Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve morning, Katelyn and Reagan watched their Portable North Pole videos from Santa.  

 Kate was so excited.  I loved the twinkle in her eye.  It is amazing to see Christmas through the eyes of a child.

  

 Watching Reagan view her message from Santa was a totally different experience.  She was so nervous; a few times she even covered her eyes.  She was so relieved to find out she was on the nice list.

In the afternoon, Papa and Grandma came over to exchange presents.

 

I attempted a picture of Papa and Grandma with the kids.  I got picture after picture of at least one silly face.

 

Later in the day, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas.

Grinch dust and reindeer food was sprinkled on the lawn to keep the Grinch away and attract the reindeer.  I didn't get any pictures because it was pouring outside at the time.

 Kate could not wait to put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.  She did a great job making the cookies extra tasty.

Throughout the evening, we were tracking Santa's whereabouts on NORAD.  When Santa was on his way to Florida, Reagan knew that meant she had to fall asleep!  It wasn't easy; there was so much excitement in the air, but eventually everyone went to sleep to dream of dancing sugar plums (or today's equivalent).  

Karen's Baby Shower

Last weekend, Dad (Papa) and I traveled to New York to visit Karen and Mark.  Their baby shower was Friday night, and it was great to be there.  That's right, I am going to be an aunt in just a few weeks!!!  I'm so very excited and can't wait to meet my first niece or nephew!

 Ha ha!!!!!!  I had to double check that this was indeed a gag gift; you never know today!

We also went to the George Eastman house and stopped at this farm to buy a pie.  After we bought the pie, we went through these tee pees to check out the jack o' lanterns.

 The kids would have liked walking through here!

This was the first time since I've had children that I visited Karen and Mark without kids in tow!

It was a fun weekend.

Around Here

 Reagan has enjoyed making tissue paper fashions this week.

 She was thrilled with this 1D coloring sheet.

 Grandma Susan took Collin, Reagan, and Kate to the new indoor bounce place, and they all had fun.

 We went to Ma Raffa's with Papa and Grandma for Kids' Night and Mario was there.

Reagan is now able to get into a bridge on the balance beam.  I am so impressed.  The beam is only four inches wide.  That is NOT an easy task.  Here is a video of her doing it:

Charles W. Morgan Whaling Ship

 The Charles W. Morgan (America's last surviving whaleship) returned to New Bedford (the city of its "birth" in 1841) for a short visit June 28 through July 6.  Collin, Reagan, Kate and I met Papa and Grandma there this morning to go on board and check it out.

One interesting fact I read about the Morgan is that it took nine months and $52,000 for the ship to be built in 1841, but more than five years and $7.5 million dollars to restore the ship!

 You can't help but notice the cramped quarters on this boat.  I felt claustrophobic on the tour; I cannot imagine living on such a boat with a crew and all that went along with whaling.

One of the volunteers on the Morgan asked if anyone knew why the table had those pieces of wood on top.  Sure enough, Collin had the answer; they keep the dishes from sliding around too much.

After touring the ship, we entered a tent full of activities for the children.  All three of them enjoyed this!  The tent was not crowded, so we were really able to enjoy everything offered.

 The coolest craft was the "scrimshaw".  They were given skewers and small bars of soap, and they scratched designs onto the soap with the skewers.  Then, black shoe polish was rubbed over the designs to create the appearance of scrimshaw!

Kate's scrimshaw is on the upper left, and the other three are labeled.  Very cool!

Reagan made every craft possible.  Kate and Collin made a few.

 One of the volunteers told the kids she would give them bracelets if they could throw the "harpoon" into one of the circles.  Collin and Reagan both did this standing behind the line, but Kate just walked right up to the game board and pushed the harpoon through the circle.  Everyone thought this was funny, and she earned a bracelet.