neglected, of course, with 3 Aunts, 2 Uncles, 2 sets of grandparents and 2 sets of grandparents-in-laws (is there such a thing?) to shower him with love.

Lego Rockband and Lego Indiana Jones added to the fun.

Gotta check the basketball scores! Almost time for dinner!

That's one beautiful bird.

Lots of goodbye kisses!

Again, we realize just how lucky we are to be surrounded by so much family...it's very important to us, so we try to remember to cherish every moment.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Christmas Breakfast

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kelly joined up for Christmas breakfast. We ate our traditional Bagels, Lox and Cream Cheese, with scrambled eggs a la Shawn and brown sugar, mustard baked bacon. It was delish! And then we exchanged more gifts. Our highlight was when my mom and dad gave us a coupon book with the condition that they MUST watch the boys when we us it...WOOWHOO! Shawn and I are booking our 14 day cruise tomorrow.

A New Christmas Tradition???

Back in September, Logan and I saw the Lego Advent Calendar on sale at Target. We both remarked that when it gets closer to Christmas, that would be fun to get. WRONG!!! When it gets closer to Christmas they will be all GONE!!! So after searching high and low, even at Legoland, I knew I had to go to plan B. I came across this site a while back, Bella Dia , and was inspired but it was Nov 30th, so time was short and I didn't want to spend much dinero. So I numbered 24 paper lunch sacks and started to plan.

Day 1 - the Lego consolation prize

The other days varied...crafts from Bella Dia and other sites, stationary for Santa's letter, reading a Christmas book,or doing a printable activity and as we got closer to Christmas and vacation started the activities included building gingerbread houses, visiting Santa, looking at Christmas lights, playing card games, making cocoa spoons and drinking cocoa around the tree while reading Polar Express.

And on the 24th, another Lego creation!!

Even though I threw this together at the last minute, it was fun. Next year, I'd like to find a cuter presentation, maybe something like this or this or this one. But then again, I might just save some time and pick up one of these...

We'll see...

Santa was here!

Caden was brought a guitar & a basketball,

and Logan received what he asked for, Nerf Dart Tag, and then he discovered that his darts stuck to me...humph...

More presents were exchanged to start off Christmas morning...lots more to come!

(yes Bradi, Caden is wearing that awesome apron you made me as a cape)

Getting Ready for Ho Ho Ho

After we got home from the Christmas Eve Party at Greg and Chelsea's, we quickly got ready for Santa's expected arrival. We all know that if you are still awake when Santa flies by, he will pass you up.

So out came the cookies & milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. Only problem, Caden didn't want to hand over the carrots. You may recall, this happened when we tried to feed the horses too. Caden loves his carrots!

He eventually handed them over and off we went to have visions of sugarplums.

A Cool Jungle Celebration

In years past, the Wild Animal Park put on their Holiday Lights celebration but this year the festivities were moved to the Zoo and it was a tad bit chilly the night we visited.

All Bundled Up!! A cool ice carving demonstration.

We even saw a few animals! Caden really liked the Elephants.

Logan was REALLY excited to try out their ice skating...more like sliding on a cutting board with butter on your shoes.

It was fun at first.... until it started to hurt.

Look how the extinct American Lion brought out the WILD SIDE in Shawn and Logan.

It was a fun change, but I sort of miss the Wild Animal Park celebration.