St. Nicholas Day & 2013 Ornaments

Today we celebrated St. Nicholas Day with the littles. They awoke this morning to find their shoes filled with gold coins and clementines. While the older two dove into the chocolate, I read them the story of St. Nicholas and the three poor daughters.





We also choose this time to gift the kiddos with their annual keepsake ornaments: a nutcracker for Belle, Santa in a red convertible (like daddy's car) for Peanut, and a rocking horse for Bear.

To help carry over the day's celebration, our advent house activity for today was to fill a stocking and deliver it to some one's doorstep.

 The little were very excited to see all the goodies and a little less than excited to realize they weren't able to keep them. But then, as we hoped would happen, they began to get really into GIVING away these "really awesome" gifts.

Belle & Peanut decided upon a recipient family and the stocking is in route as I type. And a very Happy Name Day to a special and much loved Theo who celebrates today.

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day?

Keeping the Faith {Joe-Joe's Baptism}

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we celebrated the baptism of our sweet, little nephew G (affectionately nicknamed Joe-Joe by his big brother). This little curly top could hardly wait to get into the baptismal font. 

Mommy & Big Brother Y looking on.

After a dip in the baptism font, Joe-Joe was dressed in his new baptism garments and received his cross before being part of a procession around the font with his godfather & cousins.

At the reception, we snapped quite a few pictures with all the little looking so darling and dapper.

There was a balloon twister to entertain the little ones during the cocktail hour. Belle requested a surprise and THIS is what she received. I have never seen anything like it before. You can bet we'll be using this guy at future events..he was outstanding!

The band played well into the evening and we all enjoyed watching and dancing the night away.
We wish you a long, healthy & prosperous life Joe-Joe, full of all God's blessings!!!

A "Dino"mite Celebration {Happy Name Day Bear}

Over the weekend we celebrated Bear's Name Day. He has been obsessed with dinosaurs lately, particularly the robotic giant pictured below he first discovered in the toy aisle at Target. So I scooped the beast up for a deal on amazon & Hubby, Belle, Peanut & I set to work creating a Jurassic tablescape. 

It was fun having all the extra sets of hands & ideas. Ultimately we ended up with a simple table set with burlap placemats (I just cut rectangles out of a remnant I had in my stash), orange napkins & my Threshold plates. 

I googled an age appropriate triceratops image & taped the cutouts to each glass.  Gray paper straw are a favorite around here & help prevent spills. Orange ikat dot fabric runs under the dino book & chalkboard bearing the traditional Name Day greeting written in Greek. 

A stash of mini toy dinosaurs came in handy, adding a playful touch to the table.

Our little guy was a little confused at first but quickly shouted, "button dino…push it" and spent the morning playing with his new best buddy. 

Eventually we sat down to enjoy veggie scramble, grapes & berries….Bear's favorite breakfast & often our lunch of choice when he & I dine solo.

Later in the day we celebrated with dessert and family. I whipped up a homemade banana cream pie in honor of Bear's favorite snack.

Bopi also celebrated….Bear is his namesake. 

This year way a little less involved than last year's celebration, but definitely much more reflective of our Baby Bear and his tastes…such a little man he is growing into. OK I'm off to work on the table skirt for the dining room buffet…I have told myself I can't put out a single Christmas decoration until that project is complete & I've only got 9 days until Turkey day!