Toasting in the New Year

Both girls are at sleepovers so I'm having a nice quiet evening at home with my two favorite guys. Good riddance, 2009. Hello, 2010.

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

Tonight is also a blue moon, meaning the second full moon of a month. A blue moon, I read, happens once every 2.5 years. And it's especially rare on New Year's Eve. The last New Year's Eve blue moon was 1990 - our first New Year's Eve as a married couple. I had to open the blind and look at the moon with B. It's a nice clear, cold night. Maybe the blue moon is a sign a good luck?

My favorite ornaments

It's almost time to put away the Christmas tree. Packing the ornaments is usually my job - Andy wraps up the lights. Here are a few of my favorite ornaments.

This ornament was a present from Andy's grandma, "Gram," for our first married Christmas together. At the time, we were living in the flat above her in a Cicero two-flat. I love the doves on it and the mirrored heart. It always goes up high on our tree.

I found this one-of-a-kind ornament at a local craft show. I think Andy's sister, A, and I were at a craft show in Hinsdale when I bought it to represent the first Christmas in our new house, 1996.

This is the ornament for E's first Christmas in 1997. We bought in on vacation in Door County, Wis.

B looks so cute in this photo we put in the ornament for his first Christmas, 1999.

I had to handwrite the information for L's first Christmas, 2002, on her ornament. Who knew pink would become her favorite color?

That's entertainment!?

E "entertained" us today by showing off the various science experiments she can do with her Mythbusters kit she received from her friend A for Christmas. She tried to float a ball in a funnel by blowing through a tube, which didn't work too well. Then she blew up a balloon and let it go sailing on fishing wire strung up across the living room. That worked pretty well.

Lazy day

The kids took it easy today - the start of their second week of winter vacation. Here they are, huddled in the kitchen by the heater playing their Nintendo DS. They watched TV, played some games and ate sporadically. B went over to the school to play in the snow. E visited her friend A and L and I did a little grocery shopping. We rented "My Sister's Keeper" on DVD. What a sad movie.

Last party

Today was our last Christmas party at Andy's cousin's house. The kids love visiting because they have a dog and because of the pool table they have in their basement. E and L kept playing with one of their second cousin's little dog, Sofie, carrying it around the house all night.

L and B kept playing their slot machine. After we gave L a few quarters to play, she went around and asked pretty much everyone there for more quarters. She was delighted by Uncle Harold. First he said he didn't have any quarters, but then had one of his grandsons exchange a few bills for quarters. When L approached him a second time and asked if he had any quarters, he told her to check in his pocket. Imagine her surprise when she reached in and pulled out a dozen or so quarters!

Our kids are the youngest of the second cousins (the oldest is maybe 26?) so they enjoyed being around the big kids for the night. And the big kids played with them which made it even better.

The morning after

Here's L still sleeping at 10:30 a.m. after a long night of playing with Grandma Barbara. The rest of the family left our house at probably 10 p.m. on Christmas, but Grandma stayed over to play with L. L loves her sleepovers with Grandma, who is always willing to play "stories" with her. L had the whole night planned out - what they were going to play, what they were going to watch on TV, when they were going to sleep. I think they stayed up till midnight.

Today we had a snow storm today with more than 3 inches landing on the ground. The kids were out building snow forts on Irving's playground. B and his friend, K, even let L play with them. E was with us, out doing a little after-Chrismas shopping. We didn't find too many bargains.

Merry Christmas!

The kids were up today by 6:30 a.m. - B was up first. He had his stocking all taken out by time we got to the living room. The search for the pickle ornament took a little longer this year than past years (Santa hid it deep within the tree). L pretty much gave up looking for it, E and B pulled out flashlights to help them search. B eventually found it near the front of the tree and got to open the pickle present, a set of Magformers. The family came over for appetizers at 2 p.m., dinner at 4 p.m. After dinner we played few games of Apples to Apples as the snow started to fall. A nice day.

Reindeer food

We came home from our church's candlelight Christmas Eve service, the kids opened two presents each and we sent them to bed. L wasn't even in bed five minutes when she came walking down the steps, alarmed that she forgot to put out her reindeer food.

At the Irving craft show earlier this month, L bought a bag of reindeer food for $1. A note on the bag said if you spread the reindeer food on your lawn on Christmas Eve it guarantees Santa won't pass you by. Our neighbor said they used some last year and it worked. L was so excited to try it.


Dressed in her new pink penquin pajamas, her winter boots and heavy coat, L took the bag outside and spread it around. The "food" was a mix of oats and glitter. Let's hope it works!

Getting ready

Today L and I finished the grocery shopping for our family party on Christmas Day. She was a trooper as we battled the crowds and waited in long lines. At home, I began to set out the food for all the dishes I'm going to prepare, as well as the drinks, to see if there's anything we forgot. It's easier for me if everything is out of the cupboards and in plain sight.

B helped clean the basement play area despite being tired from his sleepover with a friend last night. E spent the day with one of her friends and they saw the new Chipmunk movie. Hopefully, she'll be around to help tomorrow.

My German candle carousel

I've wanted a German candle carousel ever since I was a child and saw one at my aunt's house. It was so neat watching the little people turn as the candle heat turned the fan. Andy bought me one for Christmas a few years ago at Chicago's Christkindlmarket. Because it is fragile, the kids haven't seen it displayed too often. So today when I took it out and set it up in anticipation of our Christmas dinner, they were mesmerized by it. I must have lit it at least four times today to show them (and their friends) how it works.

Shhh ... they're asleep

This morning we left the farm to head back to Chicago. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the girls sleeping this morning in the glow of Mom's Christmas tree. E was on the sofa, L was covered up on the floor.

L's surprise

L went with Grandma to church this morning. She packed her own clothes for the trip so she wore a long-sleeved Christmas T-shirt and a black scooter. She put on the pink socks that came with her Snuggie and wore gym shoes. Quite the fashion plate, that one is. She was excited to come home from church and show us the ornament she received during the church's children's moment. She said we'd have to put it up high on the tree so it won't get broken.

Christmas in Staunton

This morning we left for Staunton to have our Bentrup Christmas there this afternoon. The kids were so excited to get there they kept asking, "How much longer till we're at the farm?" During a five-hour trip that can get a little monotonous! They did calm down a bit when we went to Avanti's in Normal for lunch.


We enjoyed appetizers throughout the afternoon and played Christmas bingo - the winner getting an instant lottery ticket. As a family, we came away with three free ticket cards and one $2 winner (which was E).


We opened presents then muched on more appetizers and played Apples to Apples. E got a fuzzy peace jacket, a frog Webkinz and a Lego police helicopter. B got a Game Stop gift card, a horse Webkinz and a White Castle gift card, and his much-anticipated Snuggie. L got a pink Snuggie, a Littlest Pet Shop hospital and a Guess Who Extra game.

Last school day

Today was the last school day of the year. I chaperoned a field trip for L's class to the Museum of Science and Industry. I'm not sure if the kids were super excited because they were on a field trip or because it was the last day of school before their two-week winter break. We saw the Christmas tree display, the farm exhibit, the water-play area, a petroleum exhibit, the fairy dollhouse, the swiss ball machine (one of their favorites), the huge train layout. I'm sure there was more, but we were running from one exhibit to the other all day long.

E was with her seventh-grade team at the museum too, but we didn't see them. B's class went to see Disney's new movie, "Princess and the Frog." The bus got back to L's school around 2:30 p.m. and her teacher let me take her home early.

Holiday Sing

Today was B's holiday concert at school. The fifth-graders sounded great. I had to chuckle when they were performing their first song and B was sitting in the front row sort of dancing. He wore his Santa hat and looked quite festive. The fifth grade sang "Sweet Home Chicago" for their last number. One of his friends was playing guitar, another was playing clarinet and another sang a solo. What a talented group of boys! This picture of B and one of his classmates was taken after the concert.

Experiment

B's experiment of the afternoon was trying to connect enough straws to be able to leave his glass of 7-Up on the kitchen counter and, yet, sit on the back porch to drink it. E eagerly jumped in to help. When I took this photo he was about half-way through the project.

This morning L had her winter concert at Irving. She played bongo drums and was so enthusiastic. I wish I had pictures, but the camera I took didn't have a battery in it. Long story.

Snowman

When L came home from school last week she couldn't wait to dig into the snow and make her first snowman of the season. She was so excited she brought it inside and stuck it in my freezer - carrot nose and all. The snow outside is gone, but we still her snowman in the freezer. I believe its days are numbered.

Photo calendars

The project for today was making the annual photo calendars for the grandmas. I started this a couple of years ago, matching photos of the kids from the past year to the months on the calendar. I buy the calendars at the local craft store and tape the photos in. It's an easy gift that's fun to make and useful too.

Favorite cookies

Of all the cookies I bake at Christmas, the best are these frosted sugar cookies. We have a tradition for decorating them - the snowflakes get white frosting with white edible glitter, the stars are yellow with yellow sugar, the trees are green with multicolored balls on them and the bells are blue with a silver dragee that B carefully attaches to each one. We also do stockings (red frosting with white sprinkles at the top), but E was feeling a bit under the weather so those will have to wait for tomorrow.



This year I baked seven varieties of cookies - the frosted sugar cookies just like Mom used to bake; cranberry drops; chocolate chips with red and green M&Ms; Rolo cookies; toffee cookies; sugar cookies that taste like the ones Grandma used to make; and E's favorite Italian ball cookies. We'll be passing them out to neighbors and teachers for the holidays (and saving a few for us to munch on - and don't forget some for Santa!)

Live nativity

Tonight we took the kids to see the First Baptist Church of Oak Park's live outdoor nativity, "Journey to Bethlehem." Five scenes (the appearance of the angel to Mary, the journey to Bethlehem, Herod's throne room, the shepherds' field and the stable) tell the Christmas story with live actors and - best of all - live animals. It was so cool to see the double-humped camel up close and personal. They even had a real baby playing Jesus. L saw two of her friends from school there, so she was excited. I think the kids' favorite part was the free hot chocolate and cider the church members passed out before you walk along the scenes.

Christkindlmarket

This morning we took the kids downtown Chicago for the annual Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. It's always fun to look around at the booths of German-made ornaments and toys. Usually, we go on a weeknight. Today was really crowded - we couldn't even get into the candy tent or the ornament tent. At least the temps were hovering around 30 so it seemed like a heat wave compared to what we had this last week.

Dunked

E volunteered to be one of several of her classmates to submerge herself in a dunk tank to figure out her mass. Yes, she volunteered for this "honor."


First, she had to change into her gym clothes and be weighed - 80 pounds. She's glad to reach that milestone. Some of her classmates were closing in on 150 pounds. Then she got up on her teacher's desk and he helped lower her into a huge trash can full of water. A pipe attached to the trash can drained away the overflow water into large buckets. E said she went under five or six times to make sure all the water that was going to be displaced, actually got displaced. In the end, she displaced 22 liters of water.


"It was interesting," E told me later. "It was dark and gloomy and it was hot so I was hot when I got out."


Since the outside temperature didn't even reach 20 degrees today, I picked E and her friends up from school. She came to the van wearing a towel around her still-wet hair. At least she had time to change back into her regular (dry!) clothes before school was dismissed.

Gummi bears and an alien

For selling more than 15 items in the band's fundraiser, E won a 5-pound bag of gummi bears. The bag hs 12 flavors of gummi bears and with a serving size of 12 little bears, it holds a whopping 56 servings. She wanted me to take her picture of the prize before we tore the bag open and started eating. It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to eat through 5 pounds of gummi bears.


While baking chocolate chip cookies last night, I noticed one that came out of the oven looking like an alien. A green M&M for one eye, a red M&M for the other eye, sort of a nose and a smile. What do you think?