We’ve been going to Geer’s Tree Farm for almost a decade now! It was raining the day after Thanksgiving so we waited until Saturday. That meant our tree decorating was interrupted by some parade viewing (the husbands stayed home for Finn- and football-watching). It wasn’t exactly warm but it wasn’t frigid, so it was perfect Christmas activity weather. We dragging our Thanksgiving guests around with us because I love them too much to not see them every possible second, but I also love Christmass too much to delay it TWO weekends, which would be the next time E could come pick out a tree.

The Norwich Winterfest Parade goes right through our neighborhood – you can see my green house in the background of half the photos – and it’s my second favorite holiday after cutting down our tree. A lot of the organizations throw candy for the kids, so they end up stuffed with sugar. Caroline talked one of the guys selling junk from a cart into giving us 4 of these ribbon wands for $3, and they had a great time waving them around.

Evan lost the battle with the wind.

SANTA! I KNOW HIM!

And then Christmas threw up ALL OVER my house.

This was the next morning, which explains the daylight and matching jams.

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m a little late and fully into Christmas mode now, which is my favorite part of the year. I’d like to just live in the 4 weeks before Christmas forever. We had friends here for the holiday and it was so, so great. They did so much work/child entertaining that it felt like a vacation instead of hosting.

Sunday:

Super excited to give this to Evan for Christmas

The extent of my Thanksgiving decorating

Sibling cuddles

Monday:

First snow!

Linc likes “helping”

Hello cutie

Tuesday:

Making his Christmas list

The most beautiful wrap in the world

Sunset = same time as bus pick up

Wednesday:

Shop til you drop

Don’t even care what they watch as long as they’re quite for 20 minutes

Thursday:

Men doing manly turkey frying

Potato masher

Caroline is the quality control department

Friday:

Black Friday Hanna shopping

Linc was SO into decorating, it was adorable

More gingerbread building

Saturday:

Christmas tree hunter

Small town adorable parade

Tree is up!

For the record, I am still sick. It’s now been 4 weeks with the cough, that has now become a sinus infection, most likely an ear infection and a weird painful bump on the roof of my mouth the internet tells me is probably related. I’m almost desperate enough to go to the doctor, although I’m still 90% sure they’ll say “it’s a virus, nothing we can do”. Maybe just MAKING an appointment will scare the virus into going away. I’m pretty sure that’s how viruses work.

I’m late again, but it wasn’t my fault this time, I was having laptop issues and my iPhone photos wouldn’t load. I know you were really concerned.

Sunday:

Annual Nutcracker Conference

You’re “welcome”.

Teaching the children naval dominance

Monday:

Pretty pleased with his own driving skills

THE FORCE AWOKE

We play a lot of cards in Ohio

Tuesday:

Child-sized hamster run was quite entertaining

No caption needed

HEY GUYS I FOUND OUTSIDE

Wednesday:

The doc is in and she’ll fix you up…

Drive thru banking is so convenient

This is what happens when I want Linc to pose for a picture

Thursday:

Cousin Christmas is a little crazy

Trouble face

More cards

Friday:

Out?

I forgot to bring my phone inside COSI, but it was REALLY fun

Disco sparkle tree

Saturday:

So many pine needles

Post-Christmas disaster house

Post-Christmas ER trip for some face-gluing

I got both big kids out the door and off to school on time with no crying and no screaming, so reintroduction to real life is going pretty well. It’s currently softly snowing outside while I drink coffee and watch Lincoln destroy the house I already cleaned once today, so my day is going well. That’s not sarcasm, that’s a perfectly lovely day with a 17 month old.

I went a little crazy signing the kids up for activities (again) because bored kids trapped in a cold house are the worst, so this week is going to be B U S Y. Let’s hope they wear themselves out too much to whine, since I am all full up of whining children after 2 weeks off school.

We had a nice family Christmas at home, which is my favorite kind. Santa brought the kids a lot of great stuff plus E and I bought the kids a Disney Infinity so there was plenty to keep everyone busy all day (and hopefully for many many more days).

We walked to the 4:30 family service at our church. Caroline wore one of my Christmas dresses.

 Before bed we put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer with a drawing Caroline made and put in an envelope she borrowed from church. Then we sprinkling the lawn with “reindeer food” that Caroline made at school (oats + glitter).

We open one present each on Christmas Eve.

And then we tried to get some photos in our matching jams.

And then after the kids went to bed SANTA CAME!

And then Christmas was chaos. With bacon and waffles.

It was a very Star Wars Christmas.

Caroline is SUPER excited about her first graphic novel.

Christmas happened last week and it already feels like it was a super long time ago. I am NOT looking forward to putting all of it away.

Sunday:

Pretty sure she insists on church JUST for the cookies

Shopping assistant

Dropped the kids off for FOUR HOURS of art (clearly they did not make these)

Monday:

Toddler playdate

Warm enough for a nap-walk

This free-from-the-trash coupe is working out well

Tuesday:

ALOOOOOOOONE shopping

Good dog

Good Daddy

Wednesday:

Blech

How Linc feels about the weather

Side-eye master

Thursday:

Bare feet on Christmas Eve

Last minute Santa cookies

An angel got her wings

Friday:

The only shot I got where they are all in the matching jams

Disney Infinity for 8 hours straight

Sticking to the 4 main food groups

Saturday:

Soooooo much of this

HEY GUYS THEY HAVE CHRISTMAS HERE TOO!

Borrowing toys from his cousins

After that week of super crazy warm weather mother nature is getting us back with rain, freezing rain, more rain, and ice. It’s unpleasant. I’m REALLY wishing I had brought my Vitamin D with me on our trip, because I’ve completely forgotten what the sun looks like.

I have a hundred Christmas photos to post but by the time I do it no one will care about Christmas anymore. Hopefully they are quickly followed by a very interesting recap of my completed 365 photo project, which I am probably never going to shut up about. ALMOST DONE!