The Twin's First Christmas

Photos of our Niece Josephine and Nephew Nixon

At this point I think Nixon was done with my photography.

Christmas Preview

For our Christmas celebration we traveled to San Antonio, Texas to spend time with my brother, his wife and their twins. It turned into a real family affair with the addition of my parents, who flew in from Northern California, and my sister-in-law's parents, who live in San Antonio. I can't even tell you how much fun I had. Family, good food, and lots and lots of baby cuddling . . . what more could I have asked for?

I was also finally able to take a few newborn-ish shots for my sister-in-law. With hundreds of pictures, I still have a lot of editing to do but here is one of my favorites.

To top it off we finally put together my sister-in-law's birthday present. I found the following keepsake clay picture frame at Michaels and then with the assistance of my parents we were able to take an impression of both feet for each baby. Amazing how tiny their little feet were and how easy all four fit into the frame. I can't wait to see what picture my sister-in-law adds to the frame!

Make Your Own Baby Blankets

You may remember a little craft that I was making for my brand new niece and nephew at the end of November. Well I can finally tell you that I ended up making each of them their very own baby blanket. I'm pretty sure they are big enough to continue to use for a while as they currently get folded in quarters to cover the little ones in their baby swings. Here is Nixon showing his excitement for his blanket (folded in half).

I found a really easy blanket tutorial  to make a stitch and turn blanket. I picked out three options for a patterned soft flannel and then asked my sister-in-law to pick her favorite without telling her what the fabric was for. I then paired each patterned piece with a super soft piece of solid colored minky fabric. Josie got a nice pink owl fabric with green minky and Nixon got a space ships and rockets print with red minky. They turned out as super soft cuddly blankets that I hope my niece and nephew will enjoy for some time to come!

Christmas Cookie Party

Every year we have a cookie party at work. Each person is responsible for bringing in 3 dozen cookies then, at lunch, we go around and take a few of each kind. I love seeing all the different types of cookies and every year I somehow tend to bring home more then I can eat.

The cookies on the left were my creation for this year, half dipped Nilla wafers with peppermint snow. The cookies on the right were the favored cookies of the year, mini fruit pizzas (sugar cookies). 

Playing Work Approved Hooky

walking through the pine tree forest

On Thursday Marc and I both took a half day off of work so that we could head down to Sea World San Diego. Our goal was to finally see the new One Ocean Shamu show but were also happy to take in some of the Christmas decorations. Marc originally took me to Sea World the day after we were engaged in celebration of my birthday. The weather was definitely different this time around but it was just as much fun as our first visit!

   

Turtle Reef

Our first stop was checking out the new Turtle Reef. After entering the darkened building we were met with huge aquarium style tanks of swimming turtles. Some of Sea World's bigger turtles are found in other parts of the park, but I thought that these guys were pretty impressive on their own. It was fun to watch them swim by and quite a few of the turtles had little fish that were following right along with them. There were also a few here and there that were resting on the floor of the tank or among the tank decorations.


After the Turtle Reef we wandered through the Shark Encounter. Part of the shark encounter exhibit is looking down into the tank watching the sharks swimming around from above the water. For the rest of the encounter you head down underneath the water and into a plastic tube that goes through the shark tank. It is still amazing to watch these guys swim right over you. The benefit of going during the week is that we were able to walk back and forth on the moving sidewalk to get our shots without worrying about getting in other people's way.

At this point it was just about time for the Shamu show, so we headed over to Shamu arena with just about everyone else who was at the park that day. Thankfully it wasn't too crowded, we were able to get a good seat and enjoyed the show.

After the show we wanted to check on the baby beluga whale but sadly when we arrived at her tank, she was in the back with the other female belugas. Apparently a family had a purchased an encounter and were currently in the water with the male belugas and Sea World trainers. Since she is still a baby they are in the process of getting her accustomed to interactions with people and therefore limit her exposure when there are people in the water other then her trainers.

Christmas Stockings

I can finally share with you the finished pictures of all 10 stockings that I made over the last month. I followed the tutorial from Diary of a Quilter because I found it to be one of the easiest tutorials to follow and created a beautiful lined stocking with a flap. The only part I made up myself was how to attach the hanger to the stocking. I ended up using a loop of ribbon which I felt worked out pretty well.

You saw the 8 stockings that I sent to my brother and his family in Texas in this post but here is a picture of the stockings hanging up, ready for Christmas, at my brother's house in San Antonio.

You might notice some extra touches on some of the stockings. Four of the stockings I officially labeled for my brother's family. The other four are for visiting family, grandparents, siblings, cousins, etc. I added a small paper tag to each of the visitors stockings so they could be labeled appropriately with names of whomever was visiting. Here is a closer look at the stockings for my brother's family.

The last two stockings I made were for Marc and I. Being our first Christmas as a married couple I felt it was really important that we start our own traditions. I have never had stockings before and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take advantage of it. I really liked the scrappy stockings I found at Moda Bakeshop but wasn't really set on the tutorial. So I assembled the scrappy fabric and then followed the original tutorial I used for the rest of the stockings. Not as quilted and batting filled, but it worked for me.

assembled but waiting for the flap to be folded

our finished newlywed stockings

So there you have it! I couldn't be more excited to celebrate Christmas with my husband and the rest of my family including my new niece and nephew.

8 days to go . . .

Marshmall-ho-ho-ho

Some would call this an impulse buy, others would say I was simply providing Santa with a home. 

Making the Most of It

Here's the weekend update since I didn't get to spend the weekend with my newest niece and nephew and my favorite brother and his wife. Sadly, you will have to wait another 3 weeks until I can share the little craft project that I completed as a gift for my niece and nephew that I alluded to here.

After moping on Friday night and spending 3 hours Saturday morning on the couch watching 90210 reruns I finally decided to get up and get stuff done! If I wasn't going to be cuddling my niece and nephew all day I was going to be productive.

I had already finished the 8 Christmas stockings that I was planning to take to San Antonio. But now since I had some extra time I put a few extra touches on them. I'm not going to share what those were here, but I promise I will share once my sister-in-law hangs them up in her house. I also started 2 more stockings for Marc and I. These ones are a slightly different style then the ones above and I think they are going to turn out really cute. Unfortunately I cut them so the toes point to the left, so they won't match the rest of the stockings at Christmas, but I guess Aquilas like to be unique.

The best part of the weekend was spending an hour on facetime chatting away with my brother and his family in San Antonio. I got to see each of the twins, go outside with Jaeger while he barked at squirrels, help my brother hang a picture in his living room, and learn how to swaddle the babies nice and tight. I also got to see how they have rearranged the furniture in their living room and some of the fun gifts they have received for the babies. I am so thankful that they took the time to make it feel like I was hanging out with them even though I was 1300 miles away.

All in all, even though it started out as a very sad weekend I was able to make it into a very productive weekend. I just hope the next 3 weeks pass very quickly.

20 days to go . . .

Should vs Am

What I should be doing right now is putting the final touches on the 8 Christmas stockings I made to take with me to San Antonio tomorrow to hang up at my brother's house. What I should be doing is putting all the items I neatly laid out on the bed into a suitcase and zipping it shut. What I should be doing is wrapping my sister-in-law's birthday present and putting it in my luggage. What I should be doing is going to bed so that when my alarm goes off at 6am tomorrow morning I am rested and ready to help out with my niece and nephew and give their dear parents a break.

What I am doing, is taking a penicillin and going to bed early. Hoping that the strep throat that has cancelled my trip will resolve itself and Christmas will get here sooner so I can FINALLY meet my brother's twins.

22 days to go . . .

Crafting

After thanksgiving I returned to our home in San Diego while Marc headed off on a business trip to Brazil and Argentina. With 10 days until he returns I decided to take advantage of my extra free time and get some crafting done.

Since I will be going to visit my brand new niece and nephew this weekend the first craft project was a little gift for each of them. The gift includes one of each of the fabrics from the pictures above but you will have to wait until this weekend to find out which one! Hopefully I will be able to take a picture of the babes with their presents and then share the super simple and fun project I completed.

The next project I have to work on is making Christmas stockings. I spent an hour at the fabric store last night picking out coordinating fabrics for each of the 8 stockings I am making. Then, with the inspiration I found on Diary of a Quilter today I started assembling my stockings.

I started out by cutting stocking shapes out of each of the fabrics I bought last night. I was planning ahead when I did this during my lunch break at work and boy am I glad I did. The cutting was definitely not the most exciting part of the project! Then, this evening I started sewing everything together. I finished two of the eight and right now it looks like I am right on track to have them all done to take to San Antonio this weekend.

Hockey

On Saturday night Marc and I joined Marc's Sister Effie and her husband Lukasz for a hockey game in Boston. It was my first time ever watching the Boston Bruins play and boy did we have a good time. I didn't realize how much I have missed watching live hockey as Marc and I haven't been to a game since the Capitols back in Washington DC. We were also close enough to the ice to be able to see all the action, including the aggressive checks and taunting between players. There was even a player on the Winnipeg Jets who played hockey at Dartmouth when Marc was in graduate school there. 

I'm sad that there isn't any hockey we can go watch in San Diego, but I am hopeful that in the future we can make live hockey a part of our lives again. Until then I guess I'll have to settle with watching it on TV. 

Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple was spent up in Vermont with Marc's family. When we arrived late on Wednesday night it was a cool 20F and there was a light snow falling. This was my first white Thanksgiving and thankfully after Thursday it started to warm up. As you can see below all of the snow that was around on Thanksgiving day was gone by Friday afternoon. 

Thanksgiving Day

Friday

On Thursday, the actual Thanksgiving day, we all headed over to Uncle Billy and Aunt Mandy's house in Brandon. Marc's Mom Diane and her Husband Bud came over for lunch. We also celebrated with Marc's Brother Billy, Sister-in-Law Katie, their children Will and Elise, Marc's cousins Heidi and Jess and Mandy's brother and his two children. We had an amazing feast for lunch with turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, onions Celeste, creamed onions, carrot surprise, rolls, baked butternut squash, and broccoli salad. Sadly the only picture I have from the entire day is the one below of Uncle Billy and Elise watching Kung Fu panda.

Throughout the weekend we stayed in Goshen, VT at a rustic farm house that Marc's sister-in-law Katie had found on the Internet.  It turned out that the house was owned by the boss of Marc's cousin Heidi which meant we got extra special attention. Below is a photo of the house in the summer, just imagine it covered in snow and that's how it looked when we arrived. It was the perfect size for us, Marc's brother's family, and Marc's sister Effie and her husband Lukasz. Billy was in charge of keeping the wood stove fully stocked and burning which made it very comfortable to hang out in the living room. 

Goshen Farm House

Living Room and Wood Stove at the Goshen Farm House

The farm house was the perfect location for our second Thanksgiving on Friday with Marc's sister and her husband. It felt just like Thanksgiving should, cozy and full of family. And to top it all off we were even treated to a gorgeous sunset that night. 

All in all it was a very successful first Thanksgiving as husband and wife. I only hope that all our Thanksgivings are full of family, great food and loving memories.