Celebrating Christmas Up North

What a fun week!  Neither of us can remember the last time we were up north ("home") for this long (only 5 days, but still:)).  We left early Monday morning making the first stop at the Glidden home. Nanny, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Dennis, Uncle Jon & Nicole, Uncle Andy & Aunt Kerrie Jo were all there with cousins- Trey, Becka, Tim & Maria.  We had a great brunch and opened some gifts.  The hit of the morning though was when Gabe thought he had won $10,000 in scratch tickets... poor Gabe- Amy had gotten some fake scratch tickets last year just for this purpose.  For the record though, Gabe's losing streak in the scratch tickets continues for another year... 

Monday evening we headed up to the Civiello home to stay for a few nights. We had a great ham and turkey dinner with Grammy, Grampy, Grammy Grammy Day, Grampy Grampy Day, Grammy Grammy Civiello, Uncle Dennis and Aunt Andrea. Noah and James really enjoyed playing in the special fire truck bed Grammy and Grampy got for James to try, but in the end Noah ended up getting the most use out of it:)  We had a relaxing Tuesday visiting with family, opening gifts and attending the Stearns girls basketball game to see Mikayla play!  Late morning we braved the frigid temperatures to try out the special present Grammy and Grampy got the boys.... a little snowmobile complete with helmets.  Noah was very excited and took to it right away, on the other hand, James decided that it was "too loud" and wanted nothing to do with it.  Wednesday morning was the complete opposite- it was beautiful outside, so much so that we didn't even need to wear coats... felt like spring.  Noah was a bit disappointed that he couldn't ride the snowmobile again, but was just as happy with a tractor ride.  The bottom picture is of James checking out the ice with daddy.

Wednesday afternoon we went back to the Glidden home where we spent two more nights.  The first night we had tacos (for my birthday) and ice cream cake.  The Pelkey's came to play cards and we laughed very hard... no accidents though;) Thursday we relaxed in the morning, went to the chinese buffet in Lincoln;)  and took the kids mini golfing in Millinocket in the evening.  That night after the kids went to bed Gabe took me out to dinner at a restaurant where we got to dine like celebrities... we had the whole place to ourselves the whole time... I am pretty sure people pay good money for that kind of experience;)  This morning we got up and headed back south for a, hopefully, low key weekend before we are back to reality next week!

Christmas Day- 2011

Christmas this year was very fun with the three boys.  Although we did miss seeing all of our families on Christmas day, it was nice being able to spend time with just the 5 of us.  Gabe didn't get called into work which was a huge blessing.  We spent the morning opening presents.  Well, Noah opened all of the presents and James played with them.  James was so funny because he could have cared less about opening the gifts, he just wanted to play with them after Noah opened them.  When Noah was James's age it took us 3 days to open gifts for this same reason.  Next year I am sure James will care more;)  They were both very excited about the car rampway and the "car with a remote", but the best gift came in their stockings from Santa- mini Cars flashlights... who knew.  They played explorers for most of the day.  The picture of them on Noah's bed didn't do the scene justice because they were actually in the dark, Noah was reading a book to James by flashlight.  At nap time Gabe and I took down all of the decorations, including the tree... it was a bit weird, but it was not something we wanted to leave for the week, then deal with when we got home.  Heading north in the morning!!

Christmas Eve in Mattamiscontis- 2011

Gabe worked on Christmas Eve this year (just days thankfully), the kids and I decided that we just couldn't miss out on another Smith Christmas, so we took a day trip to Mattamiscontis... With better planning it probably would have made more sense to make it an overnight visit, but oh well.  We had lots of fun visiting with everyone and eating sticky rolls.   We made it back home before bedtime, so we could leave Santa his "special cookies" from Noah and carrots.  I realized after the fact that Noah had peanut butter all over his face for this picture:)  

More Christmas Preparation

So, there has been a lull in my blogging.... I have gone back to work on a temporary basis.  I am working at a hospital based practice to cover one of the providers while she is out on maternity leave.  It is only three days per week and we have found two wonderful ladies to come to our house and provide child care, so we are very fortunate... however, blogging has suffered and probably will until spring.  We have had a packed December to date.  Last weekend we took a daytrip to the Upper Valley to celebrate the 5th birthday of two of Noah's good friends. Of course, no pictures... I didn't even remember to bring the camera... oh well!

This week we have been able to squeeze in some last minute Christmas preparations.  We made cookies for Santa... Noah looked through the cookies magazines and picked out three kinds he wanted to make- peanut butter sandwiches, sugar cookies and gingerbread men.  The kids had a ball... I thought for sure James would vomit from the amount of dough he ate, thankfully he didn't.   Noah really made it a big point this year to make presents for a list of people.  His list was getting long, so I had to cut him off, but here are some pictures of the finished wrapped gifts.  He made a variety of crayon, marker, and paint portraits, as well as pipe cleaner figures. James very much enjoyed playing with the pipe cleaners. He really tested my creative resolve here as he was fairly specific in what he wanted to make.  This is a picture of the train he made for one of our childcare providers- "a train with a man in the window with steam".  He is such a thoughtful kid and really perseverated about what to give each person... He was also very excited to have people open their gifts:)  Most importantly ;) this week the Wii is up and running again, so that Noah and James could do "dancing on the TV" again.  James asks for this many times a day and he says thank you to God for it every night in his prayers.

Toru's Visit to Maine

This past weekend our dear friend from Japan came for a very brief, but really great visit.  He had a conference in Texas and was nice enough to fly out here to see us.  Gabe took him on a tour of Portland/the Old Port, picked up some Lobsters in Scarborough and visited LLBean before returning home to a late lobster supper.  We loved having you visit Toru and hope you will be able to come back soon with your family!!