A Few of My Favorite Things

Well, I didn't get any bright copper kettles or warm woolen mittens, and if someone ever gets me kitten whiskers for Christmas I might have to report them to the ASPCA. But despite my lack of gifted pet appendages, I did get some great Christmas gifts this year, about which I am now going to brag.


This is the Cuisinart food processor that Jim got me for Christmas. I had asked for it since I had a coupon for it from Costco, but the coupon sat stuck to our fridge until it expired, so I assumed that he didn't get it. But one day he told me that my gift (whatever it was) would be arriving in the mail that day. When it arrived, it was package thusly:

Well, obviously it was no longer a secret what my gift was, and I emailed the above picture to Jim at work with some crack about discreet packaging. And then I tore in! It wasn't until I emailed Jim a second picture of the accompanying pizza cutter (yahoo!) that it even occurred to me that perhaps Jim didn't want me to open it until he got home. Too late! I love the Cuisinart because it makes a lot of cooking jobs super fast. Jim loves it because it has taken over his job of cheese grater extraordinaire.


This is the pan that my mom and dad got me for Christmas. I have a similar style pan that I use ALL THE TIME, but it's smaller in diameter and not nearly as deep. A lot of things I make in the old pan fill it right up. This one is much roomier and can fit some recipes that the other one couldn't. AND it kind of doubles as a dutch oven or cast iron pan because you can put it in the oven. Laaaaa (that was the angles singing.)


Steve and Linda got me this perfume for Christmas, and I've been wanting it for a long time. It's Dolce and Gabbana "Light Blue" and I love it. When I worked at Ann Taylor Loft in Edmond, my manager, Charmei, wore it and I liked it. Then when I moved to Moscow, another coworker of mine wore it. For both of them it was kind of their 'signature scent' and I would have felt weird wearing the same perfume. But when we moved to Hayden, I felt free to claim it as my own. And now I have!


Bob and Holly got me several fun things, but this is by far my favorite (though I do love my comfy bath robe). I just love Hello Kitty and I love square hard-sided cosmetic cases. It is a match made in heaven!


I fell in love with cameo rings when I saw one in Virgina City, MT a few years ago that had a cameo on one side, and then you could flip it over and there was another (more plain) stone on the other side. I would have never thought to put a cameo on a ring! So I'd had a cameo ring on my Amazon wish list for quite a while and kind of forgot about it. But Jim got me this ring for Christmas. And it wasn't just that he got it for me, but he went through a lot of trouble. See, I figured that the food processor would be my only Christmas gift from him. But he wanted to have something for me from him that I could open on Christmas morning in CT, and so he ordered this for me and had it sent to Bob and Holly's house. Unfortunately, it accidentally got sent to their old address and was returned to the Amazon seller. So Jim had to jump through hoops to find another ring in my size that could be shipped to CT before Christmas. And he did! And I love it! What a sweet hubby, huh?


And finally, this is the adorable LeSportsac bag that Dave and Anna got for me. Linda said that Anna walked into the shop and immediately picked out a bag that I would like. What can I say? She has good taste!

So, what did you get for Christmas?

We Made It Home!

No big adventure. No getting stuck overnight. No missed flights (it was close in Seattle, but we made it). No lost luggage (well, our car seat didn't show up, but they loaned us one so we could get home). Just a regular old boring (tiring) trip home. We woke up at 3am Eastern time to catch a 6am flight. If you do the whole time-zone conversion thing, it was like we woke up at midnight at home and didn't go to bed until bed time. Perhaps Lily has hit a turning point in her Campaign Against Sleep While Traveling because on our 4 hour 45 minute flight from Chicago to Seattle, she slept for about 2.5 hours! She was ridiculously exhausted and while Jim read to her from the Sky Mall magazine she just zonked right out. Maybe I just need to bring a Sky Mall magazine with me when I want her to sleep in the car. Hmmmm. Anyway, we made it home, started unpacking, ran to the store to get milk and other such essentials, and then plopped down on our very own couch and thanked the Lord for the wonderful comfortable home he's given us. Traveling is great and all, and it's nice while you're at destination, but the hassle of the traveling home makes you appreciate your own home so much more. Oh, and we all got to sleep in our very own beds, which is always wonderful.

We had a great time out east visiting Jim's family and are grateful that we are able to get out there every so often to see everyone. Our last night there, we went to Friendly's for dinner (kind of like Denny's but with an emphasis on ice cream).

Lily enjoyed playing with her decoder glasses and eating lemons.
She went through a blinky-eye spell.
Lily with her cone head for dessert. She ate the Reeses Pieces and a little of the cone. She's surprisingly self-limiting on sweets... I'm not sure she's related to me! :)

Blinky-eyed Lily at Friendly's.

Post Christmas Trip

As I mentioned in my previous post, every year that we come out to CT for Christmas and all three Klein boys are together, their parents (Steve and Linda) plan a little trip for all of us to take the day after Christmas. It usually involves driving an hour or two to somewhere in New England and then spending the night in a hotel. This year's trip was to an indoor water park that is housed in a hotel about 45 minutes from Steve and Linda's house. We headed up Saturday morning and got busy playing in the water park. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so if you want to see pictures of the water park, you'll have to check out Dave and Anna's blog. But I did take a few pictures of the hotel and dinner. We had a fun time sliding down the slides and floating along the lazy river. The plan had been to head to NYC the next day for Dave's basketball tournament (he's a basketball coach at a school in Brooklyn) but Holly was sick and Lily was underslept so we decided to sit out NYC this time.


While getting Lily out of her swim suit, she decided that Mom's shoes would be fun to wear around.
We went out to dinner at Chili's and discovered that Madison and Lily had the very same book! What are the odds? (Madison's is the board-book version. Oh, and can you tell that Lily is POOPED from swimming all day?) :)
Steve, Linda, Dave, and Anna at Chili's.
Jim, Carter, Holly, Grant, and Robert at Chili's.
Makes you think twice about using hotel pool towels, doesn't it?
Since we were only 45 minutes from Steve and Linda's house and hotel stays are usually a nightmare with Lily, we decided to head home for the night and meet everyone at church in the morning. We decided to wash off all that chlorine with a bubble bath! Jacuzzi tubs make the best bubble baths if you turn on the jets.
Bubble heads!

A couple of bubble bath videos for ya. In this first one, Jim turns on the jets but apparently the water level wasn't quite high enough to cover some of the jets. Hilarity ensues.





When we arrived in CT, they had just had a snow storm and there was a foot or so of snow on the ground. It rained all day Saturday, however, and by Sunday the snow was melted and it was 50 degrees. So we went over to Bob and Holly's house and Lily got to jump on the trampoline for a bit.

On Monday, we headed out to lunch at the USS Chowder Pot IV which is a restaurant in Hartford. Lily wasn't sure what to make of the lobster tank.

Jim and Steve ordered a 5lb lobster to share. He was a big 'un!
He looked even bigger once they cooked an stuffed him!

Christmas!

It is Boxing Day and Jim and I are sitting in the hallway of a hotel while Lily naps in the room. Each year when we come out to Connecticut for Christmas, Steve and Linda plan a little getaway trip for all of us the day after Christmas. The first year we went to NYC and saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. The next year we stayed in a little town in Massachusetts and went to a butterfly museum as well as Yankee Candle. Two years ago we went to Vermont and went to a sledding hill. This year we're in CT at a hotel in Waterbury that has a large indoor water park. Since the last time we were all together for Christmas, the number of grandkids has doubled, so Steve and Linda are starting to have to be more creative with getaways that both older and younger grandkids will enjoy. But enough about the getaway; I'll write more about that later. Right now I'm going to share our Christmas with everyone!

The Christmas Eve tradition is to drive up to Massachusetts to Linda's brother, Steve's, house and get together with the family for food and visiting. So we drove up Thursday evening and spent a few hours with Linda's side of the family. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so you'll just have to picture it. The good news is that for the second time in a row, Jim and I ended up with our own Yankee Swap gift (same thing as Dirty Santa). We get the best gifts, and it's hard to part with them :)

When we got home from the Christmas Eve par-tay, Lily was exhausted, but I wanted to try to get a picture of Lily and Madison in their Christmas Eve jammies. Lily was having none of it, and was a little irked that Madison got to pose with Cookie Mouse.
This was the best we could do.
This was the tree with all the gifts on Christmas morning. It looked more impressive in person, but I couldn't get a picture with the full scope since the couch was in the way.
The stockings.
This rocking horse was actually a gift for Grant a few years ago and it had been there all week, but when Lily saw it on Christmas morning, she hugged it as if it were her very favorite Christmas present.
Yay for my (Grant's) new (old) rocking horse!
Jim and Lily enjoyed eating a bagel together and watching Curious George while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa's return.
Lily trying to suppress the urge to open everything immediately.
Madison on top of her big gift (it's a jump-a-roo).
Lily with her new V-tech toy.
The golf clubs Lily got from Dave and Anna.
Lily hearts Tom Brady.
Climbing on the mountain-o-gifts.
Madison got all tuckered out after a few gifts and fell asleep on her daddy.
Lily learning to putt.
A box of book!!!
This may have been Lily's favorite gift of the day. It was a little magna-doodle thing.
Madison is a gift!
Lily was getting all tuckered out after so many gifts.
After a nap and some food, Madison loved her jump-a-roo!
Here is Madison enjoying her new jump-a-roo.


Lily playing with her Little People carnival set.
Lily wasn't so sure about sharing her Little People with Madison.
Lily helping Grandma Linda scrub the potatoes. The plan was for Anna to make some hours d'ouvres and then to have a big evening meal. Well, Anna's hours d'ouvres were more extensive and delicious than anyone planned for, and by the time dinner time rolled around nobody was hungry. So we put the roast in the fridge to have as leftovers.
Setting up the tent and tunnel.
Lily loved crawling down the tunnel.


Madison sharing her new toy with Lily.
Carter and Grant and Lily had a great time running around the tent. After a while of playing together, Carter said, "I didn't know girl cousins could be so much fun!" Ha ha ha! What did you expect them to be!?


Lily and Grant running around together. Lily wanted to do whatever Grant did, so if he dove into the tent, she dove into the tent. And if he plopped against the couch, she plopped against the couch.


Carter joins in the fun and all three cousins have a great time. The boys were so sweet to play with Lily!

KidCity and Stew Leonard's

Monday we ventured out to a local museum called KidCity. It was a fun kid museum with a bunch of interactive things for kiddos to do. Lily loved hanging out with her cousins and playing with all the hands-on exhibits.

Lily and Jim in the dark crystal room (not The Dark Crystal room).
The pig would suck up your ping pong ball and send it down a plinko-type maze.
Lily driving her Daddy around.
Grant was inside the train exhibit!
Lily building her city.
The cousins in a hot air balloon basket. Lily, Grant, and Carter.
Daddy popped out of the dinosaur pond.
So Lily wanted to try it herself.
Lily and Grant picked all the carrots together (there were three beds like the one in the picture). And then Lily re-planted nearly all of them.
Farmer Carter is calculating the total.
Lily and Grandma Linda on the see-saw.
She liked see-sawing.
Lily went down this big slide once, but wouldn't go down by herself again. It was a pretty fast slide.
Lily hung by herself for several seconds.
Way to go Lily!
This was by far Lily's favorite room. It was a mock dock/fishery where there were all these plastic fishes that you could load onto all sorts of conveyor belts and pulley systems and transport them all around the room. Lily probably spent close to a half hour in there gathering and loading fish.
Lily turning the wheel to move along her fish.
Looking through the port hole.
Yup, I was back there with her. Lily had to duck, so you know it was cramped.
There was a toddler only area with a smaller slide that Lily loved. Apparently it wasn't as scary as the bigger one.


Peeking through the seaweed.
In Grandpa and Grandma's basement, Lily had a great time rolling the balls on the pool table.
Roll!

Today we went to a local grocery store called Stew Leonard's (or Stew Stew's as Grant calls it). You may not think that a grocery store can be an event, but it can if it's Stew Leonard's. There are all kinds of samples and specialty foods, and the best part of all are the anamatronic animals and characters all around the store. Some of them put on shows periodically, and some of them will do something if you push a button. Lily enjoyed the freshly made donuts and rice cakes, as well as the fun animals and songs all around the store. She'd actually been once before when we came out last November, but she was only a baby and didn't really enjoy the ambiance as much as she did this time.

Lily eating her apple cinnamon donut sample and watching the milk and juice sing and dance.
Those were the singing and dancing milk and juice cartons.
Lily LOVED Clover the Cow.

This is Lily repeatedly pushing the button for Clover the Cow to moo at her. She loved it.


We went upstairs for a snack and I wanted a picture of everyone.
Lily enjoying another donut hole.
Jim said, "Lily, what's in your mouth?" right before snapping this picture. (The answer is, "a donut hole.")

When we got home, Lily was in one of her silly/tired talking moods and we tried to get her to say the names of her aunts and uncles. Sorry Dave, you're just Uncle Uncle.

Stranded in Denver!

We heard warnings from everyone. Most notably, when my doctor asked what we'd be doing for Christmas and we told him that we'd be going to Connecticut, he responded with, "Probably not. The plane probably won't take off anyway this time of year." Well that about summed it up! On Friday as we ran around, frantically packing and getting everything ready for our trip (and I 100% forgot about Funny Story Friday) we would check the weather occasionally, and see that the east coast was raring up to snow and snow and snow. And that was exactly where we were going! But Friday night before bed, none of our flights had been canceled, so we held out hope.

No such luck when we got to the airport! As we stood in line to check our bags, a lady came around asking everyone where they were going and what connections they had, and when we told her we were going through D.C., she said, "Your flight is canceled, come with me." So we got to go to the "special" line for all disgruntled travelers. The nice man at the counter was typing at the speed of light, and informed us that our best (almost only) option was to take our flight to Denver as planned and then be stranded there over night, and then in the morning he could get us to CT via Chicago. Well, seeing as it was the only option, we took it! I sent out a frantic Facebook post that said, "Denver friends!! We'll be stranded there tonight with no accomodaruons. Anyone want to puck us up, house us, and give us a ride to the airport in the morning? Anyone?? :)" (iPhone typos included for frantic effect.) I typed out my plea, switched my phone to airplane mode, and jumped on the plane.

Upon arrival in Denver, I was impressed to see several choices of responses. We had offers to stay with people, or people who have relatives in Denver, or even people who offered to get us a hotel room. What great friends I have! The option that sounded like the best to us was a high school friend of mine named Jason Schmidt and his wife who offered to help us out. They have a son who is a few months younger than Lily, so Lily would have a buddy to play with. Despite the fact that I hadn't seen Jason since high school graduation nearly 10 years ago, and I'd never met his wife, Jolene, in person, I gave them a call to see if they were serious about their offer. They certainly were, and Jason headed out immediately to pick us up from the airport.

We were pretty sleepy from waking up at 3am for our flight, so I hope they excuse us for being blobs all day long, but we had a really nice time visiting with them. Lily got to take a nice long nap in their pack and play, and got to have a great time with their son, and Lily's new buddy, Oliver. And we got to sleep in a comfortable house and eat good food. It made being stranded a rather enjoyable experience!

The next morning, Jason gave us a ride to the airport early in the morning and saw us off. What great friends! So thank you, Schmidts, for putting us up and putting up with us. Good friends are great!

Lily and Ollie playing together.



While we were at the Schmidt's house, Lily did a first! I asked her if she wanted to be somersaulted, where she stands with her head on the ground and I flip her over. Well, she went to do it, and then kind of kicked off and pushed herself over as I flipped her. So I asked her if she could do one by herself, and she could! This first video is me trying to get Lily to somersault, and her not somersaulting, but asserting that Ollie's chair is, in fact, Lily's seat. The second video is Lily somersaulting.






On the plane to Chicago the next day, we got upgraded to business class!! It was awesome because we had tons of leg room and room for Lily to play at our feet. Our seats almost fully reclined, so we could cuddle with Lily, and we got a free meal! It was fantastic!
I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but I stuck my leg out straight and still had a good foot of space between my shoe and the seat in front of me.
On our flight to CT, Lily did the unthinkable and she fell asleep! (Gasp!) For those of you who don't know Lily very well, this girl never sleeps anywhere but in a crib or pack and play, so this was our Christmas miracle.

We made it safe and sound to Connecticut on Sunday night and have been having a great time with family since then... but that's a blog for another day!

Christmas Number Two

We received a Christmas package Monday from my parents. They had already given us our 'big' gifts, but still had some smaller things for us to open. Lily was pretty excited to get to open more presents, so I figured I should share the experience with my parents, and the world!

Lily and Jim opening gifts together.

Lily played Santa's helper and brought the gifts back to us. She got pretty excited about Jim's golf ball. We had come across some bouncy balls earlier that day that I wouldn't let Lily have because they're too small. So I think she was thrilled that she got to play with another ball.


Almost as much fun as the gifts themselves, was the box and packing paper that came with the gifts! In this video, Lily says, "mores (which is more, but plural), uh-oh, ball, that?, bite, oh, trash, and help."


Lily playing with the book Gramby got her.