BRING ON ST. NICK

Merry Christmas... from our house to yours.

ROUND & ROUND & ROUND & ROUND

Just a little video of Grey... walking around and around and around and around the coffee table, wanting his "SSSSSS" put on (only their Luke's not his), and one of his favorite words.

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FLASHBACK

Don't you just love how your creativity is at it's greatest when your pocketbook is at it's lightest? A lack of funds ALWAYS pumps my creative juices.

And this was the case at Christmas time some twenty years ago. The year was 1990, and it was my first Christmas after graduating college and moving out on my own. Somehow I was surviving on minimum wage, so money for Christmas gifts for family was non-existent. From this serious absence of cash flow, one of the Greatest Christmas presents ever (in my opinion) was Created.

For my parents, I made this model of the house I grew up in - entirely out of paper.

I don't recall what kind of paper I used, but it was probably drawing or watercolor paper. Either of those would have been what I would have had on hand. I constructed the shape of our 1970's tri-level home, and used glue (probably rubber cement) to hold it all together. Then, using colored pencils, I added as many details as possible. To give the entire vignette a feel of depth and dimension, I also added landscaping. I cut out shapes, colored them accordingly, and glued them on, independent of the house structure, to really give it a 3-D look.

Some of the details on the front of house I captured were our three window wood front door with the painted red concrete planter next to it, in which Mom always grew red geraniums. Even though it's not visible in this photo, there is also the watering hose that hung on a rack to the right of the garage door.

And if you could look down from above, you could see the sidewalk that is behind the row of yellow hyacinth - complete with the imprints of mine and my sister's hands.

The East side of our house was the garage and had an all bricked exterior. At the front corner, there was a large flower bed, built up on railroad ties, where our flagpole was located.

This is also the side of the house where Mom and Dad cultivated their beautiful red rose bushes.

The back of the house was probably my favorite. It showed a lot of important details, like the sliding glass door, which lead out from the Dining room. We NEVER used this door which is probably why a deck or patio was never built - there were just the stacked cinder blocks for the steps to the ground.

Probably the most important detail was the dinner bell, which was atop a pole at the back corner of the back stoop. In the warm weather months, this bell was rung pretty much every evening, to let my sister and I know, from wherever we were in the neighborhood, that it was time to come home for dinner.

The West side of our house was pretty plain, but in the Blizzard of 1976, we had a snowdrift as high as those second story windows.

I lived in this house from the time I was a toddler until my parents sold it my Sophomore year ofcollege, and I have many, many, many Wonderful Memories from growing up there.

Since receiving this inexpensive, but Special Christmas Gift from me twenty years ago, my parents have had a plexiglass box made. In this box it is stored and displayed, and kept on a bookshelf in their living room.

Thank you Mom, for taking the time yesterday to take these pictures of it for me.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

A week ago this past Saturday, we went and got our Christmas Tree. It was nice getting a real tree again, after using our fake tree for the last two years. I'm not sure we knew what we were thinking when we got one SO large.

The following day, we brought it in the house and hung the lights. Porkchop was very intrigued.

Then, Saturday evening, after Marc made all kinds of yummy snicky-snacks, we decorated the tree.

Luke was ALL about hanging the ornaments. Marc helped him hang some of them up high.

Grey took all night to hang ONE ornament...

He just couldn't find the perfect spot.

And then finally...

Tah Dah!!!

Luke hung some non-breakable ones down low.

Grey was unhappy because he wanted to play with his baseball ornament.

This is the collection of ornaments the boys got this year to hang on the tree.

An M&M guy for Luke because last year on Christmas Eve he first said "M&M". Only it sounded like "dubbaduh", which is how it still sounds a year later.

Also for Luke, a memento to commemorate his first year of school.

When I saw this one, I knew it was Perfect for Grey. We all know that at some point he will be bigger than Luke... and he will get even.

And also for Grey - a Baseball, because he loved watching it with Daddy over the summer, and he loved to practice hitting with his little t-ball stand.

Faucheux Christmas Tree 2010

This morning, the tree had a new ornament.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Finally got some Holiday decorating done.

QUITE A MORNING...

This morning, we awoke to two exciting things. First, Mr. Tinslesparkle was quite busy during the night.

It looks like he raided the toybox and organized Luke and Grey's cars.

He must have gotten cold during the night because he used Luke's slipper as a sleeping bag.

And, he must have gotten hungry. Sure left a lot of crumbs.

Luke came out of his room and was very excited to see so many of his cars. He kept saying "many eights", which I guess means "a lot".

He immediately went into his bedroom to get his other stash of cars to complete the circle.

Of course, I had to get a picture.

The second exciting thing... this season's first snow.

Can't wait to decorate the tree with the boys today.

ANOTHER UPDATE

Also scroll down to November 11th to see video of the boys in the bathtub.

UPDATE

Be sure to scroll down to November 24th to see the post about Luke's school program. The video FINALLY loaded.

A CHRISTMAS VISITOR

Last night, right before dinner, there came a small knock at our front door. After coaxing our three year old to open the door to see whom it might be, we had the opportunity to meet...

Peter J. Tinslesparkle - The Christmas Elf.

He arrived with a note and a suitcase.

The note was addressed to the boys. It introduced "Petey", and stated his holiday mission.

He obviously didn't travel via airplane. I doubt any airline would have allowed a wreath hanging on the outside of a piece of luggage

His suitcase even had a luggage tag with his monogram and address.

The boys were curious, so Petey was kind enough to share with them the contents of his suitcase.

He brought his own pillow, a candle for being able to see as he wonders about the house during the night, an alarm clock, and a hot water bottle. I guess he must have a bad back.

He brought necessary toiletry items - towel and washcloth, comb, hairdryer, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. Yet, no change of clothing?

He's obviously still a kid at heart, because in order to entertain himself (when he's not on duty) he brought a toy car, a book for reading, and a coloring book and crayons.

In case he gets hungry, he brought his own snack - graham crackers. He also came with his own drinking mug.

Most importantly, he has his surveillance items - a special phone on which he can directly get a hold of Santa Claus, a camera for recording good and bad behavior, and a pencil for taking notes. Luke told him we would lend him paper if he needed it. I love the fact that the North Pole is still Old School - no laptop or cell phone. Gotta love tradition.

He also brought a basket and a set of keys. Not sure what they are for, maybe their use and meaning will soon be revealed.

Now just to give you an idea of scale.

Petey's already been hard at work. He situated himself on a shelf in the boys room last night, and today he is on top of the TV. Luke knows he's there, and his behavior seems to be shifting to the good. Hopefully, for the time that Petey is staying with us, his work will be easy.

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY PICTURE

Porkchop checking out the ads for Black Friday Sales

THANKSGIVING PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

On Wednesday, Luke's Preschool put on a little Thanksgiving Program. During school in the last couple of weeks, the children were learning about the story of Stone Soup, so this is what the program was based upon. First the 3year old classes came in and did their part, and then the 4year old classes did theirs.

This is Miss Susan (Director of the Pre-School) telling the audience the story behind the Stone Soup.

These are the 3year olds. Luke is in the front row all the way to the right.

He ended up being right behind the microphone from where I was sitting.

Not sure about this expression. Is he sad the program is over, or does he have to poo?

After the program, we were served Stone Soup, which the children helped make. I was really impressed, because it was quite the production. We had soup with cornbread and crackers, along with some mixed fruit, apple cake and drinks for everyone. Each table sat two or three children along with their guests. At each child's place there was a placemat that they had helped make along with other table decorations they had made.

Luke really seems to be enjoying his soup.

All the children were wearing t-shirts that they had made, which were of indians made from their handprints.

This are Luke's placemat and table decorations.

He's getting really good at writing his name.

The little boxes each had a bag of homemade Chex-Mix.

Luke's Pumpkin

Luke sporting his t-shirt

We're so proud of our little Pre-schooler.

Here is the video I took of Luke's part of the program. I apologize for the poor quality and the shakiness of it. There was a huge window shining in tons of light right behind them, and I had

Grey with me, so it was hard to shoot and keep him seated at the same time.

Also note that shortly into the program, Luke gets into trouble for grabbing the microphone. You can hear me giggle and occasionally, you can hear Porkchop clap. Also pay attention for Luke's loud outburst of song towards the end.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.