Poor Baby Porter, haha!
And poor Robert got left to finish his family's snowman by himself! (I think he enjoyed it though!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, January 6, 2017
Christmas 2016: Family Advent Night @ Redeemer
We had a Family Advent Night at church a few weeks before Christmas. We played games, painted, made a craft, and did a session on ways to celebrate advent as a family. It was such a great time with our crazy Redeemer family!
Poor Baby Porter, haha!
And poor Robert got left to finish his family's snowman by himself! (I think he enjoyed it though!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Poor Baby Porter, haha!
And poor Robert got left to finish his family's snowman by himself! (I think he enjoyed it though!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Christmas 2016: Gingerbread Houses!
Right before Disney, we did our yearly tradition of Gingerbread House decorating at Gammy Becky's! This year I only took Griffin because it was during nap time and Grady just probably wouldn't have been great at this. Haha!
Griffin and I did a train, and he did awesome!
Here is Jeanice and Cameron making theirs perfect as always ;-)
Look at the door Cameron etched herself! The detail is amazing!
I can't remember how many years this is... plus they did it for a few years before I made it to one, so it's been a long time with these lovely ladies!
After Gingerbread, Gammy had art supplies left out from a staff meeting she had recently had, so we painted. Griffin did sooo good at this! He did this snowman himself, and the Santa himself!!
Our finished village! Becky did a Santa sleigh with reindeer that I thought was super cool! And April and Charli had an ugly sweater set that was cute too! Ha!
All the kiddos:
The whole gang:
The original crew:
And me and my little elf:
We did this one together and I love it!
Until next year!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Griffin and I did a train, and he did awesome!
Here is Jeanice and Cameron making theirs perfect as always ;-)
Look at the door Cameron etched herself! The detail is amazing!
I can't remember how many years this is... plus they did it for a few years before I made it to one, so it's been a long time with these lovely ladies!
After Gingerbread, Gammy had art supplies left out from a staff meeting she had recently had, so we painted. Griffin did sooo good at this! He did this snowman himself, and the Santa himself!!
Our finished village! Becky did a Santa sleigh with reindeer that I thought was super cool! And April and Charli had an ugly sweater set that was cute too! Ha!
All the kiddos:
The whole gang:
The original crew:
And me and my little elf:
We did this one together and I love it!
Until next year!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Christmas 2016: Christmas Around The World
Every year, Gammy Becky creates "Christmas Around The World" booklets and treats for my kiddos featuring the countries she has visited that year. She researches their specific Christmas traditions and teaches the boys about it. She also gives them a box full of treats and gifts, who wouldn't love that?!
This year was Portugal and Spain. And is Griffin's favorite so far... you will see why in just a moment! Haha
This would be because there were a few traditions that focused on, or had something to do with, poo. Yep, every young boys favorite topic to laugh at! Haha.
First- the Caganer:
"The Caganer is an interesting figure in Catalonian Christmas celebrations. His name translates to something like “The Crapper” and he is usually found tucked away in the corner of the manger scene taking care of business. Traditionally, the Caganer is depicted as wearing a traditional Catalonian red cap and white peasant shirt, although figures modeled to look like celebrities, politicians, and even the Pope are also popular."
Kids growing up in Catalonia, on the other hand, have not one but two different poop-themed traditions to look forward to every Christmas: the Caganer and the Tió de Nadal.
The Tio de Nadal:
"In Catalan, Tió de Nadal is roughly translated to Christmas Log and is a widespread tradition in many parts of Spain. According to Catalan mythology, the Christmas Log brings small presents on Christmas (big presents come from the Three Wise Men) in the same way presents are placed under Christmas trees in United States. Originally, the Tió de Nadal was just a piece of dead wood, but now the log is often given a face with an attached nose and two little legs, along with a little red hat similar to a barretina.
If it stopped right there, it wouldn’t be that strange. Just another present-delivering vehicle adopted by a different culture. But it doesn’t stop there, that’s only the beginning. It all starts on the Day of the Immaculate Conception, December 8. Tradition states that households begin to “feed” the log every night starting then. The log is also usually given a small blanket during this time to keep it warm during the chilly weeks before Christmas.
After weeks of feeding, it is finally Christmas Eve and the log is placed in the fireplace, little face and beret staring up from the ground. Members of the house then take turns bashing the little log person with a stick and commanding it to defecate out presents, candies and wafers and not to defecate stinky herring.
The bashing continues while traditional songs about the log are sung. Christmas is then celebrated to the delight of everyone in the house as they reach below the tió’s blanket to pull out their “gifts” of defecated candy and presents."
Wow... Griffin thought these were the funniest traditions ever and sent Gammy this video:
Oh my... safe to say they enjoyed their Christmas Around the World this year :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
This year was Portugal and Spain. And is Griffin's favorite so far... you will see why in just a moment! Haha
This would be because there were a few traditions that focused on, or had something to do with, poo. Yep, every young boys favorite topic to laugh at! Haha.
First- the Caganer:
"The Caganer is an interesting figure in Catalonian Christmas celebrations. His name translates to something like “The Crapper” and he is usually found tucked away in the corner of the manger scene taking care of business. Traditionally, the Caganer is depicted as wearing a traditional Catalonian red cap and white peasant shirt, although figures modeled to look like celebrities, politicians, and even the Pope are also popular."
Kids growing up in Catalonia, on the other hand, have not one but two different poop-themed traditions to look forward to every Christmas: the Caganer and the Tió de Nadal.
The Tio de Nadal:
"In Catalan, Tió de Nadal is roughly translated to Christmas Log and is a widespread tradition in many parts of Spain. According to Catalan mythology, the Christmas Log brings small presents on Christmas (big presents come from the Three Wise Men) in the same way presents are placed under Christmas trees in United States. Originally, the Tió de Nadal was just a piece of dead wood, but now the log is often given a face with an attached nose and two little legs, along with a little red hat similar to a barretina.
If it stopped right there, it wouldn’t be that strange. Just another present-delivering vehicle adopted by a different culture. But it doesn’t stop there, that’s only the beginning. It all starts on the Day of the Immaculate Conception, December 8. Tradition states that households begin to “feed” the log every night starting then. The log is also usually given a small blanket during this time to keep it warm during the chilly weeks before Christmas.
After weeks of feeding, it is finally Christmas Eve and the log is placed in the fireplace, little face and beret staring up from the ground. Members of the house then take turns bashing the little log person with a stick and commanding it to defecate out presents, candies and wafers and not to defecate stinky herring.
The bashing continues while traditional songs about the log are sung. Christmas is then celebrated to the delight of everyone in the house as they reach below the tió’s blanket to pull out their “gifts” of defecated candy and presents."
Wow... Griffin thought these were the funniest traditions ever and sent Gammy this video:
Oh my... safe to say they enjoyed their Christmas Around the World this year :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Disney World Adventures: Last Day Randomness
On Tuesday morning we got up and got our luggage all ready. The resort actually has airport check-in so we were able to check our luggage and get our boarding passes right there! Super convenient.
Then we headed back to Magic Kingdom for some last day fun. We were pretty freakin tired by now, so we were in no hurry. Haha! We headed over to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was so cute and funny!
We had a FPP for Big Thunder Mountain so we headed over there next. We got a rider swap again too so both of us could ride. Griffin loved this rollercoaster so he was really excited to ride it two more times.
Gammy found a fun little playground for Grady while we waited too! Score! (This is under the entrance to Splash Mountain if anyone needs a spot for other littles when they visit!)
We went to use a FPP for Haunted Mansion next... the ride went down as we were trying to enter and we were stuck in holding with lots of people all bunched together. Then we will had to push forward to get on in chaos! Just crazy. We didn't really enjoy the ride either, it was ok.
We grabbed some lunch at Harbour House then headed to ride Buzz Lightyear again.
Then we decided to ride the monorail. We just wanted to ride it before we left! Ha! So we headed over to Epcot,
I wish you could monorail to all the parks and resorts- so much better than the buses! You can take the stroller right over too!
There was a gospel group singing when we got there so that was really cool to hear! Grady went to sleep so Mr.Pate stayed by and they listened to music for awhile while Becky and I went on a mission for caramel popcorn in Germany :-)
After we got the popcorn and some chocolates, we headed back to our resort to walk around and look at all the decorations. We hadn't had any other time to look around!
First up was the Lion King area, which is where we stayed...
Then the Little Mermaid, where Derick and Cam stayed...
The Ursula, King Triton and Little Mermaid were HUGE!
But the coolest area, in my opinion, was the Cars area! It looked so cool!
They had the sidewalk as a street, and street lights lining it.
The pool was the Cozy Cone Motel. So cute!
Then Finding Nemo was in the middle. It was the main pool, and behind it was a playground.
Somehow I didn't get a picture of the lobby. It had such cool drawings showing the animation process, it was awesome!
Our boys picked their "ears" on the last day. They decided to go with Goofy and Pluto. How cute?!
We had dinner and then headed to our Magical Express Bus stop... all ready to head home!
We got to the airport and made it through security pretty quickly... then we found out our flight was delayed! Ugh! It was already a 9:35 flight... delayed until 10:10. The boys did really well waiting though.
We finally got on and we're ready to go!
And as soon as take off was done, both boys were out! Haha.
They were pretty cranky when they were woke up getting off the plan, but the stroller helped a ton. We got bags, got a shuttle out to our frozen car, Mr.Pate scraped all the windows in the freezing cold and we were on our way!
We got home at 2am... whew! Luckily both boys stayed sleep and we were able to get them settled easily. The dog went nuts and that was annoying... and I was surprised with a PANTRY which Mr.Pate had arranged to be installed while we were gone!! Sooo amazing.
I think that makes for one good, fabulous, long and exhausting trip. I will probably blog my random thoughts and takeaways soon just so I remember them.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Then we headed back to Magic Kingdom for some last day fun. We were pretty freakin tired by now, so we were in no hurry. Haha! We headed over to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was so cute and funny!
We had a FPP for Big Thunder Mountain so we headed over there next. We got a rider swap again too so both of us could ride. Griffin loved this rollercoaster so he was really excited to ride it two more times.
Gammy found a fun little playground for Grady while we waited too! Score! (This is under the entrance to Splash Mountain if anyone needs a spot for other littles when they visit!)
We went to use a FPP for Haunted Mansion next... the ride went down as we were trying to enter and we were stuck in holding with lots of people all bunched together. Then we will had to push forward to get on in chaos! Just crazy. We didn't really enjoy the ride either, it was ok.
We grabbed some lunch at Harbour House then headed to ride Buzz Lightyear again.
Then we decided to ride the monorail. We just wanted to ride it before we left! Ha! So we headed over to Epcot,
I wish you could monorail to all the parks and resorts- so much better than the buses! You can take the stroller right over too!
There was a gospel group singing when we got there so that was really cool to hear! Grady went to sleep so Mr.Pate stayed by and they listened to music for awhile while Becky and I went on a mission for caramel popcorn in Germany :-)
After we got the popcorn and some chocolates, we headed back to our resort to walk around and look at all the decorations. We hadn't had any other time to look around!
First up was the Lion King area, which is where we stayed...
Then the Little Mermaid, where Derick and Cam stayed...
The Ursula, King Triton and Little Mermaid were HUGE!
But the coolest area, in my opinion, was the Cars area! It looked so cool!
They had the sidewalk as a street, and street lights lining it.
The pool was the Cozy Cone Motel. So cute!
Then Finding Nemo was in the middle. It was the main pool, and behind it was a playground.
Somehow I didn't get a picture of the lobby. It had such cool drawings showing the animation process, it was awesome!
Our boys picked their "ears" on the last day. They decided to go with Goofy and Pluto. How cute?!
We had dinner and then headed to our Magical Express Bus stop... all ready to head home!
We got to the airport and made it through security pretty quickly... then we found out our flight was delayed! Ugh! It was already a 9:35 flight... delayed until 10:10. The boys did really well waiting though.
We finally got on and we're ready to go!
And as soon as take off was done, both boys were out! Haha.
They were pretty cranky when they were woke up getting off the plan, but the stroller helped a ton. We got bags, got a shuttle out to our frozen car, Mr.Pate scraped all the windows in the freezing cold and we were on our way!
We got home at 2am... whew! Luckily both boys stayed sleep and we were able to get them settled easily. The dog went nuts and that was annoying... and I was surprised with a PANTRY which Mr.Pate had arranged to be installed while we were gone!! Sooo amazing.
I think that makes for one good, fabulous, long and exhausting trip. I will probably blog my random thoughts and takeaways soon just so I remember them.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)