Christmas Light Tour

This year we thought it would be fun to start (and in some of the other family member's cases, renew) the Christmas tradition of touring the Keizer Christmas lights. There is a particular neighborhood in Keizer, Oregon that likes to fanatically decorate their homes with Christmas lights, decorations and all sorts of holiday paraphernalia. They have been holding this neighborhood tradition for many years, even when Josh, Angela and Michelle were young. You are encouraged to bring a donation for the Marion/Polk County Food Share if you participate and you may drive through the displays or walk.
Well the entire Sweet-Volkert clan could hardly wait to experience the fun and adventure of watching the Christmas light displays and picking out our favorites among the houses. For the first time ever the entire Sweet clan came over to our house for dinner, along with the Volkerts and some visiting Sweet cousins of Grandpa's from Idaho, before heading out to the light show. Thank goodness we love family chaos since our house was buzzing with kids and lacking a fair amount of seats. Next year I hope to be better prepared. But all was well as we ate Josh's homemade French Dip sandwiches. Lennon was ever the gracious hostess and barely threw a fuss having to share her toys and her Grandma with all the other children.
After dinner we corralled all the kids and packed into 3 different vehicles to make our way to Keizer. It is no small feat getting our entire family packed, prepared and out of a house on time. As we neared Keizer the traffic was bumper to bumper, everyone inching to get to the lighted neighborhood. It seems that most people enjoy driving through the display, rather than walk.
The Sweet-Volkert clans are always up for an adventure, so walking was for us! We parked the cars, squeezed the little gals into their snowsuits, jackets and strollers. Clutching our cameras we braved the chill and walked on to the neighborhood. What did we find when we got there???? NADA!
Maybe it was the long line of cars headed in, the local hype or the childhood memories that buffeted our excitement of something stupendous, but when we got to this "neighborhood of lights" there wasn't much. A few houses here and there were smattered with lights and decorations, nothing out of the norm that you would see across your own front lawn. I will give credit to the handful of houses that did go all out and decorate. But a handful of houses in an entire neighborhood known for it's fantastic light displays? Come on! What a let down.

Luckily the girls and most of the other kids hardly noticed. They were having more fun chasing each other around the neighborhood and talking to one another while riding side by side in their strollers. I will say it was nice to be able to donate something to the
Food Share for Christmas and having Lennon meet Santa in a non-threatening way. Santa was standing at the end of the neighborhood collecting the donations and greeting all the children. Lennon seemed much more at ease visiting him with Daddy and in the safety of her stroller.
All in all the lights were a bust, but the night was not. The night was not too cold, unlike last year when we braved the freezing temperatures to see ZOOLights, which was a blessing. We got to spend time with family, which is always fun, make memories and get some good exercise---which was also very much needed due to the over abundance of sugary treats! Lennon and Addison were too cute riding along in their strollers and interacting with each other (also in the safety of their strollers). Seeing them together is always worth a trip or get together.
Next year I think this tradition will continue regardless of the lack of lights. But we will be better prepared at the house with more food and seating, we will remember to bring the hot chocolate along with us and we will convince the Campbells to brave the show with us. For they were missed!

Trimming the Tree

Our first Christmas in the new house! Wow, it's hard to believe. We weren't quite prepared to decorate a whole house this year, so our Christmas trimmings were a bit on the light side. (Thanks to the Volkerts for loaning us their regal Nativity set!) Hopefully our Christmas spirit made up for our lack of Christmas decorations.

We used our small artificial tree this year. Neither Josh nor I was willing to brave the Christmas tree hunt out in the wild this December. Hopefully by next December that will change, because I sure did miss the smell of a real tree in the house. Although I think our artificial one was much sturdier than we thought, considering Lennon was all a flutter when she saw it and couldn't keep her hands off of it. Thankfully there were no Christmas tree casualties.

This was Lennon's first year participating in decorating the Christmas tree. As you can see she was very meticulous in where she chose to hang her ornaments. Thank goodness I am no Martha Stewart, expecting absolute perfection and symmetry. Lennon took a quick liking to the

Christmas balls that we had bought at Target. I suppose they were the exact size for her petite hands, which couldn't resist them. Lennon's clustering technique was a bit unconventional, but I think it could catch on. Her Christmas Cluster is rather cute.

With Lennon growing like a weed no ornament within her reach was safe. Thank goodness I learned right away Mommy Christmas Tip #1: All cherished ornaments need to be exempt from the tree or else placed high, towards the top. Her little mittens loved touching and exploring each ornament. Many of them were shuffled and found in new places. A little surprise for Mommy every day.

Lennon is much like a squirrel, she loves to hoard, pile and hide objects. Many a hook, ribbon and string were lost this year, making many of the ornaments unusable. Towards the end of the month the tree became very top heavy and bare bottomed.

Kudos to Josh for using three strands of lights on our tree. Don't worry Mom--he strings the lights just like you do! We are carrying on that Christmas tradition. We also used Grandma Sweet's (Barb) homemade tree skirt, which is beautiful and fit perfectly, aside from Lennon slipping and sliding on it as she tried to fit herself under the tree. Next year we may have to put some sort of gripping underneath the skirt so our little miss doesn't "schwip fawl".

Josh and I can hardly wait until next Christmas! We hope to rival the Griswold's in spectacular light displays and I will attempt some Martha Stewart like touches inside the house. Most of all, we can't wait to see how Lennon's face lights up with excitement as the decorations come out and how she beams with pride as she helps carry-out new family traditions.

Merry Tismas!

As Lennon would say: "Merry Tismas!" So these next few posts are from the whole of December and Christmas...so far. Better late than never, eh? Hopefully after our 2nd Christmas in Bend I will be able to post more frequently and on time! My sincere apologies for those of you who have had to wait for your current Lennon fix.

If you are looking for pictures of Lennon's first visit to see Santa, you'll be waiting a very long time. I didn't listen to Josh's warnings and I took Lennon to see Santa at the Salem Center. There is evidence of her having met him, however she was using her Vulcan-like death grip around my neck so I was unable to take any photos, but I believe Auntie Michelle or Grandma Sweet may have one. You'd think a gal of her bravado would not object to meeting the big man in red. Oh how wrong to assume...

All day leading up to the big meeting she was very excited, shrieking "Ho, Ho" and "Happy Nu-Nu!" When we met up with Grandma Sweet, Auntie Renee, Uncle Cody, Auntie Michelle and Addy she was still all excitement and energy. As we neared "Santa's Village" still wiggles and giggles. Finally, it was our turn to greet the magic man. What does Lennon do? Climb my body like a spider monkey and Kung-fu grip my neck, refusing to let go or go near him.

I tried not to let my impulse to make a memory and take a properly posed Santa picture cloud my motherly judgement, where I force my child to sit on a strange man's lap while she screams bloody murder. My better instincts prevailed and I followed Lennon's lead. While she clung to my body we approached Santa, waved hello, gave him a suspicious once over and left. Better luck next year.

Happy New Year!

I mean Happy Halloween! Lennon has adopted "Happy New Year" for any greeting that involves the word happy. This includes but is not limited to birthdays, Halloween and really any old regular day. I think this is due to her obsession over one of the books her Mimi gifted her: "My First Chinese New Year". The hope is that by the actual New Year she will have moved on to more appropriate salutations.

But back to Halloween...Lennon had a fabulous Halloween. She spent the day at the Setnicker Farm with her cousin Addy, Uncle Nick and Auntie Michelle. There she discovered a new found respect and love for corn and hay bale slides. We spent the rest of the evening battling ants, cooking, corralling the girls into costumes, passing out candy and avoiding having to give out too much.

Lennon dressed as a ladybug this year (Thank you Mimi!) and for the whole 10 minutes or so she was in her costume she looked like the cutest little ladybug ever. It took Michelle, Nick, Julia and I to finagle her into her costume, get her to look in the general direction of my camera and to keep the costume on longer than a minute. Addy was much more compliant when it came to her ballerina costume. So enjoy the pictures! It took a crack team to make them happen. : ) I only wish I pictures of her passing out candy to trick-or-treaters in just her diaper.

Oh and did I mention I ruined dessert? Hopefully I can redeem myself next Halloween.