Holiday Cheer

We have been celebrating the holidays in style over here at the Strazzulla household....

getting ready with a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old.....

I have to wonder if it will ever be this magical again?

We celebrated in Grafton with DiDi, Dup, Meme and Grandpy...

a local holiday event starring a locomotive train.....

of course lots of sugary treats....

and the anticipation of Santa Clause riding in on a fire truck.....which I don't have a picture of because my hands were numb as we have been so spoiled with mild weather this holiday season that Mom underdressed for the occasion!!

Tyler came home from school with a gingerbread house.....sooooo cute!!

and we went to the Natick Mall to run around with Auntie, Logan and DiDi....

oh yeah, and to get the traditional picture with Santa!!

We shared our holiday cheer with new PJ's at DiDi and Dups house.....

and Ava "picked" out something of her own to share!!

 We even had a little down time with one of our favorite cousins, just enjoying being together!!

The only thing that slowed us down this month.......

a game of ring-around-the-rosie gone terribly wrong ending with Ava going

head first into the kitchen cabinets (with a little help from her brother)!!

A trip to the ER and 3 stitches later she was fine...

And then we picked up right where we left off with a trip to

the Bass Pro Shoppes and Santa's Village with Meme....

as Tyler said "too bad Grandpy isn't here to catch all these fish."

And with these two cowboys we are just getting started with our

Christmas Celebration!!



Thanksgiving....Hostess with the Mostest!!

So this year we hosted Thanksgiving.....

there is something to be said for not having to travel on the holidays.....

not having to pack the kids up......

trying to travel during "nap time" (that never works!!)....

praying that nobody else left "first thing" in the morning on Thanksgiving.....

hoping that Dunkin' Donuts is open eventhough everyone else is closed....

throwing snacks and whatever else we can find into the back seat just to keep our sanity.....

yeah, I think I'll cook a turkey every year!!

My grandparents came down from Bridgton, ME....my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Rob from Caribou, ME....my parents....my inlaws....my brother-in-law Greg...and my friend Sage....

all 12 of us called for a bigger table, and while the kitchen floor was cleared, the kids took advantage..

I found out a few days before the holiday that we would be adding a few more guests...

which wasn't a problem at all.....except that I realized I didn't have enough forks for everyone!!

I swear I think our dishwasher eats forks like the dryer eats socks.....how could I have

like 25 spoons but only 8 forks??

Other than that the day went smooth....mostly because my family is so easy going.....

and the kids were really helpful!

Ava did some dishes.....

Tyler had fun helping us make our turkey cookies....

Great-Grandpy Fitz found a place to rest between dinner and dessert....

and Grandpy and Tyler burned off some energy

with an intense superhero battle on the porch!

The actual cooking was easy.....mostly because EVERYBODY BROUGHT SOMETHING!! Which I think is really the key to hosting anything......DELEGATING!! I got to enjoy

all of my family coming to my house without the pressure of dry mashed potatoes or soggy stuffing....

and we got to keep all the leftovers......I'm telling you, Thanksgiving at our house from now on!!

Halloween.....postponed???

So it's October 31st and we are recovering from a Nor'easter.

We have barely had time to rake up the leaves when our yard is covered in snow...

We feel lucky though because we still have power....and the kids love the snow...

that is until they hear Mom on the phone the next day saying

"trick or treating is postponed until Friday because of the snow".

 Now my kids have been wearing their costumes for over a week....and the look on Tyler's

face told me that we would be having Halloween here at 75 Brenda Drive.

Even though the town clerk called our house to tell us Halloween was cancelled....

that police are encouraging people to stay home and off the roads.....

Halloween would not be cancelled!!

A couple phone calls to the right neighbors and it was on......

We had some visitors to help us celebrate our own "illegal" Halloween.....

Uncle Gregory stopped by to take Ava for a ride and have a snack with Tyler and Denny the Dinosaur

A jet-lagged Logan Marie and Auntie made an appearance.....

and Baby Bentley came over to join in on the fun too.

It was like Jurassic park over here on Brenda Drive.....

with 3 sugar-high toddlers dressed as dinosaurs roaming around, looking for free handouts,

and loving every second of it.

We didn't have to wait until it was dark.....

we only had to go to 3 houses.....

it all lasted about 20 minutes.....

this age is great!!!

As the sugar slowly leaves their systems and we laugh as we watch them stumble around the house, too tired to even sit up straight....

I'm reminded again by how lucky we are to family around to help us take it all in....

Auntie Erin and Uncle Chris making the extra effort to come over, even though the storm knocked out their power,  getting our kids to smile and enjoying it as much as we do....

D-D and Dup (on crutches) coming over with a warm pot of soup and special treats for the kids because they are not going to miss these smiling faces.....my Mom coming over in the morning with a homemade apple pie and a basket of candy because she can't be their for our "illegal" Halloween celebration.........and my Dad showing up after working all day just to catch a few minutes with the kids before bedtime......

This will definitely be a Halloween to remember!

(now I just have to figure out what to tell Ty on Friday when all the other kids are trick-or-treating!!)

Who needs a swing set??

As Joe and I debate spending money on a swing set for the backyard,

I am reminded at how easy it is to entertain a toddler....

I mean, who needs a swing set when we have the

"world's biggest bestest rock in the whole world."

I mean where else can you do this...

and this......

and end with this...

Besides our rock-of-never-ending-fun we also have Uncle Kyle

who is over 6 feet tall....which is always fun!!

Add a ball and a tree that's just their size....

follow it up with a family tub (always popular at the Strazzulla house)

and that makes for some happy kids.....

so the question remains: Who needs a swing set????