Stocking Stuffers.

They are even better than finding an orange in the toe. I think even Gigi would agree with me on that.

The kids are dressed up because we went to the Gardening Angels holiday party, even though we do not garden, nor are we angels. We are just Granny Janny's adopted kiddos (the other angels sometimes get confused as to whom the kids belong. One year, one of the other ladies gave Jan a giant teddy bear for her granddaughter, after Ellie spent the entire holiday party demanding that Jan let her look at her necklace.) The party was great - Ellie once again followed Jan around, and ate about forty five caramels when I wasn't in her line of sight. Another lady had brought caramels too, so we had a caramel-off, but narrowly avoided a fist fight. Though she is also from Minnesota, her recipe is an ancient family one, not one cut out of a 1982 copy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Adam got passed around by the ladies, which he is always happy to do.

That suspenders and bow tie onesie is the first thing I bought for him when I was pregnant. I had already spent a lot of time despondently looking at outfits in the boys section at Target, bemoaning the fact that I didn't to dress my baby in brown, orange, trucks or monkeys, and then I saw this dapper young gentleman outfit, and thought to myself "yes, you will dress this boy as a little goofy gentleman at all times." I'm sad because today is clearly the last time it's going to fit. The good news is his Buddy the Juddy can probably get some holiday use out of it.

Just Randoms.

Things that I love: Ellie has started really singing along to songs now in the car. Her little face as she sings just kills me. We've also returned to our music classes with Miss Elena for three weeks of holiday fun. Ellie is all about Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer (meanwhile, during class Kristen and I were cracking each other up by being the only moms singing the "like a lightbulb" "like George Washington" portions of the song, because we are immature.)

Another thing I love: we went out for Mexican food tonight for an early birthday celebration for Tim. I brought some mashed up fruits and vegetables and a spoon for Adam, but then when my delicious plate of carnitas arrived, I offered him some rice and beans, which he quite enjoyed. And then I offered him some carnitas and he absolutely gobbled it. That's right, fat little baby. Carnitas is the very best kind of pork, and pork is the most delicious of animals. Learn it now! Meanwhile, Ellie ordered her very own quesadilla from the waiter - she is more and more grown up every day. Sometimes I can't believe how big she is, and how mature she is. Today when she wanted to play with her Playdoh, she grabbed her stool, put it next to the counter and grabbed a can, and got herself all set up at the dining room table. She makes me laugh so hard.

Yesterday after nap time she wanted to go to the park, so we bundled up (you know, because it's in the 50s here, which is actually below freezing) and strolled down to play on the swings.

Who needs an elf on your shelf when you have these two?

Last One In Is A Rotten Egg!

This Friday night Ellie got to go to Mimi and Pa's house for a winter wonderland party in their neighborhood, and a sleep over. She loved all of the winter stuff - the sledding, the snowball fights, the petting zoo that was off in a corner, not in the snow (even though she got pecked by a duck.) Then in the morning, she got to have Pa's special pancakes. We were asking her about her experience on Saturday afternoon, and she very vigorously informed us that Pa used rotten eggs in the pancakes. She mentioned it several times, and even when we said "do you mean raw eggs?" she said no, she definitely meant rotten. She couldn't eat the batter because Pa said the eggs were rotten.

Upon further review, the adults in the situation said that it was indeed raw eggs that he was trying to steer her from eating, but you know, it's a he said, she said situation. Just goes to show again, that you can never trust a three year old!

There's a Certain Slant of Light

Both of them, once they could crawl, love to crawl over and look at the books. It makes me proud.

The Christmas Train

It's that time of holly jolly year again! Time for our family to head out to the Irvine Park Railroad to visit Santa and chuckle to ourselves while Ellie sobs in Santa's lap. Now with bonus second child!

It was a really nice night. Last year we met up with Lexi and Whitney by chance - this year we all had an early dinner and caravaned over for maximum fun (and then met up with Jonathan and Nathan by chance!) We arrived closer to 7, which meant almost no waiting in lines. We got on the train quickly, had our ride through all of the trees adorned with twinkle lights and then were right in line to meet the big guy. Ellie had been saying all day that she was excited to see Santa, and she was going to sit with him, and she was going to ask him for a candy cane, and when the time came, she watched Lexi and Buddy the Juddy (as she calls Judd) hop up and talk to Santa and then... SHE DID IT! SHE SAT NICELY WITH SANTA!

As you can see, it definitely took her a minute. And she did not touch the big red man, but then she was happy to chat with him. All she wanted was a candy cane and in that bag next to the arm chair was a whole pile of them for her to pick from. PERFECT.

The girls had a great night - they had plenty of time to chase each other around in circles (which they love) and this also helped keep them warm, since it was pretty chilly in the canyons. Especially for Ellie, since I assumed her fleece hoodie was in the car, but it got left at school today (thankfully, Lexi had a hoodie that Ellie squeezed into.) And see Adam's cute socks? Neither of them made it back to the car, somehow. Thankfully, despite all the warnings about the cold, we survived and the Christmas Train did not turn into the Donner Party. Obviously we would have eaten Adam first, as he is helpless and probably not as gamey as Ellie.

After our ride back to the station, we went and had refreshments. Ellie had her first ever hot chocolate, which, SURPRISE SURPRISE, she loved. Everyone got to bed late, which I feel like is the theme of the holidays. Poor Adam was so tired that he fell asleep in the car, and since Tim was picking up our second vehicle, I just shut the garage door and let Adam continue to snooze while I got Ellie into bed.

The kids' cute matching outfits were a present from Mimi, and we love them. They have horses on them, which means that they can be used for days to come, after Christmas has passed. I think the kids look so cute - we may end up doing matching outfits every day from her on out.

All he Wants for Christmas.

Yup, those are some legit fangs!

A badly lit video of Grizz with his Pal. Though the sound is the best part.

Cat Lady.

Our poor sweet Rocky - Ellie wrapped him up like a burrito the other day and he remained in that pink blanket for a good half hour. Rocky is the sweetest of cats - he is very into Adam, which is funny to me. If Adam is on the play mat, Rocky likes to come check him out. The other day Adam was on his stomach and grabbed ahold of Rocky's tail. Rocky got nervous and tried to pull away and just ended up pulling Adam across the floor a bit. Poor kitten tail!

And here she is with her baby boy Thory. Please note - Thor came into the room and I reached out to pet him and he pulled back, scared (like an idiot.) Ellie then came down the hallway and basically sat on him, and he just snuggled up with her and started purring. It's probably because she has learned how to get out the bag of cat treats and get him one.

This is un-cat related. Last Wednesday, my college roommate Monique came down and was my hot date to see Justin Timberlake at the Pond. It was an amazing show. Please enjoy Ellie trying to get herself an invite.