Holiday Weekend: Part Two

We ended this weekend with our Kinzel Family Christmas Dinner. Brian put a fantastic menu together of Prime Rib (yummy), Yorkshire pudding, potatoes and asparagus. Dinner was super yummy and I am so looking forward to left over prime rib for lunch tomorrow!

Taking a few moments to snuggle this morning before everyone came over.

Andrew is ready for everyone!

Gpa and Andrew having fun!

I don't know who was having more fun opening presents, Andrew or Brian!

My uncle Dave and Andrew

Santa Andrew!

This Santa had a little too much wine! ;)

The Kinzel Family
(minus Karla and Zack)

Holiday Weekend

Our Christmas festivities are in full swing! This weekend we went to see the "Christmas House" in Rohnert Park, I had all of the mom's from playgroup over for an ornament exchange and cocktail party and the Kinzel side of the family had their holiday gathering. Here is the first part of our weekend:

These ladies are some of the most amazing women I know. They constantly amaze me with their strength and dedication to their children. Andrew and I are so blessed that we met them and have grown to be much more than playgroup buddies! Thanks ladies for all of our support, encouragement and love throughout this year.

Taylor, Melissa, Melissa, Sarah
Me, Tiffany, Kate (with Tyler) and Kristina

We mom's sure know how to PARTY!! I was so excited to bring out the good crystal and fancy items since the kids weren't going to be around. ;)

Andrew was having too much fun looking at all of the lights. This house gets all decorated every year for Christmas. I wonder if the owner has a full time job?!

Raising kids....before and after

Before Andrew was born I had great plans for how I was going to be a mom. What we were going to allow Andrew to do, how much TV he could watch, how I would put him to bed at night, what I would feed him etc. As Andrew has grown, a few of my grand plans haven't gone quite as I expected:

1. Andrew will never sleep in bed with us - I have tp admit that there have been a handful of times that I have sneaked Andrew into our bed. It's the best way to calm him down if he wakes up in the middle of the night!
2. Andrew will eat veggies every night and be served a healthy meal - For the most part we are on track but I will admit that we have those nights that if Andrew takes two bites of veggies and throws the rest on the floor, that is good enough for me. At least Bella is eating healthy! Hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches are healthy, right?!
3. No candy, sweets, sugar, etc except on special occasions - Christmas time is a special occasion right? Andrew and I now have a routing of getting a cookie out of the jar, sitting at his table and reading a Christmas story while eating a cooking and drinking milk. I only let him have 1 cookie so I think it's ok. What isn't ok is he now goes over to the cookie jar, points and says "cookie" with sad little puppy dog eyes.
4. No bottles in bed - We did great with this until last night. Andrew doesn't have a bottle anymore but he calls his sippy cup Baba. Last night, about an hour after I put him to bed I hear him say "MaMa, Baba, MaMa, Baba." How could I deprive my little man when he is thirsty? So, I put water in his cup and go give him some. Everything is ok until I try to leave the room with the cup. That wasn't going to happen so Andrew got to sleep last night with his Baba. Let's hope I didn't just start a new trend!

Cookie Tester

We made Christmas cookies today and Andrew was the official taste tester!

The mysterious pile of snow....

When I got home from work tonight, there was a big pile of snow on our front lawn. It has been cold here the last few days and it did snow a little on Sunday night high up in the mountains but there wasn't any snow in Rohnert Park. I called Brian at work and he was just as confused about where the snow came from. After deciding that it probably wasn't laced with acid or hiding a bomb, Andrew and I took advantage of the situation and checked it out! Since it is supposed to get into the teens again tonight and not about 40 degrees tomorrow, I'm pretty confident that the snow will be there again tomorrow so we can build a snowman.

Mom, why is there snow in our front yard?

**We found out later tonight that Ryan was up in Tahoe this weekend and came home today with a present for Andrew. Thanks Uncle Ryno for the fun!

Hiding Zucchini

During the summer, Brian would come in from the garden with an extra large zucchini that had been hiding under a leaf when he was harvesting. We ate a lot of zucchini this summer and into the fall. About two months ago, the plant finally stopped producing and I didn't feel guilty about buying other veggies at the store!

Yesterday, Brian comes running into the house telling me to come quick and bring the camera. (In hindsight, I'm not sure why I had to come quickly but oh well!) I follow him out to the garden and this is what I see:


Clearly there was 1 more zucchini that was hiding under the leaves. We didn't see it until all of the plants in the garden had died back and there it was! This thing is HUGE!

Santa float

Every year the city of Rohnert Park's public safety department has a Santa float. It goes to a different section of RP each Friday and Saturday night until Christmas. Tonight it was in our neighborhood and we couldn't miss a chance to see Santa! Andrew got to stay up past his bedtime but he managed to stay awake and tell Santa what he wanted.

Rudolph lead the way

It's the Santa Float!

Waiting to see Santa

Andrew had his list ready.

Lee and Darlene came out to see all of the excitment.