The First Big Snowfall

This weekend brought a huge snowfall here in Minnesota. While I’ve never been a big fan of winter, even I can appreciate how beautiful the trees and houses look right now with a thick coating of snow.

We packed our snowy weekend full of Easton-friendly winter/Christmas events. On Saturday morning we went to a children’s Christmas party put on by Joe’s work. The business he works for is pretty huge and they had activities set up throughout the building for kids. When we walked up, we were greeted by a few of Santa’s reindeer. We didn’t risk setting Easton too close for a picture (we didn’t think he’d be too thrilled about that), but I did sneak this shot of my two boys taking a peek.

Inside the office there were cookies and milk, crafts, face painting, balloon animals, a magician, a musical performance and a few costumed characters wandering about. Easton was too little to partake in most of the activities, but we had a good time watching all of the excited kids. Of course the big event was getting pictures with Santa! The line was huge but we couldn’t resist getting Easton’s first photo with the big guy. We ended up waiting for 20ish minutes (which seemed long for a work party!) before we were led into a little maze where Santa and Mrs. Claus were waiting. We thought the secretive set up was a little odd, but eventually realized they had planned it that way because there were multiple Santas! It was pretty funny but it definitely worked to keep the line from moving too slowly. We sat with Easton so he didn’t seem to mind but he definitely wasn’t impressed by Santa either. The pictures are supposed to be posted on a photo site this week and I’m anxious to see how ours turned out!

We had plans to join some friends for the big holiday parade Saturday evening but it fell through. Instead Joe ended up having a late dinner with his friends and Easton and I stayed in and had Chinese take out. I was a little disappointed that I had to miss the fun so I could put Easton to bed but we had a fun evening together and, of course, he’s always worth it!

Late that night was when the snow really started to fall. By mid-afternoon Sunday there were already 6+ inches of snow on the ground. I was so excited to take Easton out for the first time to experience his first big snowfall. We bundled him up in his snowsuit, boots, hat and mittens and brought him out onto the snowy deck. His reaction was too funny to describe, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking!

Apparently he’s not the biggest fan of winter either.

It’s Still Christmas

 

Every Christmas when I was a kid my dad would take my sister and I to go pick out a Christmas tree together while my mom stayed home and dug out the holiday decorations. We weren’t cut-your-own-tree people but we always bought a real tree from one of a few small places in town. My sister and I would wander around looking at every tree they had while taking in that wonderful evergreen scent that just screams “Christmas is coming!” After browsing for way too long my dad would start to throw out suggestions until we all agreed on a nice tree. M dad would pay for the tree and then my sister and I would watch from the car while he painstakingly tied the tree to the roof with frozen fingers. We would bring it home, pop it in the stand and groan when we were told we had to give it a day to settle before we could decorate.

My husband’s family did things differently. When he was 4 or 5 his family’s house caught fire while they were away. They lost a lot of their possessions and had to move. They ended up building a new house and moved in near the end of the year. By the time they settled in to their new home, Christmas was coming soon. The artificial tree they used to put up was one of the things they lost in the fire so Joe’s mom went out to the store and bought the first fake tree she could find. It was a small, spindly tree but she figured they would just use it that year and then buy a bigger, nicer one the following year. But that never happened. Every year they would talk about getting a new tree, but in the end they always wanted to use that same scraggly tree.

When Joe and I spent our first Christmas together in our little apartment, we were both excited to get our first tree together. I had visions of wandering through stores smelling of pine and choosing a cute little tree with long dark needles. Joe, on the other hand, was dreaming of going to a big store, looking through the display of artificial trees, and choosing the one that we would put up year after year. When we realized how different our visions were, we were surprised. I couldn’t imagine Christmas without that real tree smell. Joe couldn’t picture getting a tree every year just to throw it out at the end of the season. We went back and forth for weeks but in the end my stubbornness wasn’t a match for Joe’s laid-back attitude and he gave in.

Joe still didn’t like the idea of throwing the tree out every year and he hated the way the needles fell off everywhere but he did come to like the tree. Every winter after that we continued the tradition and picked out a new real tree.

Until this year.

This year, something changed. This year I have an almost-toddler who is into absolutely everything. I knew that I would be spending my day trying to keep him out of the tree’s water and stop him from eating the needles he pulled out of the tree. I knew that the living room that he spends much of the day playing in would soon be full of pine needles that would jab him in the hands and feet (and if you’ve ever stepped on one, you know those suckers hurt!). I just couldn’t justify doing that this year.

When I told Joe I was leaning toward getting an artificial tree, he was thrilled. The next day the three of us headed to the store to pick out our tree. We browsed through the small selection, chose the perfect tree and loaded the box into the car. We came home, put it together and decorated it with lights and ornaments.

And you know what? It still felt like Christmas. In fact, there were some advantages to a fake tree. We didn’t have to stand outside trying to tie the tree to the roof or fit it in the back of the car. We didn’t have to wait for the tree to settle before decorating it. And best of all, after vacuuming up plastic needles once (right after decorating) there hasn’t been any upkeep. No more vacuuming and no watering! I do miss that pine smell, but there are always candles for that!

3 Thanksgivings in 2 Days

Our Family had so much to be thankful this year that we needed THREE separate dinners to celebrate. We started out late Thursday afternoon at my sister-in-law’s home. There was a good sized group there including all of my in-laws and my husband’s grandparents who hadn’t met Easton yet. We had a good time stuffing ourselves, chatting, playing with Easton and his cousin and rifling through all the ads for Black Friday (though most of us had no intention of actually shopping that night).

Easton and his cousin posing in their Thanksgiving shirts.

But that was only the beginning. We headed out in a snowstorm (not so fun) and made the two hour drive to my hometown. We got to my mom’s house just after 10:00 but Mr. Easton had spent the entire drive sleeping so he was wide awake and ready to play when we arrived. Luckily he crashed after just over and hour so we all headed to bed.

The next day we had Thanksgiving #2 with my mom and sister. It was a smaller and more casual celebration but I still managed to eat way too much. Thanksgiving #3 came that evening at my dad’s house. He had cooked up quite a bit of food but I spent most of that meal feeding Easton (who apparently loves Thanksgiving dishes!).

 

It’s been so much fun seeing all of the holidays in a new light now that I have a kid to share them with. Our holiday wasn’t exactly relaxing but after three celebrations full of lots of family and lots of food, we can definitely say we did Easton’s first Thanksgiving justice.

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is in full swing here in Minnesota. The temperature has dropped, the leaves are brightly colored and Halloween decorations are out. I’ve been dying to start some fall family traditions but at 9 months old Easton is a little young for most activities. We do have one tradition already that has been a part of Joe’s family for many years. Every year we all get together at my in-laws in October to make our annual trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. I was really excited to bring Easton for the first time. He did pretty well though it may be a few years before he really cares about the pumpkins!

 

Here’s Easton showing off one of our picks.

This face kills me.

 

We attempted to take some cute pictures of Easton and his cousin, but neither was the least bit interested!

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of last year and this year. Last year I looked like I was smuggling a pumpkin under my shirt… this year my little pumpkin seems so big!

We picked out a pumpkin for each of us and they’re sitting on the front porch at the moment. I’m not sure if we’re going to end up painting or carving them or if we’ll just leave them as they are but either way they add a nice festive touch to the front of our house!

Easton’s First Game

I’m not a huge sports fan, I never have been. I grew up in a family that LOVED sports but I never developed the same interest. Luckily for me, I married a man who feels about the same way. Neither of us cares to watch football, soccer or basketball, though we do both like the occasional baseball game. Baseball and softball were huge in my family and we usually went to at least one Minnesota Twins game every summer. To this day I really like going to baseball games. The beautiful green field, the excited fans, the overpriced hot dogs… there’s just something special about the atmosphere there.

Joe is fortunate to work for a company that has season tickets to the Twins. Every summer they give each employee a pair of tickets to one game. Our turn to go to a game finally came last Sunday and we were both really excited because it was our first time taking Easton to a game.We ended up with all 4 seats instead of the normal 2 so Joe’s friend and his fiancée joined us for the game.

I was a little nervous about how Easton would do, but he was great. He loved watching the people around us and spent most of the first 5 innings just observing. He sat in our laps, snacked on apple slices, sipped from our bottles of water and charmed the people around us. It wasn’t until about the 7th inning that he started getting antsy. At the top of the 9th inning, there was this incredible play where the centerfielder made a diving catch. Naturally, the crowd went nuts. Poor Easton wasn’t expecting the sudden burst of noise and activity and he jumped so high and then started bawling. I felt bad for the little guy, but his reaction was so funny that we couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. He calmed down pretty quickly after that and made it all the way to the end of the game.

We had a crazy moment halfway through the game. The area around us was fairly empty at that point and we saw a couple of cameramen wandering nearby. I have this horrible fear of ending up on the jumbotron so I always cringe when I see them coming. These 2 guys sat down in nearby seats and out of the corner of my eye I swore I saw one pointing right at us. Sure enough, moments later they came by and started talking to us. It turns out Joe and I were the “Powerball” winners of the game (though let’s be honest, they only picked us because we had a cute baby with us!). We got a prize pack with a water bottle, tshirt and $50 in lottery tickets inside. It was pretty awesome. Of course, my greatest fear came true and we had to smile and wave on the Jumbotron while holding up our prize pack and this big red “Powerball” ball. Eek. Oh well, I survived!

All in all it was a pretty successful game. Who knows, maybe having a little boy around will finally make me start enjoying sports after all!