Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas with Tim's mom here for a visit. She arrived just hours before the blizzard, so unfortunatley we spent most of her visit cooped up inside. Both boys loved having Nana here; Grayson got held as much as he wanted and rocked to sleep and Brady got lots of individual play time with Nana. We all love it when Nana comes to visit! We went to the early children's mass on Christmas Eve then came home and had our traditional Christmas Eve meal which is a blend of Quaderer tradition, Cooper (my moms family) traditions and the new Mann family traditions. For as long as I can remember we had salmon soup and finger sandwiches at Grandma & Grandpa Q's and oyster stew at Granny & Grandpa Coopers house. Then when I was in high school, my grandpa Cooper and I convinced my mom to add peel and eat shrimp cocktail to the menu-ymu! Now, since I've been making it on my own (we've spent the past 2 Christmas's away from my family-so sad!), I decided the traditional salmon soup and oyster stew recipes were boring, so I found new ones. Last year the soups didn't come out too well, but this year they were deeee-licious! (If I don't say so myself. Heehee!!) After supper we opened our usual Christmas Eve jammies and figts to the boys from Great Grandma and Grandpa Mann. We read The Night before Christmas and put out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer. Christmas moorning then came very early. Brady woke up around 6:45 am and I put him back to bed and thought he was asleep, but about 20 minutes later I heard Tim get up and voiced in the family room. Tim had gone out to find Brady on his new bike saying, "Santa was here!" It was pretty funny. So, we got up and got the cinnamon buns cooking and coffee brewing, but I wouldn't let Brady open presents until he got Nana up-now that was a feat! Both boys then had a great time opening presents-even Grayson, which really surprised me. It was super cute! The boys made out like bandits and got lots of fun stuff. Brady was really into Christmas and Jesus' birthday this year and it was really fun to share in his excitment!

Our Christmas Eve spread. It doesn't look like much because the soup is on the stove and I was too lazy to get out my pretty china.

Christmas Eve photo shoot in our fancy Christmas duds.

Nana and her Christmas jammies.

Our little crawler

Well, I think it's official; our baby Grayson is mobile. He doesn't do the traditional crawl yet, but he is following in his brothers foot steps and is practicing his army hump. This is the same way that Brady crawled. Fun stuff! Here is a little video.

The snow-Mann's

The snow is here! It started snowing around 9 pm last night and hasn't stopped since. It is now 6:45 pm on Saturday evening and we have about 15 inches of snow on the ground and it is still snowing! I had planned to do my weekly grocery shopping today, but my mom called yesterday and asked if I was ready for the blizzard. Ehhh, I say? I watch the news every morning while nursing Grayson, but with Brady around I only get every fifth word. So I guess I heard snow, but not blizzard! Eeeeek! So I, along with the rest of Silver Spring made a mad dash to the grocery store. The place was a zoo! And at 5 pm they were completely out of milk and had like 1 dozen eggs and 1 loaf of bread left! It cracked me up! But of course I got my milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper and batteries just like everyone else. We're prepared! Today we decided to venture out and play in the snow and let Grayson have his first experience in the snow. The snow was nice and fluffy. Great for jumping in and playing in, not so good for snowman building though. We let Wilson off the leash and just let him frolic in the snow. He was so happy! Here's our pics of the Blizzard of 2009!

Our little snow"Mann"

I was trying to get Brady to do a snow angel, and get a really cute shot from above, but he just kept looking so pained and like he had no idea what I was talking about. Dang kid! Needless to say, this photo did not come out like I wanted.

Pathway of Peace

This weekend we went downtown to take some Christmas pictures near the white house and the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse. Surrounding the big Christmas tree they have a smaller decorated tree for each state and a whole miniature train village set up. They also had Santa's workshop and a santa to take pictures with. The workshop was really neat; Brady loved it! He also loved the train and cried when we had to leave. Poor little bear! It was freezing so we didn't stay long.

When I was in first grade and we lived in the Northern VA/DC area, we went downtown to see this pathway of peace and I think i have a picture of me just like this in front of one of the state trees. I thought it would be fun to re-create it 20 years later.

If you look closely this is a picture of Santa's workshop with the Washington monument in the background.

The boys sitting on Santa's lap. Neither one was afraid and both hopped right up and started cheesin away. It could be because this was inside in a heated building, so they were nice and toasty after we had frozen them to death taking pictures outside!
Photo shoot at home while the boys were in their Christmas duds. Brady's face in this picture cracks me up!

First Snow

Saturday we had our first snow of the season. We ended up getting about 4 inches total which was just enough to enjoy. It was nice that it came on a Saturday because we were able to just hunker down and hang out inside watching football. Tim and Brady did get out to make a snowman though. Brady had a blast and is still talking about his snowman. Weather across the nation is looking pretty snowy, so he just might have the opportunity to make another one here soon!

National Christmas Tree lighting

This past Thursday we went to the National Christmas Tree lighting. There was an online lottery you could put your name into to get tickets, and our name was pulled. Unfortunately they were standing room only tickets, but it gave us a reason to go to it and to be a little closer. It was neat to be there, but I'm not sure it was completely worth it given that it was on a weekday at 5 pm. Tim had to meet us downtown after work, so I didn't want to take the metro because that would have meant that me and the boys would have had to ride the metro home at night and well, I'm just not that brave no matter how safe the metro is supposed to be. So anyhow, we had to deal with the traffic nightmare in DC at rush hour and both Tim and I just barely made it there by 5 and the event was only an hour long. We couldn't see all that well and the field was super muddy and it was cold. Then to top it off, traffic was atrocious on the way home as well. Ugh! But, it was just one of those crazy things I like to do in order to soak in and experience all that where ever we are currently stationed has to offer. As I was speed walking, pushing the double jogger with the boys all bundled up, it reminded me of when I was a kid and my parents took my brother and I to the inauguration of the first President Bush. I remember it was freezing and we were smooshed together with thousands of other people lining the streets trying to see something and still we really couldn't see anything! So I guess I'm just continuing tradition by dragging Tim and the boys to these silly things. I hope one day that Brady will be able to pull this out of his memory box and say, "I remember when my crazy mom used to make us......"

Turkey Day

We had a lovely and quiet Thanksgiving. Tim's dad drove down from IN to visit for the week. He hadn't met Grayson yet, so it was great for him to get all caught up on his hugs and cuddles with him. I cooked the whole meal and the turkey again this year, but I changed all the recipes and everything came out great! These recipes are a keeper! We injected the turkey and put it in an ice brine bath for 30 hours then cooked it in my raster and it turned out scrumptious! Good day!

Grandpa Mann and the boys.

Roasted turkey.

Me in my "zone" (as Tim calls it) cooking our delicious meal.
Tim with the electric knife getting ready to carve the bird.
Our beautiful table. One of the two times a year I use my china. It's so pretty!
Our other turkey day guests-Mike (a classmate of Tim's) and his wife Amanda.

Visit with the Bluncks

My good friend Sara, aka-Bucher, and her family were in town visiting a few weekends ago. Sara's husband, Matt and Tim had never met before and we hadn't seen Sara and her little guy, Mason since he was born and he is now 15 months or so. It was great to visit with her and get all of our boys together. Sara and I went to college together-good ol' BSU-and were roommates all 4 years. She and her family now live in Indianapolis. I really wish we lived closer so we could hang out more often, but fortunately I will get to see her again in February for our friend Erin's wedding. Can't wait!

Buch-ee and I all grows up! Doesn't she look good?! She just ran a marathon! You go girl!

Sara and Mason

Playing hide and go seek with his daddy. Too cute!

It was quite the feat to get 2 toddlers and a baby to sit still and smile for a picture!