Tiny Tree Trimmers

*Greetings from the future! We're in the midst of a 3 week lapse, the longest this blog has ever seen. Christmas prep has put me all kinds of behind and now that it's over it's time to catch up! That said, the goal is to climb out of this hole by the time 2017 comes to a close. Bear with me while I travel back in time and share all of our adventures leading up to Christmas this year. I now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging*

These two were eager to lend a hand with decorating the tree today. Otto was a little more focused on taking things, needles included. Lincoln was on the right track, but had a little trouble getting the ornaments to stay put. But, undeterred he kept at it! In addition to tree decorating, Lincoln had a blast playing on his own in the for-now clean playroom and tonight Nora ensured that everyone had shoes out on the fireplace and that the elf was ready to get his magic back from St. Nicholas. I think this year she's going to be a lot of fun leading up to Christmas.

Sibling Showtime!

This afternoon while the boys were napping and I was folding a large mountain of laundry, I was presented with the elements of my costume and "invited" to participate in the performance that was taking place in the playroom. Lincoln woke up and was immediately assigned a part as well. I was initially cast as "The Service That Catches the Ballet People" and Lincoln was the "Paint Boy Who Sings". I ended up being the audience. The show which consisted of Nora dancing and Lincoln singing, until Lincoln didn't sing it right and Nora took his "microphone". They did 2 encores and the show ended up being over 10 minutes long - all of which I have video of! After that, I was tapped to perform. Gotta love all the playing that's going on around here!

Three & The Tree

After a day spent cleaning up the house, working outside, finishing the Christmas light hanging and decorating we headed out to our traditional tree tent to hunt down a Christmas tree. All three kids loved the search for different reasons. Lincoln and Nora were all about the dancing Santa and Nora had to find the tree with a "wonderful aroma" Otto just loved grabbing and touching anything he could reach! We picked our tree and took our traditional on-top-of-the-car picture. Lincoln was NOT ok being up so high, until he had Nora to help keep him safe and we started talking about macaroni and cheese. We got home, fed all the kids dinner, got everyone in bed, cleaned up a bit and then Kyle fired up the chainsaw at 11:45pm to cut a whopping 3 inches off the bottom of the tree and we brought it in and got it all set up. Hopefully a we'll have a name and at least some lights tomorrow. Christmas tree acquired...
Fa lalala

Light it Up!

Happy Birthday, Tim!!

We kicked off our day back on Park Ave. with the Winter Park Christmas Parade. The kids were excited to see a couple of our neighbors marching, Pluto & Goofy, and of course Santa as we watched what felt like the longest small town parade in recorded history. Lincoln was mainly all about the police cars and fire trucks. This afternoon Kyle and I attempted to do some stuff around the house, made and hung up a few more Christmas balls and got the kids to take naps to rest up for tonight!

Our annual outing to the Lake Lily Tree lighting! We again missed the actual flipping of the switch, but there was no way I was waking Lincoln up from a stellar nap! Besides, the main attraction at this event is (no, not the snow ice hill for "sledding")

the fireworks!!! YAY! Otto did alright for his first time, but lost it towards the end. I'm not totally sure what set him off, as there were a lot of variables in play at the moment of meltdown, but the show ended shortly thereafter and all was well. Another tree lit and a couple more Santa's spotted!
Fa lala

All The Lights!

Tonight was the Winter Park "Tree" Lighting. While we didn't make it in time to actually see the lights turn on we were there in plenty of time to enjoy the festivities and have a Panera Picnic dinner while watching (or sneaking peeks of, if you're Nora) the Grinch cartoon. The second movie in double feature was advertised to be Muppet Family Christmas (Nora's favorite movie) but, what they actually showed was A Muppet Christmas Carol - while an excellent movie, there is a HUGE difference between the two...sooooo rather than super excited and surprised it was more like uuuuhhhh this is dark and scary and the door knocker just came to life, not cool! Anywho, Lincoln loved seeing the "big big fire cuck" and dancing to the giant singing christmas cone of moving lights and Otto was a good sport and zonked out really quickly on the way home! With an evening of Christmas fun under our belts I think we outta add a
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We're Going Streaking

Well, the family streak ended thanks to life being life! Today was a busy Thursday, there was school, the store, swimming, making cookies, Kyle got home a little late and Otto crashed hard a little early. All that said, we didn't make it out for our whole family run. Kyle did take Nora & Lincoln and I stayed behind BUT, Cort and I got our jog in late tonight, re-visiting the good 'ole days of running after dark. We have a jam packed weekend ahead! December is arriving and the holidays are heating up!

On the Run

We're a week into our "runstreak" and still going at it family style. Tonight though, Nora decided that she was going to run with us instead of hitch a ride in the stroller. And as many of us have come to learn, once Nora gets something in her head, and puts on her shoes and leggings, there's very little we can do to deter her. So, we suited up in our reflective vests and off we went. And, as she said she would, she ran a mile with us with little trouble and although pretty dramatic at the end, she was also really proud of herself!