December Daily: Dec 10

Back in September, I bought tickets for the Polar Express.  Actually, the whole reason my parents were originally going to come down was to go on the Polar Express with us.

It took us about 2.5 hrs to drive to the train depot up in the mountains.  We'd been planning on stopping halfway, at the last Chick-fil-A before we left, you know, civilization.  But everyone was asleep, and sure enough the iphone revealed that there was a McDonalds in the tiny mountain town.  But have you been to McDonalds lately?  Because, around here, they're renovating them all.  And sure enough the dining room was closed.  So the girls had their first meal in the car.  Surprisingly, it went well... and honestly, was much quicker than if we'd gone inside to eat.

It was all a surprise for the girls, so they were excited to get out of the car and see a train right away.

That's Becca steering.

We walked around town for a little bit as it was getting dark.

After a game of musical potty breaks, we went to get in line for our train.  And since I bought the cheapest tickets, we were essentially in a penned-in herd.  It wasn't clear where the lines were, who was in what line.  And the train was late arriving, so people were getting antsy.

But the girls were so excited to see the train come in!  (Only slightly more excited than watching the moon rise, though.)  We got on the train, and they were totally fine with it.  I'll admit, I was afraid someone might freak out and start screaming.  I still remember being really unnerved with the way the train rocked on my first ever subway ride.  (Though it was not nearly as rough as a subway ride.)

Train hats are from Grandma and Papa.  The look on her face is all her own.

We got some hot chocolate and cookies.

And we read the Polar Express.

Some of us weren't very interested in this part.

And we got our tickets punched.

Then we looked out the window at Santa's village.  On the way back to town, we sang some Christmas carols, and then Santa came through and gave everyone a bell.

I think we all had fun.  If we were to do it again next year, I'd probably consider staying the night.  It's now Thursday, and I still don't feel like I've caught up on the exhaustion from the weekend.

December Daily: Dec 8, 9

I've got no photos for Thurs Dec 8.  I had a busy day at work, and then a certification exam (well, 1/5 of a certification) on Thursday afternoon that I just barely passed.  I'd been keeping up with the class, but knew that whenever I took the exam in December, I wasn't going to have enough time to study.  December's just like that.  So I got it over with, and got home a little early... which was nice, because my parents got here on Thursday!  I've been missing them a lot lately... perhaps finally starting to understand all that they went through to raise us... and looking for some commiseration.

So they got here on Thursday and the girls were all excited.  They were playing outside when I got home.  We had dinner and just did the usual stuff.  I may use a Trader Joe's candy cane Joe Joes box for Dec 8, or I may use a picture from dinner on Friday...

My parents kept the girls on Friday Dec 9, and then we all went out for "bah beh cute" for dinner.

J checking out pictures with Papa

R impressing Gramma with her white bread mustache.  Almost as classy as the pig in the corner, which I have been informed is the "mommy pig."  Best BBQ around.

Then we went on a "'venture" to a small town that has a holiday festival every year.  I had read about a "holiday train spectacular" in the newspaper, but it didn't really explain what it was.  Didn't quite know what to expect, but my train lovers were thrilled...  A store set up with a bunch of different model trains.

"So.  Hard.  Not.  To.  Touch."

E with Papa 

We checked out some of the rest of the festival, too.  There was a Victorian crafts thing in the town museum where the girls "made" a cornucopia to hang on the Christmas tree.  Of course, they don't want to hang them on the tree.  Actually, now that they've eaten the candy out of them, they've pretty much forgotten about them.

We went to see the "ice" rink, which is really just plastic.

You can see Julie's cornucopia.  And skepticism.

We watched for a few minutes, and I didn't think the really got it.  But apparently, while home with my parents this week, Julie and Emma have been standing in buckets in the kitchen and "skating" around.  I really do admire their creativity.

Loving this one of Gramma and Julie that night, too.

Random Notes

Now that they recognize a few letters, Julie is convinced that candy canes are J's.

Chocolate is "chew lock let."

Cereal has an extra syllable I'll bet you didn't know about, too - "cerereal."

Becca in particular has gotten really good about recognizing places when we drive by. One of the bounce places is in a strip mall on a pretty busy road, yet whenever we are close to it, I always hear "That where I bounce with mommy yesterday.". (it's always "yesterday" or "last week."). She also recognizes the post office and says I took her there yesterday, too. And for anyone who knows our post office, it's pretty nondescript. And I honestly can't remember taking her in there specifically (I know I've been in there with a kid before, I just don't remember who.), but if she says I took her, I believe her. (I know better than to argue with her.)

At dinner, Julie likes to ask everyone, "how is it?". And then once she starts asking, they all start asking each other, us... The chatter grows exponentially.

The girls like to pretend to drink coffee and diet coke. They make us lots of coffee in their play kitchen.

Becca has started saying "When I grow up, I want to be a mommy.". (We've been reading an awful lot of 'Olivia and the Babies' lately - my favorite part is when Julie tells me that her mommy is silly, too.). Emma's response so far has been, "When I grow up, I want to be a daddy."

Lately, Becca's been embellishing her statement a bit -- right now, it's "When I grow up, I want to be a mommy and put (turn) on Mickey Mouse.". Because apparently only mommy stoops to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse On Demand. Everyone else claims that Mickey isn't on right now.

December Daily: Dec 6, 7

Tuesday Dec 6 was just a normal work day.  I was in a class at work all day long, so it made my day to come home and find that the girls had made reindeer headbands.  Becca was still wearing hers.

December 7 was our big 'venture.  We went up to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville to see the gingerbread houses on display as part of the National Gingerbread House Competition.  I'd never been before, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time.  Kind of had to wait until the girls could follow some basic instructions.

At first, they weren't terribly impressed.

At this point, they were more interested in the windows and grounds, and rocking chairs.

Love E's reflection in this one.

Beautiful, even if it rained all day long.

I liked the reindeer airplane.

We did go out onto a covered porch for a few minutes.  I can't imagine what the view must be like when it's not cloudy or raining, or in the fall.

I liked this one, too.

Of course Mickey Mouse was a crowd favorite, although Emma says that the one with the "baby bears and baby cupcakes" was her favorite, and Julie keeps talking about a "pink house."

We had fancy lunch in a huge dining room facing downtown Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  If only it weren't cloudy and rainy.

And some of us might have had a little bit of chocolate cake for dessert.

They had a sleigh set up in the giant fireplace.  Of course we had to pick up and pull on the reins.

Definitely a fun (hopefully new) tradition.  The girls said they had fun, and no one broke anything, although Emma made a mad dash for the giant Christmas tree in the main lobby and had both hands on a red glass ball the size of her head.  Clearly, it was time to leave.

In the car on the way home, before they completely passed out, they said that had fun.  But Becca told me "I scare to some of the people."  I told her I was, too.  And Julie told me, "I scare to some of the kids."  And I told her I was, too.

December Daily: Dec 4, 5

Dec 4 was Christmas tree today.  We went out to lunch, and then decided to get a tree from a local tree lot.  Fraser Fir don't grow down here, so we don't get to cut down our own.  We're limited to pre-cut trees.  We've tried Lowe's and Costco in the past, and so we tried something different this time.  The girls were initially most excited by the inflatable Santa in a hot air balloon.  They were only mildly interested in the trees.  After they saw Santa, they were mostly interested in running around between the trees and picking up the scraps of rope on the ground.

collecting string scraps 

oh Christmas tree

String?  Definitely more interesting than trees.

Dec 5 was busy, busy, busy.  We started out with an 8am dentist appointment for the girls.  Note to self: don't schedule anything for 8am on Monday morning.  We've been totally spoiled by the nanny, and have completely lost sight of how long it takes to get 3 toddlers out the door in the morning.  As we were getting out of the car, Emma offered up, "Julie go first."  Once we were inside, Becca started offering up Julie to go first, too.  But Julie pulled out her "oh yeah?  Then I'll poop in my pants." card.  While I took her to get changed, apparently Emma volunteered to go first.  They all did great, and got good reports.  Quite brave.

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the waiting room.  Really, though, I wanted a picture of the outfit: coat, sunhat, and those rain boots.

Emma after her cleaning.  She kept saying, "I did great!"  And then, when her sisters were getting their cleanings, she would say, "Becca do great!"  "Julie do great!"

A little skeptical...

This is to remind the girls how much their daddy loves them, wearing their hats while they were getting their  teeth looked at.  This is the way they do the cleaning and the way the dentist checks their teeth, too - they sit in one of our laps, and lay backwards to put their head in the dentist/hygienists' lap.  This is Julie getting her teeth cleaned.  Check out those boots.

A crazy day at work after the dentist (more on that some other time), and then Greg and I went to see Garrison Keillor.  He had no idea we were going until lunch time on Sunday.  I wanted it to be a surprise, and partly a Christmas gift, too.  :)  I think he liked it.  We got to go downtown for dinner at perhaps my favorite Thai restaurant ever, and ate too much food.  Then we went to see Garrison, and laughed for almost 1.5 hrs straight.  Good times.  We went to see him a few years ago (well, a lot of years ago, because it was pre-ladies), about the same time of year, and I've been wanting to see him (or PHC) again ever since.  No pictures, but I saved the ticket stubs for my album.

December Daily: Dec 1, 2, 3

I'm attempting a December Daily album again this year, but it's really a matter of documenting now and actually putting the album together in stages.  So, here it goes.

Dec 1 is actually kind of a bummer; the girls were asleep when we left the house in the morning (which really never happens), and were asleep when I got home because of class.   It was just ... weird.  No photo for that day, because I didn't want the first photo in my album to be of a boring class.  Instead, I got some hot chocolate at Starbucks on my way to class, and I'm planning to to use the cup or sleeve.

Dec 2 was another work day, but we went out for "mac and cheese a roni" for dinner at Panera after work.  The girls wore winter coats, their pink summer sun hats, and their new teal panda bear rain boots.  After dinner, we went over to Barnes and Noble to try to catch story time and play with the trains.  But apparently, since the last time we went to Barnes and Noble, they've turned it in to a Nook and kid's toy store.  Story time had already started, and the girls weren't interested.  And, to top it off, the train table was gone.  We tried to look around a bit, but the girls wanted to take things out of packages, etc, so we decided to leave.  We headed for the car, but the girls threw a fit at the door...  They were terrified of the horse drawn carriage that was taking people for rides around the parking lot.  Emma insisted on being carried, and wanted to go straight to the car.  I managed to drag Becca and Julie up to see the giant Christmas tree and we spied Santa sitting in front of it.  We didn't get too close, but they didn't freak out.  We went back home and looked at Christmas lights.  Oh, how they love Christmas lights!

Becca's cheese mustache.  If you look carefully, you can see the pink sun hat peeking out of Greg's pocket.

Dec 3 was Saturday.  We ate an early dinner and went downtown for the big annual Christmas parade.  Despite getting there late, we managed to get a decent spot.  The girls insisted on staying on the sidewalk (we've taught them well!) although people were spilled out into the street.  I kept worrying someone was going to come and stand right in front of us.  The girls were a little hesitant at first, but they LOVED the parade.  When we got there, they kept saying, "I want candy!"  I tried to explain that this parade didn't have candy (it's much bigger than our town one), but to my surprise, Target had a "float" this year, and they handed out candy canes.  Which they insisted on unwrapping on the spot.  Emma and Julie gobbled theirs up, but Becca was so distracted by the parade that she just periodically licked the end of it, until she got so distracted she dropped it on the ground.  But the girls were dancing to the music, jumping up and down - - particularly Emma.  I'm afraid they're going to expect a parade every weekend.  On the way back to the car, Becca told me, "I had fun at the parade!"

Finishing cookies from a rushed dinner before the parade started.

Emma's "cheese" face.  I've got to come up with something else for them to say.  But she was all excited, and put her arms out around her sisters all on her own.

Becca loving the parade 

Becca is more interested in the parade than the candy cane. 

Emma crunching.

When we got home, we made hot chocolate.  The first time they had hot chocolate was almost a year ago, when we got all that snow in January.  And they wanted no part of it.  But on Saturday, they were all over it.  Emma kept telling me that hot chocolate is her favorite, and it's the best in the world.

E

Is Julie back there somewhere?

Ah, she is!

R, all in

I love this picture of Emma.  Finally, not a "cheese" smile.  And love the chocolate all the way down her chin.

Oh {little} Christmas Tree...

The nanny asked if the girls could have their own little Christmas tree, since they've been making tons of Christmas crafts.  I bought one at Target, but didn't get a chance to put it together.

One morning at work, I got this:

Still in their jammies, but excited as can be.

Random Notes from the Week

The girls are starting to recognize some letters, particularly E, J, and R.  I think they've got O down, too.  The nanny is talking about starting a preschool curriculum at the start of next year, so I need to do some research.  Let me know if you have any recommendations.

There are very few things that can completely mesmerize the girls to the point where they are quiet and entertained for an extended period of time.  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of those things.  (On Thanksgiving, I ran out to get a newspaper while the girls were watching Mickey, and when I got back and still had my coat on, they asked where I was going.  They had no idea I was gone.)  The other thing they've recently discovered?  Toy catalogs.  The nanny asked me to keep a few from the mail for a project, and the girls found them.  They love the Fisher Price one, and they've been going through the Land of Nod catalog, too.  They love the page of all the dolls in the Land of Nod.  They also saw an instrument set that Uncle Steve and Aunt Stephanie got them last year in the catalog, and Becca got up and ran over to get out her "drum" (tambourine) that was in the picture.

We broke down and ordered them personalized bean bag chairs for their birthday, since we got them on sale and with free shipping.  We're about ready to re-claim the love seat out of their room, and put the bean bags and some book racks in that corner.  Anyhow, because I was in class, and the coupon expired on Monday, I had Greg show them the website and get them to pick out colors.  Emma wanted pink.  Julie wanted orange, but they didn't have it in stock, so we ordered her back up color, purple.  Becca wanted brown.  I was like, "Really?  She wanted brown?"  Greg said she insisted on brown because it was "brown like monkey's tail."  Ah, that makes more sense.

Speaking of making sense, they've started saying that to me.  "That make sense."  Totally getting my words thrown back at me.  :)

They also started telling me "Way to go, Mommy!"

Julie ran up to me last week on my way out the door to work in the morning and handed me "my bracelets" - two pink plastic bracelets that actually fit me.  I wore them proudly all day.  This week, she gave me "a special butterfly," a little finger puppet that is currently in my jacket pocket.  I love finding it there during the day.

Apparently, I broke a tooth over Thanksgiving.  It felt funny when I brushed my teeth on Saturday morning, and then sometime later, I could feel what felt like a big whole in my tooth.  It felt like I had lost a filling, but apparently it was a broken tooth.  I went to the dentist, and they're going to fix me up, but not for another few weeks.  Luckily, I'm not in any pain.  It's a little sensitive, but that's about it.