The escalator

I don't know what it is, but I have a REALLY hard time committing to one step on the escalator. Even more so, when I've got Hannah, purse, huge umbrella, and shopping bag in my arms, and I'm wearing rain boots.
I am pretty sure that I looked like this today at Macy's. But with arms full.

I think of Buddy everytime I ride the escalator. So grateful to the patient shoppers who watched me "pick my step" today!
Christmas is almost here...

too much shopping?

it's raining, but Hannah and I are out and about these days. she loves the rain, wearing her rain coat, and watching the drops on the car windows.
today, we were out doing some christmas/grocery shopping. (no, not at the same place.)
naturally, grocery shopping comes last so i can get the cold stuff home and straight in the fridge. well, i thought it would be more efficient if i shopped at ralph's closer to the mall, instead of our normal vons. but, that store is huge, beautiful, and SO DIFFERENT than my beloved vons. i was totally lost, and it took me so long to find what i was looking for. hannah amused herself with all the goodies in the cart, cuddled with the sweater on my arm, and oops! went to sleep in the cart.
this has never happened before.
not sure whether i should be embarrassed, proud, or a little bit of both, i, of course whipped out the camera.


one lady looked at her, and said, "It's because she is too tired." wow. as if i didn't feel guilty enough already that she wasn't home napping in her own bed. another looked at her, laughed, and called her son over to look. "I remember those days!" she said. her son looked pretty normal, so I didn't feel so bad anymore. i love having Hannah with me.
she continued to sleep as i shopped, checked out, shielded her from the rain, unloaded groceries, put her in her bed, and put away the groceries. She continues to sleep even as I type. Is she still wearing that adorable rain coat? Yes. I couldn't get it off of her.

Can you figure it out?

 

Hannah is becoming quite chatty... we just don't know what she's saying sometimes.
It's a good thing her cousin Elizabeth gets it.

Ok... any guesses on this one?
I know one day we will have this all figured out... and it will be so funny that we didn't understand her, but several times this weekend, she kept trying to say this to us, and we could not figure it out!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot 2010

Perhaps you received our Christmas card in the mail by now. (Hope so!) I love mail on any given day, but during Christmas, I WAIT for the mail truck like a little kid waiting for ice cream. Seriously... I am at the computer with the front window open... waiting!!!
I love it!!
So much has happened this year, it was hard to pick one image that kind of summed it up. It was also hard for us to pick a time to sit down as a family and get our picture taken!
Here's the "behind the scenes" tour of our Christmas card:
I thought about making a collage, one picture for every month of the year:

 

I also thought of just having a cute one of Hannah, but it was hard to get her to stay still:



Or Hannah and Gus together:





And then they needed a break.

It turns out Gus poses for pictures better than Hannah. He's always been such a good looking dog. And he knows it, so he's kind of a ham. And, he's a good sport about those antlers. Every year. Good boy.


Hannah's not much of a "cheeser" yet! She would rather take the pictures herself. Here's a few of me, and the Christmas tree, while I was trying to teach her how to pose for a shot. Surprisingly, she looks at the screen on the back of the camera, and her aim is not too bad! But she comes in a little close on the head shots. Note to self: Perhaps a good idea to put makeup on "just in case" every day now!

And then, finally, I just started clicking away while she played, and there was the moment:

She's not looking, nor is she even smiling, but that's what Christmas is all about, isn't it, folks?
While I had spent all this time trying to drum up a sweet jolly image, she's all about the right stuff. Totally touched my heart. Wishing you all the same kind of sweet, simple moments this Christmas!

And the Christmas tree is up!

I had a sweet little helper:


She only broke one. It was in the bottom of the box of unbreakables. In an instant, she gleefully snatched it up,"Ooooohh!" and bowled it across the kitchen tile! Sad moment.
Then she said "Uh-oh!" and ran to the other room!

Here's our little Christmas corner:

advent. 2010.

Christmastime is here... (Hooray!)

One of the best parts of Christmas for me, is actually the weeks leading UP to the big day. I LOVE Advent. Advent Calendars (I left mine up until August last year!), Advent wreaths, Advent sermons, and just the whole season of preparing my heart and home for Christmas!
Though we were ready, Advent got off to a rough start here at the Nourse casa. Hannah got croup on November 29. I had to call in sick the next day... and it has been a VERY LONG week ever since! I came down with the flu hard on December 1. It was awful, but brief! Thank God for the support of my parents, who came over in a flash to take care of Hannah, and pack us all up to get to the walk-in clinic like 2 minutes before it closed! I took a magic pill and the puking stopped...though I was very weak and out of it the whole next day, and all I ate was clear soup! Thankfully Micah was home for most of the day!
So, Advent Calendar thus far:
December 1: Listen to your favorite Christmas music. Vince Guaraldi Trio. The Nutcracker is a close second!
December 2: Donate some food to your local food bank. Ok, it's set aside, but we were all sick that day.

December 3: Write a letter to Santa. She actually did that today. We went to the Laguna Hills Community Center for Breakfast with Santa. We kicked it off with pictures with Santa (she totally cried), ate a delicious pancake breakfast with scrambled eggs (her favorite!) and sausage, and then headed out to write a letter to Santa. She did a good job. :)


December 4: Put up some Christmas decorations.

So, many of our decorations are already up. The lights were first. Micah loves putting them up in the dark. On the roof. So dangerous and I pray so hard. This year, Hannah was out with us, and that may be how she got sick. Who knows. We had her all bundled up, but she was bouncing around like crazy in her bouncy swing. (She still loves that thing!)
Anyhow, as we have been cooped up sick in here, the decorations are even more special to see through Hannah's eyes this year. She has loves pointing all of these out to me: the pillow on the door, her Little People Nativity Set (she already knows who Baby Jesus is!), her Christmas tea set, and the Elf on the shelf. She thinks he's hilarious, and when she can get her hands on him, she hides him in various cupboards of her play kitchen. The tree is not up yet. Perhaps tomorrow. We have to take the feet off of the small couch to move it into the front room, so there is room for the Christmas tree in our teeny living room!
And so, that's the beginning of Advent around here!