Christmas Day

I often feel as thought Gary's parents are the "B-Team" on major holidays. Since my rather large family all lives in the area, we make our plans with them first and then try to squeeze our time with the Goodnos into whatever's left, which has even occasionally been days after the actual holiday.

Due to my parents' late church schedule and Christmas falling on Sunday this year, my family didn't get together until the late afternoon. So I was very pleased to invite Dale and Bonnie to share the actual Christmas morning festivities with us. Dale made his absolutely amazing Fried Taters for our brunch and they were able to share the fun of Madelyn opening her gifts from them, us, and of course, Santa.

This Groovy Girl doll is a gift from Santa that Madelyn had put on her list for him.

Madelyn already has a full-sized unicorn pillow pet and she really wanted a mini one to go with it. Thankfully Santa came through again!

This is a vet kit with a puppy in the carrier, plus the extra-tiny unicorn pillow pet keychain found in Madelyn's stocking. :)

Ready to head to the Winkel Christmas festivities (in jammies)! We bought that fleece sweatshirt on clearance at Old Navy a few days before, and Madelyn LOVES it (because it has a pink Jolly Roger on the front and she loves pirates).

Madelyn gave Lucy a book of crossword puzzles and a kit to design her own T-shirts. (We saw her wearing one she made a few days later, so I'm glad she liked the gift!)

We did a lot of shopping for two little girls in a family that we adopted, hoping to relieve some of the natural "gimmes" of Christmas and share the joy of giving to others in need. We were even lucky enough to deliver the gifts in person to make it "real" for Madelyn. She had fun playing with the little girls and they were no longer just names of people getting the fun things we were buying instead of her. I think it was hard for her as the gifts were things she would have really liked to have. I hope the experience was beneficial.

We had a very happy Christmas this year, especially with the exciting news that we'll be a family of four by August 2012!

Merry Christmas Announcement

We mailed this Christmas card/announcement to family and friends in December.

It is an exciting time for our family.

School Winter Program

Madelyn's Winter Program and Potluck:

Decked Out in New

The day after Madelyn's birthday, she went to school decked out in her new cupcake hat and boots from Mom and Dad, jacket from Grandma Bonnie, shirt and leggings from Aunt Tammie, and with her awesome new pirate lunchbox also from Mom and Dad. What a cutie!

Winter Wonderland 5th Birthday

Madelyn's birthday party this year was a "Winter Wonderland." We went with a more mature theme as the party was also an "excuse" to invite family and close friends to visit our new home and share our exciting announcement.

For the grandparents, Madelyn asked them each to read her special book to her and they got the surprise ending! For the rest of our guests, I made a T-shirt with an icon of a bun in an oven printed on my belly. After a while of nobody noticing, I handed out my Christmas cards to my family members. My brother Bryan is the one person who noticed the shirt immediately when he walked in the door. Good job Bryan!


My good friend Sarah has been dabbling in professional cake decorating.  She made this absolutely incredible cake for the party, incorporating the giant cupcake that has been Madelyn's tradition since her first birthday.

Grandma Bonnie and Grandma Winkel

We surprised Madelyn with a giant cupcake piñata! It was lots of fun.  There's the bun-in-the-oven shirt.

All the kids got a try, and finally Gary (who was dangling the piñata over the balcony above) ripped it apart and dumped the goodies out.

You can imagine what happened next as the kids stuffed their small felt penguin bags.

Audrey, Shelby, Madelyn, and Jack show off some of the loot.

Among mostly winter-themed trinkets and treats, the Tinkerbell ring pops were also a big hit.

Madelyn had a little trouble with those last two candles. 

The baker extraordinaire even helped cut her masterpiece. Thank you SO MUCH Sarah! Unfortunately quite a few RSVP's didn't show and several more had to leave really early. So we had kind of a ridiculous amount of cake leftover. 

I am so happy that my special friend Barb and her daughter Zoe came all the way out for the party. I miss Barb; we used to go running together several times a week (Which means we talked a lot.)

Madelyn had just a few presents to open, as our invitation encouraged guests to consider contributing to our family holiday service project in lieu of a birthday gift. (We adopted two military families whose fathers are currently deployed.)

I love this cupcake hat I found in a catalog. (Next post has a better picture of it.)

It is hard to believe my baby is five already, and yet life before motherhood seems very distant. I love you so so SO much Madelyn!

Earth Goes Around the Sun

Madelyn's birthday was celebrated at her new Montessori school (in our new city) in basically the same way they celebrated at the previous school.

The children all sing "The Earth Goes 'Round the Sun" for each year of Madelyn's life and look at photos of her growing up. 

This is the photo collage I made to be shown to classmates during her celebration:

Just a random cute picture of Madelyn with her favorite new flashing decoration. 

Madelyn's Special Book

We made a very special book for Madelyn to tell her that she is going to be a big sister.  It is not very long, please enjoy!


Gary read the book to Madelyn the night before her fifth birthday. Her reaction is perfect--be sure to hear her final comment at 0:35.

Advent Calendar

I wanted to start a meaningful and fun Christmas tradition for our family this year. I found ideas online for countdown-to-Christmas activities and calendars. Madelyn and I made this by cutting envelopes into different shapes, wrapping each one with different paper (while also creating a new envelope flap), gluing on a bead, and clipping them to two long ribbons with numbered clips. The project was much more involved than I intended, but it turned out pretty nice.


I had wanted to take pictures to record all the activities. I have been a poor family photographer lately, I admit. It makes me sad, so I'm determined to be better this year. The only activity I photographed besides major events was painting everyone's toenails.
 

Just for fun, here is the remaining list of our advent calendar activities for 2011:

1
Decorate the Christmas Tree and put up the Christmas Decorations
2
Paint everybody’s toenails in Christmas colors
3
Purchase a present for the Giving Tree
4
Write a letter to Santa
5
Have breakfast for dinner
6
Build a gingerbread house
7
Shop for our military families in need
8
Go on a “Kiss Hunt”
9
Make homemade ice cream
10
Make gifts for teachers
11
Choose three nice toys to pass along to children who don’t have very many toys
12
Enjoy hot cocoa with all the fixins
13
Look at Christmas lights after dark
14
Celebrate Madelyn’s birthday!
15
Make a Christmas card for the new baby
16
Attend Madelyn’s school program
17
Write thank you notes for Madelyn’s birthday
18
Have a picnic lunch around the Christmas tree
19
Wrap gifts for family members
20
Bake cookies and give some to our neighbors
21
Go ice skating!
22
Make a red and green meal
23
Watch a Christmas movie as a family
24
Open one special Christmas Eve gift

We did all but 21 and 22, but did other fun stuff those days instead. :)

Tree Cutting

Here's a few pictures from our annual Christmas Tree hunt.

Madelyn's Large Person

Madelyn found some tissue paper and out of the blue created this "person."

It has two little arms and feet with pointy toes and a face on a head. 

It didn't take long for Loki to find it and claim as his bed. This dog just loves to lie on top of anything that is laid on the floor. 

PJ Party

Madelyn's school had a pajama party on Halloween. Several parents came to help run the activity stations. It was cute, fun, although more candy was passed out than I would have expected!

Carving Pumpkins

I have to say we made some pretty awesome pumpkins this year.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Madelyn's school took a field trip to a nearby farm and pumpkin patch.

They got to see all kinds of animals and watch apples get pressed into cider on an antique machine.

Petting zoo

Gary even had a couple of hours off of work and joined us for part of the time. Here they are at the top of a homemade tube slide.

Cute little pumpkin.