Oh Christmas tree....

In a perfect world I'd decorate our tree the same way my family did when I was a kid. I remember we'd get the tree about a week before Christmas (a REAL tree) and Santa would decorate it Christmas Eve while we were sleeping. It was so amazing to sneak out of our rooms Christmas morning and peek downstairs to see what it looked like all lit up and beautiful. We can't afford a real tree, and dont want to lug one up three flights of stairs even if we could. As to the decorating, well... I just can't seem to wrap my head around staying up that late to help Santa out.
Anyway we did ours yesterday. It was snowing and I thought why not just get it all done. So while I strung the lights around and around I gave the Kiddo his Santa treehouse to play with.
Then, once the lights were done I unpacked all the ornaments. I pulled out my 3ft fiber optic tree from my college days and set it up for the Kiddo to decorate.
This give him a way to be completely happy and out of my way while I decorated our tree. He had me help him string the bead garland, then he very carefully picked a spot for each and every ornament. In the end he had a very cute tree! He was excited that he had his own tree for his room, and he was proud of the fact that him and mommy had both decorated trees together. We had a small glass of eggnog and a couple cookies while we congratulated each other on jobs well done.

life is a dance

It's Christmas music pretty much 24/7 here at our house. The Kiddo loves it, he wants to learn the songs so he can sing along so he asks to play his cd (with kids singing) more then any other. When he gets tired of trying to learn the words he dances. This is him dancing, note the stuffies and toys on the floor. See how they are paired up into dancing partners?

a Nook cook book*

Barns and Noble just came out with their very own version of an e-reader, it's called Nook. I really like it, in fact it's my hippopotamus for this year. I've read the reviews, and yes there are a few bugs they are still working out. I expected that, it's 1.0 programming after all, but I think most of the buggyness will be fixed by the time I've managed to scrape together enough to buy one. My evil "buy one" plan involves any Christmas money I get this year, and possibly selling the Kiddo to the highest bidder.

I have an evil plan every year though so we'll have to wait and see if this one actually happens or not.







*from Dr Seuss One Fish, Two Fish

Hippopotamuseses

I love this song, the Kiddo adores this song!! I always thought, if you wanted to get all deep, that it was talking about that great big thing, that thing you want but know you'll never get. Last year my Hippopotamus was that the man get the super great job he was trying for, oh and a car *g* This year my Hippo is almost the same thing.

I think the Kiddo's Hippopotamus is a ride on car, preferably one that transforms into a robot . What is your Hippopotamus??

D-mental...

I pleased to report that the kiddo has my families dental genetics. I'll be happy about that until he needs braces in several years... For now, clean good teeth with no cavaties. Doc was happy with him and us.

And as a side note the kiddo still loves the dentist... Here is the little play house they have in their waiting room, he's in there playing Mario racing, he's baby Mario because the other kid in there who set it up couldn't wrap his head around a little boy wanting to be baby peach.

Here he's laying down in the dentist chair. I can't get over how tiny he is, his butt doesn't eve hit the butt part of the chair! He's got the earphones on and is watching Madagascar while waiting for the doc to come check out his mouth.

Updates for December

Lets see, the Kiddo had an Endocrinologist appointment last Friday. With insurance it cost us all of 5 bucks (co-pay)! He has grown just under an inch since his last visit three months ago, but weighs about the same. Doc said he seems to be doing fine and everything looks to be on track. We don't have another blood test until the end of Feb, and the next doc appointment isn't until the start of March!

Today we take the kiddo into his Dentist appointment. Another 5$ copay, and they'll tell me his teeth look great but yell at me for not flossing him. Well shoot his mouth is kind of small and it's hard to get my hands in there!

Followup flu shot should be this week but might end up being next, it's scheduled for Saturday but the man has drill so that wont work. We'll see when they can reschedule it for and go from there.

We finally got a "good" amount of snow last night, several inches at least. It's snowing as I type this as well. I'm so glad to finally have snow to go with the super cold temperatures.

My balcony is finally completely decorated as well. I had it done a week ago but redid it. See randomly one morning woke up with the idea that I could tie my lawn stake trees to the railing! I've had these things for years but have not used them since moving back to an apartment. It's so hard to decorate a little patio w/out having it look like a silly mass of lights... I think the trees add a nice touch w/out going overboard. Now I have to decide if it's possible (and worth it) to hang my snowflakes from the ceiling above the trees... or if I should just leave it.

mmm chocolate!

Chocolate pots? She is a tiny bit annoying but these look soooo good I had to share. I'm thinking at least a couple of you will want to make these (mama? *grin*).



I watched it a couple times and jotted down the recipe.

Chocolate pots
(makes 4 ramekins worth)

Ingredients:

3/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips 1 stick plus a bit of unsalted butter

2 eggs 3/4 cup sugar 3 Tbs flour

Melt chocolate and butter, set aside to cool. Mix eggs and sugar, then add flour. Gently fold in chocolate. Poor into buttered ramekins. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Done when top is cracked but inside is goey.

Right about now is when..

I start to wonder if I was a very intelligent person to move to a state with snow... because while I like snow I kinda dislike the temperatures that come with it. I suppose I should be glad there's no snow in the forecast today but no snow seems to mean that things just feel/get a LOT colder. I'll take snow with a bit warmer temps any day!!

Christmas Tree Festival

We've gone pretty much every year since we moved here. I suppose it's a tradition of sorts. This year I mentioned to Lady D that I thought we might skip it, things are tight and it feels like a splurge. She said that while it may be a splurge, it's one for the kid and it's season/time specific so I better get off my butt and take him or she'd kick me. So we took him. It was beautiful and amazing and I hope someday we are in a place where we can donate a tree (they sell them and the proceeds go to the childrens hospital).

He loved it! It's amazing to notice the different in how he reacts to it each year, last year he looked and wanted to touch all of them. This year he pointed out his favorites and stared around in awe at all the lights, he also noticed a lot more of the little things and detailed parts of the trees. Snowman tree, little tiny snowman... such a cute tree.

This tree was so pretty, and I loved the message.

Of course trains everywhere, that made the kiddo very happy.

The man found one tree he really liked, nascar *chuckle*

I really need to get my butt to the eye doc so I can get some clear contacts, otherwise I love this picture. Sure it took 5 tries to get him to smile, but it was worth it!

I don't know why but I love nativities. This one is I think my favorite of any I have seen.

The coolest "tree". It's rock ledges with tinsel waterfall.. I really liked it.

We did the gingerbread walk last, I did take a picture of the castle just like last year but this one was really cool, and my favorite! I love that it's so simple.