New Tradition

This year we added a new tradition to our Christmas festivities, or actually swapped out one idea for another.  Each year we usually add a piece to our Fontanini Nativity set, but the store that we usually get them from no longer sells the size we had been collecting and it was hard to find that size anywhere.  Also we had many pieces in  our collection and would soon run out of room if we continued collecting them.  So since we are all Lego fans we decided that collection the Winter village would become our new tradition and it was one that everyone could enjoy putting together and playing with.  Kenzie really had her heart set on the Village Post Office and was very happy when the elves granted her wish. Since it's completion the Post Office has been a very busy gathering place for the Lego minifigures.  The girls soon got busy naming the people and creating scenes.

Even some of the characters from the Lego Star Wars advent calendar have

made an appearance.  It seems even Wookies and droids have letters to send!

Its Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

A week into December and the holiday is quickly approaching. The house is nicely decorated and cozy. And many of our holiday traditions are in full swing.  The kids receive daily treats from our advent calendar, usually it just a little candy, but about once a week I'll throw in a little extra goodie.  Our two mischievious elves made their return on December 1st. They arrived with a Lego Star Wars advent calendar.  A lego a day until Christmas now that is cool!  The elves have been up to their usual antics which have included a tea party, baking cookies and making an appearance in the nativity! We've also kept ourselves busy with games of  holiday Yahtzee and Christmas trivia. So for the most part we are in the holiday spirit.  The only thing that makes it not seem holidayish is the lack of snow.  Though we've had a few storms the snow has quickly melted and the weather generally had been mild, not the norm for this time of year.  I'm not complaining but I do want snow on the ground for Christmas!

Here Becca gets a little help putting the star on the tree from Daddy and Grampy.

Holiday Happenings

We had a very nice Thanksgiving which included a wonderfully yummy free range, organic turkey as the guest of honor.  My parents joined us for dinner and then spent the night so they could join us for our version of black friday.  Our version of Black Friday involves staying as far away from any malls and retail outlets as possible.  We do venture a mile down the road to the local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree and the rest of the day is spent decorating the house for Christmas. We cap off the day cuddling on the couch with some cocoa and a Christmas movie.  It was nice to have my parents join us on our tree cutting expedition and I think they had a good time.

Christmas Roundup 2010

One of the suprises of this Christmas season was little snow on the ground. The day after Christmas did bring some blizzard like conditons but when all was said and done we probably only had 8 inches or so on the ground. It was still a few days after that before the kids could actually go out and enjoy the new fallen snow because of the wind and freezing temps.

The snow also brought the realization that I had forgotten to see if the kids winter boots and snowpants fit. Becca was a no go on the boots and snowpants. Kenzie was a no go on the boots.

How dare they grow over the course of the year!!







One of the highlights of this Christmas season was seeing all the little little kids-Molly, Abby and meeting little Ari for the first time. He's so sweet!
Kenzie is hiding in there.

The girls making sugar cookies for Santa.

I managed to snap a quick picture before the kids tore into their presents!

And a document of Christmas wouldn't be complete without the Christmas morning mess!

Wordless Wednesday

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The holiday spirit is in full swing here in the Ciolino household. The tree is up, the decorations are up and cards are trickling in daily from friends and family. The only thing missing is the snow.

I like having snow for Christmas and other than a few flurries and a dusting a few days ago we've got nothing. It has been really, really cold though and housebreaking a new puppy when it is 20 degrees out and windy is not my idea of fun, but it has to be done.

Along with the Christmas decorations came the arrival of our elves Deenie and Jeannie. They have been up to their ususal antics- decorating the bathroom with toilet paper, trying to go fishing in the fishtank, playing yahtzee and causing mischief in the kitchen cabinets are just a few of things they have been up to since arriving December 1st. Yesterday we caught them watching movies (Elf-of course) complete with popcorn! They also brought the new Shrek movie for the girls.

I was finally able to convince everyone to sit for 5 mins. so that I could get a picture for our Christmas card. I was getting worried that I wouldn't get one done because a certain member of the family would complain every time I even mentioned taking pictures. But it is finally done and will be sent out soon!

As the days pass I have been working on a Christmas journal from Shimelle.com. I receive daily writing prompts and phototography prompts via email. It has been kinda fun to put together.

Wordless Wednesday

Tree Trek 2010

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we made our annual trek to get our Christmas tree. Despite the bright sunshine it was quite cold and very breezy but that didn't stop us. We even brought Tuukka, giving him another chance to get used to riding in the car and to check out all kinds of new sights and sounds. He of course got lots of attention from all the other people out getting their trees.

After checking out several trees, we finally found that special one. Of course no tree gets to come home until it gets the official Kenzie hug of approval.

Once the tree gets the official hug Dom cuts it down..

This year we found a little suprise in the branches of our tree after we got it home. Tucked all cozy inside was a bird's nest! This has got to be a sign of good luck, right?

We ended up way back in the tree farm so it was a little bit of a trek back but no one seemed to mind. Especially Tuukka who thought it was fun to chase the tree as Dom pulled it on the sled!

And here is the finished product all lit up and ready to enjoy!

Tree Trek 09

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the day we go get our tree. Lucky for us there is a tree farm within a five minute drive of our house. We have been coming here for the past seven years and once we had the first experience of not only picking our own live tree, but cutting it down ourselves, I can't imagine doing it any other way.
Whenever we had out I always think of the scene from the movie Christmas Vacation when they walk forever until they find the perfect tree with the ray of light shining on it (love that movie by the way) Our trips are never quite like that but there is a bit of searching for the right tree. It always bums me out just a little when we don't have any snow for picking out the tree cause that just makes it more fun. It has been several years now since we had snow for our annual tree trek and this year was more of the same. We did have to bundle up a bit because it was really windy! Here's a look at our search for the perfect tree.




Away we go!

How about a cute little Charlie Brown tree?

Or this one?? Maybe for the minimalist look?

We can't cut down any tree that doesn't get the Kenzie hug of approval. This one's a keeper.

Time to cut it down!

The girls job is to push the tree over so that it doesn't land on Dad's head.

How cute are they holding hands??


This is the "Gift Wrapper" that nicely wraps up our tree so we can get it home safely.

Holiday Values

I am taking an online course at jessicasprague.com called Holidays in Hand and the first assignment was to write down our holiday values and goals for this holiday season.

The most obvious one for me is togetherness. This includes both family and friends. Things have been a little hectic lately-Dom is working a lot, we decided to paint the livingroom and hallway, Kenzie's birthday and Halloween as well as at least one of us being sick for the past month and time is just flying by. I hope that during the long weekend of Thanksgiving we can reconnect with each other and that things will actually slow down a bit so we can enjoy each other.

I also want to concentrate this season on being grateful for all we have and to make sure the kids understand the importance of being grateful.

We have lots of traditions I want to continue (I will go into more detail on those at a later time). Many of them are ones that Dom and I have started since having the girls and I hope that these may be even passed on by the girls someday. I also would like to capture these traditons in words and pictures.

We will try to help out someone less fortunate by donating food and picking a name from the angel tree at church.

That's my list for now.

A Very Merry Christmas

We here in the Ciolino home had a very merry Christmas. Festivities began on Christmas eve with the arrival of Nonna, Nonno, Aunty Lisa and Uncle Chuck. We had a traditional Italian Christmas eve meal with lots of yummy food thanks to Nonna. Baked stuffed shrimp, stuffed clams and haddock topped with scallops and lobster were some to the things we enjoyed.
Everyone spent the night to enjoy waking up Christmas morning with the girls. On Christmas we were then joined by my parents and uncle. We feasted on Ham and lots of yummy side dishes. It was fun to be surrounded by family and everyone had a good time.
The day after Christmas was a "girls day out" thanks to Aunty Lisa and Uncle Chuck who provided the girls with tickets to Disney on Ice. So Nonna, Aunty Lisa and the girls and I headed into Boston to see the show. It was a great show and we all had lots of fun.
It was a very fun and very busy three days and I, for one am exhausted. Today is a very low key day and I admit I am even too lazy to download pictures to go along with this post which considering how much I enjoy taking and sharing photos lets you know just how tired I am. I did want to take the time to do this post to let you know what we've been up to and to let you know I plan on elatborating on the holiday activities, complete with pictures, very soon!

Christmas Crime

Here is the crime scene:


Here is the suspect seen running from the scene:

Actually, I don't really blame the cat even though she was at the scene of the crime. She has always been good with the tree. She does like to sleep under it as you can see from the picture and she has been known to bat at the ornaments on occasion.

I think this may have more to with a faulty tree stand. We had a hard time getting the tree to stand straight in the stand and I think that any simple move may have toppled it. Luckily no one got hurt, though I have seen the cat since she went scrambling from the scene. We do unfortunately have a few broken ornaments and I spent a lot of time sopping up the water that spilled everywhere. This is the first time we've ever had a tree topple over and hopefully it will be the last!

Merry Mischief Makers

For the past several years we have been visited by elves from December 1st until Christmas eve. Their names are Deenie and Jeannie and they cause a lot of mischief and often leave little trinkets for the girls. I think I have mentioned them briefly before but it seems this year that they want to join the blogging world and have started their own blog to chronicle their antics while they visit. Since the elves are on what could best be described as vacation they will be blogging daily and have agreed to include some fun craft activities and recipes straight from the kitchen of Mrs. Claus! So for a daily dose of Chrismas fun please visit their blog at http://www.deeniejeannie.blogspot.com/

Best Christmas ever!

So it has been declared by Becca. This made me feel good considering health wise I was feeling not so great and neither was Kenzie. Mackenzie did well first thing in the morning, getting caught up in all the excitement of opening gifts but by noon she was starting to crash and went up to her room for a nap. I was wishing I could join her. I am so lucky to have such an awesome husband who can cook and was in charge of the meal this Christmas because I really was not up for cooking. Dom did an excellent job and everyone seemed happy with the meal. I am also thankful to my mom and mother-in-law who did the dishes after the meal because our dishwasher is broken.
The girls were spoiled by everyone and were happy with everything they got. Becca's favorite gift was a littlest pet shop digital pet that I could hardly drag her away from. Kenzie bounced around from toy to toy so it was hard to tell if there was one favorite. I didn't really take too many pictures which proves how sick I felt!
I still am not feeling 100% but better than I have for a week. Today is the first day that Kenzie has really perked up which is a relief, I was ready to call the doctor if she didn't seem any better today.
Hope that everyone's holiday's were happy!

More Christmas stuff

Here are a couple more Christmas projects. The first is a candy dish made from a clay pot, saucer and glass bowl to look like a gumball machine. I've made these for Becca's teachers and for a co-worker of Dom's known as "the candy man" to the girls because he always has candy on his desk. Dom is always grabbing a couple of treats to bring home to the girls."The candy man" sent home a 5lb bag of candy to the girls for Christmas. They will probably be eating it until next Christmas.
The second is a Santa cake I made for Dom to take to work and I also made a few little elves for the girls. This cake was really simple and fun to make. It is just an upside down heart!
I have also included a few pics of the girls graham cracker houses that they made. I helped put the houses together but the girls did all the decorating themselves. I think they came out great! Rebecca made the little one and Kenzie made the bigger one.

ABC's of our Christmas

Got this idea off the web. Plan to do a scrapbook out of it.

Advent calendar
Baking lots of cookies
Christmas Carols
Decorating and Deenie the elf
Excitement
Family & Friends
Giftwrapping
Hosting Christmas day
Internet shopping
Jesus-the reason for the season
Kisses -hershey's cordial creme- my favorite!
Love for family and friends
Mackenzie enjoying the Magic of the season
Nativity scene -adding a new piece each year
Ornaments-the girls picking a new one each year
Pile of catalogs in the mail each day
Quiet moments few and far between
Rebecca Reading holiday stories
Santa, of course!
Train around the Tree
Under the tree with all the gifts
Videos of our favorite holiday movies
White Christmas-(ususally!)
XXXX's & OOOO's to family
Yummy treats to eat
Zonked at the end of it all!

How about a list from my fellow bloggers????????

Craftin'

I quite often see a craft that I must create immediately. Especially this time of the year and sometimes I manage to actually finish the craft and sometimes I do not. This year I came across two crafts and was able to complete both of them. I also have a habit of giving away my crafts which my husband and now my children complain that I never keep any for us. So this time I gave one away and kept one. The first craft was really simple and easy and only took about an hour to complete. It was a Santa made from an empty coffeemate creamer bottle. Yet another habit of mine is seeing a craft and not actually reading directions on how to make it, just making it up as I go. Most of the time this works out okay, sometimes not. With the Santa, no problem.
I enjoyed this craft a lot. It was fairly simple and there is potential to really make a variety of different characters.
I will definitely be playing around with different variations.

The second craft was a Gingerbread man serving tray. I saw this on TV and thought it was absolutely adorable in a goofy sort of way. It is made out of clay pots. I really like working with clay pots, mostly because they are cheap, and you can make lots of different things out of them. I did need to read directions to figure out how to put this guy together and even then it was a little tricky keeping everything in place while the glue dried. The finished size is actually quite large and he would also make a cute little plant stand, which is what I did as you can see in one of the pictures. I think this craft has the potential to become a variety of characters and even uses.

We are keeping the gingerbreadman , Santa has been given away, but I plan on making more! I am thinking about doing a couple of craft fairs next year. I did a couple several years ago and had lots of fun, that was before I had kids though so we'll see. I guess ebay is always an options too.
Anyway, what are your opinions? Would you buy one of my creations at a crafts fair?