That SCARY, scary Tooth Fairy!!!

Below is our adorable 6 year old Marly. 

She recently lost her first tooth. It had been lose for weeks. Her Twinner brother Dean had already lost two teeth. But Marly... Marly would not wiggle her tooth. She would not budge. You see - our adorable daughter is TERRIFIED of the Tooth Fairy. 

Marly and Dean always choose to sleep together in the upstairs guest room. When Dean lost his first tooth this summer, Marly cried and CRIED. She was nearly hysterical about the idea of some creature coming into her bedroom while she was asleep in the DARK!

 So while she would prefer to keep her tiny baby teeth, eventually her first tooth fell out. Not a drop of blood was shed, since it was long overdue...

....and then she CRIED because she DIDN'T WANT THE TOOTH FAIRY IN HER ROOM!

What is a mom to do?

Make signs! YES - Just give the Tooth Fairy some simple directions.
One on the bedroom door.

And another on the window facing out. We are a bit unclear how the Tooth Fairy enters, so we covered every possible entry point to the bedroom.

Dean was NOT worried about a tiny Fairy flying into their sleeping quarters.
Twinner brother was TERRIBLY CONCERNED the Tooth Fairy wouldn't find Marly's tooth, since it wasn't placed in the traditional location under a pillow.

So of course, Dean made signs to help her locate the tiny tooth.

For good measure, he drew the Fairy a picture so that she would be sure to return when he lost his next tooth.

...and so, only a FEW tears were shed at bedtime.
The Fairy did find the tooth, and she did leave five gold $1 coins.

The signs have been saved neatly for the next lost tooth.

NYE 2013

Our New Year's Eve gatherings these days are soooo different then those we attended or hosted 9 or 10 years ago. Oh my..the stories, the fun, the food, the drinks, the guests, the breakfast bakes in the morning but NO KIDS.

These days, well..... we still throw a good party IF you under the age of ten or so.

I could be heard in the kitchen talking to Mark around 4 pm New Year's Eve Day, "Hey honey...Can you please download KidzBop 23 for tonight?" Oh Yes - if you follow me on Facebook, you know it is true.

Anyway, we were taking care of P and M for an overnight, since their mom and dad were traveling overseas for work. We were joined for the evening festivities by the Lyon's crew. Our menu was simple appetizers and finger food - beanie weenies, cheese dip, chips and salsa, olives, the HAM BALLS my aunt delivered to the cities when they were in town, cracker and cheese, Jenny's buffalo chicken dip, and fruit for the kids.

If you were underage, you got a kiddy cocktail with mixed with fruit juices and ginger ale. If you were an adult, Jenny would mix you a Big Gingers! Oh, and the underage set got huge cupcakes for dessert.

Then we had an 8 pm Kiddy Countdown to the New Year.
There was wild, crazy dancing.
There were beads.
There were blowers.
There was silly string.

There were POP Rocks!
There was sparkling Catawba juice in a plastic colored wine glass with your own name across.

If you are a kid at our party.. .You get SUGARED UP!

Then we make the kids snuggle up for a movie downstairs, until they crash.

Then the adults slip across the street for the neighbor's midnight fireworks on the river.
Then it is time for bed and to close out the year gone by.

Like the year's gone by, there is still some sort of "bake" for breakfast.
This year Jenny provided her delicious french toast bake.
Too bad Jeremy and I just weren't up to breakfast.....

Happy New Year's All!

Thompson Family Christmas

Christmas Day we had the Thompson Family over for dinner at 1 pm. The plans was to serve ham balls as our main course. My Aunt Jan makes really good ham balls (okay... she actually orders them from the local cafe in Hector, BUT they use the same recipe, so they are still Jan's ham balls).

Anyway, I ordered some too, since we would be at Jan's on Christmas Eve, and I we wouldn't be home until late that night. Despite the fact that Aunt Jan reminded us to grab the ham balls from the garage fridge when we left, somehow there was confusion.

Mark thought the two pans he carried to the car (which were actually from Rachel's stuffed mushrooms) were our dinner for the next day.

 When we arrived home after 11 pm, we discovered our mistake! Opps.

 I took a  couple pounds of beef out of the freezer, and remedied the problem the next day. We made an "interesting" sauce that turned out like stroganoff. My meat balls turned out a little salty, but all in all, it worked JUST FINE.

 Besides, it is all about family anyway.

 We had a lovely Christmas Day celebration.

Declan was the star of the day (of course), even though he naturally slept through most of it!

Melberg Christmas

This year, we celebrated with Dad & Chris and  Brett & Charlie at our home the day BEFORE Christmas Eve, as we have done the past few years. Like the past few years, we once again only have pictures of gift opening. And...Unfortunately, Rachel and Peter had the stomach flu, so they weren't able to join us.

 No photos of my beautifully set table, or the perfect filet minion, asparagus, brussel sprouts, or potatoes. Why oh why didn't I get a photo of our pricey cuts of red meat!

 No photos of the toasty fire Mark made.

 No photos of us as a group, or good photos of the adults.

No photos of the poinsettia cocktails in champagne flutes.

No photos of  Mark what-so-ever! and just this nutty one of me trying on the pretty necklace Chris game me.

  (Wait - you can see the fire in most of the photos! But STILL no photo of our really very pretty Christmas Tree upstairs)

 No photos of Nana and Papa with their SMILING grand kids.

But there is this sweet, sweet picture of Marly helping Char-Char into his matching cousin's "Happy Howllllll-a-day" doggie PJ's

 Mark did captured Chris in a competitive game of Kurplunk! Look at the determination on their faces!

At the end of the night, we were full. 

We were happy. 

We were content. 

We are family.

Oh! and Brett and Charlie stayed the night (like we have done at Brett & Rachel's the past few years). Perhaps this is how those two avoided the nasty stomach bug that invaded their home!

Christmas Morning at our home 2013

A quiet, cozy Christmas morning around our pretty Christmas tree (which I forgot to take a formal photo of!)

 Santa brought Dean an electric race car track!

 New shoes that Dean needed from Mom and Dad.

 Mark opening the gift Marly made him at school.

 Santa brought mom and dad and heating blanket. We LOVE it!

 Dean always loves the bows and ribbons!

Marly's favorite gift! An American Girl Doll that looks just like her from SANTA!... and OH MY! Mom and Dad had gotten Marly some new doll clothes that happened to fit her perfect!

....and then, after picking up all the debri, wrapping paper, and garbage....

 ...It was time to make meat balls (since I forgot the ham balls I ordered from Pete's Grill in Hector in Aunt Jan's fridge the night before) and get ready for dinner at our house with the Thompson family!

Christmas Card Photo shoot 2013

This year we didn't get around to taking professional photos for our Christmas Card, so we had a "do it yourself" photo shoot when we made our annual trek to the tree farm.

 Marly took this photo!

I think this shot was on the front of the card.

Ya, ya, ya.... I get it... You are getting really cold with out your coats. 

Hey kiddos! Thanks for being so tough for the sake of our on-going quest to create the PERFECT Christmas Card every year!

Oh yah... the boys cut down a really beautiful Frazer Fir too! 

(This year we all quickly consented on the tree that would grace our living room in suburbia, unlike last year, when the kids had the "we can't agree on a tree" debacle with tantrums and tears.)

On our way back, we had lunch (and Bloody Mary's for mom and dad) at the Old Piper Inn in Blaine.

The Christmas Card turned out perfect too! Mark actually designed it on Minted and sent it to print THAT NIGHT, while I finished decorating the tree!

December Holiday Fun

Of course the month of December was filled with all of your usual holiday fun and festivities. Here is a photo recap!

The kids had their Sunday School Christmas program at church, and I was a stage hand mom to help. Nana and Papa came to see the performance, but it looks like we forgot to take a photo!

Christopher the Elf returned to visit again this year. Some nights he got into trouble, some nights he had a message for Marly and Dean, one morning he delivered donuts.

He returned to the North Pole to report to Santa before Christmas Eve! (I could do an entire post about our Elf, but there simply isn't time!)

 We went to see 'Llama, Llama, Holiday Drama" at the Stages Theater in Hopkins.

 We were joined by our friends, the Lyons!

 First we ate at the Big Ten across the street, and everyone had a fun night.

 Among gathering with our immediate families (for another post), we headed home to Hector for Christmas Eve with the cousins. We went to church at First Lutheran, then on to dinner at Auntie Jan and Sheldon's. Santa made his yearly stop too.

We went sledding the Central Park hill in our town over the holiday break from school.

 It was such a balmy Minnesota day, the kids even took off their coats.

 Then we had a family date night. We went to dinner at Salud on Grand, drove up and down Summit Avenue to view the lights, then drove through the Lake Phalen lights display in St. Paul.

 Oh.... and I got a Keurig for Christmas. That's fun right??????

A few more holiday posts to follow, but I had to start somewhere!