New Year Eve 2009

hmmm...it would be nice if my new year's eve was a bit more exciting, but with kids, i'm far too tired to party into the wee hours of the morning. instead, we went to a friend's house and had the countdown in Rio de Janeiro time (it was midnight there at 8pm Madison time :)). and now that everyone has gone to sleep, i can catch up on my blog.

i've wondered about new year resolutions, but it's hard to come up with goals when i know life is going to go into full chaos once this third baby arrives. but i am going to try my best to chillax a little more and try my best to roll with the punches. i do still have a list of things to accomplish before the baby arrives, so those are in the immediate future, but other than that, i'm going to try to embrace whatever life has in store for me this year.

here are some pix from yesterday when we drove up north to my sister-in-law Megan's parents' lake house by Dutch Hollow Lake. the girls had a great time opening up more gifts and having a second Christmas. they went sledding down a great hill and built a snow fort. Skye went for a walk to the frozen lake with Phil and Uncle Mike.

Christmas activities

so i thought our Christmas would be sort of low-key this year. we had some friends over for dinner Christmas eve and then it was just our family for Christmas day. the girls had a great time opening gifts and spent some time outside with the sleds. but on Boxing day, we drove to Chicago so Skye and i could attend the Joffrey Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. Phil took Claire to the children's museum while Skye and i were at the ballet. thanks to my friends at the Joffrey, we got great seats. i was a little nervous about how Skye would do, if she could sit through the entire performance - and she did! she loved it and was mesmerized by the dancing and the music. it was a real treat for me too - it has been so long since i went to an adult ballet performance. don't get me wrong - i love going to my daughter's ballet recitals and watching her dance, but it was so inspiring to watch the Joffrey dancers doing what they are great at. we ate some good Korean food while in Chicago and of course had to give the girls a taste of Chicago pizza. and on Sunday, we drove back home. it was an exhausting weekend, but lots of fun.

the girls open their gift of PJs on Christmas eve


Christmas morning



at The Nutcracker

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 2009 from slkim on Vimeo.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

this year, i asked Phil to get us a small tree. perhaps i had it in my head a smaller tree would be more manageable with my big belly and perhaps there would be less needles to sweep up. when Phil returned with our tree, the first thought that came to my mind was, that is one tiny tree - a Charlie Brown tree! well, after we put up the decorations, i have to say the little tree has grown on me. and it looks much fuller than when Phil first carried it into the house. our ornaments are crowded on there, but it looks sort of nice like that.

Christmas 2008

Christmas morning, the girls jumped out of bed, excited to open their various gifts.




for some reason, Skye is really into doing surveys these days, something she learned at school. she had been wanting a clipboard to help with her surveying activities, so she was quite pleased with this gift! :)



playing time continues after a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs & sausages!


we headed out to romp for a bit in the snow


on Boxing Day, Uncle Mike and Auntie Megan joined us and the girls had another round of opening gifts!





Auntie Megan trying to take a picture of Claire with her fancy new phone...

and again...

and again!

Claire gives up

Merry Christmas everyone!!

you won't be getting a Christmas card from us, as usual, but here is our Christmas greeting to you. one is a scripted version, the other unscripted. :) enjoy, and may you and your family have a wonderful Christmas this year.


Christmas greetings 2008 from slkim on Vimeo.


Jackson Five's Santa Clause is Coming to Town from slkim on Vimeo.

Christmas fun

i've been lagging behind with Christmas this year... i think my plate has been so full with all the snow shovelling and all the writing i've been trying to finish. BUT here are some photos of some of our Christmas activities as we wait for the big day. we visited Olbrich gardens where they have a train exhibit every Christmas. Claire LOVED the trains and was glued to the railing for a long time. she kept saying "candy cane" afterwards because there were these beautiful huge sticks of candy canes on the trains. :) we also stopped to see a Santa, but Claire was terrified of the "old" man! only Skye wanted a picture with him. :)

Christmas fun

now that the holiday is over, i finally have the time to write! we had a great time celebrating Christmas with friends and family. here are some highlights.

on Christmas eve, we attended the Christmas service at our church for families. there were lots of carols for the kids to sing and the nativity story acted out by some of the older children. Skye loved it. she sang really loud all the songs she knew and eagerly watched the older children up at the front. after the service, we went to a friend's house for an early dinner.

Christmas day, Skye woke up before Claire and came downstairs. we had told her she couldn't open any gifts until Claire was awake. that was a little hard for her! well, Claire knew something was afoot because she crawled out of the room super fast once she woke up and was in a hurry to get downstairs! the girls had a great time opening gifts and were quite wound up for breakfast.



after a hearty meal, we bundled up and headed out for some sledding. and because the days had been warm and then suddenly gotten cold again, the ground was really icy and fun for flying down the slopes. even Claire had some fun on the sled.



in the afternoon, while Claire napped, i took Skye ice-skating. well, technically not really ice-skating. we had bought her some "bob-skates" for Christmas. they are skates with double blades for young kids. she had a great time. i think i'm going to have to get some ice skates myself as the girls get older!



after an active day, we returned home and spent time reading the books Skye and Claire got for Christmas. Snowy and Chinook and Sunny. both books come with music CDs and activities for kids to do. Snowy and Chinook inspired us to make some hot chocolate. Sunny inspired Skye to make a guitar. when she was finished with her guitar, Skye decided she needed a strap for it like Lisa Loeb (we have been listening alot to Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell's "Catch the Moon" CD lately and even watched the music video for some of their songs and in all of them, Lisa Loeb carries her guitar on a strap). here is Skye with Phil, having "band practice." she put on her sunglasses to look like Lisa Loeb. :)

Kim family's Top Ten Christmas songs

10. Deck the halls
9. O Little town of Bethlehem
8. Hark the herald
7. Away in a manger
6. Silent night
5. Jingle Bells
4. We wish you a merry Christmas
3. Go tell it on the mountain
2. Joy to the world

and number 1 is....



Jackson Five's Santa Clause is coming to town! we tried many other renditions, but they all failed to elicit the excitement and booty shaking as this one does...

First Sunday of Advent

we didn't make an advent wreath as we've done in the past - this year, i decided to just have candles - does that still make it legitimate? i hope so! in the past, Skye enjoyed celebrating Advent because it gave her the opportunity to learn all the words of the Christmas carols. then when we went to church for Christmas eve, she'd be able to sing along with everyone else. today, she asked what "hope" meant because we were talking about hope. Phil explained it's like wishing for something. Skye wishes for things all the time. i told her it's like Christmas day - you're waiting and waiting for it to come quickly, you know it's coming, but you have to wait for it to arrive.

it's sort of daunting to think about a day when all our hopes and dreams and longings are fulfilled. so much of our life is made up of hopes and dreams and waiting. it's hard to imagine what it would be like to not wait and not long for anything anymore. but how wonderful that day will be!

Claire is busy learning to communicate with us. these days she points to things with her finger and says something that resembles "this" (th-ssssss). i think it's because we respond to her usually with "do you want this?" she's very careful around the Christmas tree. i expected her to pull off all the ornaments in her reach, but they remain mostly on the tree.