I Love This PLace

Growing up so far in the country, hours from the nearest major city, I never realized how many aspects of a big city we missed out on. Truth is, big cities are cool. (Yes, big fancy word- I know!) They are. They have events that you can't have when you live in a town without a stop light. Madison is absolutely one of those "cool" places. (Pun intended.)

The latest cool adventure that I have been on in Madison is to go the 40th Annual Christmas Lecture given by a UW Madison professor. He plans these each Christmas, and the tickets are absolutely free! The lectures are always taped and played on our local PBS channel as well.
I took a friend of mine this year with her two kids, and we were excited to go and get good seats, so we got there early. Very early. We beat out all other spectators and were the first by the door.
We had over an hour of time to kill, and with three antsy children had to get creative by sending them on an adventure with Gina to explore the building. That helped.
When we first walked on, the bright "Science is fun" sign catches your eye immediately, putting the kids into an even more excited stupor.
The lecture itself is full of fun experiments with colorful liquids, explosions, and goopy goop that runs everywhere. It lasts for almost an hour and a half, and the kids never get distracted because of all the fun experiments he runs.

I suppose their attentiveness could also be attributed to the visitors that come as well. The UW Badger Band had a section of their brass this year playing at various points during the show. Santa Claus even came to the show to drop off some items for an experiment. Evan's eyes lit up at the sight of this man who he hopes is bringing him lots of toys! But even Santa can't rival Ev's favorite person of the day: Bucky Badger! Bucky sat in the row in front of us, and Evan watched his every move. (Yes, Bucky is wearing Safety glasses. It is a chemistry lab and you need to be safe!)

At the end of the show, he immediately ran over and was the first to pose for a picture with Bucky.
We had an awesome day, and it just reinforces how much I love this cool place we live.

We are so lucky

This Thanksgiving came and went rapidly as always, without much time for pensive reflection on gratitude, yet as a I looked at the few pictures I took last weekend, I realized that we are all so very lucky.

We are lucky to have two families (Chris' and mine) that are so thrilled and excited to welcome us into their homes whenever we want. We bring noise, fighting, pickiness, and laughter, life, and love.

We are lucky to have the world's cutest nieces. I'm serious. Look at these little ones.

Samantha was so open to playing with the boys this year. She was in chasing mode and was always at least half a lap behind when they ran around the house.
She even gleefully posed for these pictures for her Aunt Jen. I couldn't even get Evan to glance at me long enough to snap the shot. Bummer!
McCamey is like a whole new person from the last time that I saw her. My last image of McCamey was of her knowing how to sit by herself. Now, she is a full-fledged walker with a whole head of hair and cute little ponytails.
We are also so lucky to have the world's sweetest nephews.

Noah enthusiastically adored McCamey and continued giving her little kisses to show her his affection.
We also celebrated my nephew Matthew's 10th birthday. (Unfortunately, I caught him with his eyes shot and didn't get another shot!)
I have always known that I was lucky as well for having such an awesome family. My favorite part about going home is the conversation I have with my siblings. We talk about everything from politics to Facebook to old memories to kid stories. I treasure those moments when we are all together.

We are so lucky.

Need a little Christmas?

I have so many priceless memories of Christmas programs as a child. I remember overly elaborate school plays where we all dressed as toy dolls or tin soldiers and stood on our tiny stage singing Christmas carols; thunderous applause from proud parents greeted us for our efforts. I remember church programs that were equally elaborate and organized, directed by my mom. Some of my favorite roles were playing Michael, an angel(-- yes, Michael a boy. Thanks mom!) or a star in the sky. Regardless of the memory, a warm holiday spirit always encompasses me when I think of them.

Similarly, last night at the boys' Christmas concert, I felt the same way. I watched my elf- Brendan-- and my tin soldier- Andrew as they participated in this year's program entitled "Santa's Playlist." The premise was that Santa's records all got broken, so the elves, tin soldiers, and reindeer offer to share songs from their playlist to help him build his MP3 player. Cute twist on a new technology.

Here is my elf watching the people doing speaking parts. Hilariously, by the end of the night, Brendan's elf hat had unbeknownst to him shifted so that the ear served more as a unicorn horn in the center of his head. (I forgot to snap a picture of that delight!)

Andrew is a tin soldier dressed in red and black. Unfortunately, he stood close to where the director was, so most of my pictures are impaired from the back of his teacher blocking the view. I took a number of little videos on my camera, but I think I deleted them accidentally. This is the remaining video for me to share. (It is just of Brendan- don't tell Andrew!) I have the whole concert on film to show family over Christmas break.


We had a great night and feel full of holiday spirit.