Sunday, December 30, 2012

Its official!

Ski school starts in one week!  I took the kids to the mountain the other day to get their season passes.  It was cheaper to pay for the season pass than to pay for the lift tickets with the lessons.  Plus, this way, if we want to ski more after the lessons, they can go for free!  The twins were very excited about their season passes, which look like little credit cards with their picture on it.  Here goes nothing!



Friday, December 28, 2012

More Christmas fun..

The snow came the day after Christmas, and it was the perfect chance for Liliana to use her umbrella.


Lucas even joined in on the fun.


Lucas showing off Liliana's new sweatshirt.


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Post Christmas play

With all the new toys, the twins have plenty to keep them busy with these days.  These are the coloring pages that Nana (I mean Santa) got the kids.  Its special paper and special markers, which reduces the mess possible with markers.


I even joined in on the coloring.  These were cool.  Wish I had these when I was young....pretty good huh


Here Liliana is with all her princess dolls going for a ride in her princess parasol.




Christmas Morning....

The kids slept in until almost 8 am.  Liliana was the first to wake us up to tell us that Santa had indeed been here.  We spent the next half hour or so opening gifts.



Loving her princess parasol!


Felix trying to clean up the remnants.


This one was a big hit...a penguin rollercoaster of sorts.  I remember having something very similar to it when I was a kid (or maybe our neighbor had one?)  Lucas LOVED it!


I honestly think Liliana stayed up m ost of the night. She barely made it through opening gifts and immediately afterwards, passed out on the couch for about three hours.  I was starting to get worried about her, but she sprang back to action after a good sleep.


While I cooked dinner, Felix tried to figure out the Strawberry Shortcake princess board game.



L and L helping me butter the rolls before they go back in for the last five minutes or so.



We had a nice meal with Grandpa....


The twins watched a movie they got for Christmas.


Liliana showing Grandpa her princess watch she got.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Aba's House

As is the custom with Felix's family, we headed into the city to spend Christmas eve with his family.  




L and L hanging around while Felix went to get the car.


Felix and I got home, got the kids to bed and the toys out.


We had a sitter come so we could go to midnight mass.  And it was snowing!  So nice, almost like out of a movie!  Since we live so close to church and we knew parking would be an issue, we walked down, enjoying the snow.





Next up?  Christmas morning!



Monday, December 24, 2012

Cousins!

(I am beating Pete to this post...although that is an easy feat...lol)

Yesterday, Pete and his family came down for the afternoon. He also brought Grandpa. A little pre-Christmas Christmas party if you will.

Timothy enjoying his juice box.


Enjoying some ziti and garlic bread.


Just thought it was necessary to take a shot of the professional style camera Pete was following us around with all afternoon.



Then it was time for cookie decorating.  I had a bunch of stuff left over from the twin cookie decorating party, so I just baked some more cookies.  Decorating cookies with frosting and sprinkles is always a hit.



More chasing with the camera...


Liliana and Pete.


The cookie aftermath.



Afterwards, we let the kids opened their presents.  Here's Elijah and Lucas playing outside with Elijah's self propelled rocket launcher (or something like that)


We tried our best to get a pic of all the kids together....



And then we let them all make silly faces....



Lucas and Liliana playing with their art supplies that Pete and Christie got them.


It was a nice relaxing afternoon and it was great to see the kids all playing together.  Thanks for coming guys!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Holiday Baking

With the season, comes a lot of baking.  Mostly peppermint bark (lots of boxes!) but some Christmas cookies packed in there as well.  Both of the kids are more than willing to help in this regard. 



Saturday, December 22, 2012

The Grinch!

After school on Friday, I jumped on a train with the twins and met Felix in the city.  We took the kids to see Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas the Musical at Madison Square Garden.  The kids LOVED the train ride (it was packed!) and they loved the show even more.  We had pretty good seats.


We didn't plan for dinner well, it didn't quite fit into the schedule.  But MSG had a nice kids pack with food, drink and a snack, all for a pretty reasonable price.  Imagine that!  


We didn't get back until well after 10.  It was a long day and they slept in this morning.  Tomorrow starts the holiday festivities.


Saturday, December 15, 2012

Twin Cookie Party!

Tonight we had a twin cookie decorating party.  We invited the four "twin families" that we are friendly with, and three were able to make it.  We started the night out with ziti, salad and garlic bread.




All the cookie prep.  Each kid got a cup of vanilla and chocolate frosting, and they shared the sprinkles.






This really was a great night.  To be honest, I really didn't feel up to it.  I have been consumed by grief and fighting back tears for the past 48 hours.  I thought about cancelling the party, but realized that it was important for the kids.  They had been looking forward to it and were so excited.  And as I talked to my friends tonight, so many said to me that they were thankful for this event which allowed them a chance to forget about all the sadness that we are feeling for the families in Newtown tonight.   Thankful but sad is what we are tonight.