Santa, Burgers, Bells and Books

On the 14th we went ventured through the snow to see Santa at Kerrytown. We ate lunch at Kerrytown and then headed to the downtown library for a bells concert. We even had a part in one of the songs. Then we found the downtown library has many shelves of Christmas books, so we got a big pile to read over then next several weeks.

Brunch with Santa

On the 8th we went to brunch with Santa with Grandma and Grandpa Ericson. The boys enjoyed there first glimpse of Santa for the season.

So excited to catch sight of Santa

Latern Parade

Kerrytown has a lantern parade around the time of St. Nicholas' feast. This year it was on December 6th.  Despite the fact they are typically exhausted on Friday night, we got bundled up and went out. The boys had fun staying up later than usual to walk in the parade, roast marshmallows and enjoy some music. We had some tired boys the next day. But, Sunday we went to see the Dexter orchestra in which Luke's current teacher plays the flute. I didn't take any pictures at the concert. The boys lasted about 30 minutes before they were asking to go, so we couldn't say hi to Ms. Lauren, but I think it was still a good experience for them. They like the drums the best.

The lanterns they picked out, we have them nicely folded in the cupboard for next year :)

waiting for the parade to start

roasting marshmallows after the parade was done

Weekend after Thanksgiving

Wow, so many pictures to get through here. Just because I didn't keep up on my blog, didn't mean I wasn't taking pictures. But, I'm lumping things together here. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we of course got the Christmas decorations up. My mom came over and worked on a gingerbread house with them while Kris and I worked on the other decorations. Just recently we had to get rid of it. The boys did not want me to throw it out. So, when they are sleeping it disappeared and I told them I wrapped it carefully and put it in the basement. No, you can't see it, it's wrapped up really good. (Hopefully, they won't remember.) We also went to the Henry Ford Museum that weekend.

She brought over thevChristmas tapes and books that I listened to when I was a kid.  They were carefully preserved through my siblings and now our kids can enjoy them  (as long as we keep a tape player around).

Luke decorating the playroom tree.  Alex wanted to pass the ornaments to him.

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The large tree at the museum

It was one of their tinker, hack, invent events.  The boys got to make maracas.

the finished product

they got to help assemble a model T as well, very cool

they have a temporary avatar exhibit

we always have to have a hot dog when we get to that area of the museum

they also had a temporary train and lego set-up

we always spend so much time looking at the temporary event that we rarely look at the actual exhibits, another day

taking turns driving thomas

A Visit with Margaret

On December 1st we visited Margaret along with my parents, Dominic, Veronica, Bernadette and my Grandma Porter. The boys made advent crafts, played games and of course ate some snacks.

Candyland

Blurry, but still a cute picture :)

Once silly Luke

The advent chain we made, then boys loved tearing one off each night before they went to bed

Thanksgiving 2013

I guess I didn't take any pictures all of November until Thanksgiving came along. On Thanksgiving we went to the Ericson's for bunch and Phibbs' for dinner. We went to my family's on the weekend. But I don't have pictures from my families gathering.

Helped Grandma and Grandpa put up the train and village under the tree after bunch

"Fixing" the transformer

whip cream for the pumpkin pie

Alex was busy making Thanksgiving pictures

the whole family got involved

the thankful tree we made, it had twice as many leaves by the end, but I didn't get a final picture

everyone's artwork except Alex's, he took his to grandpa

playing after dinner

November Come and Gone

I've not been keeping up on the blog or taking as many pictures as I typically do. Not sure why perhaps just busy. But, time has been flying. I swear I was in denial all of November that it was really November. Now Christmas has come and gone and Halloween pictures are the last I posted. So, here is my attempts to catch up.