Christmas

We have been celebrating all week. We spent the days right before Christmas at a hotel featuring an indoor water park. While we were there, we took a trip to the 'North Pole' on the Polar Express, which was pretty incredible. Tickets are distributed by lottery months in advance, but somehow Mike was able to track three down. It was worth the work. Basically you live the book, from the train ride into the mountains to crowds of elves to the silver bell cut from a reindeer's harness. It was a lot of fun, and very memorable.


























Mike and Claire have been skiing four times this week, making good use of Mike's season pass at Shawnee Peak. Claire loves it. She has turned into the classic kid who zips down the hill, turning and stopping with ease, as adults look on, struggling to keep their balance while standing still. The difference between her skill level this year as compared to last year is pretty incredible. By the time I can get back out there next winter, she'll be skiing circles around me, just like Mike.













We drove the White Mountain Trail, which was beautiful. The mountains seemed to rise up out of nowhere, and they were everywhere. We had a great day weather-wise, but the steep winding roads were still a little questionable in a lot of areas.













And this is Mount Washington. This was the first time I'd really seen the mountian, and I have to say I'm now much more impressed that Mike has not only hiked it, but then skied down several times. We'll have to give Claire a few more years before she can try it herself.














Christmas Day itself was wonderfully relaxing. We spent some time with our families using the webcam, we all opened many fantastic gifts, and some of us (Mike) took several naps. We finally got ourselves together for Christmas dinner with friends, which was also very special. Couldn't have asked for more.

Merry Christmas from Maine

Its what you'd expect. Surfing during the day (not us, but fun to watch anyway), and a lobster dinner at night.

A few more days.

Christmas always sneaks up on me. Obviously I'm aware its coming, but it goes from two weeks away to two days away overnight it seems. I don't know how it happens. We have three countdown-type decorations in the house, and Claire asks every day how many days are left. But it is a busy time of the year, and December always flies past.








We are finished with our shopping, and have been for a while now. Everything has been shipped out as well, so we haven't had to go out for retail reasons lately. From what I hear, that is a good thing. Battling the crowds isn't something I enjoy doing. However, I am hoping to get out and walk around downtown after dark to look at the lights. Maybe with a hot chocolate.

Also, in even more exciting news, I'm an Aunt for the first time. Jim and Monnie had their little boy, Henry, on the 19th. We are very excited to meet the little guy. There are a lot of pictures on Jim's webpage. Take a look, he is very sweet. Henry, that is.

And the Finished Product

We finished the tree, and we put up a few other decorations...















































I was also able to make a stocking for myself, and hang it with the others on an actual fireplace for the first time. Claire and Mike have had a stocking for the past few years, but I never got around to mine. We missed St. Nicks night, which was on December 5th, but we're planning on making it up this weekend. Our tradition is that each person puts a small present in everyone else's stocking. Usually its something hand made or some candies. Claire is old enough this year to handle it herself. It will be fun to see what she comes up with.

Completely unrelated, I've been using the side bar on the blog as a place to put stuff I've been looking at online. I'll probably keep four or so things up, and just rotate the oldest ones off. I also have a poll about the color of lights on your tree. We've always had clear. A lot of people I've talked to have a definite opinion, and it made me curious. So please vote, if you will. Its only for my own entertainment.

Decorating Day

We brought our tree home yesterday. We went out meaning to cut our own, as we did last year, but we never found the tree farm we were looking for. We finally reached our limit for driving around and settled for a real, but pre-cut tree. 'Settled' is probably the wrong word. Its a beautiful tree and it smells really nice, we were just looking forward to the process of cutting our own. However, we were guaranteed that its one of the best trees in Maine, and honestly, having someone net the tree an then put it on our car was pretty nice. But either way, today is decorating day. Claire and I are really looking forward to it. It won't look like this for long:

Happy New Year!

We have been having a wonderful holiday. Claire and I spent Christmas in Green Bay with my family, which was really nice. I've said before that this year was the first time that Claire really understood Santa's role, and it was great fun. On Christmas Eve I was explaining that Santa would come, and she naturally wanted to stay awake for the event. But after I told her that Santa wouldn't come until she was asleep, she literally ran to her room, jumped in bed and went to sleep. I went in to check on her not five minutes after, and she was out. I wish every night could be that easy! And on our last night at my parent's house, the neighbors had a pretty big fireworks show. A nice send off!














After Christmas, Claire and I stayed in Green Bay for Tim-O-Thee's basketball tournament. It was so nice to see everyone. Most of the Wisconsin people were there, and special appearances were made by Carly and Maeve. It was a lot of fun. Someone had an idea to spell out 'Go Tim-O-Thee on our shirts, and it worked out perfectly until we got to the game and found out we all couldn't sit together. But the effort was there, and honestly, the fun was in putting it together anyway.














Claire loved watching the cheerleaders doing their lifts and such...















And we cheered for Tim a lot, and for good reason. He had a great game (he's number 21).






























There are more Christmas and basketball pictureson flickr.

I don't think we have any plans for ringing in the New Year tonight, other than watching the Packer game, even though it looks like the odds we'll make it into the playoffs are not very good. Its still a rare treat for Mike and I to watch a Packer game, so we'll enjoy it anyway. And speaking of Mike, we are all very excited to see him, he flies in tonight!

Christmas Eve

Christmas is coming!

We cut our own Christmas Tree today, and had a blast. We had it up and decorated in no time. The only thing we were missing was a tree skirt, but a blanket from Granny gives it all the perfect Ironwood flavor.



















This is the first year Claire really 'gets' Christmas. She knows its coming and what its about. She helped decorate the tree and now that its up, she plays Pretend Santa and gives Mike and I boxes full of presents (wooden blocks, puzzle pieces and such). Last year she was excited about Christmas, but she definitely wasn't looking forward to it because she didn't know any better. At 2 years old, 'later' just wasn't in her vocabulary, much less "Christmas is on December 25, in a few weeks". So this year is different. Its very fun to see her so excited and point out Christmas lights when we are driving around, or watch her just sit by the tree and look up at it. She also spent the entire morning making Christmas presents for Grandparents, Uncles and Aunt Monnie. She put a lot of thought into each one, and each one turned out absolutely perfect.














Christmas is coming, and we can't wait!