Playing Elves for Santa

One of our exciting and fun projects this year was creating a townhouse dollhouse for Louise out of a CD shelf and wood scraps. Chuck and I had a great time figuring out how to keep it simple and fun for her. I think she loved it!

This is the interesting furniture created from scrap hardwoods.

Painting on some finishing touches on Christmas Eve.

Logan Helps With the Creche

So maybe my regular creche figures are a little delicate for the kids....I really like to have a "hands-on" manger scene.... I decided to buy the Playmobil Manger Scene set, and Logan was to be my helper. Tonight was his night with 'Gwamma' and Poppa...so after picking him up at daycare, he came to our house for the evening. After supper we got out the set.

He was really excited to see all the "guys" in the box. He could identify the "mommy", the "daddy", and the "baby". He was also pretty intrigued by the "baaaaa"(lamb). Soon he was involved in his own drama productions with the "baaaa" in the bed, and the momma bashing him out. Baby on the roof...cow in the barn...Kings lost under the Christmas tree...a camel in the family room...and I think W-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y too many pieces for a two year old!! What were you thinking Gramma????
It sure was a fun evening with him, though! He loves the Christmas tree and all the Santas in the dining room corner. How much will he remember next year? It's been interesting to talk with Carl about what he remembers about Christmas. I hope they have pleasant memories of getting ready for Christmas with their Gramma!

Merry Christmas to my little grandbabies!!!!

Mini-Gingerbread Houses

Saturday morning.. the local ECFE (Early Child & Family Education) group had it's annual gingerbread house build day. Jenn and Krista invited me to join them for the event. The houses were built from pre-made kits of graham crackers, milk cartons, frosting and a mixed bag of candy.

Louise was far more interested in the plate of mixed goodies than any house!

Gus stayed interested long enough to plaster the frosting with goodies, and then dig into treats!

Carl created a much more elaborate structure complete with bushes and a path.

Logan was really rather patient as he and his Mommy put his house together.

Another fun event to share with my daughters and their little ones!!

Decorating- "BOY-STYLE"

I thought it would be a great idea to invite the grandkids in ones and twos to decorate and do Christmas stuff with Poppa and me. It was....but it also turned out to be so much fun to enjoy them at their unique ages and stages!

I picked up Carl and Gus in the late afternoon, took them along for a quick grocery trip, and then to our house to help decorate our tree and have supper with us. Well, there's nothing more exciting than helping Grams unpack her Christmas boxes....."Grams!! Check out the Santas in here-- (Crash!!) or overhearing.."This is action figure shepherd..he's the super hero of the manger!...why is the baby on the roof with the sheep??" It felt like I had 7 projects going at once!

Then came the time to bring in the tree.....well, the strings of lights were really the highlight! Who cares about ornaments??Grilled cheese sandwiches, letter shaped tater tots, and Santa ice cream were on the menu...then time to head home to bed. School tomorrow!! What a fun, exhausting evening!! Love you guys!! Crazy!

December Birthday SOUP

December is a big birthday month for our family. Erik, Grandma Hanson, and Jenn all celebrate at the beginning of the month, so we held SOUP here last night. The birthday cake was baked and decorated by Tonya! We had favorite soups: Chicken Tortilla and Roasted Squash Soup. We had Aunt Sue and cousins Sarah and Peter joining us as well!! It was a busy and crazy night. Logan was not feeling well... we all ate too much..and I think we're practicing for Christmas.

Carl and the Birthday Peoples!

Erik and Tonya talk about getting ready for Christmas with Carl and Gus!

Cookies and the Kitchen Tree

It's been awhile since we've been together, so we invited Natalie and Sammy to come have some 'Christmas time' with Grandma and Grandpa on a Saturday night. It was fun to talk to them about their Christmas wish lists, and get a better idea what their interests are this year. It's been a busy fall and early winter, so we feel like we've hardly seen them!

We had a wonderful time making spritz cookies. These were Great-Grandma Jacobson's favorite kind, and we used her cookie press. Both Natalie and Sammy got really good at figuring out the best way to make it work, and wanted to try out all the different designs!

Decorating spritz can be fun and gives you a chance to try all the different colors! Quick results!

I usually put up a Kitchen Tree every year, so the girls were excited to help us decorate it. They thought it was fun to see new tree decorations and to choose favorites. They've promised us that we will do this every year, and that we'll bake cookies and it will be their job to decorate the kitchen tree again.

"It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!"

Louise and I started unpacking the Christmas decorations this morning. Gus was at pre-school, and I thought Jenn could use some alone time for shopping. I couldn't think of anyone better to help with my "first-out" Christmas decorations than Louise!!

She loved finding the button decorated mini-tree and was fascinated with the Hallmark musical penguins and snowman we have purchased over the last few years. I love having decorations the grandkids can touch, play with, and carry around. This one plays "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"...and it didn't take Louise long to figure out how to turn it on! She loved dancing with the penguins!! The other one was a blast, too....and she was happy that I have them displayed down at her level!

The wooden ornaments were also a hit as she tried to say each word when we made a game of picking them up and putting them in the basket. "Star", "Snowman", "Santa", "Deer", "Tree", and "Snowflake" each have their very own Louise word! And she love playing put and take from the floor to the basket.

It was fun to decorate for Christmas with her...it won't be long until Gramma and Louise will spend afternoons baking Christmas cookies together...I can just tell!!

"Stand-Ins" for Mommy

' Mommy Jenn' was fortunate enough to be able to go on a "girl's get-away" trip to Puerto Rico with her two sisters-in-law this week. One of them was on a business trip....so with some hunting down of good (read: cheap!) flights...they were off for 4 days. Daddy Ron was also in favor of this, and did a wonderful job of "holding down the fort" at home. Both sets of grandparents were lucky enough to be able to do the daytime care of the three kids...and we loved it!! It was fun to be "stand-ins" for Mommy!Ron usually walks Carl to kindergarten, but Poppa had the honor for two mornings. MorMor Kris got one too!

We had plenty of time for story reading with the youngest two while Carl was gone.

Louise got busy checking out the toy catalog for her Christmas choices!

Daddy Ron made pancakes for the kids on Day #2.

Gus got himself ready to go to Poppa and Grams' house.
Reading time on the second morning.

On Friday the two littlest ones spent the day at our house...and Carl came afterschool. Poppa took Carl and Gus on an adventure to deliver frozen turkeys and Thanksgiving fixin's to the Fransciscan Brothers priory. They enjoyed their trip and felt very helpful.

Pizza for supper when Ron came home, and then into "jammies" and back home. We had a great time! Not quite the same as Mommy...but it worked!

Talkin' Turkey with Logan

Logan spent the day with us today because he was running a little temp, and had the sniffles. Probably not enough reason not to go to daycare....but enough reason for me to want him here! In the afternoon we decided to go get the big turkey out of the attic for our Thanksgiving decorations. Of course Logan at two couldn't remember it from last year, so he was pretty interested in the big pile of nylon fabric. I plugged it in and it started to make noise and blow up. Mr. Logan Mechanical was trying to figure it out when all of a sudden it went "POP!" and sat all the way upright in the dining room!!!

YIKES!! I'm glad I was there with the camera! It didn't take long for him to befriend the big Turkey and want to get ready to take it outside and help me set it up.
We had a great time "talkin' turkey".

What does the BIG TURKEY say?? "GOBBLE, GOBBLE!"

And what does the little turkey say?? "gobble, gobble, gobble!"

He was really good at it!

It was fun having him around today. I miss having him every Friday. He found favorite toys and his favorite hat. He wasn't at all interested in a nap. What a great day! I guess it was my "Logan date".

A Tuesday Date with Carl

Tuesday again...and this time it was Carl for my date! I picked him up at his school after kindergarten, and we went in search of an after-school snack. We went to Panera where we could have cocoa (with whipped cream, of course) and a nutty chocolate chip cookie and talk about all kinds of stuff.
We sat in our booth while Carl enjoyed his cocoa, I drank my coffee, and he showed me his notebook with all his drawings. We worked on his homework a little, and then we talked about some other things we could do this afternoon. We decided to find a holiday craft project at Joanne's (which was just a door away), make a stop at Value Village to see their Christmas stuff, and then go home to have supper with Poppa and work on our project. Carl has learned to use the hot glue gun...and is really good at it! No burned fingers!

Meet "Rapido Raton", our new Christmas mouse. Carl plans to put him by the pretzel house he's helping make at home.

What a great afternoon!! Carl has grown up so much since school started this fall. It's also fun to hear him talk about all he's learned in Spanish. Today I heard the days of the week, all the colors, names of some clothing items, and many phrases! This is really fun! What a special guy!! My "Carlo"!!

A Tuesday Date With Gus

Three year old Gus and I have been talking about going on a date for a long time. I had heard of a great "Storytime" on Tuesdays in St. Paul, so today was the day! Gus loves to do errands with me too, and is alway so helpful. We took a load of things out to Value Village, stopped at the grocery store, and then headed for "The Red Balloon Bookstore" on Grand Ave. in St. Paul.

The Red Balloon is known for its excellent selection of children's books, and even more for their three outstanding storytimes. Gus and I found a space as the room began to fill with moms and kids. Kim, the storyteller arrived with many little puppet friends and props. Soon we were joining in singing songs, waking baby bear from his sleeping bag, and learning about the letter T and the number 3! Wow! It was great fun! As we left the store, each child received a helium red balloon to take home.
Gus' favorite restaurant is Curran's in south Minneapolis, so that's where we went for lunch. but we were being silly, and ordered BREAKFAST for lunch! Gus ordered the 1-1-1...that's one pancake, one egg(scrambled), and 1 sausage!

While we waited, we did one of our favorite restaurant distractions. We drew things in Gus' world. Today we drew his house, his driveway, and the appletree at Chuck and Cyndi's where we picked apples on Sunday!

After lunch we made one last stop. We voted!! Today was the day to make history! Gus and I voted for Barack Obama. It felt good to have my grandson with me on this special day! We both got "I VOTED" stickers!

I love dates with the grandkids. I need to do it more often....and I know I will. Good memories for them...Spectacular memories for me!!

Picking Apples Today

We had a chance to go to my cousin's house today to pick some apples to make into applesauce. They were what you might call "seconds"...but in this case, probably "fourths"!! The taste was wondeerful but they were strangely shaped due to something in their growing season. No worms...and probably just perfect for canning!! Jenn was up for the canning, so we were ready to go pick.

Carl and Gus were pretty excited to be able to climb the ladder to get to these special apples. It was a fun adventure, not at all like going to one of the Apple Picking Orchards in the area. This was just a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon, filling boxes of apples that can be used for something great, from just one tree in a suburban back yard! It was just a pleasant kind of day that makes you happy you have cousins, and children and grandchildren to enjoy!!

"How does this one look, Grams?"

Carl figured out how to climb the tree without the ladder!
Gus thought this was "the best"!

Costume Review Night

Tonight was Costume Review Night at our house...kind of a "dress rehearsal" for Halloween Night. We started doing this a few years ago so we'd get to see all the grandchildren...and they'd still be able to Trick or Treat in their own neighborhoods. It also lets the other aunts and uncles see the little ones! Anyway...a great tradition.

This year, Carl was dressed as a wonderful Knight:

Sir Carl of the Round Table!Logan was Davy Crockett....

and in this photo is missing his "old school" powderhorn (as Uncle Erik called it!)

Gus was Captain Hook...the mighty pirate! AArrrrgggh!

And Louise was "Stinky" the Little Skunk!

Poppa and I made Krispy Treats this afternoon, in the shape of cracked bones....and we had ghosts on a stick!Natalie and Sammy weren't here tonight....but I photographed them when they were here for the Pumpkin Party on Monday.
Sammy was a Pirate Princess with groovy stockings.

And Natalie was a great looking Skeleton!! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays---and having Grandchildren makes it so much fun!!