I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

This Christmas was a busy one with lots of visitors and lots of presents, two things that I don’t mind. On December 22, 2010 my maternal grandma and papa flew from South Dakota to get a taste of the East Coast. We headed down to see my cousins Ellen and Owen for Christmas Eve dinner and church. Afterwards, we came back and exchanged gifts. As it was pretty late when we got home I didn’t get to set the carrots and celery out for Santa’s reindeer or the cookies and milk for Santa, but I made sure to hang the key by the door before we left. When I woke up on Christmas morning, Santa and his reindeer had left me a note thanking me for the goodies. I thought it was a pretty good trade as he left me lots of goodies under the tree! My paternal grandma and papa showed up in mid-afternoon with my great grandmother and I still wasn’t done opening gifts. Plus they just added to my pile. It was a pajama day to say the least. Then Kim, Don and Tal showed up to have their first ever Christmas dinner. Tal and I exchanged gifts and he played with all my new toys. Speaking of new toys, I completely made out with a castle, farm, doctor’s kit, puzzles, guitar, saxophone, Candy Land, books, clothes and many other goodies!

And of course I just ate and ate, none of the good stuff and all of the bad stuff! This brings up my passion for nuts…this must have come from my father or my maternal grandfather. Regardless who gave me this gene, I love PEANUTS, and almonds, and pretty much any type of nut you give me. This all started with Grandpa Kappenman and his obsession for nuts. He started cracking them and I was right at his side. I couldn’t get enough of the nuts and seek them out.

The day after Christmas brought a massive snow storm to the East Coast. It snowed all day and all night, finally easing up on the 27th but leaving 27” of snow to clear. Of course this meant we had to go sledding and we did. My Papa Kappenman also built me a toy box to hold all my new toys. By the time we could get out of the house on the 28th, this left one day with my Grandma and Papa Kappenman before they took off for D.C. and my Grandma and Papa Basner came to stay as mommy and daddy headed to New Orleans for their annual trip with Jessilyn and Nolan. We spent that last day eating lunch and playing at Chuck E. Cheese which is always a great time. The following days we spent hanging out with Grandma and Papa Basner ringing in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Star Light, Star Bright

Once again, I’m the star of the show. Okay I might be fibbing as I have extreme stage fright. Not sure what to expect, my mother sat in the second to front row this year. Last year she choose to stand/sit in the back and I ended up sitting on some unknown woman’s lap. She was already with her fancy camera to take marvelous footage of me to show daddy but there is no evidence to show daddy. I took three steps into the room and completely forgot my lines. In fact, I had no intention of standing at the front of the class and letting all those beady eyes stare at me. I would rather join the crowd and laugh at them, okay well I was crying the whole time. But there was no way my momma was going to let me miss out on stage fright. No, she insisted that she join the show. In one fell swoop she picked me up and joined in singing. Boy what a pair we made, me crying and her singing and bouncing me. At least she caught a few pictures of my class in action for the memories.

Love to Eat Turkey (Adam Sandler)

This past week we traveled back to what's commonly referred to as 'The Tundra' a/k/a South Dakota. First a brief stop in Minneapolis to visit Mike & Amy and to meet Micah for the first time. He's a youngin' so he doesn't do much, but hopefully by the time we return, he'll be crawling. On Sunday, I spent the day with Micah and his grandparents so the parentals could go to the Vikings v. Packers game. It was a terrible loss but I had a great time at the LaVallies.




As I had more people to see, we headed to Sioux Falls that evening arriving around 9 p.m. to be greeted by a tiny black and white kitten named Oreo. This kitty was awesome. If I could bundle her up and sneak back in my luggage without anyone knowing I would. I could do anything to this cat, and she just kept playing with me. She chased me up the stairs, ran after me, jumped on me, fought with me over a box and became my best friend for the week. Now that's not to say that I didn't love Oscar, it's just that he doesn't seem to have the same love affair brewing with me as Oreo.





As the weather was truly dreadful as the entire week was filled with freezing rain and ice, we didn't do much. However, I did spend a few days playing with my cousins Danny and Bryce, learning how to play the guitar, seeing my great grandparents, tackling my Grandpa K, celebrating Brooklyn's first birthday, Turkey day and the annual Lefsa and cookie making day where I had my first taste of the Norwegian stuff and loved it! Friday brought us back to Minneapolis for dinner with friends, and Saturday we were back on an airplane returning home to Jersey where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. To sum up our adventures to South Dakota, it was a great relaxing week.

Memories In the Corner of My Mind

As I get older it seems my memory is getting better with age. I have no problem remembering something that was promised to me, which probably isn’t that unique. What my parents find crazy unique is the fact that I can remember things that are so obscure. For instance, yesterday we were leaving swimming lessons when I pointed to the brick wall and asked “where did the ghost go?” My parents having no clue what I was talking about were clearly confused about this so called ghost. That was until the lady at the front desk decided to answer my question and tell me that the ghost got taken down because Halloween was over. Another example of my memory and association was when we were driving down the road and the Golden Arches appeared. Quite sometime ago we were eating at “Donalds” and I was asking about the Golden Arches and my mother explained to me that it was the McDonald’s sign. Now every time I see the Golden Arches I immediately tell my parents I want to go to Donalds! My parents are envious of my ability to remember the smallest of things.

The Monster Mash

Happy Halloween!! I'm not really sure who's bright idea it was to have me dress up as a golfer but I'll give you one guess. She kept saying "you're so cute!" The only thing cool about this costume was the fact that I had a golf club to swing around at my leisure. The leggings with knickbockers, the "shoes" that fit over my real shoes, the too tight green beret that left marks on my head, and the wool sweater all for the price of $29.99, does not sound like a deal to me! But being 2 does not lend itself to choices all that often so being told what to do is where it's at. I do love the game of golf, or at least the clubs and golf balls. So when they showed me my costume I was pretty excited as it came with a plush golf club to swing around at my leisure.



On Friday the annual Halloween parade was held at Goddard and my mommy was actually in town and was able to show up and help me get dressed. She even stuck around to walk in the parade with me. Everyone was commenting on how adorable I was and comparing me to Arnold Palmer; whoever he is! I strutted around the course while people admired the blond hair and knickers…boy was I a sight. Saturday we spent the early afternoon at the Little Gym Halloween party. I was able to dress up and do gymnastics, which was awesome! Its not very often you get to dress up as a golfer and swing like a monkey on the uneven bars.




By the time Halloween arrived on Sunday, I was pretty sick of being the golfer. My knickers wouldn’t stay up, my pants were itching and I hated my hat. But I still loved my clubs. It was a cold and windy day so we kept trick-or-treating to the closest neighbors who gave me some random treats; a juice box for instance. We then headed over to Josh’s grandmas for the haunted garage. The haunted garage stirs up some bad memories for me. About a month ago, Grandma and Papa Basner decided that my daddy needed his mask that he used when he was 18 (we aren’t quite sure what Grandma was still doing with it 18 years later). Anyhow, I took one look at this mask and was petrified of it; petrified might be an understatement! From that point on the Monster has lived in the time out closet making only brief appearances when my behavior warrants it. Needless to say, I don't like the monster and you truly only have to warn me once about the Monster appearing and I shape up. So back to the haunted garage that is filled with monsters, I wouldn't even step foot in it for fear that a monster would get me. Plus it didn't help that I heard screams coming from inside. Daddy walked through and said it was really good. Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll be brave enough to enter! Josh wasn't having it either. So this left us to trick or treating around the frigid neighborhood. This year Josh had three costumes, but the one he choose to debut at the party was the spider. Once again another fantastic creation by his mother! The remainder of the day was spent inside and occasionally playing outside on the tree swing. I ended the day with a ton of candy, most of which I can't eat! It was a great halloween. Next year we're going to shoot for a costume that makes me look not so cute...

Five Little Pumpkins

It was such a beautiful day today that we decided it would be a perfect afternoon to hunt for the perfect pumpkin. We met up with Kate, Andy and Lainie Ro for a hay ride out to the patch. We scoured the patch for the perfect pumpkin. Being that it was so late in the season the patch was pretty well picked over. But that didn’t stop me from attempting to pick up every pumpkin near me. I eventually found a pumpkin that was worthy of placement on my front porch so we boarded the tractor back to civilization, but not before some funny pictures with cutouts! We returned home to decorate our pumpkin and make pumpkin seeds!

Picture

Picture day, picture day, time to get my picture taken with Frank! Yes, it’s that time of year where I turn from crazy Thad into model Thad. We started the day out at PJ’s for a hearty breakfast of pancakes. Frank was an hour late so I spent the time prowling the streets of Princeton roaring at the Princeton Tigers (that’s their mascot and they are everywhere). I even got my picture taken with some tigers.

The fall colors lent themselves to some beautiful photography with my face being the prize. As always the pictures turned out amazing. According to Frank, the next installment of my face in his window should be up very soon! Keep a watch out for me on Highway 27 in Kingston, NJ.

Apple

I love apple picking so much I keep asking to go. The first time we went was with Casey and Scott and we purchased a ton of apples. I was able to run up and down the apple tree aisles picking apples from any tree that offered an apple from a lower branch. The second time we went apple picking I wasn’t in the best mood, taking my time to warm up to the whole idea. We spent the morning picking away with Josh which gave me a buddy to run through the aisles and the field. We took lots of pictures and picked even more apples than the first time. My mom learned how to make this awesome apple crisp using a recipe from Cristina; she’s the one that made me peanut butter and jelly cupcakes that were so good I had two! Now we are on overload with apples but that’s okay because I love to eat eat eat apples (and bananas)!