10 years! and a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  It snowed this christmas, and we never even got out to play in it.  The kids stayed in their pajamas all day long, and we all just relaxed.  What a great holiday!

Lydia composed her first piano piece too.  She does know how to write musical notes, but she went for their letter names today.  It took her about 30 minutes of serious thought, playing, replaying, etc.  It was so stinkin' cute to watch!  After she performed her piece, Alex played it too.. to prove that it was real.

Today is our 10 year anniversary!  This was the only picture of us together, without kids, this year :)   

For our 10 year anniversary I'd like to summarize our experiences by numbers

One home
Two children
Three cars (only one lemon)
Four international trips (we wish that was higher!)
Five emergency room visits
Six wedding dishes we have each broken (12 in all...)
Seven plane rides that we wrestled children on
Eight million hugs and kisses (I couldn't think of one for eight :)
Nine pets (2 fish, one dog, one rabbit, five chickens)
Ten Great Years!

Can't wait for the next ten!

It's the holiday season

Now that my kids are both in school for part of the day, I have loads of time on my hands!  Unfortunately, I have forgotten what being really busy is like.  Which is actually wonderful, except for when I become busy again (christmas) and have to figure out how to make it work :)

Alex will be 8 on wednesday, and so he had a birthday party on saturday.  He invited 9 friends, and only 3 could come because of vacations, ski-team, sickness, etc.  They still had a blast though!

I teach piano now, and so I had a recital with my students and their families.  We were able to pack 25 people into our small living room/dining room area, and the students all did really well.  Dave recorded it, but I thought I'd just take pictures of my kids "acting" like they're playing so you wouldn't have to watch the video.  

Dave and I realized that we have mice.  We're totally disgusted, and so yesterday (after the birthday party) we tore the house apart looking for the little buggers.  We didn't find much, except for droppings... but we have lots of poison out now.  In my "tearing up the house" I pushed the sofa too far one direction and knocked OVER the christmas tree!  Only a few ornaments broke, but one was from our trip to Mexico, the other from Naples, Italy.  I cried and cried.  Our family tradition is to get souvenir ornaments when we travel, so I mourn the loss of memories too.  So sad!

We also went to the Golden Candlelight walk.  You hold candles while walking down main street singing carols with about 4,000 (give or take) other people.  It's a great way to bring in the christmas season.

Besides this I've been baking, cooking, eating, shopping, and eating some more!  I love the holidays!