We celebrate Christmas with Nini and Papa2 at the end of December. The kids wore their holiday outfits from G and we took photos in the hopes of sending out New Year’s cards. The cards didn’t happen- maybe next year…….

From Nini and Papa2, Sloane got Luciana Vega, the American Girl doll of 2018. She and Nini spent the year looking at the catalog and Luciana was Sloane’s choice. She was very excited to get her and we have read her book many times since. I was impressed Sloane selected such an interesting character- she goes to space camp and wants to be an astronaut. I’m also impressed Sloane will listen to the 100+ page book that has no illustrations, she has a mind for stories. Soren got a play airplane- which is loves. He actually carried through the air the other day, making ‘ccrrsh’ sound. The boy loves all things with wheels!

We also got to have lovely afternoon with the Lembos and the Lembos senior visiting from NY. Sloane adores Bennett, and Bennett tolerates both the little goobers quite well. Sloane got Bennett to dress up and put on a performance, which involved some good dance moves, singing, and pick up and spinning around; and of course costumes and props!

Sloane and Soren got back into the swing of things at home. Soren spent an afternoon insisting that Sloane read him books. She has such a good memory she can recite many of them. She is helpful with her brother and in the kitchen!

On New Year’s eve, we had eggplant parmesan (gluten free and one pan dairy free for Soren and me) along with a loaf of gluten free bread Adam made. I gave him a bread cook book with a gluten free chapter for Christmas.  A little bit of a selfish gift, but Adam seems to enjoy the gluten full ones as well. We watched the first half of the Lion King and the kids were captivated. Sloane had seen a few of the song clips on youtube and loved listening to the soundtrack. Watching the movie was exciting for her but brought up many questions about if Uncle Scar was nice or not nice. She was very conflicted about how he acted nice but was not actually nice. Hrrrmph- that was a hard one to scale down to a 4 years old!

We are hoping 2019 brings many laughs and much happiness to you!

We traveled back to have Christmas with the New England crew. Sloane was quite excited about the entire Christmas process this year. It started with flying on the plane- which she loves because she gets to watch as many shows as she wants to. Adam and I were nervous about keeping Soren contained but he did surprisingly well and charmed all the other travelers.

We went on a day adventure to Nashua just the 4 of us. We visited with Pat, had a cafe date, and saw the Christmas lights.

We had some good down time with G, Pa, Jesse, Lida, and Cam. Many books were read and Soren even let some of the books be read the whole way through. We had some visitors (including baby Cora who was very tooty on Sloane’s lap, which made her giggle!) and went to the playground at my old elementary school a couple times. Sloane swung for a couple hours total, while Soren worked on his climbing skills and had a blast running on the wood chips.

Pa prepped a project for Sloane and him to do together. The task helped Sloane and Pa have some bonding time. Sloane loved it and was almost helpful. Check out her concentrating face in the pics below. It was a bed for Julia, or in Soren’s eye it is small step stool to grab things off the shelf. This project went so well that Pa helped her to make a wood Rudolph, which made it back on the plane intact, Sloane was very happy!

The Straw family party was a big success. There were 5 kids ages 4 and under, even though we were missing the twins who were home sick with their mom.  Both our kids looks festive in their holiday outfits from G and Pa. Sloane was quite enamored with Lily who is 3 years old and Madeleine’s old dolls. Soren got to meet many aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time (We had the Straw family party and a Ouellette family brunch the next day). He was a hit and he enjoyed meeting all the new people.

Lida was a love as usual. Sloane wanted Lida, Lida, and more Lida. They decorated gingerbread cookies, which apparently is an activity that requires an apron but does not require any clothing other than underwear. Jesse and Lida also brought over ornament kits which the girls worked on together.

After Christmas Eve service, Pa read us The Night Before Christmas before we bundled off to bed to wait for Santa. Soren was a bit into the presents on Christmas morning, but mostly tried to eat the wrapping paper. Sloane was very excited to open her presents, so excited that she helped everyone open at least one of their presents too. We tried to encourage the idea of giving and receiving gifts. Sloane did well with this concept by helping to deliver presents to other people and kindly offering to help open them. (Note to self- have her help with shopping next year to understand the giving part!)  It was a lovely day hanging around the house, reading and playing, with a fair bit of eating.

Sloane was very sad that Christmas was over and we had to leave one ornament hanging in her room to soften the change.

 

And while waiting for the Christmas/New year’s posts, enjoy pictures of this handsome man.