In Case You're Wondering.......

...........what Jackson might be up to during his Christmas vacation, check it out:

Santa brought the Lego Harry Potter Hogwart's Castle to Ga-Ga and Pop's house. Many hours (honestly, about 6-7 hours) and lots of strained neck and back muscles later, we (I say 'we', but Jackson did this solo) had this:

If you could've seen the concentration he had, you'd be amazed.

There were so many little details.

This is the dining hall (I'm sure it has a specific name, but I'm not sure what that might be!)

And an view from above of the dining hall

Albus Dumbledore (and all his wizardness)

 The sorting hat (one of my favorite parts of the movie is when the students find out, from this sorting hat,  which house they'll live in).

HP!

1290 pieces

6-7 hours of work

1 happy boy

Merry Christmas!

It's only 9:10am on Christmas morning and we're exhausted!

According to Jackson, this has been a '2-thumbs-up' kinda day!

Up @ 6:30am, all presents opened by 6:50, now just 'getting to know everything.'

This is our tree with all the presents under it, once Santa already stopped @ our house.

Jude opening the ABC photo album/scrapbook I made for him! I made one for Jackson when he was 3 and Jude just loves looking through it, so I got the idea this year to make him his own book. He loves to look @ scrapbooks, so he was pretty excited to get this (and I was pretty excited to make it)!

Jackson opening his Vectron - it's a little dome-shaped toy that floats in the air and when it comes down, you put your hand under it and it goes back up. Forgot to get the batteries (oooops). At least he'll have something else to play with when his other toys wear out their excitement.

Jude drinking his juice out of our Christmas Vacation moose mug!

You guessed it - Jackson vegging in our bed with his new Nintendo DS (and Super Mario Brothers game). See ya sometime next year Jack........

All is said and done, not looking too bad for the hurricane that whipped through this morning.



So here's what the kiddos got from Santa:

Jackson: Nintendo DSi, 2 DS games, Vectron, 2 Lego sets, a warm-up outfit, Diary of A Whimpy Kid card game, Hot Wheels card game, Perfection, Guess Who Mix-n-Mash.

Jude: Scrapbook, Jackson's Nintendo DS (Jackson gave it to him), Caillou DVD, I Spy DVD, Wonder Pets DS game, a tanker fire truck (that Jeremy built), new dancing shorts, unders, a DS carrying case, fireman toy, Richard Scary's Busytown game.

Jeremy and I always exchange our gifts on Christmas Eve as we're getting the kids' gifts ready. We like Christmas morning to be all about Jackson and Jude.

Jeremy got me subscriptions to Women's Running and Runner's World Magazines (total score), socks (needed desperately), and eco-toothbrush (been wanting one for a long time), PJs and a workout top (again, needed and wanted), a marathon and 1/2 marathon training guide book (watch out), and a gift certificate to get a Road ID band for running (should've gotten one of these a long time ago), and a new navy blue pea coat (he gave it to me yesterday to wear to church). It's amazing how perfect his gifts are to me every year! I'm already using the socks.

I got Jeremy: slippers, 2 sweaters, a sweatshirt and fleece pants, 2 tee shirts, a fleece, 2 magazines, and the John Stewart book Earth.

What a morning! We're getting ready to head next door to Jeremy's parents in an hour. There'll be a ton more mayhem and madness and we're totally looking forward to it! Then it'll be onto my parents house to cap off the craziness!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Guest Blogger

Head on over to Leslie's blog - she let me be a guest blogger while she's on vacation!

Christmas Fieldtrip

We went to Old Bedford Village last evening for their Christmas village event. We took Jackson to this about 5 years ago and had a nice time so Jeremy suggested we go back this year. It was chilly, but we bundled up and had a wonderful time. At this time of year, we're usually @ the mall or stores in all the hustle and bustle of the shopping (which I love), but it was really nice to get away and do something so fun and meaningful. The village had most of their log cabins open - all lit be candle light, man-powered by people who 'lived' in the 1820s-1860s. The boys loved it. Jackson was so into all of the jobs and crafts the village people were engaged in.

The inside of the first log cabin we went in - it was so cute. Although it was cold in there, there was something very cozy about it.

One of the village children took this of us - he was pretty excited to be taking pictures!

 

These photos were from the Polish House (my favorite). The lady told us about several Polish traditions (that we actually still do in our family). She also explained to me how to make these beautiful paper stars. I'm definitely going to try it!

Next came the general store (OK, so maybe this was my favorite).

 We bought peppermint sticks. Can you see the boys holding them up? We also scored another family photo - thank you to the nice lady who took this of us!

 I just couldn't resist putting this photo in of me and Jude (he's still got his hand wrapped around that peppermint stick).



Jackson said this was his favorite stop - the Blacksmith. He was actually making horseshoes while we were there. What a neat process.

This woman was making a basket by hand.

This is the Tavern - they serve hot dogs, kraut, drinks, soup. We ate earlier, but I thought we'd probably stop here and get a snack. We walked in and both boys wanted to go right out - they couldn't handle the strong smell of the kraut (check out Jackson's improvised mask). Jude said, "I didn't like the smell of that place."

This was Jackson putting together a small wooden puzzle. This cabin was the toy shop - they actually made small wooden toys that they sell in the gift shop.

The school house is always one of my favorites!

 This was a Civil War band that was playing in the chapel. They were playing Christmas carols. Nice!

This was the last house we visited. These 2 women told us a story about a Santa-like character (I can't remember what she called him) who used to visit village houses and would deliver fruit and candies to children who were good and a bull whip over the head (over not on, like I thought she said) to children who weren't so good.

The boys are holding tangerines they were given in one of the houses. The woman in that house told us how children would get tangerines/oranges 1 times per year. They came from an exotic land known as Florida!

Family-Favorite Fruitcake Recipe!

With the holiday season approaching it is best to make your fruitcake ahead of time and let it age. Here's a recipe I'm sure you will like if you follow the instructions exactly ;)

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups dried fruit

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

lemon juice

nuts

1 gallon whiskey

1. Sample the whiskey to check for quality.

2. Take a large bowl.

3. Check the whiskey again to be sure it is of highest quality.

Pour 1 level cup and drink.

4. Repeat

5. Turn on the electric mixer; beat 1 cup butter in a large, fluffy bowl.

6. Add 1 teaspoon sugar and beat again.

7. Make sure the whiskey is still OK. Cry another tup.

8. Turn off mixer.

9. Break 2 legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

10. Mix on the turner.

11. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.

12. Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity.

13. Next, sift 2 cups of salt. Or something. Who cares?

14. Check the whiskey.

15. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

16. Add 1 table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

17. Grease the oven.

18. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees.

19. Don't forget to beat off the turner.

20. Throw the bowl out the window.

21. Check the whiskey again.

22. Go to be.

23. Who the heck likes fruitcake anyway?

* I can't take credit for this hilarious recipe - it's been in the family for years!

In a New York Minute

Jeremy and I have been talking about a trip to New York City to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. So in a  26 hour-span, we left our house, drove to eastern PA, stayed in a hotel, woke up and drove to Hoboken and found a parking lot (an adventure), figured out the PATH system, boarded, arrived in NYC, had an awesome day in the city, got back to Hoboken and the drove the entire way home. Crazy? Maybe, but it was awesome and we'll never regret or forget it.

One highlight was the Lego store in Rockefeller Plaza. We spent some quality time there. We didn't buy much, but we did get the boys matching Lego stockings. Jackson really want to fine the build-a-minifigure counter - we did. He got to make 3 Leog minifigures (well, actually, he built 2 and Jude built one).

This next group of photos has a theme - me with my boys. Jeremy enjoyed using our (borrowed from my dad since I broke our Easyshare) camera. I love when he takes pictures, b/c I never know what he's taking until we get home and download them. Well, since he had the camera all day, I ended up in most of the photos.

 Times Square. What a busy place; there were people everywhere. We really only went there so we could go to the Toys R Us. It is a 3-story toy store with a huge indoor ferris wheel. Our plan was to ride the ferris wheel, but the tickets were sold out for a while and we really did have the time to wait. So we walked around and enjoyed the way-too-many toys and saw the way-too-many cool displays.
My favorite photo of this bunch is, can you guess? The only one I took, any guesses?

Jeremy and I had this grandiose thought that maybe we could get a really nice photo of the boys in NYC that would be ideal for our Christmas card. I think Jude heard about our plan ahead of time - we just couldn't get him to cooperate. Jackson tried so hard to help but you know what, look at all these fun photos we got instead! Jeremy and I think that we should make a collage card with all the photos we got trying to get the one that we really wanted.



Of course all Hudkins trips are filled with "Eye Spy" adventure looking for vehicles, fire trucks, buses, etc. This trip provided many opportunities for seeing and riding. Since we parked in NJ, we had to take the PATH rail into the city. When we went to board the train, it seemed pretty full and we decided to wait for the next one (not knowing how long that would be). Well, the Conductor came out and said something like, "What are you folks doing?" We told him we were going to wait. He said to follow him. He took us onto a car that was full of passengers and wiggled us through everyone saying, "excuse us, please move aside, I have some helpers today!" He took us to an empty spot on the train and then I realized it's where he stands. He let us not only hang with him, but he chatted with us the whole way, gave us pointers, AND let the boys push buttons to sound the door-closing warning, open and close the doors. Can you imagine? My boys, getting to help run the train? If we left the city right then, it would've been fine!

Other transportation highlights were the multiple fire trucks we saw, the funny little police car, all the subway rides.

It was really an amazing day - I can't believe we did all that in 1 day. The ride home was a little bit of a challenge b/c Jeremy and I were tired, but all the excitement from the day kept us going.

We're already talking about 'when we go back.'

No Camera

No photos - I knocked the camera out of Jeremy's hand (by accident), it hit the ground, and the lens jammed. Might be a little while till I can post photos.

In other news, Jackson got his first report card of the school year and did his Momma proud! He's a good boy and I couldn't ask for more. keep it up Jax!

This evening, we're eating popcorn, drinking homemade hot cocoa, and watching Garfield's Thanksgiving - it's a good night!