Ringing in 2012

Happy New Year! My favorite little party animals made it until midnight and happily joined us in toasting the arrival of 2012. (Though I think AJ is still a little confused why a toast involves sparkling cider and not a piece of toast.)

We spent a low-key, fun evening with several other families, all of whom we've met and become friends with because of our kids. It's interesting how our social circles have changed and evolved based on our kids and their friends. Or is it our kids have become closer friends with the children whose parents we've befriended?

Regardless, it was a fun night of talking, snacking, drinking, Nerf gun battles and hide-and-seek. Alas, the evening came to an end far too soon for someone's liking. 

In tears, Sydney insisted she wasn't tired and wasn't ready to go home. I should note: she slept until 10:30 this morning.

AJ, meanwhile, is already asking which holiday will give him the next chance to stay up until midnight. He thinks July 4th would be a good occasion.

As for New Year's resolutions, I've already blown my annual attempt at quitting my nail biting habit. Stopping pen chewing still has a chance, primarily because I've been home all day with no reason to touch a pen. But my biggest goal for 2012 is a change in attitude. I resolve to spend more time recognizing the many blessings in my life and less time complaining and worrying about what I don't have or what I might want. I have a wonderful family and we are together and in good health. Period. Everything else is secondary. And as long as I remember that, it will indeed be a happy New Year.

Ninja time!

Imagine yourself in this scenario: You've spent the afternoon outside playing hockey. When you return, you take off the pads but continue wearing your long johns, all of which are black. And then you happen to see two long cardboard tubes leftover from some wrapping paper.

I ask you - who wouldn't recognize the ninja opportunities?

Happy New Year to all and best wishes that your 2012 is full of imagination and fun!

Christmas Day marathon

Day two of multiple gift openings dawned a little earlier than I would have liked (thanks a lot, Gus) but it was probably a good thing. We had lots of places to be, people to see and presents to unwrap.

Breakfast brought more cousin time as we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's for crepes. Here they are: all six of them in front of Zane's "really big tree".

Two highlights for Alex: an art set and a Minnesota Wild hat (How obsessed is he with the Minnesota Wild right now? The first words out of his mouth this morning were: "Guess what! The Wild finally won last night!" Later, while riding in the car, he spotted the temperature gauge which read 22 degrees. To which he noted, "22! That's Cal Clutterbuck's number!")

Turns out the art set was a hit with more than just Alex.

Finn sat happily in awe of all the commotion.

And, as all good babies should do, he was as thrilled with the wrapping paper as he was with the gifts.

And then it was time to take off and head back north. With barely enough time to run in the house, drop off our gifts and load up another basket of gifts to give; we headed for our next destination - the Jaski's.

My poor camera battery simply couldn't keep up with so many gift openings. Sadly, after just one shot, it was done. So no pictures this year of the chaos in the living room as way too many people crowd into way too small of a space for a flying wrapping paper free-for-all. Despite that, I think I can again use thequality over quantity argument. This adorable shot features the newest family member: five-month-old Zoe.

The two-day marathon caught up with us way too soon, and so we headed home where yet even more gifts awaited. Santa had shown up overnight and at last the kids had a chance to dig through their stockings.

 

 Every year I vow we're going to simplify the holidays and spend a little more time at home. But I've yet to figure out what I'm willing to eliminate to make that happen. And so I will wrap up my Christmas reflections by focusing on my many blessings. I am thankful for the miracle of Christ's birth. And I am thankful for good health, weather, roads and the love of family and friends.

Christmas Eve marathon

I don't even know where to begin. Multiple gift openings in multiple towns and homes over two days. The kids, of course, love it. Jeff and I, meanwhile, are exhausted.

It might have had something to do with having to stay up until 2:30 in the morning trying to wrap presents and assemble "My delightful dollhouse" for Sydney. (Clearly, "delightful" refers to the child's reaction to the three-story Barbie house, not the assemblers'.)

So it seemed that Christmas Eve dawned all too early for those of us who'd stayed up way too late. But the kids' excitement could not be contained, and we had places to go and people to see, and so we let them rip into their gifts.

Quite possibly the most exciting gift ever! The Lego police station Alex has been begging for since last summer.

Most of Sydney's gifts were Barbie-related, but she loved the Cinderella doll that can be friends with her Belle and Rapunzel.

And then it was time to get going. As Jeff and I packed, the ids took care of one important order of business... the spreading of magic reindeer food (oatmeal mixed with glitter) to make sure Santa and his entourage would have no problem finding our house. This seems to be a preschool tradition because I recall Alex bringing home a similar bag of supposed reindeer treats. Alex seemed to have a strategy for placement of said oatmeal/glitter this year. Rather than sprinkling it along the sidewalk, they dumped half the bag in the snow outside Sydney's window and the other half outside of Alex's.

And then it was off to the Cities, first for the candlelight service at my parents' church.

Followed by a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law. And then at last, the moment the kids had been waiting for: more presents.

Discovering the joy of giving, Sydney seemed as excited to help Bella (the chihuahua) open her carefully selected presents, as she was to open her own.

The highlight for Alex: a real army surplus helmet. With a little help from Dad, he figured out how to strap it on, and how to hold his hand for a salute.

After the gift opening, we broke with tradition a bit. Instead of staying up late watching a movie, we stayed up late playing Wii bowling.

At last we headed back to my parents' house where my overly energized kids managed to stay awake past midnight. It may have been even later, but that's when I fell asleep on the living room floor. And

that's just the first half of our mad holiday scramble. More tomorrow...

Baking cookies

It's not misleading to say we baked cookies if we used store-bought dough, right? Because, technically, we did still bake the cookies.

And in this instance, we even added a little flour to the cookie dough, so there was some mixing involved.

Granted, we did it all by hand - no mixer needed - but it was enough to give Sydney's 4.5-year-old attention span a taste of what a cookie-baking experience is like.

And she loved it! And she did it herself. (Except when she needed Mommy's help.)

The motivation for all of this was an angel-shaped, metal cookie cutter that we'd picked up a week earlier while Christmas shopping. Sydney had been putting in daily requests to finally get a chance to use it. So I picked up some sugar cookie dough and put her to work.

We used half the dough for angel cookies. The other half, we rolled into balls, which we then rolled in sugar. (After they baked, we topped them with Hershey Kisses.)

Oddly enough, now that they're done, Sydney's only eaten one or two of them. Mommy, Alex and Grandma Lynne certainly are appreciating them. (Daddy has stronger will-power.)

Maybe next year we'll set aside an afternoon for some real, start-to-finish, baking. If only we could find something to make that's not so fattening.

Turn off the lights. Christmas is over.

And just like that, the party's over. Christmas 2011 has come and gone. The insanity of gift buying and wrapping, Christmas cards and other preparations has given way to the insanity of cleaning up wrapping paper and boxes, trying to find space for all the kids' new toys, and sorting what to throw in the garbage versus recycling.

Thankfully, in the midst of the hectic craziness, we found time to enjoy each other. For instance, Friday night we toured Bentleyville.

I think we picked the best night possible to walk through this incredible display of lights. It had snowed Friday... not a lot, but the most we've seen all season, so the ground was covered at last. And the temperatures stayed mild, so we didn't feel a need to rush to stay warm.

The giant tree was beautiful, and I love the new star on top.

AJ was excited to roast marshmallows. Sydney, meanwhile, was... well... not so excited.

Sydney didn't want to waste time by the fire. She had something to prove.

She had someone to find. 

Rudolph. 

Last year, we'd taken a picture of AJ with Bentleyville's iconic mascot. At the time, Sydney had been too scared. I'd forgotten about that but, clearly, she hadn't. This was one more item on her checklist to prove how brave she is now that she's four and a half.

Mission accomplished!

Merry Christmas to all

I'm going to spend at least the next 36 hours focusing on my family (and no doubt gathering ideas for many blog posts to come.)

Here's a look at our Christmas card picture and letter.

I've been stalling for a week, trying to summarize the 2011 chapter of our lives in a way that's     concise and interesting to anyone other than us. Coming up dry, I turned to my two greatest          sources of inspiration and asked them what we should write in our Christmas letter.

"Merry Christmas. I'm sure you're on the good list." That was the suggestion from Alex, our first grader formerly known as AJ who's now decided he wants more letters in his name.

Sydney's idea: "Let's put in something that gives them good luck. Not bad luck." Our well-intentioned almost four and a half year old then headed into the kitchen in search of something lucky to put in the letter.

"How about if we just write 'We wish you good luck in the New Year'?" I suggested to her.

"No," Sydney wrinkled her nose. "Maybe we should just give them something to eat."

"That'd probably be too messy," I started to explain.

"No, Gus, NOOOOO!" Sydney shrieked, suddenly distracted. "Mom, Gus has something in his mouth!"

And there's your glimpse of life in the Kazel house in 2011.

It's been a busy year. The kids keep us running four nights a week. Alex is in hockey and Sydney has started dance class. When we are home, we're chasing the newest addition to the family, a stubborn but loveable six-month-old golden retriever named Gus who chews on anything and everything and recently managed to pull over our 10-foot Christmas tree.

Whose idea was it to get a puppy?

In his defense, Gus has the very difficult job of following in the paw prints of Maggie, our much-loved golden who died last spring. Our ever-cranky 17-year-old cat, Spike, isn't too pleased to have a puppy in her house. But Gus is adapting well, and the kids adore him. When he's not destroying their toys.

So what else is there to tell? The children, of course, remain brilliant, adorable and perfectly behaved. Sometimes.

In school, Alex likes recess best, followed by math, reading and anything related to history. World War II and the Titanic are favorite topics for library books. "Because that's important," he tells us. He wishes his social studies class could focus more on history. "All we learned is where St. Paul is and the Mississippi River," was a recent complaint.

Sydney, meanwhile, is in the school readiness preschool program and is quite excited when she can do "homework" and craft projects at the dining room table. She loves anything connected to Barbie and Disney princesses, and will very proudly tell you she's not afraid of mascots anymore. She even posed for a picture with Champ the Bulldog at a UMD hockey game.

As for Jeff and me, we just keep doing our best to keep up with the kids and enjoy this wonderful, crazy life with which we've been blessed. And so, as 2011 draws to a close, we wish a Merry Christmas, and New Year filled with good luck...  to all of you who've earned a spot on the nice list.