more christmas....

after christmas at home and mass, we headed up to my mom's for christmas with the rest of the family. as you can see, selma was a bit tired. nothing like being right next to your new toys but feeling too tired to play with them! merry christmas!!

dance dance dance

 greta started taking dance classes at a studio called dance express.  it's been fantastic...she loves it and has actually learned quite a few "moves".  this winter, she had her first dance recital.  the picture above was right around the time she looked at me and said, "i'm not dancing".  but our girl was so brave....she did dance and it was such a delight to see her on stage.  when she is nervous she sucks her bottom lip in.  hence, the face she is making in the pictures.  but she did her moves, despite her frosty the snowman hat falling off as soon as they started.  greta, we are so proud of you. 

st nick

st nick arrived to much excitement. even selma was excited, and greta and otto thought it was hilarious that st nick brought selma things like puffs and other baby treats. after emptying their stockings, our kids did their typical "sort everything and line everything up in an orderly way". do other kids do this?

this was also day 6 of our advent calendar, and our christmas "thing" for the day was to have a christmas music dance party. the dancing was too out of control to get a photo. in fact, otto twirled a bit too long and fell face first into his basket of books in his room. yes, the christmas music dance party involved an injury and blood. but it was fun.

day 5....

....do a christmas craft. we had three christmas crafts lined up, but the kids tired (and we ran out of time before bed) after two of them. they colored and glitter-glued wooden ornaments, and then they put beads on pipe cleaners to make candy canes. selma was there to supervise and to attempt to grab and choke on every single bead that was dropped.

day 4

get a tree and decorate it. we got our tree from that same shop on monmouth street where we've gone the past few years. not much to report here. we got a tree. we decorated it. otto broke a few ornaments. the end.

redsfest

we lucked out this year with two, two-day passes to redsfest. the whole fam headed down on friday night, and then joe and uncle bill took greta and otto on saturday.
it was super packed and super overstimulating, but super fun. otto loved it, but he barely smiled the whole time and was just looking around with big wide eyes (see exhibit A of otto in the pic with greta getting her autograph from zach cozart).
the kids got to see a whole bunch of stuff, including mr redlegs, gapper, and joey votto. they got their picture taken with bronson arroyo and heard zach cozart read a story. they ran the bases, hit balls, and jumped in a bouncy house.
but the best part was probably either the ice cream or the bags and bags of loot. and by that, i mean just all sorts of reds paraphenalia. the kids have been playing "redsfest", which consists of laying these papers out all over the floor and couch, packing them up in their backpacks, and then finding a new place to lay them out again. GO REDS!

yes, virginia, there really is a santa claus.....

and he's hanging out at macy's on a friday night with NO ONE waiting to see him!!

it's never been a big deal of mine to take our kids to see santa. i guess maybe when they're a bit older they might ask to go see him, but for now i think the season is about so many other things. the first (and i think only) time our kids sat on santa's lap was when greta was two at christkindl market. on her own, she noticed santa up on the stage getting set up to greet kids and she just walked up there and sat down on his lap. it was so uncharacteristic of greta....and hilarious.

this year, we were walking from fountain square to redsfest at the convention center when we spied santa in the window of macy's. with one child on his lap and no children in line. so we jumped at the chance. i sorta felt like we HAD to go see santa. the kids were a tiny bit hesitant but were pretty okay with it. they just kept staring at him. greta asked me, "is that the REAL santa?!" selma, of course, freaked out. i knew that would happen, but i wanted her in the photo.

both kids froze when santa asked what they wanted for christmas. all otto could come up with was that he wanted a jumprope. and greta said she wanted a music box. so then when santa asked them if they wanted anything else, otto said a music box and greta said a jumprope. easy time at the hansbauers, santa!!
i think there favorite part of seeing santa was the candy cane he gave them, which we enjoyed later with our movie and popcorn.

paper chain

day 3 of advent calendar....make a paper chain.
greta and i had been talking about making a paper chain to help us count down the days til christmas (even though that's exactly what the advent calendar is doing).
greta and otto worked on the chain for a while this evening. otto tired of it quickly, but greta was so into it i bet she could have done the whole thing by herself. they were both excited to count the links when we were finished and they were impressed at how long it is! it was super fun and makes for a neat decoration!

yo gabba gabba christmas!

day two of our advent calendar.....eat popcorn and watch a christmas movie.
we were running short on time before bed, so we settled for watching yo gabba gabba christmas episode. as you can tell from the glazed looks, i don't think the kids minded one bit.
they added the candy canes that santa gave them, and i think they'd call this a perfect end to a great day.

sending christmas cards

day one of our advent calendar....make christmas cards.

advent calendar

and so begins the season of advent. we kicked things off with our advent calendar. each pocket holds a tiny ornament for a small tree that the kids decorate. this year, the pockets also hold a paper that tells us something "christmas-y" we are going to do that day.....from have a christmas music dance party to go to festival of lights. so far the kids seem super excited about this. and i've spent WAY less time this year reminding otto to leave the ornaments in the pockets until the designated day. unlike last year.