Deck the House with Boughs of Holly

I like decorating for Christmas. It's fun to take out the silly Christmas chotchkies and look at them for a month. I dislike undecorating for Christmas which we're going to do this weekend. Not only does it mean the fun season is over but the house looks quite naked.

Having a new house to decorate was interesting this year. Things didn't have their saved spot to go to when they got unpacked so decorating took a lot more thought than usual. Plus, some of my things just don't seem to work in the new place and, since this house is bigger than the last, we realize we need more decor to make the spirit of the holiday feel complete. That is why I'm currently shopping all the post Christmas sales. Never pay full price....especially for seasonal items!

We put our tree in our entryway and I really liked it there. I really want to get 2 trees next year so we can put a "pretty" one with matching type ornaments in our front bay window and keep our personalized one, with crazy mismatched ornaments that all have meaning to me, in the entryway for us to enjoy. So, in my sales searches, I've been trying to really stock up on ornaments for the 2nd tree.

As for decorating challenges, the most frustrating one was where to put our stockings. We have 2 different fireplaces in the house, one of which has 2 sides. Yet, we have NO MANTEL! A situation I'd hope to remedy before the holidays but lack of time squashed that dream. Maybe next year. So, for this year, we had to hang the stocking from the sideboard behind the couch. Not as visible as I'd like nor practical since we kept having to move them around to access the interior of the cabinets.

In any case, there are definitely plans in the mix to soup up decorations at the Hines household next Christmas. For now, enjoy the pictures of our lovely tree and outdoor lights. They'll all be coming down this weekend!

Lights Off

Lights On - Enter Dylan

Our Lights, Candy Canes and Deer Outside
Next year, Mike plans on adding lots more lights (to all peaks)
and more lawn decor. Dylan was absolutely obsessed with the deer.
That poor one out front took a beating this year and looked even more
horrible after the high winds we had the other night...as evidenced by
having half of it's lights out and it's frame bent to make it look like
the poor thing had too much eggnog and passed out nose first in our mulch.

Even my toes got a little decoration thanks to the lovely lady
that gave me a wonderful pedicure a couple of weeks ago.

Boxing Day Gift

In our new house, I have this super awesome room that is completely devoted to being my craft room. My Mom used it to sew and iron curtains for 3 rooms in the house. Well, over the last couple of weeks, I tackled my first big craft project in this house and, ironically, spent no time using my craft room for it. The room, however, did make a great storage space for supplies when I had to hide the project away. I did this every day after working on it as the project was meant to be a Christmas gift for Dylan and I didn't want him to see it.

The reason I didn't end up using my craft room was simply due to the scale. It was too huge for my craft table. I worked mostly on our kitchen island and the floor. What was this grand scale project? A car mat for Dylan.

I was inspired to do this by a crafting blogger's mat. The one she made out of felt was so cute and seemed fairly straightforward to make. Plus, it brought back great memories of the one I (and my brothers) played for hours on as a child. The one I played on was painted on fabric. Now, I can be a crafty gal but I'm definitely no great artist when it comes to paint on canvas so I went with the crafty felt way.

I started planning this in plenty of time. One night in November, after Dylan went to sleep, I headed to the fabric store and bought a stack of different colored felts, with a coupon, for around $12.

Then, my lovely pile of felt sat in the bag, in my craft room, for a few weeks untouched. One night during the first couple of weeks of December, I cut the base of the mat, the strips that would be used as edging and the roads.

The Road Map
(See my helper in the top left corner?)

Then the project sat untouched for another week or two. There just seemed to be so much going on in December and my energy level was just not keeping up. But, nothing like a deadline to fuel the fire of productivity. The week before Christmas, I kicked productivity into high gear. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough time and I needed another couple of hours to finish. I did this during Dylan's nap time the day after Christmas so he got a nice Boxing Day gift from Mom and Dad. (Even though it was my project, Mike was a great helper\assistant in it so he did do a lot to get it ready for Dylan too.)

What's in the bag?
(You can see the post Christmas mess still lingering in the house.)

Wow! That's Cool!

It's a blanket!

After explaining it was not a blanket, but Dylan's Town,
a place for him to play with all of his cars, he excitedly jumped
all over it. Then asked, "what's a town?"

Getting the Tour of Dylan's Town

Yay! More jumping and excitement.

While I was disappointed to have missed giving to him on Christmas, Mike was absolutely correct that it would be even more special of a gift to be given to him outside of the rush. The joy he had opening it made the hours of cutting, hand cramping from cutting, gluing, burns from gluing and late nights all worth it!

So, now I present to you "Dylan's Town." Here's your tour of Dylan's car mat with which I hope he will get many years of fun.

The Whole She-Bang
(That's 1/2 of our ping pong table it's covering....not a small mat.)

The Farm

With Grocery Store Just Across the Street
(I hope that means we'll be able to get lots of super fresh produce there.)

The Mall and Parking Lot
So far, the parking lot seems to be his favorite spot on the map.

Our House (light blue one at top) and Neighborhood

The Lake and Garden

The All Important Library

Hospital, Clouds, Sun, Fire Station, Train, Police Station

Train Close Up

Zoo (Seal, Giraffe, Zebra and Lion)

Mom's Work

Music Class and Police Station

Christmas Day

Well, Christmas Day has come and gone. With all the fun things we did leading up to it, I'm a little sad to have to tell Dylan that things that he's become used to daily (finding Overton our Elf and opening a day on our Santa advent calendar) aren't going to be done anymore since Christmas is over. It's a good thing all of his new toys easily distract him from that sadness.

As Dylan had quite a few presents to open from family near and far, we made the decision to start on them a couple of days early. If it was going to be anything like his birthday, he would get tired after opening 2 of them. On the evening of the 23rd, we let him open gifts from his Uncle Jody's family and his Aunt Pam and Uncle Kerryn. He loved it and immediately wanted to put on some of his new jammies, read some of his new books and take his new stuffed animal to bed with him. He also wanted to open up more presents. I guess we didn't have to worry too much about him getting present overload!

Christmas Eve was busy. We dropped by our friends' Hanukkah party for just a bit but took off early to have our family Eve events. Dylan got a couple more gifts...some of the smaller ones we had to give him. Mike really wanted to give him all the new movies so that he could enjoy one that night. After opening what we gave him, he only wanted to watch an old favorite - Harry Potter. However, that was due to the fact that he'd just gotten a skeleton Lego man and the beginning of the Deathly Hallows Part II has a clip of Lego Voldomort making silly faces in a mirror that Dylan loves to watch. So, after decorating some of the gingerbread cookies we had made to be left out for Santa and having a nice family dinner, that was our Christmas Eve family night movie.

After Dylan went to bed, the elves (us) got to work. Santa presents were laid out and I furiously tried to finish a very special gift I was making for Dylan. As the clock ticked closer to 11, I finally resigned to the fact that I wouldn't finish and would give it to him as a post Christmas Day present. After another hour of set up and stocking stuffing, the tired elves headed to bed.

Cookies and Milk for Santa

The next morning when Dylan woke up, we made a big hoopla about it being Christmas Day and we needed to go see what Santa had left. To capture the excitement of Dylan's reaction, I had Mike take a video of Dylan and I walking downstairs, seeing our Elf on the tree and continuing around the corner to see the plate of eaten cookies nearby where Santa had left the pile of presents. Even though no one else was around, Dylan got a little shy\overwhelmed by it all and reacted by hiding behind my leg a little bit. While we could tell he was happy about checking out his presents, it took him a while to loosen up and act that way externally.

The Presents Await!

Santa's Been Here

His BIG present from Santa was a big boy bed! We'd talked to him just a few times in passing about how you get to sleep in a big boy bed when you get old enough. Well, when Santa brought him one, we made a HUGE deal about how Santa must think he's a really big boy to have brought him that! That made him pretty happy and excited about it. While Mike made us waffles for breakfast (with one of my Christmas Eve gifts, a Belgium waffle maker), Dylan got cozy in his new bed, at least as cozy as you can without a mattress, and read his new books and played with his new toys.

After breakfast, we moved all the gifts from under the tree into the living room so we could open them in a comfortable setting. Sitting on the couch with pillows situated just right is about the only way I'm comfortable these days. Pretty quickly, Dylan dashed back to the other room to hang out in the bed. The only way he joined us was Mike moving his new bed into the living room for the fun. We were overjoyed that he liked it that much!

As Christmas is obviously not really about what we got, I won't be petty and list all the material things we exchanged. Though, I will say that Mike did a great job of being thoughtful with my gifts and I think (hope) he felt the same about what I chose for him.

The kitties gave Dylan a stuffed shark.

We needed to head to Mike's sister's house for the afternoon so we wanted Dylan to go down for a nap earlier than usual. In what was likely a horrible parental plan, we put Dylan down for a nap 30 minutes early, in a new big boy bed after a very exciting morning that hadn't lost momentum. Sometimes you can't plan or worry too much about these things and just have to go for it and see how it plays out.

Getting Ready for His First Nap in His Big Boy Bed
(He's the thing in the middle. At least there's the extra shelf at
the end of the bed where we can put some of the stuffed animals.
If you think this is crowded, you should have seen his crib!)

Children will very often amaze and surprise you. Yes this can happen in both good and bad ways but somehow the good ways floor you more and will be the ones you remember most. Well, Christmas Day 2011 is one of the days that Dylan just impressed the hell out of me. After lying in bed for just 30 minutes (not completely unusual for a "normal" nap day), he very successfully took a nap in his new big boy bed! Wow! And, I'm happy to report that he hasn't looked back. He still loves his bed and has been doing absolutely wonderfully in it since. (I hope I haven't just jinxed myself.) The crib is sitting empty in his room and will soon be moved to the baby's room.

Once the big boy woke up, we all got ready (in about record time I think) and headed to Mike's sister's house where the true chaos would begin. Mike's family is great. I love them dearly. But, as they are very much are aware of, the craziness that happens when they all get together is something to get used to. It's a very different pace and volume than I'm used to with my family. After years of family gatherings with them, I'm mostly used to it. However, throw in a couple of crazy (but also very lovable) dogs and a whole 'nother family (my sister-in-law's in-laws), you get a very loud, nutty afternoon!

We ate, we talked, we played with the dogs, the kids played together, new toys were shown and shared and general merriment was had by all. After we were all full from food and the kids were getting restless in anticipation, more presents were passed out. The next block of time was a complete blur! Kids were ripping gifts open left and right, wrapping paper seemed to be flying about and I couldn't even keep up with having Dylan open what was handed our way. Then, things settled a bit and kids scattered to enjoy even more new stuff.

Dylan Checking Out His New Computer

Bumpa (Mike's Dad), Uncle Jim and Cousins Jacob and Corwin

Dylan, a Very Tired Me and Jacob

Then, Dylan and I were pooped. It was time for us to gather our things, say our goodbyes and head home. What a big day! Everyone was too generous, kids were mostly behaved and no major drama went down. Now that's a great Christmas Day.

Merry Merry 2011

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

And for any of my readers that might not celebrate this holiday, then just have a great day!

Not the Gumdrop Buttons!!

After our exciting Christmas event in the city over the weekend, my day off on Monday was low key. Mike and I got some presents wrapped during Dylan's nap time and then we just had one fun activity to enjoy in the afternoon - cookies!

Dylan is a big fan of the Shrek movies. He's been excited this Christmas to see so many "Gingie's" around. Mike thought it would be a great idea to make some....and he was right!

Making the gingerbread cookies was a family effort. Mike made the dough, I rolled it out, Dylan and I used cookie cutters to make all kinds of Christmas shapes, Mike baked them and then Dylan and I decorated a few.

The Boys

Dylan Showing Off Gingie

My Helper

Messy Hands

Making a Mongo Gingie

Decorating

Finished Cookie

Mmmmmm!

Candy Cane Frosting Lips

Dylan enjoyed the using the cookie cutters a lot and really did a great job. He also loves the cookie dough ornaments on our tree. So we're going to try and make some more cookie dough ornaments in the next couple of days. I'll let you know how that goes!

Christmas in the City

For a couple of folks that just moved out to the burbs, we sure have been visiting the city a lot more than we normally do. Without traffic, it takes about the same about of time now to get into downtown Boston as it did from our previous Boston address. Weird, right? In any case, it's a good thing we have a pretty direct route in because we used it several times last weekend - 3 times in 3 days as a matter of fact.

Trip #1 was taken Friday evening to see a performance. This particular performance has been playing for about 10 years in the area and I've always wanted to go. Since Mike and I likely won't be able to have too many nights to ourselves in the near future, I convinced him to take me to this show for date night. The show? Well, it's a take off of a classic - the Urban Nutcracker! The show is produced by BalletRox, which is an inner city dance studio. In addition to some of the classic music and ballet moves of the original Nutcracker, there are also some jazzed up versions of the music and lots of other different forms of dance including tap, hip hop and swing. While the chairs were not the most comfortable in my condition and the auditorium too hot, Mike and I really enjoyed the show. Since almost 50% of the audience was kids, I felt a little guilty for leaving Dylan at home with our (new) sitter, but there is no way he would have been able to sit still for that amount of time that long past his bed time.

Trip #2 to the city happened Saturday night for my company's Holiday party. It took place at the Museum of Science. We all got dressed up and went to the event not knowing how long Dylan would last. It started at 6:00pm and Dylan usually heads to bed at 7:30. He doesn't do very well staying up later than that. Just like most days as a parent, you have to go with the flow. When we first go there, he was excited to check out the natural history displays that were just outside the event room.

Just a bit later though, when standing in line to see Santa, a tired boy wanted to be held and rest his head on my shoulder.

This time, being tired when seeing Santa worked to our advantage. I talked to him (again) while we were in line about what he would talk to Santa about. This time, he wanted to tell Santa that he wanted toys for Christmas. I set him down when it was his turn and he walked towards Santa with open arms ready for a hug and a sit on his lap. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Dylan looked at what was in Santa's hand and told him "a candy cane!" Well Santa, I guess your job is done. That candy cane was all he needed.

And we even managed to get a sort of smile for the picture!

Luckily, the candy cane not only entertained him while Mike and I had a chance to grab some dinner (Dylan sucked on the candy cane for his meal), the sugar gave him a little boost. He went out to visit the animals again and even cooperated long enough for us to quickly walk through the Pompeii exhibit that was there. He especially liked the part of the special exhibit that had a display of about 30 skeletons. Does his fascination with skeletons make him morbid or just super cute that he is still excited about Halloween stuff? I'm going with cute.

After our very quick trip through the Pompeii exhibit, we headed home. Made it until about 8:30. Not too bad. Of course, I don't feel like I got to talk to and enjoy any of my coworkers, but that's how parties go when you're there with a child.

Trip #3 happened on Sunday. We hadn't seen our friends Tamara and Ross for a while so we arranged to meet downtown for some holiday fun for their little girl Elsa and our Dylan. There was an outdoor holiday shop we thought we could check out, take in some of the downtown holiday decorations and also pop by the Boston Common to see folks ice skate on the Frog Pond.

We've had such mild weather for this time of year that we aren't quite accustomed to what kind of weather is more appropriate in this season....ie COLD! Last weekend Jack Frost finally arrived and Sunday was a very frigid day that none of us were quite prepared for. So, after listening to the singers outside of Macy's, strolling through the heated tent of the market and checking out a few decorations, Tamara, Ross and Elsa had had enough and headed for warmth. Mike, Dylan and I continued to the park and, rather briefly, watched the skaters, admired the town's Christmas tree and headed back to our car where we blasted the heater. Brrrrr!

Holiday Market and Street Vendors

Dylan Saying Hi to Elsa

The Tree on the Ledge of Macy's

Almost to the Park (They turned back just after this.)

The Frogs

Watching the Ice Skaters

Skating on the Pond

Admiring the Window Displays One Last Time on the Way Back to the Car

Our friends, after stopping to get some warm beverages at Dunkin Donuts, met us back at the house where we enjoyed a pizza night and each other's company. It had been a very eventful weekend and I was exhausted! Thank goodness I had taken off on Monday and would have some time to recuperate from all the excitement.