Christmas Whirlwind

Christmas might be "the most wonderful time of the year", but it's also the busiest for us. For the first time since...probably ever...shopping was done before Christmas Eve. (It's a Christmas miracle!) Good thing, because the holiday festivities began Christmas Eve with the Platts at Lisa and Eric's house. Jeff and Lisa came up from Dublin. We had dinner, gifts and family time with everyone together.

Christmas morning started at 7:00 am when Nate's alarm went off. Abby wouldn't go downstairs to see if Santa came until Mom and Dad went down too. She was terrified of the thought of Santa coming into her house. She got over it quickly when she saw the presents he left under the tree. We had to coax her out of the princess castle tent from Santa to open the rest of her presents, and Nate's year was made when he opened up a Nintendo Wii. Mom was a little surprised too, since Dad had kept it secret since he bought it in October.

Then it was off to celebrate with the Lemings at Paul's parents' house. Abby wasted no time digging into the gifts when Sophia showed her the gift she had gotten for her. Nate, Sidney and Lauren took turns aiming at pop cans on the porch with Sidney's new Red Ryder BB gun. Armed and dangerous...a little scary! But no one shot their eye out.

Just when you think we're partied out, we moved on to another celebration with the extended Platt family, and finished off the day after Christmas with the extended Gault family. It was nice to see my grandma and all my aunts, uncles and cousins, but we were ready for some down time after all that. We spent the next two days playing Wii and dressing naked Barbies.

Winter Wonderland?

Two feet of snow. Do I really need to say more? I don't think a white Christmas will be an issue this year.

'Tis the Season

Well, Christmas is in the air...and the malls, the television, the radio, school, daycare...it's everywhere! And no one is more aware of its presence (not to mention presents) than our kids. Nate's busy adding to his Christmas wish list daily. Abby reminds us constantly that Ho-Ho woke up (apparently Santa sleeps until the Thanksgiving parade) and is going to bring her three Barbies. And both of them went to their annual Christmas party at Miss Patty's (daycare) last night. Apparently the kids were learning Christmas carols at Miss Patty's to prepare for the party, so Abby gave us a little holiday Jingle Bells concert. Holy cheese balls, Batman!

Set...Hike!

Nate decided to give up soccer for flag football this fall. He's had a great time learning a new sport with several of his friends on his team, the Vikings. Center and quarterback seem to be frequent positions for him to play, but he likes being a receiver the most. He's getting hooked on going to Lake Orion High School football games with his dad now too. He has his sights set on tackle football in the near future, but he'll have to convince his mom first!

Trick or Treat

Nate and Abby took the neighborhood by storm this Halloween. Nate, dressed as Indiana Jones (That's my boy!) weighed his bag in at 8.2 pounds of candy. He's already hard at work to reduce his inventory. Abby went as Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. My oldest neice actually nicknamed her Abby Cadabby before we knew about the character, so it just had to be. Although she refused to speak to anyone while trick-or-treating, she was very good at promptly holding up her pumpkin bucket to receive the candy.

The kids got some good practice on the Monday before Halloween when we went trick-or-treating at Crossroads Village with friends. Nate, friend Daniel and his brother Stephen gave mom Susan and I a workout as we tried to keep up with their speedy treat-seeking. Abby and little Benjamin thoroughly enjoyed the Ghost Train ride. It was obvious that Abby already understood the value of her candy at this point when she ran away from a 1-1/2 year old ladybug saying, "Them can't take my candy!"

Pumpkins and Donuts

We made our annual trek out to Blake's Farms in Armada for apple cider and donuts. Unlike in previous years when we had to go in winter coats, we had beautiful, warm weather--very un-October-like. After enjoying entirely too many donuts for one sitting, we went off to our favorite pumpkin patch at DeBruyn's Produce. Nate, the reigning champion, picked out a 27 pound pumpkin. Mom came in a close second at 26 pounds (my pumpkin, not me).

Photographer in the Making

Nate has always enjoyed taking pictures. In fact, some of them are pretty good if I do say so myself. We recently submitted one of his pictures of a sting ray from the Columbus Zoo trip to Boys' Life online magazine (a magazine for boys in Scouts). Not only was his picture approved and posted on their website, but it received a 5-star rating as well! Go to boyslife.org to check it out.

A Camping We Will Go

That's right folks...Angie went camping, and for the third time this summer I might add. The four of us packed up the tent and did a little Labor Day weekend camping up in Port Sanilac with the rest of the Leming clan. Don't be fooled though, I slept in a camper. We had beautiful weather for our weekend with Paul's mom and dad, brother and sister-in-law, and our three nieces. The kids enjoyed lots of activities at the campground, we took in some folk music at Thumbfest in Lexington, and we browsed through the shops in town. It was a very nice way to end the summer before the start of school again.

Are We There Yet?

Paul and I took the kids to see Jeff and Lisa in their new home in Dublin, Ohio. We played at the park and managed to find our first geocache ever. Then we hit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and Zoombezi Bay waterpark. That was a lot of fun (until I tore the rear end out of my bathing suit on a water slide) for everyone. Nate took some great pictures of the animals, I tried to get everyone to pose with the sculptures, Abby hated the snakes, and Paul lived it up on the water slides (so I heard...I was busy holding my bathing suit on). The weekend ended with cement corn and dancing bunnies (I'm not crazy, click below to look at the photo album), and then we were too tired to go on. So we drove back through the corn fields and came home. Thanks for a great time Jeff and Lisa!

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Ok, I admit it... I'm lousy at keeping in touch. I forget to call back, I don't find time to email, and I forget to pass on pictures. So what to do? Start a blog! You can check back here to see what we're up to now anytime you want.