The Holidays

Happy New Year everyone!

2014 has started off quite cold for us out in western Pennsylvania. Chase and I were reminded of life out west during our few days of below zero weather. However, things are on the warm side again. It's been rainy here today and in the mid 30s. This weekend should bring some more rain and temperatures back up in the 40s and 50s. We'll hang the boys big winter jackets up for a while again.

This Christmas was a lot different than last year with the boys as I'm sure next Christmas will be as well. Last year the boys were just starting to crawl around Christmas. This year, we found ourselves with two little helpers when it came to decorating the tree, cooking, wrapping (and of course unwrapping) gifts and almost every other task around the house. The weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty cold and Chase was busy working, but we really wanted to get out of the house to take part in the holiday festivities. A few weeks before Christmas the weather finally broke and we went into the city for the Kennywood holiday lights display. This is a Christmas tradition here at one of the amusement parks. They have a good deal of the rides running, and all of the rides in the little kids amusement park are in service. The park is also decorated to the brim with christmas lights. Christmas music is playing, Santa is there with his own little workshop set up for the kids to see. It's quite something. We were there for a few hours mostly just gawking at all the people and lights. We thought about riding the carousel with the boys but the line wrapped around the whole thing at least once and we were all enjoying just walking around. Once we finally got to the kids section of the park it was so overrun with crazy parents chasing after their little ones that again, we were just happy to watch. The rides are still big for the boys which is probably good. Waiting in those lines looked like a nightmare. Non the less, it was a lot of fun to be a part of the excitement and festivities.

We got a big Christmas tree a few weeks before Christmas. We were debating where to put it with the boys being so curious and into everything, but the best place ended up being in their playroom. After taking some of their "baby" toys upstairs and putting them in storage, we had room. Once the tree was up and I brought out the box of ornaments they were so excited to help me put them on. It was so cute. They would excitedly reach into the box and pull out an ornament and hand it to me. Needless to say, we got those ornaments up pretty fast! They were pretty interested in the new installment but got used to it after a few days. However, every morning once we got downstairs, they would run over to the tree, point to it and say "Tee, tee! No no." And once I plugged the lights in, they were ready to go play. (They would say no no because they knew that they weren't supposed to play with it.)

Chase had Christmas eve off so we did some last minute shopping  and got the last few things at the grocery store for our Christmas dinner. He and I played Santa after putting the boys down; wrapping presents and getting the stockings ready. Then it was Christmas morning! We all slept in a little and then headed downstairs in our pajamas to see what Santa had brought us. When they came down they were so cute and groggy with their little stuffed animals but so excited to see the new toys. After opening some gifts and playing for a while we had breakfast and then just relaxed. We wanted to get outside and go for a walk but it was pretty cold. It didn't get above 20 degrees until about 4:00. We did get all bundled up and went for a very short walk, but it was nice to get some fresh air and some red cheeks.

While the boys were napping, I made an apple pie. I used my Grandmother's recipe and was pretty nervous because I had never made it before and I wanted to do her proud. Considering the fact that it was gone two days later, makes me think I did a good job, plus, I think it was delicious!

By New Years, I was tired of making big fancy meals for our family of four. We had a low key celebration. We bought a small cake from the grocery store and some wine. We also got some firewood and Chase worked on digging out our fire ring. The days leading up to New Years were pretty wet, so the chance that our weed pile on top of our fire ring would burn nicely was pretty slim, but we wanted to have a small fire with which to bring in the New Year.  So as I cleaned up after dinner, Chase worked on getting the fire ready. After putting the boys down we headed out and started the saga of getting anything to burn. Even the wood we had bought at the grocery store seemed to be wet. But the lack of any kindling may have had something to do with it as well. None the less, it was still fun to be outside. Right before midnight, we ran into the house to watch the ball drop. We ate our too sweet cake and then went back out to try the fire again. This time things were a bit more sucessful. We seemed have more time to enjoy the fire before needing to pour gas on it again.

New Years day was pretty low key as well. We spent time together as a family enjoying the beautiful weather. It was a sunny and rather warm day and we took full advantage of it by playing out in the back yard. The boys ran around like crazy chasing each other and Kita and Chase and I relaxed in the sun watching everyone play.

It was so nice to have Chase home for a great deal of time during the holidays. We got a lot of stuff done around the house, spent some quality time together as a family, and started to get ready for our trip out West. Now with the holidays over, he's working more and we are getting settled back into our routine. Our library program has started back up but we haven't made it in yet. Last week it was canceled because of the cold and this week we were busy. Just as long as we're out and about doing things a few days a week, we're all pretty happy.