Entries Tagged 'holidays' ↓

KBlaus gets said like KaBOOM!

Ezri loved reading her new Unicorn guidebook with her grandparents.

And an earlier-in-the-week photo of Hanukkah pocket joy.

In order to make our windows ready for holiday decoration, the whole family worked on window washing and curtain laundering.
The windows are now perfect for gel gems!

Lighting the menorah

Presenting creative homemade menorahs. Liz’s edible menorah is made of donuts and gelt. Eowyn’s is made of LEGO and is Harry Potter themed.

Ezri showing off her dreidel made of LEGO.

There are no photos but Eowyn and Ezri put together a “waterless synchronized swimming” performance which involved lying on their backs on a couch together and doing routines with their legs in the air. Rachael did color commentary and judging. We all agreed it really should be an Olympic sport.

The Downtown Downers Grove Tree is junked up with ornaments made by area kids’ groups from scouts to preschools to daycare centers.

This snowflake is one of the ornaments Ezri’s scout troop made. Hers was similar but probably much higher on the tree. We haven’t spotted it yet.

Before visiting the tree, we went to Anderson’s Bookshop for our annual tradition of donating a chosen book for a child from their “book angel” tree. Ezri selected a 9 year old girl who likes animals and gifted her with DK’s An Anthology of Intriguing Animals selected because she didn’t know which kind of animal was the girl’s favorite and this covered many animals. Also, it had gilt edges and gold lettering on the cover and shiny things make good gifts.

Ivan selected a 7 year old boy who liked Minecraft and Goosebumps books and gifted him with Diary of an 8-bit Warrior and Return of the Ghost of Slappy.

I gave a copy of Nimona to a 14 year old because Nimona makes me happy.

Here are the kids at the very snowy, very large, very ornament laden tree.

It looks like a laser gun, but it is actually a bubble blower that she used during the parade to blow bubbles.

Passing candy to kids along the parade route – she saved some favorites for Ivan.

Showing off her troop t-shirt. Thanks to Aunt Amy for the pins on her vest. The GS membership pin and Trefoil pin were taken from Amy’s old uniform and added to Ezri’s vest to march in the parade.

Making colorful eggs and then coating them in glitter glue

Egg dying cups except that one that is a glass of scotch

Egg dipper monocle

Grandkids and Grandparents after the seder.

Serious photo

Silly photo

Upon learning that it would be right around 4 degrees for our annual trip to the arboretum for their outdoors light show, Eric spent the morning using a pattern from the Internet, scrap fleece, and our serger to craft bella klava style hoods for us to wear. Here is Ezri modeling hers in the warmth of our home.

Ezri testing her outfit’s warmth in our driveway before heading out. She’s brandishing an icicle.

Very few photos were taken outside, thick gloves and cameras don’t play nicely together. But here are the kids hugging the tree that changes lighted colors when you squeeze it. Ivan enjoyed hunting for the “Glowman” a lighted snowman along the path that earned him a glow stick when he told the folks inside where we’d seen it.

Here we are back inside at the visitors’ center. We ate some chocolate and played some Yeti in Spaghetti.

That’s Meghan the friend who accompanied us. I assume you can now pick her out of any line-up.

There’s an elf riding a reindeer.

The Santa breakfast has both pancakes and Santa.

The Ornament Smash – Another tradition is the pointless but satisfying destruction of glass ornaments. You hurl an ornament at the wall to shatter it. If there’s a golden ticket in it you get a prize. If not, they can’t take away the joy of hearing the glass crunch against the wall.

The Brownie troop had a bake and craft sale table. The girls made unicorn ornaments and brought other home made crafts and baked goods to sell. Ezri made magnets to sell. Her magnet craft made around $24 dollars for her troop. The troop will donate most of the profit this year’s sale to a holiday fund for families at the school who could use help and keep a bit in the troop coffers to pay for their activities.

Brownies, their leader, and Santa