As always, we packed up right after Christmas and headed to Chicago. After Erie, PA received nearly 60 inches of snow, we decided to take the route through Canada. We had generally clear roads, and sunny skies for most of the trip, but had a two hour wait to cross the border when we reached Michigan. I guess we weren’t the only ones trying to avoid the mess in Erie.

By the time we got there, both kids were in the pajamas, but Caleb was eager to open gifts.

I had a hard time this visit, capturing good photos of Hannah who is now walking, but here’s one of her with her dad. She has a variety of these little animal pacifiers which she loves.

We not only celebrated Christmas, but on the 30^th we celebrated Hannah’s first birthday, and Caleb’s sixth birthday. The night before we blew up about 100 balloons and tossed them into Caleb’s room. Much to my surprise, he slept through it all.

When he woke up in the morning, he found one package on the dining room table, and a clue for the next. One clue required popping balloons until he found the six with the words to the next clue. It extended the birthday celebration through most of the morning.

One of our gifts to Hannah, was a water table. Even without water, it proved to be a popular gift with both kids.

Adam has made a poster to commemorate Caleb’s birthday every year since he turned two. Caleb remembers every one of them, reminding his dad the night before of the images he’d drawn on last year’s poster. Here are this year’s. Caleb received quite a wonderful camera for Christmas, and was eagerly taking photos of everything he could.

And Hannah’s for her nickname “Hannah the Banana”—who knows where that came from?

Sharing your birthday with a one-year-old isn’t too bad. I think it might become a bit more challenging as Hannah gets older and has some opinions about how things get done. And one last photo of Adam, Sarah, and Caleb at dinner one night—one of my faves from the trip.

Thanks to Laura Bassen, Caleb got one of my more involved birthday cards. I pinned it as soon as I saw it on Laura’s blog, and recreating it wasn’t as difficult as I expected. It opened and closed perfectly at home, but required a bit of adjusting once it was opened in Chicago. Looks great, though, in his bedroom which is decorated with a space theme.

The card required just two sets of dies: “Space Journey,” and “You’re a Star,” both from Simon Says as well as some Dark Indigo cardstock and a bunch of scraps (all Papertrey Ink.)

I’ve learned the hard way, not to give toddlers a shaker card. Ella took hers apart the minute she opened it on her second birthday. But I figured I’d go for it for the first birthday since Hannah was unlikely to want to play with it. I found a shaker kit I purchased quite awhile ago which made it easier to assemble, and frankly, quite a bit sturdier as well.

I’ve had the Mama Elephant “Carnival Cupcakes” stamp set for quite a few years. The little bunny and the cupcake both come from that set. I colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them, adding some Distress Glitter to one layer of the cupcake. The sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Birthday Bash” set–also an oldie. The balloon and strings are dies from Papertrey and the number one is from the “Typewriter Numbers” by Memory Box. I added a few Nuevo glitter drops as a final embellishment. 

That wraps up December! Now on to finishing up my reflections on 2017, and putting the final touches on the One Little Word for 2018. I’m pretty sure the number of blog posts in January will double (triple?) the number in December. 

Between the holidays and traveling, my blogging took a rather unexpected hiatus. It wasn’t intentional, but I have a few events to record here after the fact. Because the Christmas in Chicago also included two birthdays, I’ll save that for the next post.

The George Eastman Museum hosts an evening with Santa each year, and for the third year in a row, we’ve taken the girls. This year we missed seeing Santa come down the grand staircase (no fault of our own), but we still had a good time. None of the girls is quite sure about an individual chat with Santa so we forego the long line, but Ella expressed an interest as we were leaving, so next year may be the year Grandma hops in line to save their places.

Skylar has enjoyed the Gingerbread House Scavenger Hunt for both of the last two years.

My favorite gingerbread house this year was fashioned after a real home in Canandaigua, New York. The facsimile was remarkable close to the photograph that accompanied it.

Upstairs in the Discovery Room, there are always fun things to explore.

And although, they’re reluctant to visit Santa themselves, both Skylar and Ella enjoy watching Santa talking with other children. This year Skylar had a list for Santa, and the kind volunteer took her list and put it in Santa’s bag for her.

The following weekend, we went to Buffalo with friends to visit the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site, followed by a visit to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It was a wonderful visit and we really enjoyed the current exhibit: “Out of Sight! Art of the Senses.” You can see a video on the website here of some of the interactive installations. We had tea in the tea room, listened to music, and had a particularly good time in the room of mirrors. We were lucky that the museum was not crowded the day we visited. Here are some of my favorite photos from the art gallery:

A house made of green fabric.

The room of mirrors; love the second one. I had no idea what I’d captured until I uploaded it!

Light and shadows

We celebrate Christmas three times; twice in Rocheter and once in Chicago. First with Matt, Betsy, and the girls. Although they come for the early part of the Walker Christmas on Christmas Day, the event is too late for the three little girls. This year, Betsy’s family joined us. Karen, her sister, arrived from Boston just in time, and Pam, Nadia, and Betsy’s dad also joined us. These photos are courtesy of Pam, who records every family event faithfully.

Skylar and her beloved cousin, Nadia

Christmas Day is always fun with the Walker crowd. Here are a few faves from that gathering. The first two photos were taken by Skylar who wanted to try out my camera. She captured the only one of me for the day, and one of her dad with his Uncle Greg.

Matt, Ella, and Maddy

When Skylar and Ella came to bake cookies the week before Christmas, Skylar wondered if “the piano lady” was coming this year. We missed Sonora last year, but she was here this year, and entertaining the girls as always.

From the right, my niece Jasmine; her brother Mason; his girlfriend, Molly; Jasmine’s husband, Hollis; and Tracy. Jasmine and Hollis had exciting news—they’ll be parents
in early May!

And last, my favorite photo of the day: Miss Ella on the stairs before the party began.

If you got to the bottom of this post, thanks for hanging in there! Still frigid weather here; hoping for warmer temperatures tomorrow when I do have to go out.