Monday, December 31, 2007

christmas redux

The new year is right around the corner; seriously, the ball is going to be dropping any minute now, but we figured we should post the highlights of our Christmas celebration.

We made cookies for Santa.

The pup got one sweet train set.

We had to make sure he understood how to use it right and proper.

I got a toy of my own.

After lunch, we headed to Harkness Memorial Park to toss around the mini-pigskin and mess around with a new camera.

The boys had fun.

Actually, the whole family had a good time.

Our Christmas was a happy one, we hope yours was too! See you in 2008!

There is a ton of Christmas fun over in flickr. Have a look-see! And if video fun is your thing, have a chuckle over this:


Thursday, December 20, 2007

santa is one scary guy

After being out of commission due to some sickness here and some more sickness there, we needed something fun to cheer us up. Last week was the Christmas party for Coast Guard families at the Coast Guard Academy. It was a fun night of institutional pizza, cake and all the Capri-Sun we could suck down. Good times!

It was also an opportunity to chat up the man with the bag. Clearly, someone needs to work on his conversation skills. I really wish I could find the Poloraid pic that Santa's elves took; in it, the Pup is screaming his head off while giving Santa a high five. Seriously.

The Pup's pal, Gherkin, didn't have a successful conversation either. Clearly neither of these handsome young men would be useful in any sort of negotiating procedure. Hopefully, Santa will look past their phobia of all that is jolly (and hairy).


To get over the trauma of the Santa sighting, we decided to make tasty things.

Granted, the Pup isn't going to be eating most of these treats, but he is very excited about his cardamom and honey "stars".

Most of the treats when to local friends for making us smile through the year. Thanks, y'all!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

seals like what seals like

All things considered, things are pretty relaxed around these parts. Over the weekend, we made chicken noodle soup (for our bellies, not our souls so much). We like chicken noodle soup.

Carrots, we are fans.

I knit like it was my job (coincidentally, I also ignored laundry, so it was a win-win for me). I like to knit.

And Papa Seal and the Seal Pup went to a basketball game at CGA. The Papa Seal, he likes basketball.

Anders did pretty much everything except watch the basketball game (and there is something to see, the Bears are doing pretty good this year, those in the know, well, they know this is a pretty big deal).

He hung out with his pal Gherkin (always a good time). Anders likes hanging out with his homeboys, er boy.

He had Gherkin's mom read him a book (at the basketball game, people). We like to "book read."



He searched for useful things (...like pacifiers. Sigh.) in his backpack. He really likes his "binks."

And he pretty much walked around like he owned the place. He likes to rock the house like he owns it.

During half time, Papa Seal took the Pup to watch the swimming and diving meet happening at the pool; he was fascinated. Kelly tried to get him to leave for the second half of the basketball game, but he was all about the swimming. Kelly said it was like he was watching Thomas the Tank Engine or Super Why!, but with more interest (we did not know this was even possible). So our kid's sport of choice is swimming. It figures. That's right, he likes swimming.

Tomorrow night starts some fun holiday festivities for us. We are going to go to some Academy-sanctioned holiday fun, parties (did someone say Santa?), light shows...and then there are the Christmas cards. Need I say it? We like Christmas.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

making merry

Turn on the crazy, it's Christmas time. The past weekend and the past few days have seen us pulling out the props of Christmas time merriness at the Wandering Seals household. There was the making of lists, the cracking open of the Christmas piggy (her name is Petunia, in case you were wondering) and messing about with decoartions. Good times. We also took the opportunity to get things in order. Papa Seal was very happy to see dated giftwrap, ribbons, bows, boxes and a lot of randomness get the big heave-ho (not a fan of clutter, that one).

And you can not have Christmas time merry without a tree, so we drove up to Preston, Connecticut to our favorite Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree.

Maple Lane Farms is a great place to get a tree. The people are helpful and nice and the selection can not be beat. They don't allow tagging of trees, but that isn't really a problem as there are few (if any) duds on the lot (or the acres and acres of farmland, you choose).

The only thing we would have changed about the day we selected and chopped down our tree is the weather. It was in the twenties, even colder WITH WINDCHILL. We are some pretty wimpy seals when it comes to being cold. Let's not put too fine a point on it.

Papal Seal showed his knotting skills after the tree was wrapped. Someone get this man a medal!We really enjoy this time of year. Now that the Seal Pup is older, there is some more recognition going on. He gets excited about trees ("yes, there is indeed a tree in the house"), really excited about lights ("yes, we know there are lights in the tree. No, you may not pull them down--the ornaments either..."), and then there are the presents. Last year, he didn't really get it; but, this year, at 20 months old, it's a whole new ball game.


The presents, he likes to open them (or have them opened, same difference).
The fact that we were told to open one gift early really made him happy.


Thanks, Dru!
We hope you are finding ways to celebrate the season in a stress-free way (or not, if that is your thing).

There is tons of Christmas prep fun over in flickr.