It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The Thanksgiving leftovers were barely nestled all snug in our fridge before everything around transformed into a Christmas wonderland.

On Friday morning after Thanksgiving, Morgan woke up begging to decorate the Christmas tree. Gwen quickly got the hang of decorating, too. (But she still hasn't learned that, once they're decorated, Christmas trees are for looking, not touching. Maybe next year.)

On the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, we took the girls to A Very Furry Christmas at Sesame Place. Morgan and Aunt "Mimi" had fun on the rides, and everyone enjoyed the special Sesame Street Christmas parade.

Not to be outdone by their muppet pals, Morgan and Gwen decided to stage their own Christmas parade at the house a few days later by marching around the living room singing Christmas carols. We unfortunately didn't catch it in pictures or video, but let the record show that Andy's drum solo in "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" totally rocked!

Since December started, the girls have found a new little treat in their advent calendar (made by Nanna). Candy, stickers and toys are giving the girls a fun way to count down to Christmas.

Turkey Day 2011

We have plenty to be thankful again this year -- especially our happy, healthy little girls (although, technically, Gwen was getting over a cold on Turkey Day this year. Ahh, kids.)

In the morning, the girls decided that Thanksgiving feasts shouldn't be just for people. So they went outside to give the birds a big dinner. A little while later, though, another backyard resident decided to crash the birds' Thanksgiving.

"Mmm... delicious."

"What are you looking at? Hey, it's not my fault the birds didn't eat it all. You snooze, you lose, birdies."

Last year, Gwen was too little to help making dinner (it's hard to believe she was just 4 months old). This year, she was excited to help Mom in the kitchen.

Jenny, Jon and Lindsay kept the girls entertained while dinner was in the oven.

Before long, dinner was ready. This year's menu featured turkey cooked with herb butter and pancetta; mashed potatoes with cream and chive; stuffing with asiago cheese bread, herbs and onions; shredded brussel sprouts with walnuts; butternut squash with quinoa; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce with cherries and walnuts, and homemade dinner roles.

After we devoured our delicious dinner, we headed to the living room to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and give our bellies a chance to recover before dessert.

This year's dessert selection included pumpkin pie, pecan pie with maple and bourbon (grown-ups only!) and salted caramel pie.

By the end of the night, our refrigerator -- and our bellies -- were stuffed.

Falling back...

After a busy October, we were looking forward to falling back into a more relaxed schedule for November -- especially with Andy scheduled for back surgery on November 7.

Of course, there's another "fall back" that happens in November: the end of daylight savings. So at 4:55am on on Sunday November 6, the kids internal clocks told them it was time to wake up. Suddenly, our extra hour of sleep turned into an extra hour of breakfast.

Morgan, Gwen and Ariella made apple muffins. And then pumpkin pancakes. And, just for good measure, the girls ate a few sugar-coated doughnuts. And they did it all before 7am.

Not surprisingly after all that breakfast the girls crashed with sugary baked-good hangover.

By the next Saturday, the girls had adjusted to the time change and enjoyed a quiet morning perusing the Toys R Us Christmas catalog.

Meanwhile, Andy was on his way to recovery from back surgery, so we headed outside to play.

On Sunday morning, Gwen decided the family was ready for more health drama so she vomited all over the living room floor. Normally, we wouldn't mention something like this on our blog. But this time, Morgan responded to the situation by saying, "Ewww... I need to draw the puke."

So much for our relaxing November.

Halloween Chills

Pumpkins. Parades. And premature snow. Our Halloween was full of fun, despite the surprisingly cold weather.

This year, Morgan went through lots of ideas for costumes -- a puppy, a crayon, a butterfly -- before finally settling on Cinderella. Meanwhile, Gwen was hooked on being Elmo the second we put the costume on her for the first time. (With temperatures in the upper 30's on Halloween night, Gwen's muppet fur coat ended up being a cozy choice.)

On Sunday morning, the girls ate an early "treat" of Halloween doughnuts before heading to the kitchen learn the "trick" of carving jack-o-lanterns. Morgan was a big help getting all the seeds out of her pumpkin and putting them in a big bowl. Gwen just liked squishing the pumpkin goop after Morgan put it in the bowl.

With a little help from Mom (okay, a lot of help), the pumpkins were transformed into Elmo and Grover from Sesame Street. (Spooky AND educational!)

On Monday, the girls' school held its annual "Harvest" parade. Cinderella Morgan smiled from ear to ear like a proud princess as she led her Preschool class around the parade route.

Gwen also loved the parade. While some of the kids in her Toddler class had to be carried through the parade route, Gwen strutted her stuff like she was the Grand Marshall. She smiled and waved to everyone. She only stopped once -- so she could give hugs to Mom and Dad. After the parade, Gwen was heartbroken when her teacher took her Elmo costume off. (Don't worry, Gwen, there's more Halloween fun yet to come.)

On Halloween night, we made the trip over to Medford, NJ to go trick or treating with Katie and Andrew in their Halloween-crazy neighborhood. In just over two hours, Morgan and Gwen had filled their baskets with enough candy to last them through Christmas.

Morgan was a trick-or-treating pro this year, quickly scurrying from house to house with the "big kids". Gwen was too young to remember her first Halloween last year. But it didn't take her long to realize that if she walks to the door and smiles, she got to take free candy. For the record, Gwen's candy of choice was Whoppers. (She loves her milk -- doesn't matter if it's plain or malted, apparently.)

By 7:00, Gwen had had her fill of Halloween fun and was ready to trade her bag of candy for a bottle of milk. A little while later, Cinderella Morgan's clock struck 12 (okay, it was more like 7:30). Another fun Halloween was in the books.