Christmas 2010

This year was our first Christmas in our new home!  On Christmas Eve, we ordered pizza for dinner (one of Sean's family traditions) and then allowed Ethan to open a gift.  He picked "Diary of a Whimpy Kid" and was SO excited!  We then surprised him by opening another gift - a special shirt we bought for him (I will get to that in another post). 

Christmas morning, Ethan woke up at 4:21AM - with much conjoling from us, he stayed in bed until 6AM, when we all got up and loaded up the car and went to my parents house.  Santa knew that we were going to open presents there, so he left all of the gifts there - there were so many presents!  Ethan had so much fun opening all of his!  After opening gifts, we all ate breakfast and I took a nap while waiting for Meg and Bobby to come over:)

After opening more gifts with Meg and Bobby, we visited where my grandma and grandpa are buried, then went to my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bud's house.  It was so fun seeing everyone together again!  We had the traditional turkey and all of the yummy side-dishes and desserts - so good!  This year for gifts, we did something a little different... we did Secret Santa, as opposed to getting everyone a gift.  It turned out really well!  We followed that with a White Elephant (another new game this year).  It was so fun to watch everyone open the gifts and then swap!  We then announced to everyone the big news! (which will be another post).

Another great Christmas with a wonderful family!

Christmas at my parents house

Christmas Eve gift Ethan opened

Ethan relaxing in his new jersey

Passed Out on the way to Aunt Deb's House

Dad playing with Ethan's Star Wars game - he tried so hard to get that little ball to go up! (It eventually did make it to the top)

Ethan's Last Day at Lees Corner Elementary School

Yesterday was Ethan's last day at Lees Corner, so I made plans with his teacher to go in at 11:45 with treats for the kids.  I ended up getting there a little early, so I joined Ethan and his friends for lunch - what an experience being in a cafeteria full of first and second graders!  Ethan was so excited that I was there and loved introducing me to everyone and sat on my lap after he finished eating.

After lunch, I followed his class to the classroom and everyone sat in a circle.  Ethan gave his teacher, Ms. Pivarnik her gifts and then I helped him give out cookies.  It was so fun to be able to meet his friends! 

Meg and I went to Lees Corner (Meg went from 2nd-6th grade, I went K-6th) so it was fun having Ethan be at the same school we went to.  Although another McGinnis leaves Lees Corner, we look forward to the adventures that his new school has in store for him!  He will start January 3rd, after the winter holiday break.

Ethan with his class

Ethan and his teacher

Bittersweet Goodbye to My Apartment and our Move to Our New Home

On Saturday we finally moved out of my apartment and into our new home - something we have been looking forward to doing and that I've been saving money for years to be able to do.  It was FREEZING outside (27 degrees!) and snow/ice was still on the ground from the day before, but we did it (mental note - NEVER move in December again!).  Looking around the new house, it's hard to believe that everything fit into a 2 bedroom apartment!  I like how my friend Cherie, said it when I pointed this out: "You're just good at organizing" :)  We have most of the boxes unpacked except for a couple, which is mostly my scrapbooking things, which I still need to figure out how to store and where to make my 'scrapbooking station' that isn't in the way of everything (at the apartment I used a closet-unfortunately, the new house doesn't have a closet I can use for it).  Side note: packing all of my scrapbooking stuff made me go through everything that I have, so my creative juices are flowing and I can't wait to start scrapbooking again - yahoo!  Sean says I have too much scrapbooking stuff, so I need to make more things to prove to him that it is all an investment in preserving memories:)

Today my mom helped me clean the apartment one last time and we did the final walk-through -- it was surprisingly hard saying goodbye to it! (Ok, I admit, I teared up when I closed the door for the last time and drove away).  I worked really hard (both in college and in my career) in order to have a place that Ethan and I could call home and be completely ours.  When I was pregnant with Ethan, I made a promise to myself and was determined not to be another statistic - so I worked hard to be successful and the apartment was a small physical proof to us that I was not yet another number. 

We created so many memories within those walls - I know all of the stories behind every stain in the carpet (the orange soda stain from when I was laying in the chair and accidentally kicked the small table, the Hawaiian Punch stain-almost overlapping the orange soda stain-from Ethan jumping around and knocking over the same small table)... no matter how much I scrubbed at those stains, they wouldn't go away!  We created new traditions and kept some old ones, we had dance-offs with each other with music blaring (sorry, neighbors!), Sean told me he loved me for the first time, and Ethan lost his first tooth there. 

I took pictures of the apartment-before I started packing about a month ago and then today I took some of the outside of it - I will post them when I get a chance.  Ethan and I are staying with my parents tonight through Wednesday night, as being here cuts 45 minutes off of my commute, so I'm using their computer now.  (Our computer isn't set up yet and we don't have Internet yet at the new house.)

Now, don't get me wrong, I am very happy with our new home and look forward to making new memories in it just like we did at the apartment, but it is sad closing a chapter in my life.

Elf on the Shelf!

Last week when we got home from school/work, Ethan insisted that we had to "find our elf!" and that his friend Tyler found his elf on the bookcase. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about, but then (as he was searching EVERYWHERE) I vaguely remembered seeing an Elf on the Shelf book and doll at the bookstore last year.  That night, I went on Amazon and bought one to surprise him.  It came in yesterday and so last night after he went to bed, I set up the Elf with the book for Ethan to find this morning.

He was SO excited when he saw it!  We immediately sat down and read the book, even though we were running 20 minutes late already.  We learned that the Elf will report to Santa every night about Ethan and will return again in a different spot.  AND, we absolutely cannot touch him because then he would lose his magic! 
While I was getting ready, he drew two pictures of the Elf and he told me he named him Max. 

While I was getting ready and Ethan was inspecting our new guest:

Ethan:  His skin doesn't look real, Mom
Me: Well, he is like the toys in Toy Story - you know how they come alive when Andy and other people are away?  He is like that.
Ethan:  Oh, ok.

A couple minutes later as we are leaving and I'm locking the deadbolt:

Ethan:  Mom, Max is moving around in there now because we aren't there.

So cute! 

Ethan's drawing of Max

New Recipe

Monday was a big day for Sean at work, so Sunday night I made his favorite dinner and surprised him with his favorite dessert! (Thanks, Joni, for sending me the recipe!)  So here is the recipe for the dessert, as I had never made it before:

Pretzel & Raspberry Salad

Base:
2 cups crushed pretzels (not too fine)
2 Tbs sugar
¾ cup melted butter

Mix and pat into 9x13 pan – Bake 425 degrees for 5 minutes. Cool completely

Filling:
1 8 oz package cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1 small can crushed pineapple

mix well.  Fold in – 19 oz cool whip, spread on crust; refrigerate

Topping:
2 small pkg raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 large bag frozen raspberries

Mix in bowl; cool in fridge. Then pour over filling and set.

SURVEY SAYS: It's definitely a keeper!  It took a really long time to make, though - so this one will only be for special occasions.