Christmas Week

So the days leading up to Christmas were a lot of activity around our house, minus Dad who caught the flu; but we kept things rolling.

Started out making some Christmas cookies.

While the cookies baked Mae decided to memorize The Joy of Cooking, a la Will Hunting.

Then we decorated them.

Oh, and I decorated paper to use as our Christmas present paper for Nana and Papa.

Next post will be some rockin photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morn'.

Merry Christmas

Santa...!

Don't even think of skipping my house.

Love always,
Mabel

(Mae wanted to pen a post here so I thought I'd let her in on the action. She was misbehaving a bit and Mom and Dad told her that Santa is watching and there is a chance, albeit a slight one, that he could skip our house. Probably not a good idea, jolly big man.)

CHRISTMAS SHOW!!

So I had my first Christmas Show the other day at St. Helen's. You might have seen me practicing for the show, but this was the real thing. Before mom and Dad came to the show Mae got dressed for the festivities.

You can see me right there in the front row, just to the right of the piano lady player's head. I was told they wanted the stars of the show in the front row... yep, she wasn't born yesterday, was she?

And a post-show-so-proud-of-myself smile.

Back in my classroom I asked Mom to get a picture of me with my best friend Nadia. We are, as they say, thick as thieves around St. Helen and I just got her phone number the other day so I can't wait to hang out with her over Christmas Break.

Mae wanted in on the action, she's kind of our class mascot.

Mae, over with the antlers, dude! There, much better.

And then, before I left, I asked Michael to take a picture with me. About three weeks ago Michael asked me to marry him (no joke). At the time I "thought it was silly and walked away," but I figured if I'm gonna marry this chap, he should at least meet my dad.  And how could you not approve of that smile!

Christmas card-worthy post show family pic.

Kansas City, There We Went

So I'm going back a bit but we missed telling you about Thanksgiving. Showed up at Midway Airport at 5:15am, stood in line for 2+ hours only to find our flight cancelled. ROAD TRIP!! So we jumped in the car and drove there.

Now, we forgot to bring the camera so we don't have all the pics I'd like to share with you, but I did want to show you some pics of our really good friends there.

Yes, Grandma and Grandpa and Nonie and Aunt Erica and the whole gang was there, but there was a special place in our hearts for these two little fellas.

DISCLAIMER: Buddy, Nana's dog, if you are reading this, I urge you to turn away in an attempt to save your heart from being broken.

This is Trevor, who Mae was slightly obsessed with.

Kisses...

Hugs...

And a whole lotta love...

Mae had to go potty so I actually get five seconds with Trevor, too.

And this is Jesse, Aunt Erica's newest addition to her family... he is a giant, probably the size of 17 Mabels put together. It was kind of like having a black bear in the house.

And here is a great picture of Nonie and me. She is not a dog, though sometimes Dad calls her one; as in, "Hey Nonie, you old dog, what are you having for breakfast?" So there's that.

Here We Come-A-Caroling

Hair Salon

Well, I'm getting pretty good at doing my own hair every morning before I come down for breakfast so I asked Mae if she wanted me to do her hair and she was really excited.

So we set up shop in the bathroom and got started. First we looked through our accessory options and then I went to work.

After I got the back pony done with a trifecta band, I had one last piece that was the front of her hair coming to the back.

Eventually Mom helped me out with that piece because it kept falling out, but the rest of this masterpiece is all mine.

An Education, by Mabel Jane

I hope you are all ready to be educated on childbirth and the developmental stages while the baby is in the womb because Mabel is about to drop an intellectual bomb on this place.

Evil Finleivel

Okay, so as my gymnastics are improving I've decided to take it to another level. It's time to go straight for some hardcore stunt action, and I needed some help from a friend.

I started with some of my warm-up routine which included some splits stretching...

And some handstands.

Then it was time for the show. I called up Mom's friend Jill to see if she would participate. A hard negotiator, Jill cost me three green grapes, a bag of my favorite pretzels and two stickers. Her agent takes quite a stand. But it was worth it, I needed something to jump over, after all.

Pre-jump you can see the scene. Jill is in position, thousands of fans attending the event (you can't see them here, they are behind the cameraman) and I'm down the hall getting myself psyched.

And then it began... a swift sprint down the hallway... and... TAKEOFF!

The crowd went wild, the sponsors went berzerk and NBC said ratings were through the roof.

I, after such a taxing evening, had a small bowl of ice cream with some strawberries and went to bed.

Advanced Literature

So it was reading time on Sunday morning. Mae and I got a bunch of books from upstairs and headed for the couch.

So Mae was reading Clifford or something of that sort and I was getting pretty deep into my book.

So Finley, what were you reading? Looks like an awful lot of words and very few pictures

Well, I got myself into some "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and I just could not put it down. I followed that up with "About a Boy" by Nick Hornby. After about 45 minutes it was a wrap and we headed for the park.

Naughty or Nice

So every Friday at school if you've been good for five days in a row you get to pick something out of the prize box. Nothing big, it's usually a sheet of stickers or a special pen or something.

Well, there is a group of us that gets to pick out of the prize box every week, without fail, and then there's this crew...

I got home last Friday and decided to write the names down of the kids in my class that continuously do NOT get to pick out of the prize box.

I don't know how many times to tell them that Santa is watching...

Gold Medalist

So it started with the Olympics. Mom and I had the stomach flu and so we spent three straight days laying on the couch watching the Olympics. And that's when I fell in love with gymnastics.

So much so that we went to see the U.S. Gold Medal team at the United Center, where they performed some amazing gymnastics for us, and our seats were almost in the front row.

It was only natural that I sign up for gymnastics classes. So I go twice a week near our new house and here are a couple of my moves.

And since Mae and Stacey were bringing me to gymnastics Miss Maria (our teacher) fell in love with Mae and now she is in my class, too, with a bunch of four and five year olds. Here's Mae doing her thing.

My father's daughter

Okay, so you know how there are those moments in your life when you say to yourself, "Am I seriously a product of that person?" I often think this when my Dad throws the TV remote across the room and breaks it after his favorite team loses; or when he just lays on the horn for 20 seconds or so at someone blocking the intersection.

Well, last night we were out bumming around - you know, the usual: the grocery store, Home Depot, that whole bit.  Anyway, I looked at what the two of us were wearing and we both had the same thing on.

It was about 40-degrees and we were rocking t-shirts with no coats on and in our favorite flip flops and I thought to myself, "Yep, that is DEFINITELY my dad."

Now if only Mom can hang on to that remote on Saturday afternoons.

Devil's Night

So it is Halloween and oh man, what a great day. So great that I decided I'm wearing my costume again tomorrow.

I went with a raccoon outfit and grandma sewed my tail to the back of my yoga pants (no, I don't do yoga, just the type of my pants).  And Mae was going to be a nun, which woulda been just amazing, but she went with a witch instead.

After school we headed out for trick or treating with our cousins...

And then we went to Nana's so we could visit buddy. His costume was incredible, he went as a black labrador retriever; I mean, does that look authentic or what?!

Got a great picture with Nana and Grandma before we headed back out for trick or treating by Nana's house.

And then when we got home I went to bed while Mae divided up her candy.

Dude, don't even think about messing with her Tootsie Pops.