Lillie's comment of the day

L: I can not wait to play with my new HUGE race car track from Santa.
M: You don't know if Santa will bring it Lillie. You know he'll bring whatever is deep down in your heart and only he knows what it is.
L: Oh Mama, the Race Track is so deep in my heart that it almost sticks out of my back. I am sure he'll bring it!

For Auntie Suzy

My wonderful sissy-in-law announced today (officially) that they have baby #2 on the way, due next summer.

Here is what we have to say about that:

The greats gift you could have given our baby Carter is a buddy to snuggle up with on the couch, to watch
"Polar Express" with, to count the days to Christmas down with, to splash in the bathtub with, to fight with, to love, to hold, to hit, to bite, to cry with, to dream with, to sneak around with, to play with, to tell on, to eat sweet treats with, to get into trouble with and to take into mommy and daddy's bed with.
An instant best friend forever, a connection to last a lifetime and somebody to share your early life with.

Your life is about to get even better than it already is.We are SO VERY happy and excited for you guys!

CONGRATS dear Klein's to the BIG news!!!

Love,
Your CA CZs

{this moment}

My itty, bitty Lulu all curled up in front of the heater. 

Santa's little Elfs at work

It's like an Elf Slave Camp over here, everybody is being tied down and has his/her work cut out.
From the youngest to the oldest, the smallest to the biggest and the smartest to the  ... ahhhhmmmm well to Eddie, everybody is keeping secrets, hiding things, making things and trying to find out what the others are hiding ....

Even though we have not completed much we are working on small things day by day.
Our trash tree looks rather sad but I am hoping that we can still dress it up a bit more before Friday comes.

There is not much "self-made" that has been wrapped or packed into Santa's sleigh (aka GP's suitcase) and the poor (or better happy) mailman has not carried one Christmas card away from our house sending it off into the big, wide world.

I pretty much suck at Christmas this year!
I was so hyped up and "gun-ho" but somehow our busy holiday schedule just made it impossible to sit down for more than an hour and craft or create.
Adding Pat and my new addiction to watching this series on Netflix we are just completely screwed when it comes to the upcoming big event.

But don't fret and don't cry ... it'll still be Christmas Eve ready or not and in the end we will have a good time hand-crafted or not.

Here are a few reasons why we have been so busy ...

Exhibit (A)

I had asked every child in Ls class to decorate these little Gingerbread Man and we then 

made a huge garland for her teacher out of it for Christmas.

It turned out soooo wonderful!

Mrs. O was very touched and loved her new house deco.

Exhibit (B)

Little gifts for teachers and neighbors

itty Christmas trees

The Ls were in charge of stuffing and fluffing

Judy and I were on the sewing front

Pat had to prep the pottery 

et voila ... 

the Superman tree and it's friends

Ls german teacher has two boys and we thought they'd like to have a little Superman tree :)

Exhibit (C)

entertaining the masses

the Ls performed at the Christmas party for the German school

Lulu on stage!!!

L and I with the Kindergarten class on stage

Lulu came with me to receive the teacher gifts ... she was quite proud to be up there with me.

posing for GP and Papa

WOW ... 

Santa aka Weihnachtsmann came and had treats for all good children

(not sure why the Ls got one too, he must have had some left over 

and didn't want to take them back through customs :)

 Exhibit (D)

GP needed wrapping paper and we didn't have any

... so we made some

potato stamping 

... so FUN!!!

adding some BLING

et voila ...

sparkle star wrapping paper

Thats it for now ... nothing more on the creative front.
It's dark outside, way late for the Ls (it's GPs last night so they get to spend a few extra minutes with him), Pat has to work on his assignment from Santa for Lulu's gift (apparently the Elfs didn't know the measurements) and we still need to find out what Ann Boleyn is going to do to the poor English people before they cut her head off.

So good night my dear blog.
Sleep well in blogland and make your way to all of our friends screens and tell them how things are on 711 Coyote Street.
ta-ta for now.

Four Candles and the Last Nutcracker

Oh dear ... my poor, poor blog ... so lonely and neglected!!!!

I am so sorry my beloved Necklac-Lee! I do love you still it's just a wee bit CRAZY here with our favorite GP in town and all the Christmas things that need to be done like Christmas in the Park, Christmas Parties, seeing the Christmas Lights, making stuff, baking things, watching shows, eating Christmas sweets and just having a whole lot of fun with the "Old Man from the North" aka GP :)

Yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of Advent, lit up the last of our four candles and had a wonderful, traditional Christmas Tea time before we went out to see "The Last Nutcracker" of the year.

This one was a performance of the Berkeley Ballet School in Fremont and a much smaller production than we had seen before. Less lavish costumes, stage settings and a rather small dance ensemble .... BUT perfect for little, aspiring ballerinas who want to see a ballerina on point up-close.  It really was the PERFECT setting for the Ls and a nice introduction for GP to ballet (GP was a ballet virgin until last night).

Here are a few pics of a most wonderful Fourth of Advent and a lovely night out with GP.

Advent, Advent ein Lichtlein brennt ...

4 candles burning = Christmas is near!!!

The Ls all dressed up for the Nutcracker

Lulu posing ... of course

After the show

Lulu meets the dancers

Sugar Plum Fairy

Look at Lulu eyes 

... she was so in awe of meeting a REAL ballerina in person.

My itty Isie was GLOWING!!!

 WOW ... pure happiness in Lulu's eyes

Lulu meets HER Clara

so cute!!!

Herr Drosselmeyer

The only one L wanted to take her pic with

Afterwards GP took his Ls out for a lovely supper at Red Lobster (per the Ls request).

They have never been but kept asking to go since we drive by the restaurant quite often 

and they like the red sign :)

GP and his feast

Papa and his "small" feast

Stoddy smile

Mama and her L

All in all a VERY enjoyable day with the Ls and their GP.
We came home, tucked the Ls in and then gave in to our new family addiction, watching " The Tutors" on Netflix (another reason why the blog has been abandoned ... I now spend my nights glued to the TV screen until 1:00 AM every night following  crazy Henry (the Tudor ... the other one is with us on the couch) and his fight for marrying whomever he wants to whenever and fighting anybody who will stand in his way.

We just finished "The Pillars of the Earth" and followed Tom Builder through his life building the largest Cathedral in England. We watched for 5 days straight every night. It was quite gripping.

This is what happens when you cut off your cable TV ... we now watch more than we ever did when we still had cable????