Christmas 2011

 

Since we were with my family for Thanksgiving and Tommy’s family is coming for New Years (yes, today), we had a quiet Christmas this year.  On Christmas Eve, we went to a 5:00 pm Christmas Eve service with Papa and Nana and they came over for dinner and to watch Tessa open presents.  The Christmas Eve service was nice, but interesting because they didn’t have nursery so Tessa joined us in the pews.  Luckily it was a huge church (Bethany Bible) with a loud sound system and lots of other kids running up and down the benches.  Tessa did pretty well, but I am definitely not looking forward to when she is too old for nursery and will join us during church services.

We had fun watching Tessa open presents and she enjoyed all of the presents she received.  She has now caught on to what wrapped things mean, and I fear she thinks that all presents will now be for her.

Opening a present from Papa and Nana – a Baby Einstein interactive book!

 

Next present – Playskool Explore and Grow Busy Ball:

 

Then, a new doll and a doll stroller:

 

Finally, the toy of all toys, a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Car:

 

She loved her presents and is still playing with them, so that’s a good sign=)

 

On Christmas day, we went to church then to Gary and Irene’s for Christmas dinner along with the Woudenberg family. 

All in all, a good Christmas!

Picking Out a Christmas Tree

 

The 2nd week of December, Tommy and I “started” our tradition of going up North to pick out a and cut down a Christmas tree.  Tommy bought the permit in early November, but we were in Iowa over Thanksgiving and Tessa and I came back the first Saturday in December, so we were kind of late in the game, so to speak.  I say “started” because the trip didn’t exactly go well, and I’m not sure if the tradition will last if our trips continue to be like this one.

Ok, I should clarify, when I say the trip didn’t go well. I mean we did not find a good tree. Papa and Nana made the trip with us, Tessa seemed to have fun (although she didn’t really like the snow), and the weather was beautiful.  The trees, however, were not so good.  There were a lot of evergreen type trees but very few Christmas trees.  We ended up walking around for a long while, cutting down  a mediocre tree, then finding another bigger tree on the way out that we thought would be better (at least the top half) and cut that one down.  This is technically illegal to do, by the way, but we had some friends who didn’t use their permit so we kind of had an “extra” for the additional tree.

Our family picture:

 

Tessa loved sportin’ the winter wear:

 

Playing in the non-snowy parts:

 

Walking with Nana and Papa:

 

Tree Cutting #1:

 

Big strong man:

 

Tree #2:

 

Enjoying the ride:

 

So when we got the tree home and started cutting it down so it could fit in the house, we ended up having to take off one of the branches that had a lot of foliage on it. So the front 2/3 – 1/2 of the tree looked ok, but the back was basically bare.  This in itself wasn’t such a bad thing because the tree was going in a corner, but when we tried to set the tree up, all the weight was on the front, so it would fall over.  Since it was the middle of December, we opted against picking up a new one from Home Depot and set it up without ornaments and places some power tools and gallon jugs on the back of the stand to keep it standing up.  Classy, I know.

 

The finished product:

And it looked worse in person.

Fun experience, bad tree.  We’ll see how the next few years go!

Christmas Traditions

I was recently asked what Christmas traditions Tommy and I had and were planning to have with our family.  To be honest, the question took me by surprise because a) we really haven’t established any and b) no traditions immediately came to mind.  I blame this partly of the craziness that “Christmas time” brings around for us. Since my family is in Iowa and Tommy’s family is spread between here, Washington, and California, our Christmas celebrations are seldom at home, and seldom on Christmas.  Last year, we were in Iowa for Thanksgiving and celebrate Christmas while we were there and then traveled to Washington on Christmas day.  In fact, I think this is the first Christmas day that we will be in Phoenix without having an extended family celebration.  But after a little thought, I did think of a few.

Growing up, there were a couple of traditions that we did as a family that, if our crazy celebration schedule allows, I would like to implement with my own family.  First, we ALWAYS had a real Christmas tree.  I despise fake ones, at least in my own house.  I once did a debate  for class in high school against someone on real vs. fake trees, me of course promoting real trees.  I won.  Anyhoo, I will have the family tradition of having a real tree and hope to continue the tradition of going to go cut one down (this was our first year, stay tuned for a post on it=)). 

Another tradition that I liked growing up was having an advent calendar in which we read a devotional and then got to stick fun felt pieces on a felt calendar.  I’m going to be honest, the thing was ugly, but I really enjoyed it.  I have yet to find one for my own house, so if anyone has a cute one to recommend, I’m all ears.

My family always opened presents on Christmas Eve night.  This is the tradition I will probably have the most trouble keeping due to rarely being in Phoenix for Christmas.  But I am going to try to keep to  it as much as possible.  We did stocking stuffers, main presents, and would then sit by the fireplace (note to my next home: have a fireplace) and read Luke 2.  I liked this tradition because a)there is nothing as cozy as celebrating Christmas with lights dimmed, Christmas lights glowing, and a fireplace going (see previous note to my next home) and b) it leaves Christmas to be celebrated for CHRISTmas and not for opening presents (not that I’m opposed to opening presents on Christmas, it’s just how I prefer it to be done=)).

So you may be thinking, this is a great post and all, but what does this have to do with Tessa? (I’ve come to terms with where I rate when pitted again my child).  Basically, by doing this, I am ensuring Tessa has a shot as getting some of these traditions, and hopefully more (Note to self: Google Christmas family traditions).  You see, I know myself too well, and without some accountability, I tend to become lax, so placing this post  in the cyber world will hopefully make me more accountable.  Weird, I know, but true. 

And for those of you who STILL don’t care and want a picture of Tessa, here ya go!

Cows and Monkeys and Cows, Oh My!

A couple of weeks ago, Tessa and I went on a play date with some friends to the Phoenix Zoo.  This was Tessa’s 2nd Zoo visit, and I was hoping that the 4+ months of growth she experienced since the last visit would make it an exciting visit for her. 

Similar to the last visit, Tessa enjoyed walking around.  She wasn’t as excited as I thought she would about seeing the animals, and almost every animal with four legs was a “moo” to her.  She did really enjoy the monkeys though, and now knows that monkeys say “oo oo” (how you spell a monkey sound, I don’t know).

The Monkeys:

 

A closer look:

 

Tessa and her buddy Colin:

 

Playing on the playground:

 

Picnic time:

 

Miss Independent and Colin, unaware of the joys of sitting back while someone pushed you:

Back in Arizona.

While Tommy returned from Iowa after the Thanksgiving weekend, Tessa and I stayed through the week to spent time with family.  When we got home, Tessa was excited to see her daddy and excited to spend time outside.

Tessa loves trying to “help” with things, and proceeded to “help” Tommy hang the Christmas lights.

And then proceeded to cry when she could “help” no longer.

It’s good to be home.

Thanksgiving in Iowa

 

Tommy, Tessa and I had the pleasure of celebrating Thanksgiving (and our Wielenga family Christmas) in Iowa.  Tessa did really well on the plane, making friends from the get go.  We sat toward the front of the plane, and as every person passed us, she would say “hi,” turn and watch them pass, then turn to the next person as say “hi” to them as well.  I think it made a lot of people’s flight a little bit better (we were in flight for 45 minutes before they turned the planraround due to a problem with the autopilot, but luckily they had another plane ready for us to use when we arrived back at the airport.)

We had fun catching up with family and friends in Iowa, and also enjoyed celebrating Christmas and Tessa’s 1st fully healthy present opening experience (she was sick on her 1st birthday…see 1 year old! post).  Despite my personal desire to see snow, the entire trip was cold, but not white.  But still festive.

Here is my photo essay of Tessa’s present opening experience:

She liked the tissue paper….

 

And she liked carrying around her presents and sitting on them.

 

She like other people’s presents…

 

And she liked hers too!

Ok, she liked all of her presents, but she LOVED her slide.  She took each person by hand and drug them to the slide to help her up so she could slide down.  Pretty. Darn. Cute.

Here’s a short video of it.  Unfortunately I shot the video sideways and still have not figured out how to rotate it.  Sorry=).

In addition to opening presents and going down the slide, Tessa thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled by her grandparents and aunt, climbing up and down the stairs, and playing both a kids size and real size piano and organ.

I think one of the major highlights for me was taking Tessa to visit my dad at the high school he teaches at.  When I arrived, they were still in chapel, so I sat in the office and waited.  The office hallways goes back into the teacher’s lounge, with a door at the end of the room where the teachers entered.  When chapel ended and my dad walked through that door, Tessa sprinted down the hallway to him laughing and giggling.  Too precious. 

It was a fun trip with good memories and lots of reminders of the blessings God has given us. 

And it begins…

Before we left on our Thanksgiving trip to Iowa, Tessa and I took a little trip to a local store to do some shopping. I need to preface the story by saying that Tessa watches some videos (Signing Time and Baby Einstein) but not actual TV shows. As we perused the aisles, I heard Tessa shouting “Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!” and saw her darting away. Sitting on the floor around the corner was a lovely red Elmo chair that she sprinted to, pointed at, and again exclaimed, “Elmo, Elmo!” Astonished by my daughter’s love for a furry red Sesame Street character that I have not encountered since my own childhood, I had to ask myself where she could have possibly picked that up. A text message later confirmed that the children of Tessa’s babysitter have a few Elmo dolls that they play with but no, they do not watch the show.

My conclusion…the people of Sesame Street are geniuses. They have one of their characters already branded in a 17 month-old girl’s head without even using their programming, and saying a character’s name when she can’t say a lot of other things. Can you tell I work in marketing=)?

I’d been trying to capture her saying it for a while in this video, so the excited has worn off. You get the picture though.

Tech Savvy Baby

I am baffled at the amount of information Tessa picks up.  She loves to copy Tommy and me, and is especially intrigued by electronic devices (as most kids seem to be).  Tommy and I both have IPhones, and Tessa loves to look at the pictures we take with them.  In fact, if we open the photo folder, she can already flip through the pictures by herself.  And if we give her anything else electronic with a screen (DVD player, old phones, etc), she tries to “touch” her way to get to what she wants to see. We were commenting the other day how there are the old play phones with the dials on them, and she probably doesn’t even know what they are because they don’t have a touch screen! 

Here’s a picture of our “tech savvy” child at work.  I left the room for a minute and this is what I came back to find…



Just like mommy.  Kind of scary=)!

October Fun

October was full of a lot of fun and flew by.  I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already!  So here is a recap of some of the highlights.

Tommy and I played in the Phoenix Christian Grade School Volleyball tournament in the beginning of October.  Tessa was our little cheerleader. 

Our team, the champs!

Later in the month, we went up to Flagstaff with some friends (and all our kids) and rented a cabin for a weekend.  It was beautiful!  We enjoyed Fall weather and changing leaves.

Our Cabin:

The kids "playing cards":

Then Halloween...we went to some friends for some trick-or-treating fun.  Tessa dressed up like a kitty cat.  She was pretty cute, but was not into the trick-or-treating.  Tommy and I brought her to a few houses, but she would cling to one of us and didn't go near the candy, so it didn't last long. 

That's our October in a nutshell!