a shout out to the shorties

After Alex found our stockings last week, I found the perfect spot to hang them next to our cute little Christmas tree. Having a small Christmas tree has been a throwback to our days in New York for the past several years. It's one of our things. We always felt sorry for the little trees that didn't get sold, and it would be impossible to fit any "normal" sized tree in a 300 square-foot Manhattan apartment (not to mention trekking it down the bitterly cold street blocks and up four flights of stairs into your building). The little guys will always have a place in our home.

I see you: check out the tiny devil in the bottom right corner sneaking from the candy dish...

gingerbread house, take one

Being true to my word, this week Catcher and I stayed inside on an unseasonably cold day and tried our hand at crafting the perfect gingerbread house--four of them, actually. Please note: these pictures have not been enhanced. View at your discretion--the images may be disturbing for some audiences.

But all jokes aside, constructing a gingerbread house is no joke. Catcher selected the mini village when we were weighing our pre-made kit options, and at the time it sounded like a great idea. "Five mini houses," I thought. "How cute." Not so much. Mini houses are not for the novice. My first mistake was breaking apart all the gingerbread pieces and piling them on one plate. Suddenly side "A" from the chapel looked a lot like side "C" of the classic cottage. With patience abating, I employed my creative license and a "this looks like it goes there" attitude, which somehow resulted in four houses instead of five. Oh well, at least we had the decorating portion to look forward to, right?

Mistake number two was mixing the icing too long or not long enough (I'm still not sure where I went wrong--this part seemed so simple). It was supposed to have the consistency of toothpaste, but I guess ours wasn't quite there. The icing quickly dripped down the sides, dragging Catcher's meticulously placed gumdrops along with it.

I may have thought the project was somewhat disastrous at first, but I have to admit that the little houses have grown on me. Next time, though, we're going to see how we do with one house.

the giving tree

It's no exaggeration when I say that Book People is one of my favorite places in Austin. In fact, I'm not sure how I would have survived these past few months as a stay-at-home mom on the fly without them. I can count on three story times per week for bookish toddler entertainment, and at least once a month they bring in musical acts or a traveling petting zoo to keep things interesting. We've met children's books authors and Miss Travis County, a local musician and Skippyjon Jones himself, and when I saw their holiday "Giving Tree" yesterday I knew it was our cause for Christmas 2011.

Ever since Catcher was born we've donated gifts to children in need during the Christmas season to teach our own children that it's not all about them (and hopefully instill a lifelong spirit of compassion and giving). This year we're giving books to a boy and girl whose names we found inscribed on snowflakes that Catcher and Scout plucked from the Giving Tree. Catcher picked out one of his favorite books to give to little Gustavo--"He'll be so exciting,*" Catcher said--and I helped Scout select one for Jamalah. 

*Catcher sometimes confuses "exciting" and "excited."

After the excitement of picking out books had waned, it was back to business for Catcher, who found a quiet spot for "reading" about fire engines.

two trees and a manger

Here you see pictured the sum of our Christmas decorations. Catcher and I dragged our box of ornaments and assorted Christmas trappings out of the closet this afternoon, and while I was desperately searching for the stockings--seriously! where did I put them?--Catcher assembled the above.

I didn't realize my decorations were so embarrassingly sparse. I must have downsized when packing for the move. We have a long way to go to catch up with the Griswolds, but here's a look at some real life Christmas crazies (images from Elle Decor):

missing lights

This weekend there were exactly two tree lightings that I planned on attending with the kids as part of my guerilla effort to bring them the "hap, hap, happiest Christmas ever" (and hopefully instill a lifelong love and slight obsession with the holiday season). But after two strikes, I'm out.

The first tree lighting we missed was Saturday night at the Capitol building. After a cold and rainy day, the weather eased up in the late afternoon; however, Alex was delayed coming home from Georgia and we had to pick him up at the airport at the exact time the tree was set ablaze. (Truth be told, I didn't really want to brave the event by myself anyway). Here's a look at what we didn't see:

Austin Pixels

Last night we missed the lighting of the tree in Zilker Park. Another cold and rainy day, a late afternoon meltdown involving a certain three year-old and an intense 4th quarter in Packer football lessened my enthusiasm for the event. The famed Zilker Holiday Tree, where you did not find us:

Austin Parks & Recreation

Maybe next year...

afternoon remix

It has been raining all day. I can't--in good conscience--possibly complain about the weather when we're in the middle of a severe drought, but it did make for an interesting afternoon pent up in the apartment. Halfway through Scout's nap, and a quarter way to crazy, it was time for a little furniture remix. My mother-in-law came to visit earlier this week and delivered this chair that had been in her basement, so there was no better time to give it a home.

First I placed it in the corner of our bedroom, which was my Plan A. My thought was that it would make a nice little seat for middle-of-the-night feedings when the new baby gets here.

The chair looked okay, but I wasn't wild about its placement. Having the legs half-on/half-off the rug made it look lopsided and brought out my OCD side, so I decided to try it out elsewhere. Next stop: the living room to replace the lucite chair from the reading corner.

It didn't work. The problem here was the scale--the wing chair dwarfed the corner and looked like an afterthought. After strike two I was running out of ideas. For a millisecond I toyed with plopping it in the middle of the living room (see below), and this is when Catcher got in on the action and started moving furniture around, too. The coffee table, cow and rocking chair placements are courtesy of his vision.

Of course the chair looked ridiculous and out of place with our furniture. Another drawback was the lovely sketch on the back--courtesy of a young Alex--that was clearly visible from this vantage point. So after staring at the room...and then the chair...and then the room...and then the chair again, this is where it ended up:

Sometimes you should just go with your first instinct.

christmas countdown

Happy December 1st! Let the official Christmas countdown begin. I started the month in a festive way this morning when Alex brought me a delicious Peppermint Vanilla Latte from The Coffee Bean. My first order of business was to get new stockings for the family. Then I remembered that I look for stockings every year but can never commit. And this year is definitely not the year to commit since there will be another family member next year who's budding personality will have to be taken into account when deciding which color and/or pattern suits whom. Of course this dialogue in my head didn't stop me from perusing the internet in search of the perfect Wheat family stockings. I didn't find anything I can't live without, but I did discover a few cute options.

Images from etsy.

Good Wishes Quilts

Hung By The Chimney

Studio Tree