School starts back up again tomorrow and I've had blog on my to do list for much of the break. Much of my time over the break was spent on knitting projects (to be posted soon) and reading, trying to make a respectable showing for myself in the "Read More than Mrs. Robertson" challenge I offer to the high school students every break. However, I promised myself I would put up the December photos before I go to bed tonight. Here it goes:
First, a quick recap of Thanksgiving. We had a nice few days at both sets of grandparents' houses. The first few days with my parents and then over to Nick's parents when his brother Ben and two of this three kids came down for the holiday and Sam and Suzy stopped by. The big highlight of this trip was dealing with the minivan. Thanksgiving morning Nick went to go biking, the van wouldn't start. First thing Friday morning he headed to the auto parts store to get a new battery. The salesman suggested the alternator was actually the problem. A quick call to Markquart (where the van was originally purchased) and an appointment was made. Nick dropped the van off and it turns out it was the alternator and we would not have made it back to Ashland. We were due in Menomonie at my brother and sister-in-law's house mid-morning and the van was not going to be ready in time. Nick worked out logistics in terms of cars while I played at home with Lilly. Nick's parents helped us out by picking up the van so we didn't have to rush back to Eau Claire and could spend time with my extended family. It was a nice little break and lots of fun was had with all family (see more photos with the epic snowman post).
Now on to December. Lilly has discovered the camera and the tripod. The first night she took photos for at least forty-five minutes and had over 100 photos. She doubled that total come the next night. Taking photos with the camera is still a favorite activity of hers.
First, a quick recap of Thanksgiving. We had a nice few days at both sets of grandparents' houses. The first few days with my parents and then over to Nick's parents when his brother Ben and two of this three kids came down for the holiday and Sam and Suzy stopped by. The big highlight of this trip was dealing with the minivan. Thanksgiving morning Nick went to go biking, the van wouldn't start. First thing Friday morning he headed to the auto parts store to get a new battery. The salesman suggested the alternator was actually the problem. A quick call to Markquart (where the van was originally purchased) and an appointment was made. Nick dropped the van off and it turns out it was the alternator and we would not have made it back to Ashland. We were due in Menomonie at my brother and sister-in-law's house mid-morning and the van was not going to be ready in time. Nick worked out logistics in terms of cars while I played at home with Lilly. Nick's parents helped us out by picking up the van so we didn't have to rush back to Eau Claire and could spend time with my extended family. It was a nice little break and lots of fun was had with all family (see more photos with the epic snowman post).
Now on to December. Lilly has discovered the camera and the tripod. The first night she took photos for at least forty-five minutes and had over 100 photos. She doubled that total come the next night. Taking photos with the camera is still a favorite activity of hers.
Nick is an avid cross country skier (when not recovering from hip surgery) and one of the draws to Ashland was the snow and opportunities for skiing. I enjoy it but am not nearly as avid as Nick is. However, it is something we'd love to do as a family. One of my colleagues has kids just a few years older than Lilly and we have received some great hand-me-downs from them. The big pull this year - little kid skis. Lilly was really excited at first and eager to try and went out Friday night. We all went out as a family the second day and Lilly was adamant she needed to wear her helmet. After a few spills, Lilly wanted to be done. (This was after we spent twenty minutes getting ready!) She hasn't expressed much interest since then, but we haven't had much snow either.
Last year I wanted to take Lilly to the holiday parade, but it was much too cold. The weather this year was perfect for the holiday parade, so we met our friends Tim and Elizabeth, Lilly brought her camping chair and enjoyed the parade. I was pretty impressed with the parade for it being a small town (until the end when every tow truck in town wrapped up the parade before Santa). The highlight for Lilly was the marching band. The highlight for me - the free cheese curds!
As I mentioned in Beach Day, Lilly is starting to use her imagination more and more. She's always enjoyed dressing up and is now at the stage where the dress up involves pretending to be that person. Most often she pretends to be a princess/ballerina, but she'll be a doctor, a monkey, or combinations. Her plan for Halloween next year is to be a princess/doctor. (Not a doctor for princesses, but a princess who is a doctor). One morning we had a very "if you give a mouse a cookie" moment, where we were going to paint on a paper bag, which we have turned into robots before, so then we had to turn it into a robot but it was too late, so we hunted down a box and turned that into a robot costume.
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| Watching Frosty the Snowman as mom and dad frantically finish packing for the seven days away from home. |
Lilly and Nick have had lots of fun playing up in the playroom. It is great having such an open space for her to run around and play in. One evening the two built a massive fort/maze and other times read up in the dark with Lilly holding her new flashlight.
We've had lots of other fun, playing in the snow (when we have it and it is warm enough to be outside), lots of trips to the library (Lilly and I often go on Mondays after day care), and following Lilly's lead in her imaginary world. Here is a scattering of remaining photos:
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| One Saturday morning Lilly started off by reading grown up books to her doll. This game morphed into the best game ever, pretend nap. We all got to play. It was awesome. The fourth picture is why I don't mind the princess obsession - she plays with trucks too. |
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| Yes, they are building a wall and knocking down Humpty Dumpty. And she's wearing a sun visor, even though we rarely saw the sun in December. |
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| Eating snow is one of Lilly's favorite things to do. |
Finally, Lilly received a play kitchen for Christmas. Knowing she was going to get a ton of presents and the kitchen was going to need assembly, Nick's parents had it shipped to our house and we let her open it early. It was a huge hit and has been played with every day. Luckily she got some play food for Christmas too, so now she is set. She helped dad put it together after we got home from a special Saturday showing of Granny Goose at the library.
There are more photos from actual Christmas celebrations but those will have to wait. It is getting late, I need a snack, and I want to finish my book before tomorrow morning. Thanks for slugging your way through this long post! Happy New Year!
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