Our December...

Since I've been lame about posting recently, Patrick created this fun video to show you what we've been up to this month.  Enjoy!

Family Holiday Gathering

My mom's side of the family gets together the first Saturday of December to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We've grown quite a bit over the years, with 19 great-grandchildren added to the mix.  I love this chance to catch up on everyone's news.  We only have these gatherings about 3 times a year.  There is always de-licious food...my mom and all four of her sisters are fantastic cooks.

Camille with my grandfather...It is hard for me to imagine my GRANDCHILDREN having children.  I wonder what grandpa thinks as he looks at all the people in that room that would not be in the world if it wasn't for him.  Oh, and my grandfather is in fabulous shape.  As I'm the middle grandchild, I'm sure there are many more great-grandchildren in his future...no, that is not an announcement.

Camille, although not quite the youngest baby there, was still quite a hit.

Adeline with HER grandpa.

My mom's family is very musical, so we traditionally bring instruments and have a time of singing.  I love hearing the four part harmony as everyone's voices blend.

Some day, sweetie, some day...

Games are usually a part of this gathering as well.  I think Patrick was the Scrabble champion of the evening.

I have such fond memories of being together with my extended family as a kid, and I love that my kids can now enjoy these large gatherings.  I know many of you do not live near family, or were away from family this year (we missed you Mark and Michelle).  I am so thankful for the wonderful heritage in my family and that so many of us continue to gather each year.

Starry Sky

The Saladas are dear friends of ours, and they show up on this blog a lot.  On Christmas Eve, Violet sang a solo (well, a duet...her mom sang too).  I was blessed to accompany her with my flute.  It is the cutest thing EVER.  Go here to watch a video.

Fall trip to the beach

You know it's bad when you get a Christmas card in the mail from a blogging friend telling you it is time to update your blog....ahem.  Because I clearly am in need of another humorous comment from JM after procrastinating on oh so many posts, I decided to get in one last fall post before all things Christmas.

One of the most enjoyable weekends we had this fall was a trip to a fabulous beach house owned by some fabulous friends.  The Buchanans graciously invited us and the Saladas to join them for the weekend.  To my credit, Nancy hasn't posted on our weekend there yet either.  Love you girl.  Adeline thanks Jesus for the Saladas more than anyone or anything else.  Sometimes, I think she wants to be a Salada.  Linus is always looking out for my girls...I love this picture...

One evening we got crabs for all the adults who enjoy eating them.  Since everyone else was pounding their food, Linus thought he would try it with his pizza.

Story time with Nancy...

Seriously, could she be any sweeter?  I could just eat up all that deliciousness.

One contender for our family Christmas picture....if I had actually gotten around to sending Christmas cards....sigh...

We had BE-UTIFUL weather!  With our bare feet running in the water, you could never guess it was November...in Maryland!!!!  I love this picture of Nancy and Amelie running from a wave...

My sweetheart.  I love this man.

This looks a lot like this picture on the beach in Thailand when Adeline was one.

The change in tide left some nice pools of water for the kids to get covered in sand and water play in.

I love watching these two play together....most of the time.

Thanks to the Buchanans and the Saladas for a delightful vacation.  Let's go again!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Adeline's picnic table is under the light colored umbrella.  Yeah, that's a lot of snow.

The first day, she lasted 5 min.  I was planning to put Camille down and then join her and Patrick outside.  She hated it.  To her credit, the wind was blowing, the snow was falling, and it was almost to her waist.  Not fun.  Today, she did much better.  I went out with her, and we made snowballs, sledded, played on her playset and swing, and mommy even made a snow angel.  I also attempted sledding down the deck stairs.  It was wicked fun, but a bit dangerous.

Sledding with a 2 yo is tough!  Especially when the snow is measured in feet instead of inches.  It takes SO long to get the snow packed down enough to make sledding fun.  Plus, every kid knows the worst part of sledding is walking back up the hill.  With a 2 yo, you need to carry them back up the hill or the whining will commence and the sledding will end.  This mommy doesn't need a gym membership.

That's all folks!

She's learning new things every day...

My kids have a short learning curve when it comes to eating.  They learn to open their mouths (wide) after only a few bites.  We started Camille on solids about a month ago.  Her favorite is sweet potatoes.  Hands down.  She can eat A LOT of sweet potatoes.  She likes peas more than green beans and applesauce more than bananas, but we haven't found anything that she won't eat.  She's getting better at keeping her hands out of the way, and as long as you make sure you don't set the food where she can grab it, we usually get away without much of a mess.

My BABY is getting so big!!!

Grilled Cheese Party

Since I'm way behind on posting, why not take a step back and post about this fun party we hosted this fall...

My friend, Rachel, had the idea (okay, it was from a magazine) for a grilled cheese party.  She hosted a party like this before with great success, and she invited Nancy (because she is fun) and me (because my house could hold everyone) to be co-planners with her.  We invited everyone with preschool age kids from our church (because we had to draw the line somewhere).

The idea is to have regular grilled cheese for the kids (which is usually a crowd pleaser) and gourmet grilled cheese for the adults.  We used two large griddles, but the three of us still couldn't assemble fast enough.

We also served veggies, apples with caramel sauce, and roasted pepper and tomato soup (from Trader Joe's).  For dessert we had Rachel's pumpkin cake (you REALLY need to post that recipe Rach) and Nancy's truffle cheesecake (SO yummy!).

Adult grilled cheese options:

Gorgonzola and honey on wheat

Cheddar with mango chutney (also from TJ's) on wheat

Mozzarella, proshuto, and fresh basil on italian.

ALL CRAZY GOOD!!!

What better way to end a party than story time with Rachel?

Thanks everyone...it was a blast!