Nook nook, who's there?

I got a nook for Christmas and I'm in love. I never thought I'd be in love with an e-reader, but I am. I love how easy it is to get library e-books, I love that nook offers Free Friday books, I love that my cover makes it feel like a real book in my hand, I love that a book I've been wanting to read was on sale for $5 electronically. Love it, love it, love it. And I feel hip too!

Candlelight Service

The Christmas Eve Candlelight service, and in particular the one at my church, has always been my favorite church service ever. I love the full warm Sanctuary on a cold night, I love the glow of the candles, I love the strength of the organ, I love belting out Joy to the World. I love it all.

This year we decided to introduce the kids to the beauty of this service. They were spellbound. Emma and I lit candles in the sanctuary before the service, and then helped to extinguish them halfway through the service. Grant came with us for the first half, holding my hand while he hopped like a bunny alongside us. Once we were seated in the pew, they watched the brass play the songs, Emma tried to sing along to the hymns while Grant stood on the pew next to my dad. They both held their candles carefully, and when Grant dripped some on his hand he politely whispered for help from Hubs.

I was so proud of both of them. Joy to the World is that much better when your children are belting it out alongside you.

Happy Birthday Hubs!

Happy Birthday! In a break from tradition, no one is headed to the Med Clinic today. So have a great birthday!

Getting my cook on

Nicole and I took a cooking class at the Co-op tonight - Christmas Brunch ideas. Everything was delicious, including the eggnog bread pudding I was positive I'd hate. The highlight though was the scones. Delicious and light and flaky and buttery goodness. We made a plan to cook the whole thing on New Years Day, although I think I may make the scones tomorrow for breakfast!

The Nutcracker

Today was Emma and mine annual trip to The Nutcracker, and we were joined by several of Emma's Daisy troopmates. The girls were incredibly well behaved, and looked adorable in their fancy dresses. Everyone had a different favorite part, Emma's was the Russian dancers, followed closely by the Arabian dancers. Grant's anxious to join us, maybe next year. Or maybe this will be a girl thing. We'll see!

New sport for Emma

Emma went to a birthday party today at an ice skating rink and she's fallen in love. She's making plans to take ice skating lessons and then skate in the Olympics. And while I don't think we're Olympic bound quite yet, she did take to skating super fast. While the other kids were still clinging to their bucket tower for support, Emma was whizzing around the rink on her own. She even tried to skate backward at one point. Now if only ice skating lessons/ equipment didn't mean we'd have to take a second mortgage out on our house.

The tree is up!

It took some monumental schedule arranging but we did it. The tree is up. And the Christmas card picture was taken. All in one outing. So take that Christmas Chaos 2010, I win round 1.