Christmas Cards!

This year, Pinterest has dominated my holiday decorating and I am SO glad! It is no secret how much I love Christmas cards.   LOVE THEM.   Every year, I use the fridge to display them all, but I have been looking for a better way.  Two years ago, I hung them around the mantle, but ours is rather small and it looked pretty cluttered and I ran out of room quickly.  Last year, I went back to covering the fridge, which is cute, but I wanted them in sight more often.  I found the idea on Pinterest to run ribbon over kitchen cabinets (making the doors look like presents) and pin them there.  That was my plan, but then at the last minute, I decided to move it to the entry closet door right as you walk in.  It made the door look like a giant present, which was super cute long before the cards started rolling in.  Then Colin and I had a blast making the pins, which are just tiny clothes pins that we put Christmas craft stickers on.  It turned out absolutely adorable and it was one of my favorite things in the house this year.  These cards make me feel cozy and loved and I don't think it will EVER get old to receive them and put them out on display!  We even got several more after this picture was taken!  I LOVE IT!

Colin's Class Christmas Party!

Somehow, another year has passed and I was able to attend my SECOND annual preschool Christmas extravaganza today.  I really honestly don't know how it happened.  Five minutes ago, Colin was in Miss Gina's class.  And now here we are.  Where does the time go?!?  I wonder how many more times I will say that over the next 50 years?  Probably at least twice.   Being a mother really turns you into a cliche.  :-)

Due to the fact that I am completely insane slightly addicted to cooking, I decided to make Colin's teacher gifts this year.  We spent literally all day Wednesday baking.  I LOVED IT.  This is honestly one of the very tip top reasons that I love this season.  I love to make people happy.  Seriously, I know that sounds over the top cheesy, but I get my kicks from surprising people with something that makes them super deliriously happy.  I made a huge batch of chocolate chip/pecan/toffee cookies and my homemade-from-scratch-awesome-carb-filled-heaven-scented cinnamon rolls.  I see those cinnamon rolls in my dreams.  And this is the time of year that I make batch after batch and pray that I can still wear my pants in January.  Which I never can.  But that is another post.  Anyway...

I made a pan of the rolls for Miss Courtney and Miss Blake and Colin was very quick to inform me that he HAD to bring presents to Miss Gina and Miss Heather from last year.  SO, we arrived at school this morning with wrapped baked goods up to our eyeballs.  Colin has gotten into dictating very detailed notes to me whenever he gives gifts and the cards did not disappoint!  He comes up with cutest things to say and I am 99% sure that he asked Miss Blake on a date in her card.  He asked her to "come have dinner at my house and see my beautiful Christmas tree".  Yeah....that sounds way too much like a date for my liking.  Their class party was a Grinch themed pajama party and the teachers were dressed so cute!  Colin was a big fan of the "Grinchy Green Juice".  Super precious! 

Pizza at school is still the coolest party ever

Green and red food = AWESOME

Laughing with his friends at lunch

Musical chairs at a 4 year old party is ADORABLE

Miss Courtney stopping the music!  LOVE Colin's face here!

Colin (far right) and his whole class opening their book exchange presents

The cinnamon rolls.  JOY in swirled dough form.

Our Newest Member

Colin got a new kitty named Evi this year and "Evi-the-cat" (as I like to call her) or "Evingston" (as Jer likes to call her) is Colin Shaffer's best buddy. They love each other. A LOT. The love affair has gotten to the point that Evi stands at his door and meows at all hours of the night if we leave it closed.  I used to come out of Colin's room and close the door after our bedtime routine.  That does not exactly work anymore.  Evi likes to come to the kitchen and get dinner with Ferris Mewler, but soon after her meal, she is standing in the hall yelling to be let into Colin's room.  She gets let in and out basically all night long.  :-)  I took these shots right before bed...Colin was singing Christmas carols to her!  She is the sweetest and most loving kitty in the whole world and she lets Colin hold her and tug on her and even carry her around, despite the fact that her back paws drag the floor.  She sits in my lap every single time I sit down at the computer and loves to lay on her back to get her tummy scratched.  She prefers to drink water out of the running sink and sleeps during every moment that she is not eating or being scratched behind her ears.  We bought her a contraption called "The Furminator" and she loooooves to get brushed with it.  You would not believe the amount of fur that we pull off this cat!  She also LOVES my dad for some reason and will spend literally every moment that he is here in his lap being loved on.  Anyway, she is an absolute joy and is the perfect new addition to our family.  We are so thankful that 2011 brought us her little white tipped paws!  It makes it even more special that we adopted her from our best friends...she really does have quite the extended family!
     

SHOW TIME!

Today, Colin performed in his second Christmas program. Today, I cried in the audience during my second time to watch Colin in his Christmas program. There is NOTHING more precious than seeing my baby singing and dancing on stage with all his sweet little classmates. I can literally feel my heart exploding when I watch him. All I can think about is how little he looks and how sweet and how tiny the window of time is that he will do things like this and how I need to memorize how soft his cheeks are and how much I wish I could freeze time so that he would always be this achingly precious. Or something like that. :-)   This is truly the highlight of my whole year. (clicking on the picture will pull the collage up to full screen adorableness)   

2011 Family Photo Shoot

I am slightly neurotic when it comes to Christmas cards.  And pictures of my family.  And combining those two things.  Checking the mail in December is one of my favorite things and I get so excited to design OUR card and send it to everyone we love.  Needless to say, I was not proud of myself when I realized that November was more than halfway over and I didn't have our picture planned yet.  We have taken a yearly family shot for the last 3 years and since last year was a silly pajama theme, I was really excited to get some pictures to hang year round.  My neighbor Jenny just happens to be getting her own photography business off the ground, so she agreed to meet us at the park down the street from the house and take a few shots.  I cut it WAY too close and am going to have a hard time getting these cards to folks before Christmas, but I LOVE how the pictures turned out!  Colin adores Jenny and practically lives at that park, so it made for a somewhat peaceful and easy-going shoot.  I am so thankful to know the right people!  :-)  Jenny and I grew up in the same town and attended the same school and then just happened to end up as neighbors!!  Crazy!  And I think it is so great that I will always have the memory of our park in these photos.  No matter where we end up in our lives, we will remember the little park where Colin first played and spent all his time!  Is there anyone sappier than me?  No?  ;-)

A Day for a Chef

Today, we went to a wonderful birthday party for Colin's favorite newly minted 5 year old red-head, Avery. She is my good friend Wendy's daughter and she is brilliant and adorable and loves Giada from Food Network. Therefore, her party theme was cooking and they made chefs hats and cooked their own pizzas and cupcakes. It was so brilliant and Colin had the best time.  I am loving Avery in this shot!  She knows how to throw a party, that girl! 

The favor was a tiny rolling pin, cookie cutters and a recipe for sugar cookies! Colin used the cookie cutter as soon as we got home and made his first batch of cookies "almost" by himself. Now, granted, they were made from store-bought pie dough (which I hate) and mint Hershey Kisses (which I hate), so you should take it with a grain of salt when I say that they were horrible. But Colin had a blast and was SO proud of himself that I ate two. And promised myself to stop impulsively making things that look pretty on Pinterest. :-)

Slow Down, December!

It's already December 8th. I find this totally unacceptable. I LOVE THIS MONTH. I DON'T WANT IT TO END! It feels like I waited forever for it to get here and now I am blinking and it is flying by. Sure, maybe I am being slightly melodramatic. Not that I'm prone to that or anything. Anyway, we are having the most wonderful time around here and I have now decided that four is the perfect age for Christmas. I will probably say that every year for at least the next several. But Colin is so full of joy right now and I am trying to soak up every single moment. Last night, we attended an ornament exchange party with all of our friends and Colin took a nasty spill on their ceramic tile stairs. He busted his chin up pretty badly and I had moments of wondering if we were in for an ER visit. Good lord, the mouth can BLEED! Luckily he appears to be okay today, but the right side of his chin and cheek is seriously swollen, to the point that he talks funny and looks like he is a chipmunk with acorns stuck in his lip. The poor peanut! We had a great time tonight taking "glowy" tree pictures with the SLR camera and I wanted to make this one a close-up shot, but his poor face is a bit too messed up.

Jer took this one and I think it will probably go down as one of my all time favorite pictures. I am so in love with Christmas and I think this shows EXACTLY why. :-)