Tea for 2...or 4

So many fun events in December. I just love it. Every year we have a 3 generation girls day or night event. Someday I'm sure we will add the little girls too, but for now they are still too young. This year we attended a 4 course Christmas Teat at the Avalon Tea Room in White Bear Lake. The ambiance and meal were very lovely and tasty. Hats were optional...and we opted out on this one.

 Mom & Cari before the tea started.

Grammy & me.

1st course - chicken artichoke in a puff pastry and fruit.

2nd savory course - mini sandwiches and tarts.

I guess I missed the memo that we were supposed to wear red.

I must've gotten too into my food because I forgot to take pictures of the next courses. The 3rd course was scones with devenshire cream, jam, and lemon curd. The 4th course had a mini gingerbread cake topped with caramel (OMG to die for) and a plate of different sweets including a mint brownie, a shortbread nut cookie, and fruit tart. We were all too full at the end to try all the desserts then. Luckily we all got a doggie bag and they were still delicious later in the day.

The Santa Experience

7 day before Christmas, a weekend, Santa, a mall, and a just recovering from being sick, badly teething toddler. Bad combination right? It was, and I knew it would be going in, but we were out of time. It was our only chance for Sienna to meet Santa. We headed to the mall as close to Santa's opening time as we could. The line was long and full of antsy kids with their lists to give to Santa. We stepped in line and I overheard a woman 2 families away from Santa saying she had waited an hour from our spot. Great... Next thing I know I see the high school kids running the operation on the phone and hear something about technical difficulties. Even better... Not willing to give up our chance we waited, and waited, and waited. Despite everything Sienna was a champ waiting. We visited the food court for a bit of a distraction, but otherwise she was content in our arms or in line. I think it helped she wasn't up to full speed yet and still in a cuddly mood. 

1.5 hours later she had enough and was near meltdown stage, plus in need of a nap. Just in time for it to be our turn to see Santa. When she's teething, one of her only comforts is her Nuk. (It also prevents her from biting my shoulder. Yes, I have a biter) I really didn't want a Nuk/Santa pic so right before I set her in his lap I had to pull it out. And the rest you can see in pictures.

She started with screaming, kicking, back arching. Moved to just screaming and crying. And for a few moments stopped crying and just looked pissed. Picture taken! Santa visit done. Success?? Yes, success.

The Jovle's take over Florida

As promised I put together a little slide show from our FL trip. This trip not only did Justin, Sienna, and I go visit Rick, but Amanda, Travis, Izzy, Sami & Janis were all there as well. They went down the week before we did and we overlapped for 2 days. It was a lot of fun to see them and let the kids play together. Sienna already idolizes Izzy. All weekend "Ze Ze" was her favorite word.

I was very nervous about flying with a 15 month old. She doesn't like to be confined and not moving. I was pretty terrified of having THAT screaming kid on the flight. When we got to the airport they offered us a great deal for a first class upgrade so we took it. That eased a lot of my fears. She had tons of room to run around between us. It was my first time in first class too - soooo nice! Never want to go coach again!

We kept our trip cheap and did all the free Disney stuff - walked the boardwalk, toured hotels, looked at the Christmas decorations, and shopped at Downtown Disney. The weather was great and stayed in the 70s. We even got a little pool time in.

Here's the picture highlights.

Holiday Traditions

I have been MIA for the past couple weeks. I can blame the fact that we were in FL last week, but before that there's really no excuse. Here's a few of the things we have been up to. FL pics to come later in the week!

We took Sienna and Ariana to see their first Holidazzle parade. Sienna ooohhhed for the whole thing and loved seeing all the lights. I hope we can make this a yearly tradition!

Spent a full weekend baking cookies. The first day was our annual girl friend day of cookie baking and the second day was with the girls in my family. Lots and lots of cookies were made. I have been trying to be so good not to eat them all!

Loving all these holiday traditions and there are more to come this week. Such a great time of year!