Twas the night before Christmas
On Thursday night, we held the first annual Landsberger Cookie Swap (and *next year ~ crazy Christmas Sweater) Party. It was loads of fun. All of the girls brought wonderful cookies and we had lots of great snacks. Becca Wilson won the "girl" doorprize ... a gingerbread house to decorate and Karen Degonni won the "mom" prize ... some cookie tools!!! 
Click the picture above to check out the Wilson-Six blog. Her snow days blog is called "3 Snow Days, 2 Glassees of Wine, & A Partridge in a Pear Tree
We have about a half inch of ice on various parts of the terrain here ... mostly on the driveway & road, but practically none on the grass (I don't much understand global warming, but this seems totally hinky to me). Yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock it was 71 degrees and by 6 pm it was only about 25! How crazy is that!!! We've had winds from 20 - 50 mph for the last three days (lots of our neighbors have lost their siding) ... and now this ... but hey, ... nothing like a White Christmas.
As for those staying home from school today ... so far, so good ... everyone is getting along and enjoying the long weekend. We'll have to wait and see how long that lasts. Robbie got off to work ... but said the roads were very slick ... he had to go super-slow. 
and scrape the ice off so Gracie could go out to potty!!! ... boy, this is one of those times, I'm glad I'm not a dog!!!
The lesson was about pouring, stirring, mixing, using spoons and scoops ... counting, colors ... I was totally amazed at how many things she could think of to teach them about using M&Ms, Goldfish, pretzels, & raisins. They had so, so much fun!!! 
Watching them was just as much fun for me. Jana was extremely pleased with all of their motor functioning and especially with their sharing and language. She loved it most when Andrew told Cameron to say "please" when he wanted Drew to give him some of his mix. It was hilarious!!! Twins are so much fun, everyday ... and today was no exception!!!
Parents As Teachers is such an awesome program. My neighbor and dear, wonderful friend Jane also works for Parents As Teachers. You can read her column in the Joplin Globe here. This week's article is about saving money by making homemade Christmas gifts for your kids ... and believe me, that Parents As Teachers crowd knows how to have a good time ~ these are great ideas!!!
We toured around the grand hotel and stopped to check out the amazing view of Asheville ... the mountains are simply spectacular, but obviously, Stephen and Megan were the only ones impressed by the view!!!
This was one of the most super-fun things we've ever done and the memories (and thank goodness the pictures) will be with us for many, many years.
Thanksgiving was wonderful ... sad because we had no "family" around to share the day with us, but the weather was great and we got a lot done in the garage (cleaning) and had an awesome meal ... our turkey was so big, it wouldn't even fit in the giant roaster (the biggest one that would fit in my oven!!!) We may not have had any of our east coast family, but we did get a few special visits from our very important midwest family ~ our "old" nanny, Katie, Susan's niece Jessica, and Susan's mom & dad (who we absolutely adore)!!!
ut we had so much fun! I did copy this idea for a tree topper from the Kohl's flyer (but I made it with stuff from Hobby Lobby & Big Lots because the candy canes at Kohl's were like 10 bucks a piece!) Rob couldn't stand being at home and left shortly after 6 to hit the stores we hadn't gotten to and then we met up at Home Depot (for a gorilla ladder ~ which will be great when Rob starts painting ... shhhhh! don't tell him ... I haven't told him yet!!!) and then we got some breakfast. Believe it or not, Bahar & I beat him back home. He had to stop for bathrobes ... the newest "thing" here at our house. Both big boys had to have one ... you can see Brad's in one of the pictures below. The good news is ~ I think the robes are taking the place of the night-night strings and our long, lost Pebo HOORAY!!!
Another super-fun thing about this weekend was decorating for Christmas ... the little boys were so totally into it this year & of course, Bradley & Stephen were "in charge"! We got a very, very special treat this morning when we got up to finish our work ~ it was snowing!!! Huge, wonderful flakes fell for hours & hours and gave everything a truly Christmas-y feel!!! We are so in the mood for Santa!!! Everything looks so good & we are really proud of our work ... especially because ...
een busy babysitting all weekend ... saving up for that iPod touch ... she's more than half way!!! I don't know who's more proud ... Kayla or her dad (for her steadfast thriftyness as of late!) ... although they did get i
nto a large disagreement about Webkinz at the hardware store ... she thought she needed one and he thought she didn't. Funny, he asked her what her angle was when she suggested she'd go to the store with him ... dad's always seem to know, huh??? Mine always did ... that's for sure!
Kayla, Austin & I ~ 2004
The kids had to bundle up this morning ... of course Bradley refused to wear a coat, but I was able to force him into a sweatshirt ... since his favorite was in the wash (Jacob's hand-me-down, Red Sox Champs) he agreed to wear one of Grandpa's "cool" sweatshirts, but refused to smile even a little ... imagine that.
and I thought I'd knock out a quick update! Don't you love those footie pajamas!!! I will be so, so sad when these little boys outgrow them. Also ~ Kayla has updated her "do" ... a little more curl & swirl!!! She's the best!!!
