Winter Wonderland

1946 Version

Sleigh bells ring, are ya listenin'?

In the lane snow is glistenin'

a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight

walkin' in a winter wonderland!

Gone away is the bluebird

here to stay is a new bird

he sings a love song as we go along

walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman

then pretend that he is Parson Brown

he'll say "Are you married?"

we'll say "No man!

But you can do the job,

when you're in town!"

Later on, we'll conspire,

as we dream, by the fire,

to face unafraid,

the plans that we've made

walkin' in a winter wonderland

(repeat all)

We'll be happy in love

as two turtle doves

livin' in a fairy land!...

Oh!...we'll be walkin'

in a winter wonderland!

Words and Music by Felix Bernard

and Dick Smith

This Boy Can Eat!!

What boy can't, right? Well, Dylan has his moments when he can put away as much as the rest of us. His favorite is spaghetti. Tonight, he ate Tortilla soup and loved every minute of it, saying, "mmmmm" the whole time. There are some things he's still not too keen on. Chicken is one of them. As funny as it seems, I can't get him to eat a chicken nugget for the life of me. Give him a fish stick and he's in heaven. But no chicken.

These pictures are after a bowl of mac and cheese. After the last bite, he started signing more (he can do the sign for more, all done, and hungry....very useful when they can't talk!). Well, there wasn't more, so I gave him the bowl and spoon. He threw the spoon down to the floor, picked up the bowl and started licking it. After I was able to stop laughing enough to stand, I grabbed my camera. These snap shots were the result. You would think it was a bowl of the best thing ever! It was to him anyway. Oh to be a baby and get away with such bliss!

Baby Ben turns 11!

Some of you know, and some of you don't, but Ben was named after a character in a book called 'Benjamin and Tulip'. It's a children's book that I used to read and create voices for the characters. It's a funny story and is very cute. Sweet little Benjamin (who is a raccoon) gets pummeled by Tulip (another raccoon) while sent out to the store to get a watermelon. His middle name is Paul, after my dad's uncle Paul. Both names are just good, solid names. It was between that and Wyatt something or other. When he was born, I took one look at him and said that's a baby Ben. Well, I found out several months after he was born that my grandma's Aunt Kate (who I'm named after) had two sons, Benjamin and Paul!

Well, that little baby turned 11 on Christmas eve. He is so sweet and kind and the best big brother you will ever see. He has a wonderful way with younger children and usually doesn't mind giving them extra attention. He's a wonderful student who loves to read and write short stories. He's learning the saxophone and volunteers to help in a second grade class with their reading. He loves his family and plans to work at Grandpa's ranch in Wyoming until he goes away to college at USC (a favorite of grandpa's). He's the next best thing to sliced bread and the apple of every ones eye. What more could a mom ask for? He's the best Christmas present I have ever, and will ever receive.

"Another Halloween, we're all another year older!"

That is a quote from one of my favorite movies, 'Meet Me In St Louis'. I know it's awful to say, but I love Halloween! It kicks off the season. It's almost exactly the day the air turns crisp and all the leaves have turned. It signifies wonderful memories for me. When I was really young, we would dress up, usually borrowing from the costumes at the Conservatory where Michelle received her guitar instruction. When we were older, my mother would read aloud Martin Luther's 95 Thesis. We would also make pumpkin bread for neighbors.

I get a huge thrill out of thinking of and creating my children's costumes. This year took the cake! Ben was a 'dead man' with a white face, tuxedo and coffin. I don't know why I don't have a picture, but I can't seem to find it!! :( Anyway, we painted his face white and sprayed his hair white. Then I made dark 'wrinkle' lines under his eyes and across his forehead. We rented a tuxedo for the occasion because, as he put it, "a man having a proper burial would wear one". He held a black rose to his chest to top off the ensemble. The cherry on the sundae was his coffin. We used a cardboard coffin that was sold at Walmart for yard display. We cut slits in the back to harness a belt through it to attach to him. It looked so amazing! Alas, he couldn't walk very well with the coffin and it had only a short life (no pun intended!).

Laura, bless her heart, had the stomach flu so bad on Halloween. It was awful because her costume was so great and she wanted to go out SO bad. We tried getting her into the costume and just that effort was too much for her. Later in the evening we tried again, and she was able to go to a couple of the neighbor's houses. She was a beautiful butterfly fairy. I saw these fabulous purple, turquoise and black wings at Wally-World (yes, we live there!). Then, after some looking in the fabric department, I came across the most amazing 'stuff'. I can't describe it perfectly, but let's just say is was almost like real butterfly wings! It was like fur and silk and feathers all in one. It was striped with jewel tone colors like fuchsia, turquoise, purple, yellow...all very bright. They almost looked airbrushed onto black. That was a skirt with a 3 layer (very big) black, tulle skirt under it. A black leotard, an ornate wand and she transformed into the most amazing butterfly! As you can see, despite the flu, she looked beautiful!

Dylan was a pirate on "The Baby Dutchman". His outfit was simple...a red, black and white striped shirt with black sweat pants. He had a red bandanna for a had and carried (randomly) a great little pirate sword. The best part was rigging his stroller to look like the front of a pirate ship! He had a sail and a pirates flag and everything! He was so good and had so much fun!

So, I might be a heathen for saying so, but I really do love this event. The kids love it, the parents love it, and it's good, clean fun (for us anyway). You have to admit, the kid in all of us really likes dressing up and getting free candy, right?!!

Kids' Christmas Programs

I think my favorite thing about this time of year is the Christmas programs. This year, there were some "new additions" with Laura and Hayden in school. Our school splits up the programs into two nights to accommodate all the viewers in the
auditorium. Fortunately, Ben and Laura were on the same night! Hayden (Jenny's son) was the next night, so we were able to go to that too without any scheduling conflicts.
Laura's class (along with another) sang Here Comes Santa Clause wearing Santa hats and doing motions to the words. They also said a little poem about Shy Santa. Laura was quick to explain that it was more of a riddle than a poem because it asks questions. Kids are too smart for their own good! Then they sang a cute little song called Wrap Me Up. It's about wrapping yourself up with Christmas paper and placing a bow on your head and mailing yourself off to someone you love. Now, if you all know me at all, you can imagine that I have little tears of pride and joy throughout these performances. Well, this little sweet song did it for me. I thought about how the kids would wrap themselves up and send themselves to Grandma and Grandpa if they could. Anyway, she did very well and was right on the front row for her proud mommy to see!

Ben's class sang a song called Everywhere, Christmas. Ben played an instrument much like a xylophone. He did very well, but seemed very nervous. Then he joined the rest of the class to sing a song called Sing Noel. This song is interesting. The ENTIRE song is just "sing noel, sing noel, noel, noel". Literally the entire thing!!! I can't remember how many verses of sing noel I heard, but suffice it to say the song was stuck in my head for days to come!

Now that the holidays are over, I can say without a doubt, the highlight for me was probably seeing my babies, dressed in their best, performing....just for me!