Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Morning at our house



Ben & Maggie's artificial tree doesn't look half bad!
Stockings are hung along the stairway railing instead of above the fireplace since we put the Christmas tree upstairs this year.
Ben shows how excited he is about "Team GeoTrax," and Maggie tries out her new stroller.
I love this picture of Brian and the kids. Notice how closely they are paying attention to him as he shows them how to put together the train tracks. Does it get any cuter than this? Of course, Ben had already lined up ALL the trains on the portion of track that he had assembled.
Even though this picture is a little blurry, I just love it!
Ben told me that he must have been a really good boy!

Christmas Eve at Mike & Karen's














Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Office Christmas Party

This is it. This is almost EVERYONE I work with! I love my job!
(left to right) Brett (IT), Ryan (IT), Jenn (Pharmacist), Ryan (President),
Michelle (Pharmacist), Me (Pharmacist), Sally (Australian HQ), Rob (IT)
Missing from the photo: Mark, the Supstar Tech and All-around Yes-man! (see below)

Yes, Mark is actually wearing a dog bed on his head in this picture. That's the kind of place I work in. If you're feeling a little silly, why not put a dog bed on your head and pretend it's a 'fro? (Personally, I think it really suits him!)

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Advent Candles

The kids loved these Advent candles. We made an attempt to light them daily and say the daily prayers that went along with the ritual, but, many days ended in a fight over who got to blow out the candles or who got to hold the prayer book.
We tried, right?

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Grinch-y Mommy

In true "Grinch-like" spirit this year, I had decided that we wouldn't put up a Christmas tree. I just didn't want to deal with the anxiety of the possibility of broken ornaments and/or a poisoned child who was drinking from the water bowl at the base of the tree. I thought I even had Brian on board... until this past weekend when we heard Ben say, "When do we get OUR Christmas tree?" Brian looked at me and said that we both knew we couldn't skip out on a tree this year just because Maggie tends to be more than a little mischievous. So, today I resigned to digging out the ol' artificial that we only used one time (when Ben was a baby).

Ben and Maggie had a total ball decorating the artificial. I brought it up from the basement and put it in the hallway next to the bonus room, and you would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were so excited! Immediately, Ben got out his trains and told me he was going to make a "half-circle" around the base of the tree. (I think I was supposed to be impressed at his use of the term "half-circle.") Ben kept putting bells on it (yes, the bells left over from our wedding), and Maggie just kept pulling them off. Then, Mags and I went to the basement to find some more unbreakable ornaments, and when we came upstairs again, Ben said, "Look, Mom! I hung all the ornaments where Maggie couldn't reach them!" I just cracked up. Every ornament was hung on the same few branches in the front of the tree at his eye level. So cute! I'm sure they'll spend the remainder of this holiday season rearranging their ornaments. Thank goodness for artificial trees!