HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Russell is working all night, and Charlotte is recovering from a stomach virus. So we are rocking out tonight! Um, not so much. But we did have a really nice day.

Actually, I took the kids to see a matinee of Yogi Bear, and then we came home and tried out my new Just Dance Wii game, which reminded me that I am a really, really bad dancer. Shortly thereafter, Charlotte collapsed into bed, and now Anson and I are going to watch whoever is in charge of the ball drop in NYC. Ryan Seacrest, maybe?

We realized it is well past midnight in England by now, so we wanted to send a hello to 2011 over there!

After spending the day with the kids, I started to think about how grown up they have gotten. In fact, they are pretty tall for their ages, so people are always mistaking them for older. As we head into a new year, I decided to look back and leave us with some shots of the kids when they still had chubby cheeks and baby fat. Awwww...

Hope this is everyone's best year yet! Stay healthy and happy....

Love, Morgan and Anson

Update: Christmas Eve Table

Sally and Philip took a photo of the Christmas Eve table.  I tried to zoom in so you could see the sparkly leaves and glass birds in the center, and the tartan bows and gold ornaments around the napkins, but it's not that obvious. This design was all Charlotte's idea and making! Let's just say there was a lot of glitter involved.

White Christmas

I have a feeling that a lot of bloggers are using the "White Christmas" title this year. We got just a smattering of wetness on the evening of Christmas Day, but by the time we woke up Boxing Day, we had about 8 inches of beautiful powder. And no, I don't have a picture of it.  :)

But I do have some very random Christmas pics.  I'm sure Russell has more, but I'll share what I have now before it's the new year and we're on to another topic.

Here are the gorgeous flowers I received from Molly, Jason, Jake, Reese, and Dad for my surgery. If you think they look good here, you should have seen them when they were in full bloom; they were truly glorious.

Charlotte and her new American Girl doll, Elizabeth, complete with matching hairdos:

The Christmas day dinner spread...with Russell in the Beefeater apron. Very on target, as he is definitely the cook in the family and worked very hard to help make a great Christmas for us this year, especially since I was still recovering to a certain extent! He does a fabulous job of finding interesting and perplexing games to keep the various members of the family entertained during slow moments. My favorite game this year was Headbandz...you must check it out!

Charlotte and I made it our mission to do some interesting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day table designs while the rest of the crew went to a hockey game. Seeing as I was a bit under the weather most of the week, we worked with what we could find in a quick 30-minute trip to Target (rifling through the castoffs that were left) and what we had around the house and yard.

I don't think I got a shot of the Eve tablescape, which is a shame, and it was tres sparkly. Here's the Christmas Day look, with a somewhat woodsy theme. The Noritake china, Wedgewood crystal, and Danish buffet were my parents', the silver candlesticks were my grandparents', the crackers are in honor of the English side of the family, and the centerpiece, well, that is pure Morgan.

The portrait in the background was painted by my mother's maternal grandmother, or my great-grandmother, who lived in Poland. She painted this portrait of a peasant girl in the early 20th century.

Merry Christmas and to all a good night!  (Sorry, Sally)

I'm Officially Middle-Aged

As most of you know by now, I had emergency surgery on Friday. Russell took me to the ER in the middle of the night on Thursday, and the doctors found a stone in my gall bladder. So out it went! I have to admit that the pain I started feeling on Thursday evening led me to believe I was a little too liberal with the gingerbread cookies and pizza that day, but as it continued into the night, I realized it was something else entirely.

Did any of you see the Twilight movies? I looked a little like one of the vampires with their unrealistically white faces. Really, I was that pale. In that vein (no pun intended), there will be no photos with this post. :)

The hospital experience was good, all things considered. Although being the chairman's wife and a patient makes you a bit of a museum curiosity. The people staring and poking their heads in to see what I looked like and what was going on did not escape my notice.

Thank you to all of you who have called and e-mailed to check on me. I really appreciate it!

Thanks also to Emma for coming in the wee hours of the morning to babysit the kids and get them to and from school on Friday, which I know from lots of experience can even be a challenge for me.

And to my hubby for showing no fear even though I know he is always imaging the worst. I must say Russell also picked up my great slack over the weekend...all the undone laundry, cleaning, meals, etc. that I was planning on getting done Friday. Now I just sit on the couch and watch him run around, drive and entertain the kids, cook, clean, and all that stuff. Being the control freak that I am, it's painful to watch and not be able to help.

Charlotte and Anson have been brave and sweet. Charlotte has made me at least 10 get well cards, rubs her lovey gently on my tummy to get it better, and snuggles up as much as she can. Anson holds my hands, tells me he loves me, and fetches things for me. I love you two!

Artsy-Fartsy Snow Day and some BUZZZZZZZZ

We got a sprinkling (literally) of snow last night, but schools were closed. Down south here, people think we close for just about any ridiculously tiny amount of precipitation, which is true, but it's usually related to ice, not snow. Soon after we woke up, the freezing rain began, and with super-low temps, that makes for dangerous roads.

So...what's a mom and two bored kids to do? For breakfast, we chowed on almost all of the gingerbread cookies we made yesterday, with a few more later for snack. Then I subjected them to my all-time favorite Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. I think Anson enjoyed it somewhat because he could get into the plot. Charlotte kept moaning, "BORING! BORING! TOO MUCH TALKING!" Too bad, kids, you had to take than one for the team.

Then we got started on some crafts, one of which will remain super top secret because it relates to some Christmas gifts. Code word: Sabuda. See if you can figure that one out!

The other was a hot, sticky mess of a hot glue project, but it turned out well. Charlotte and I made homemade flower and ribbon headbands and hairclips to give out as favors at her birthday party.

In other art news, here's Emma's painting from the other night. She has some plans to touch it up, but hasn't had a chance. We ran out of time at the class. I love it, too! Just for fun, I'm including a pic again of my painting, as well as the sample one we were learning off of. We all used the same paint, colors, canvas, and brushes. The teacher was really specific, but fun, so we could follow her as closely as we wanted, or go off on our own, like you can see Emma and I did!

Emma's:

Morgan's:

Sample (I couldn't enlarge it or it would look too pixelated) painted by our teacher, Marianne Conti Burt:

{OK, I deleted the photo, as the link stopped working.  I guess I need to learn the blogging rules about copying and pasting a photo from another web site, even though I'm sourcing it.  You can go to the Wine and Design web page and click on "Calendar" to see the examples of paintings you can learn.}

Lastly, I am going to brag on my son and tell you he won his class spelling bee (bzzzzzzz) yesterday! That means he will compete against all third, fourth, and fifth graders at his school in the school-wide competition in January. The winning word was "notorious." Awesome job, Anson!!!

By the way, that is Yo Gabba Gabba on the TV in the background. Does anyone else think that is the weirdest show out there for kids right now? I don't get it.

Wine and Design

Emma and I went to a place called Wine and Design last night. The idea is that you learn to paint a specific painting while drinking wine. (Do they then think they can blame our so-so results on the wine and not their teaching?) There were even people there with a crock pot of chili and all kinds of nibblies. You just BYOB or, like our neighbor, BYOSC (bring your own sparkling cider).

Keep in mind, I have never taken an art class, and Emma's focus has not been on oil/acrylic painting, so we were quite happy with how it went!

In fact, Emma and I had a wonderful time. Our paintings managed to look completely different, but both are quite nice, if I may say so myself. More than anything, it was really therapeutic at this busy time of year. I loved seeing how much each person put their own touch on what could have been tons of paintings that all looked the same.

Here's my result; I hope Emma will share hers, too!

Crazy-Eyed Jazz-Tap Holiday Ballerinas

The title of today's post relates to the quality of the photos. But in all honesty, aren't these pictures what most look like that we take anyway? The ones that show what happened, but aren't frame-worthy. So here's to sharing, warts and all. Between the mirrors, twirling 4-year-olds, and the lighting, capturing this special event was quite difficult. I think you can see the happiness in Charlotte's steps, if nothing else!

Charlotte and her ballet class friends performed two dances yesterday, one ballet and one tap, to two Christmas songs.  She had an absolute ball and was in her element. They were asked to dress with some holiday flair to their outfits. Charlotte had sparkly (of course) red-striped tights and a Santa hat, although it did fall off a lot!

The best part was when she took a quick break to run over to Russell and me and give us each a hug.

We are heading into the holidays well-rested and quite ready. This is one of those years I'm actually relieved not to have too many events to attend. How are you?

Princess for a Day

Charlotte is going to a birthday party today where she is required to dress like a princess. Sue and Sally, do you recognize this outfit? We found that the veil that came with this dress was too distracting and annoying to wear to a party, so we substituted an Aeriel headband. And Charlotte's princesses are never without wings.

May your weekend be merry and bright!

Heirlooms

Heirlooms. We all have them. Sometimes they are jewelry or fine furniture. Maybe a handmade wooden box or a delicate piece of linen.

This time I'm talking about the Christmas ornaments.

Not everyones shares my sentiment that any ornament that evokes memories is beautiful, but I'm here to tell the tale. Trimming the tree each Christmas is such a meaningful activity for me. I love thinking about Christmas traditions and the people of whom I'm reminded when I hang a particular ornament on the tree. Sometimes it's because the ornament is a gift from a special person, and sometimes it belonged to that person. We have our share of homemade ornaments, too. Russell and I have tried to purchase an ornament from most places we've traveled.

My memories of decorating trees as a kid are mostly focused on the hunt. I remember trudging through tree farms with my parents to find the perfect tree to chop down. Molly and I also used to scour the woods behind our house for a Charlie Brown tree to put in our playroom. We always had the large-bulb colored lights, and rarely tinsel. Every other year my parents traded turns selecting a different type of tree...one that reminded them of growing up. We had a huge living room, so the tree was always big. My grandmother had a tiny artificial tree on a table, but I recall it being as beautiful as any other.

Russell and I have had a few different tree toppers. When we first married, I tried to make a homemade angel. It was so bad it was good. Then we bought a light-up Moravian star. Very classy, but caught on fire last year, so we decided it might be a good move to replace it. Fire, trees, hmmm...they just don't mix. This year, we forgot completely that we had no tree topper, so we are going with a last minute replacement. I think Charlotte's preschool creation will do just fine. She might need a longer skirt, no?

Speaking of homemade ornaments, here are some favorites. Believe me, they are MANY, MANY more.

I actually made this lovely one when I was a kid. It's pretty pathetic, but it's all I have left.

Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

Lee Sullivan was our neighbor. He made this in school and then wrote Anson's name on the back and gave it to us a few years ago. Somehow it made it front and center on the tree this year.

Emma's sparkly shell shimmers in the lights!

I love to see Charlotte's sweet baby face.

Most of the following ornaments belonged either to my grandmother or were ones my parents bought before I was born, or when I was very young. I love that the kids did not seem to notice that the ornaments were old-fashioned, and enjoy them just the way they are.

Last, but not least, are the ornaments that we chose and I hope the kids will remember fondly when they are "old."

Our cat, Norman, whom even Charlotte remembers. She was 2 when he left us.

My first car...

Our favorite place to vacation, Tortola, where we went on our honeymoon...

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

Barbie and Ken Forever

On Friday Sally went into the deep, dark recesses of her storage closet and pulled out at least 6 large, dusty boxes labeled "Emma's junk and toys."  Let's just say those words were spot on!

It was a very fun and entertaining afternoon as we went through the old Barbies, Kens, Sindy dolls, "lifeguards" (for some reason Charlotte kept calling the stuffed Garfield cats this), My Little Ponies, and sundry accessories for all.

Here are a few we decided not to keep:

I think these are self-explanatory.

Disco Ken (complete with pull-out sofa, ladies) and Derek the Rocker might have been sharp dressers at some point, but were disintegrating here in the 21st century.

Some keepers...don't you love the mod clothes? Berets and floppy hats, neon sparkles, and go-go boots galore. Poor Ken's clothes didn't really stand the test of time, so he was stuck with whatever we could fit  him in. The guy desperately needs a new wardrobe, yet he's surrounded by seven beautiful women. Lucky man!