Christmas- on Auburn Ave!!

we are back on track since our christmas illness so here goes:



With friends Eliana and Benjamin after the Christmas Eve service-


Prepped for the big morning... stockings stuffed and train track assembled. Cookies nibbled, carrots eaten, milk slurped, tree trimmed. Mom nowhere in sight as Don and Maury wrap feverishly... she is off playing the big guy around the neighborhood!



bundled- a white christmas for sure!



first christmas!





Maury was here to share our first Christmas at our new Home!! Thanks Mom. It would have been so lonely without you here but you made the holiday for us.





After all was said and done, it took until 6pm for Madeline to get through all the gifts. She was methodical and wanted to play with each one as she opened it. As Ashia was still sick from the bug the night before, we skipped monkey bread and prime rib and saved it for the next day. When we finally feasted, it was a treat. We had monkey bread, sausage, juice and coffee for breakfast and for dinner roasted potatoes, standing rib roast and steamed veggies. With stuffed bellies, we were still able to have our neighbors over the third morning of Christmas (the 26th) for pancake puffs in chocolate chip or blueberry varieties. Whew- chrismtas was saved!

And finally... a little Chrismtas tale.
After adopting the tradition of playing santa for the kids on xmas eve and delivering a small gift, Ashia went out and shared the love with some neighbors' kids. It was an amazing thing to be able to do that for other families and it really went over well. Even the couple on our block with college-aged kids got in on it bc their house was the dressing station. This email just came in to thank us for the treat and i thought i'd share it here:

Ashia,

Thank you thank you thank you! Jack was so so excited. He kept yelling, "It's a Christmas Miracle!" When Santa told him to go right to bed, he really did. We didn't hear a peep from him until 7:30 the next day! What a wonderful tradition. Hopefully it was worth all the hard work you did, I know it made our Christmas absolutely perfect.

Thanks,

Heather

It was a great holiday for this Mann family. We cant wait to build on these traditions next year!

Christmas Bug

We are not prepared to furnish Christmas photos because the Mann house has taken ill.
As of last night this horrible stomach bug has claimed two victims and we are seriously hoping it stops there. Needless to say, Christmas was cumbersome today. But still, the children were delighted and generous, taking time to open one gift each and enjoying the feeling of watching others open theirs. Okay, well... Bennett really just liked ripping wrapping paper and trying to eat it.

Hoping that i crawl out of this funk tomorrow and am able to make a Christmas morning then, instead. Complete with Monkey bread for breakfast, christmas music and a standing roast prepared by the man of the house in the latter part of the day.
that is, if tonight doesnt reveal new victims.

So all in all, we were so happy to have the kids wake up here this morining, and i thoroughly enjoyed playing The Big Guy last night for friends and neighbors and aside from this bug (and its a big aside) it was a perfect morning. I know i had several moments of nostalgia for Christmases past and wished our house were full of family and friends, but we will slowly begin to take on the task of creating our own traditions. Hoping that in years to come more of our family can be here with us because today they were sorely missed. We were happy to have been able to see the NY side for Thanksgiving and to have also had a mini christmas a couple of weeks ago with a small faction of the midwest fam. Add to that, the church christmas play, making cookies, and meals for the shelter in town, donating some toys and the traditional christmas decorating, we have done a great job of beginning some rituals for next year and years to come.

anyway, its off to bed for me in the hopes that we begin anew tomorrow.
Merry Christmas! Here is hoping that you all had an easy and rewarding day.

xoxo

2 feet of snow in MD

 

Bennett’s first adventure!

check out that reflectors on that snowsuit- very high tech!

SO glad daddy is home from NY today.. gearing up 3 ppl in snow gear and then unbundling is a chore.  Thanks to the Wongs for that awesome toddler sled- Bennett was thrilled and Madeline got to sled down the driveways at our neighbors houses with all of the big kids. yay snow

Its beginning to look..

...a lot like Christmas







The kids helping me decorate for christmas.
bennett has to be distracted from eating all of the pine needles




madeline is acting like a monkey

its great!

Aunt Julie, Raymond and Grandma Rose week!

 

Madeline loved playing with her cousin, Raymond!

3 kids in the middle row!

SNOW DAY!

Christmas in town square

Bennett loves his silly aunt julie! she has so much energy for him, he was all smiles with her and… they got a LOT of time together. YAY!

Aunt Mary came for early Christmas dinner..Of course Grandma Rose is not in the pics… bc she was slaving away in the kitchen.  but Darn it was good!

Come back Soon. we miss you guys :)

Christmas Surprise!

We were thrilled this morning when Mike and Olga surprised us by stopping by for a spell on their way up to the Fidotta’s for Christmas!
 

Just in time to put Uncle Mike to work on decorating the tree and long enough to get to watch madeline host her friends for a lunch playdate.

It was great to have Olga’s mom here too- she was a big help in entertaining and corralling the kids. 

Come Back soon!!

Or better yet.. come  back for Christmas :)

xoxo

Found an SD card from October

These pics were in the lost pile for a while… the sd card was in our printer all this time.  oops. here’s a quick recap.

Nana and Papa’s Halloween visit!

school

Autumn Fun!

First Snow 12/7/09

 

Here is a pic from our first snow of the season. We were lucky enough to have Raymond, Madeline and Bennett’s cousin here and so the two babies got to experience snow for the first time together!

Hard to tell… but Bennett is actually the one with the full head of hair!

Then Madeline and I went out and explored!

We are expecting another snowstorm this weekend…More pics to come… once my darling husband returns my SD card ;)