part 2

Here's the second part of Caleb's Christmas video. See the story below...

Caleb's Christmas Present

One of Caleb's presents was stuck under the seat of Santa's sleigh so it wasn't delivered until today. ;-)

In truth the boy didn't mention wanting this until 2 days before Christmas and we didn't think he would have his heart set on it. After several days of hearing how disappointed he was with not getting (plus that it was on sale), we caved for the cave crusher. The little guy was so cute about it- not a brat and not even whiney and the reaction on this video was completely worth it.

Bellefield's Christmas pagent 2009

The Sunday before Christmas, our church, Bellefield Presbyterian in Oakland put on a little Christmas pageant with the children's Sunday school classes. Sadie's class were sheep. Caleb's class were shepherds. Unfortunately with the events of the past month or so, we haven't been making it to Sunday school with regularity. The kids had learned their song "Away in a Manger" but didn't really know beyond that what they would be doing. To make matters even more complicated Saturday morning we were supposed to have rehearsal but mother nature decided to send us a heavy snow fall. Rehearsal was rescheduled for right before the service.

Well, Caleb was not even remotely interested in playing this game. He knew very well that there were no policemen in the manger scene and therefor no place for him. He couldn't be a shepherd when he's always been a policeman. He happily sat with Daddy watching the practice and performance.

Sadie was all dressed up in her Christmas dress but a little unsure of all that was going on. Then came time for putting on her little lamb costume (a pillowcase). Well, she wanted nothing to do with covering up her pretty dress. She reluctantly put it on and came downstairs to rehearse with the rest of them. A very sad and pouting Sadie came down to rehearse. I went to ask what was wrong, seeing her so upset, and all she had to say was "I look silly." I've never been good at lying and while she did look adorable, she also looked a little silly with the pillowcase on. I tried my best not to let on and reassure her that she looked like a little lamb but she was not having it. Her class went up on stage to practice and she refused to sing at all and stood there pouting. It was heartbreaking to watch and still so funny because the poor thing was convinced that she looked ridiculous.

Rehearsal finished and the little ones were sent up to their rooms to wait for the program to begin. I talked to Sadie and talked to her teachers and we agreed that she didn't have to wear the pillowcase if she would be happy and sing with the rest of the kids. This made her very happy. After a short time of playing, it was time to take the lambs all down to the sanctuary. This meant getting pillowcases on 8 or so 3 yr olds (most of which were not interested at all in wearing them let alone being up on stage singing). One of Sadie's classmates put on her pillowcase and the next thing I knew, Sadie was happily wearing hers and was ready to sing.

She went with her class up on stage, wore her pillowcase and even sang a little. It was very cute. We even had a black sheep in her class. Actually the little guy was wearing a bat costume from the dress-ups but we decided that he was the little black sheep and it was adorable.

It was a very cute program, complete with a newborn baby as the baby Jesus and I hope they do it again next year. Who knows, we might even be able to convince Caleb to be a shepherd.



Notice the black sheep on the left



Sadie pouting

Christmas Tree 2009

This year we decided to get a "real" tree for Christmas, something we haven't done since living in Baltimore pre-kiddos. After talking about it a bit, we decided that it might be fun to venture out to a tree farm and try choosing and cutting down our own tree. It just so happened that G'ma and Papa have been doing exactly that for the past couple of years and new of a good farm to go to. So we ventured out to a pretty little farm in New Alexandria, PA to find and cut down our Christmas tree.

It was quite the caravan going out there. We had 2 cars (me and the kids had been on an overnight to my dad's and Andy drove out in the morning). G'ma and Papa had their truck and Aunt Judy and Heather had decided to join us and cut down their own tree too. Jackie also decided to tag along for the adventure at the last minute. So we were quite the crew.

The farm was on top of a hill with the evergreens growing on the surrounding hillsides. It was very pretty and we couldn't ask for better weather. We all piled out of our vehicles and started to walk around and take in all the trees. Caleb and Papa started walking together and at just about every tree Caleb would look up and ask "is this the perfect tree?" There were hundreds of trees but a lot of these early ones that Caleb looked at would have filled our entire living room. So we needed to find a cute, little, perfect tree and kept walking.

Sadie quickly found some weeds to pick and gather into a bouquet. I'm not sure what it was that she was picking but she started calling them cattails so that's what we stuck with. It certainly kept her entertained for awhile.

We walked around for about 20 minutes before finding the tree. There were a lot of maybes up until that point and then we saw our tree. It was perfect. Just the right size for our little living room! Papa Joe passed the saw to Andy and he began to cut while the rest of us eagerly watched. The tree fell and then Andy and the kids worked to drag the tree back up to the car. They were very excited to help.

The rest of us continued to walk around, looking for the next "perfect" tree. It wasn't long and wasn't far before Heather had found the tree for Aunt Judy's house. This one was big and full and beautiful. Papa Joe helped cut the tree down and Heather drug it back to their car.

Now we only needed one more tree but weren't having any luck. So we decided to wander back towards the cars. There were trees growing on the hill below where we parked and these were the ones we started out looking at. This time we decided to head towards the trees that were growing above the cars. It wasn't long before G'ma and Jackie had spotted their "perfect" tree. This tree was also full and not quite as big as Aunt Judy's but not as small as ours. Papa Joe quickly cut the tree down and got it back to the cars. We were loaded up and ready to go in no time.

It was a fun adventure and fortunately there were few mishaps so I'm thinking that we might be doing this again. Hope you like the pictures!




Papa Joe and Caleb




Is this the perfect tree?



Sadie and her cattails



Our tree? maybe...



Andy cutting it down. Timber!

The Walsh Christmas Marathon 2007

Caleb's Backhoe

Sadie's new sweater (g'ma Jody made it)

A gift for you

okay, so i'm finally getting around to writing a thorough account of our Christmas travels. (warning: i will try to keep this short but i make no promises. some of you may just want to skip this post all together and i'll post a slide show for those who would prefer to see the illustrated version) :-)

we had 4 Christmas's this year. that just happens when you have 3 sets of grandparents that all want to spend time with the grandkids. and we wanted to have our own Christmas now that Caleb and Sadie are more aware of what's going on. check out my previous post to hear about our family Christmas the Sat before Christmas.

New Jersey Christmas

we left on Sunday (the 23rd) to drive out to NJ to spend Christmas with Andy's parents and sister. andy drove the entire trip through rain, pouring rain and fog. it was not a fun drive but we made it in time for dinner with the family.

Monday was Christmas eve and was our first family gathering of the week. the Walshes came over for dinner and some presents. this included andy's uncles (Brian and Mike) and Uncle Time, Aunt Judy and their sons Matt and Nick. the kids didn't quite know what to make of all these men in the house but they were happy knowing that mommy, daddy or grandma was near by. it was a nice evening of visiting and catching up. the kids got story books from Tim and Judy and that was perfect. i think i read Corduroy at least 5 times in just that evening, fortunately it's both a favorite book for me and andy.

we didn't make it to Christmas eve service but we're thankful to have been able to get the kids to sleep with little problems (as they get older i'm sure it will be more difficult to get them to sleep on Christmas eve).

Christmas morning started some time after 8. Caleb decided to sleep in so it was quite amusing to see all the adults downstairs eagerly waiting for the 2yr old to wake up for Christmas. Then it was a blur of packages and wrapping paper and gift bags with tissue paper. The big hit with Caleb was his kid's CD player and the different CDs he got for it. i think Sadie's favorite was her sweater that g'ma knitted and the blanket Betsy made for her.

we enjoyed a relaxing Christmas day and in the evening went out to visit some more family for dessert. it was very low-key so the kids did really well even though they were surrounded by new faces. the next day we had Christmas with the great-grandparents. it was nice to be able to visit them without all the craziness of Christmas day excitement.

the rest of the week continued to be pretty relaxing with some more time with family and just enjoying our gifts. andy and i were able to shoot down to Trenton to visit a friend of andy's from Hopkins. it was a nice chance for us to get away a little without the kids. then on Saturday, andy and papa took Caleb to the NJ children's museum. Caleb made us all laugh when we mentioned the museum and he said "oh dinosaurs." he has a really good memory (we went to the carnegie and saw dinosaurs with Aunt Lindsay earlier in dec). And Sunday we drove home stopping to visit the Groshes in Mt. Joy, PA on the way.

Christmas with the Bushes

on new year's eve we packed up the kids to head out for another Christmas. we decided to spend new year's eve with g'ma Suzie and papa Joe. it was another nice low-key celebration for us. after having dinner, we opened our gifts. Caleb loved his new backhoe (i think it scared Sadie a little). it moves and makes sounds and it didn't take long before the kids figured out which button played music and would press that and dance. Sadie got a pretty little anklet id (i had one similar when i was a baby). she also got a vacuum cleaner that was a big hit. the kids and grown-ups had lots of fun but Andy and i were the only ones who stayed awake for the new year :-)

the next morning we decided to do some visiting while we waited for Aunt Jackie and Chris to come out. we stopped over at gr-g'ma Roger's and visited with her and Aunt Judy and Heather. i don't remember g'ma ever having a Christmas tree that big- it was so nice and pretty (thanks Heather). after g'ma's we went to stop in at grammie m's and grandpapap (that's what Caleb's been calling my dad). it was a nice little visit but we had to get home- snow was coming.

we got back to my mom's and soon Aunt Jackie arrived so we could have one last Christmas. they got Caleb his first sleeping bag (Lightening McQueen). then we packed up and went back home.

Christmas at Camp

our last Christmas was just over the weekend at my dad's camp in Crossfork, PA. we drove out to Derry, Friday morning so we could ride up with my dad. he took pity on us after having spent so much time driving in the past couple of weeks. but this was quite a drive. 4 adults and 2 kids in car seats in the van plus all our bags and gifts and food. and Caleb and i both get carsick. everyone did really well though. Andy sat between the kids and kept them happy and quickly helped Caleb when he started looking a little sick. i sat up front (the only place where i won't get sick on the windy roads).

at camp, Caleb and Sadie shared a bedroom up stairs- Caleb slept on the futon in his sleeping bag and loved it. Sadie had the pack-n-play and tolerated it. they had lots of fun playing with toys and with grammie and grandpapap.

Saturday morning was our "Christmas" morning. the kids got up and opened their stockings and had a big breakfast while waiting for Uncle Sean, Aunt Emily and Claire to come over. when they arrived, once again it was a blur of presents and wrapping paper. Caleb was a good helper, passing out presents. Sadie happily tried to model all the clothes she opened up. it was a really nice morning. later in the afternoon, we had a dinner of venison and pork and sauer kraut (not all together). i'm thinking that not many people have deer meat for Christmas dinner but ours was so good.

the kids enjoyed playing with their toys the rest of the afternoon. and Sunday morning we got up and then packed up all the gifts and stuff to take back home. Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsay helped by bringing their truck so we were able to have them transport somethings back to Derry.

so i guess that's it. we've now spent almost a week out of our suitcases and i've managed to get most of the laundry under control. we even got the cat back (she stayed at g'ma Suzie's and Papa Joe's through all of this).

we hope you all have had an enjoyable Christmas. we are so thankful not only for the generosity of our family but also for the blessing we have in such a large, loving family and we look forward to many more Christmas's together.

Christmas pictures

Here are pictures from Christmas at our house. I just realized that Sadie wasn't in any of these- oops. But you can see the kitchen and Cranky Crane (that was the bigger hit with Caleb). I'll have more updates later but now I need to get some sleep.

Christmas Morning - take 1

Yes, we had our first Christmas morning today, since we'll be off to NJ tomorrow. It went well. Andy spent all of last night putting together the first major gift for the monkeys- a kitchen set. We opted for a wooden one that we thought might stand up well and was smaller than the big plastic ones we saw. It was a big hit. We had it set up in front of the TV as they came down the stairs and Caleb and Sadie immediately started exploring the cabinets. We also had some play food in it that they found and "ate". Then we did the wrapped gifts- some story books, Cranky the Crane (for Caleb), and they each got an outfit. I've discovered that Caleb's response to unwrapping clothes is better when they have Thomas or in this case Bob the Builder on them. He actually took them out and held them up and happily said "Bob shirt and pants!"

After opening the presents, Andy went to work making pancakes while Caleb played with Cranky and Sadie explored the kitchen. It was a nice morning so I think we'll be ready for the next official Christmas.

Makin' Cookies

Well, we've had a very busy start to the holiday season. Wednesday we were out at my mom's for the day to make cookies (my favorite iced cut-out cookies). We had been planning this for awhile. Sadly, plans changed a little when my grandfather passed away late Monday night. As you can see from the slide show, Caleb and Sadie got to make cookies but I had to attend the viewing and other services. Despite the gray cloud, the kids had a blast. Caleb was so excited and eager to help. He helped my mom roll out the dough and then of course, helped with cutting out the Christmas trees and bells and Santas. Sadie preferred to eat her cookie dough instead of playing with it so we gave her cookie cutters to play with instead. I hope you like the pictures.

I was excited because my mom made a batch of Gluten-free cookies for me and they taste wonderful- just like mimi's. Now I have to use all of my self-control to keep from eating them all at once.