Other Merry Christmas!

What fun... three kids ages 7, 4 and 1 and Santa... that is just the best. We had a great Christmas morning. A bit different than years past, as we are still creating and "trial" running our family traditions. Christmas Eve was very low key. At first I wasn't going to do anything special for it, other than just have some Giumarra family time. But the idea of having grill cheese (or something as equally fancy) on Christmas eve, just didn't seem right. So, a last minute dinner came together and we invited Poppy and Nannie to join us. My mom gave us each one present on Christmas Eve... the CUTEST little knitted snowmen to match our family. See the above picture. I love them and will cherish them each year at Christmas time!

We ended Christmas Eve with a Frosty movie that was on TV and actually all sat down together (minus Colin who was fast asleep) to watch. After reindeer food was sprinkled out front and cookies left for Santa we were off to bed by 8:15 or so... plenty of time for Santa to arrive. Just as the girls were heading off to bed, Natalie asks "Is Santa real or do parents just buy extra presents and put them under the tree at midnight?" Easy question for me to answer... "Natalie, I am NEVER up at midnight!" Although I was shocked by this question (she is only 7!), she seemed satisfied with my truthful response! Here is our tree on Christmas Eve night! LOVE, LOVE this moment.

Colin got a digger from Santa - big hit! and the girls got lots of new American Girl doll stuff which suited them all well. None of our kids seem to have a great talent for playing with their imaginations (not sure where I went wrong with this one... and it drives me crazy), so I am hoping that the new toys bring hours of independent play!!

Christmas morning was dreamy. The kids took their time opening their presents and showed such gratitude in all that they got. We shared a very laid back, but nice breakfast together in the midst of the opening. Then we spend the rest of the morning relaxing at home and loving each others company. Natalie did experience some Christmas Day "let down," just feeling sad that "IT" was over. I so remember the feeling and don't want to get down on her about it, but on the other hand, I do want to try and teach her to live in the moment the best she can. Be happy that you had a nice Christmas, even if you are sad that it is over. Focus on the positive in the situation... although harder to do, it makes you a happier person!

A Giumarra Milestone...

No picture to go with this post, but it is worth posting anyway....

We are not a family that goes out to dinner very often - Probably only 2x/month. That doesn't mean we don't like to, in fact, we love it (well at least me and the girls love it!) but sometimes it just seems like a waste of $ when we don't know how it will go. Will Colin fuss and yell, will the service be slow, will the girls be patient. Most times, we do go out, the girls are great, but Colin has been very unpredictable and made the last couple times out to dinner (along with poor service) not worth the $ at all.

Last night... we took a chance and went to the Olive Garden (along with free kid meal tickets) and it was such a success!! The girls were great, Colin was good, service was decent and the food was yummy. I actually felt like we were able to talk to one another and enjoy each other and the food and not just be sitting on the edge of our seats hoping it will go ok. When we eat at home, the meal seems to go by in a blur... I kind of liked that we had to sit at the same table for a while waiting for our food. I don't know if it was because Santa might have been watching, but all Giumarra children did so well!

Let's hope it was the first of many nice family meals out on the town!

Santa's Elf

Did you know that Santa has many different types of Elf's. Some of his elfs have a very special magic... One arrived at our house sometime in the wee hours of December 1st. It looks like it is probably the same elf that was at our house last Christmas season, but we can't tell for sure. His job is simple - to keep an eye on us all day and each night he reports back to Santa on how we have been that day. We assume he gets back to the North Pole daily (by some magic I truly can not explain) because each morning he is in a new spot in our house. We have been cautioned to never, ever touch him - for if we do, the magic is ruined.
Natalie says she has not seen an elf at school, but you never know what kind of powers they might have. So, be on your best behavior wherever you might go!

Natalie has been very excited to look for Mr. Elf every morning... Sadie is not so sure about him. She likes the idea, but I think she is a little creeped out about a little man staring at her in her house. Can't say that I blame her... but, it sure is fun!

Let us know if you see one around!

Recent Favorite Pictures...

My new favorite picture of the kids. Taken just this past Sunday after we decorated the tree. I think this is year 3 of an artificial tree and the one bonus is that we can put it up early. So up it is and we'll see how it goes. It is up in our new room and looks great! I was pretty sure that Colin was going to break every ornament or the entire tree while we were putting it up, but it made it through the decorating process and he seems less interested now.
This picture was taken the 2nd night we were up in Maine for Thanksgiving. We ended up in a hotel due to my bad allergies (what a pain) and all three kids are in one bed enjoying being in a hotel. It might have been Colin's 1st adventure in a hotel and the girls have not been in one much, they were all very excited and it went as best as it can...

In Maine with cousins Liam and Aela at the most breathtaking spot along to coast. If only the skies were blue or there was even some sun. The cliffs and waves were awesome!

Sadie and her friends at school getting ready to preform their "Thanksgiving song." Super cute!

Life of being the youngest child with older sisters... he is such a sport!

Trick or Treating, in the rain :(, down in Clifton Park with our friends. Caroline joins the Giumarra clan for a picture. Natalie is Annie and Sadie is Annie's dear friend, Molly. Colin is the standard Bee that we have used for all three kids! The heavy rains made the trick or treating part of this night quite a bust, but thankfully, we were with friends and ended up having a fun night anyway!

Giumarra kids on my favorite holiday! I wonder what I will do when the kids no longer want to wear holiday themed shirts?

The runners of the Goblin Gallup. I ran the 5K and both kids ran the fun run. It was super fun and the girls did great! Natalie even made the local paper for finishing in the top 20 kids.

Colin carving pumpkins... more like feeling all the guts that come out of the pumpkin. I love the look on his face in this picture. It was the first picture that made me realize he isn't a baby anymore - a toddler, we have!

Have you missed us?

I knew that I hadn't blog in a long time and I even got a couple of complaints about my lack of blogging, but I didn't realize how out of touch I was until I just logged in and I see that the last blog was about our 1st days of school. Now, with Christmas around the corner, I have got to get myself back into action.
However, the fact that I haven't blogged since the start of school, really speaks to what has been going on with us and my constant inability to keep up with life! Lately, I feel like I am constantly 5 minutes late to everything and have usually forgotten something along the way!

Relatively speaking, the back to school transition has gone very smoothly. Colin loves his Nannie days and Jeannie days. He is so funny... such a man of routine. As soon as I show up to his sitters, he promptly says good bye to each one of his friends and grabs his shoes. He doesn't even let me visit with Jeannie to see how his day went. He knows that I show up, and then we leave! At his sitters house this year, there are 4 kids... all within about 6 months of each other, with Colin being the oldest. It will be fun to watch these 4 grow up together, start Kindergarten together, always having these days at Jeanne's as a special bond.
Sadie is doing remarkably well in her new preschool. She loves going and thinks that she is just hot stuff that she is now in school. Looking back at when Natalie was Sadie's age, I always thought that Natalie was just more into schoolwork than Sadie ever was... well the truth has come out.... Sadie is just as into it as Natalie, but with Sadie being our 2nd child, we didn't take the same time with her that we did with Natalie. Now that she is in school and learning all sorts of school stuff, she is like a sponge. She is literally sounding out words, starting to read easy words and wanting to now how to spell everything!! On top of that, her teacher taught Sadie (and her 5 classmates) how to tie their shoes within the first 3 weeks of school!
Natalie is loving 2nd grade. It was hard to move on from such an awesome 1st grade and perfect teacher, but Natalie has adjusted well. Her recent report card was gleaming and made us so proud. I loved the part of the report card where the teacher writes in their own comments... truly makes the whole report!! So for all you teachers out there, please keep writing individual comments on all your kids, us mom's, we love it! On top of school, Natalie is still doing gymnastics and brownies and has started Jazz class!

I am surviving and finding my routine. It has been crazy... like one week just melts away and blends into the next week. I can't even believe it! I truly am so thankful that I have a husband who will cook dinner, does clean and a true partner in this chaos we call home! I have found my sanity in early morning workouts at the Y and really liking it. For all those that know me, know that I like to exercise and it is really the only alone time that I give myself. But, with the busy schedule of work, kids and household stuff (plus the occasionally need to be lazy) if I don't do my workouts in the early mornings, they don't happen. Last school year, I spent most mornings wishing I had gotten up and getting mad at myself for not getting up. This year, I have just done it... and three full months into it... I think I now say, that it is just my routine. I am up and at the Y every school day by 5am. I have even found an early morning running partner, so I am still able to run outside 1xweek. It is so good for me. Now, if I could stop eating ice cream every night, I might actually lose weight!

Nick has been super dad and super husband. Without a big household project going, he seems to be around a lot more. I know that he is missing his hobby, but there is really nothing left to do on this house (at least not for a while...), but I am loving having him around more. I didn't realize how much time those darn projects sucked up his time. The new room is 100% done and is killer amazing. My most favorite part is the expanded mudroom... so awesome... a mother of 3's dream. Cubbies for us all and lots of places to store all those papers that come home from school!!

So.. there is the update. I can't possibly post all the pictures I want to share since I last posted pictures, but I will do a couple of my favorites. I promise to be a better blogger - although looking at my track record since I have been back to work and school... you might not want to check back for another couple months!!

Happy December!