32 weeks, Stan Hywet, and wrapping paper

So some weeks you just don't get winners. Poor Miss Ivy was running a 102 degree temperature for her 32 week photo day. She also had a brother who actually wanted to have his picture taken. WITH her. Sadly, said brother was suffering from a cold and had a chapped lips and a most pitiful expression in every single shot. Here's the only one worth anything from that shoot, and only because its kind of funny, the way she's investigating the previous week's tag. In later shots, she's chewing on it. Go figure.

From December 2010

Here are the two sickies hanging out in the playroom that same day. A glimpse of everyday life. Jack "ball of chaos" Morehouse and his sister Ivy "I'll be a ball of chaos myself, soon"...



You'll be happy to hear that the sickies are on the mend today, though. Enough so that we headed out to Stan Hywet Hall this afternoon to see the decorations and the lights on the grounds. I simply love that place, love everything about it. The ridiculous decadence of it all, the luscious interior decor, the period details, the expansive views framed by perfectly placed doors and patios and birch tree allees. This year's holiday theme was "A Dickens Christmas" and they had many of the rooms done up to illustrate scenes from "A Christmas Carol". Very clever and kind of neat to see the rooms arranged in different ways. Happily for Jack, they also had a model train and village set up in the great hall, which was the only highlight for him. Apparently 3 is not the ideal age to enjoy the manor house tour. Lots of "I want to go to the train!!" and "Can we go to our home now??" from him. Ivy, at least, seemed to enjoy herself, looking around with interest and charming everyone else we saw in the halls. After touring the house we tromped about in the snow and looked at the lights-- it wasn't full dark yet so we didn't get the full effect but it was still a lovely walk. Jack and I had a continuing snowball fight as we walked around. Ivy gazed beatifically at her surroundings. She simply loves to be outside, that one. Driving past the hall once more, after dinner, we caught a glimpse of the light display as it was meant to be seen and we have vowed to go ahead and mess with schedules next year, and go for the evening show to really wow the kids with the lights. They do it up right at Stan Hywet.


Snowball kid!


It can be hard to get a picture with both of them! Have to corral the big one against his will sometimes!

And, lets just count these shots as her 32 week pics, OK? I think she looks pretty good in red...



\
So the drama preceding this photo was that Jack had found a large chunk of snow which he was carrying over to throw at me, when it dropped to the ground and broke apart. This great tragedy was reason to drop to the ground wailing. We took a picture, which seemed the most appropriate response to his behavior. :)
Here's that birch tree allee. I am torn, I bet it was fabulous in full dark... but, we got the view and that mysterious, dusky light.

I love these two guys.


Attempt at a family picture. The first try got Jack's rear view only. You can see Ivy's hood there if you look hard.

Jack "taking a break" on the sidewalk before we left...

Finally, another Ivy photo shoot. I realized when we got home that I loved her outfit. So we posed her for a bit, in spite of her orange face and boogery nose. I promise, the ragamuffin did get a bath shortly after this...



We are in heavy duty Christmas prep mode around here. Since we got the kids to bed I have been alternately frosting cookies and wrapping. Yet another way in which children create exponentially more work with exponentially less time to do it. The wrapping! Those of you who know me, know I like a well wrapped present. I really do enjoy wrapping, choosing the perfect papers, tying a just-right bow...This year, with presents for 3 new babies in the family added on, I may be wrapping straight on til Christmas morning. I have been pondering wrapping paper choices in a new way this year, with Jack old enough to notice and remember details of Christmas for the first time. We have 4 rolls of paper hidden away in my closet, "Santa paper." One reason they are in the closet is they are too long for our wrapping drawer but it does work out well. A good deal of my limited wrapping time this evening was spent moving presents in and out of the closet, attempting to decide what would be from us, and what would be from Santa. This is much harder than it seems, trust me. I think I have the balance now but I reserve the right to re-wrap a present on Christmas Eve if I change my mind...

Visions of sugar plums to you, and a good night...