It was a very happy holiday season around here...

 I snapped these photos right before the gingerbread party

 and decided they would be as good as it gets for a christmas card.

 So, even though they were a bit blurry and George's shirt is soaking wet with water,

 they sum up the holiday season for us...

music, dancing, laughter, silliness, and fun!

And, these are the crazy trees George made for me.  I love them.  :)

 It was a holly jolly christmas!

 This is the first year we waited so long to get our tree.  The kids were SO excited and couldn't wait to get one.  AND, this was the first year that they really had a say in picking one out.  It seems for years we had one sleeping in the car or it was too cold for us all to get out and pick one out.  This year the kids were really into it!

 We went to a lot in the city and were happy to find the airy and imperfect trees that we love. The kids on the other hand, wanted a fat and perfectly shaped one.  We compromised and found this one.

That night we built a fire, cranked up the Christmas music, and decorated the tree.  

The next morning our elf was hiding in the tree and a little train set was under it with a working electric train that we get to make go fast or slow with a controller!  

Oh Merry, Merry!  What fun it is!

I have come to love the holidays again.  I mean really love them.  Having children will do that to you and having a pretty idyllic childhood rich with traditions this time of year brings it all back too...

We started the holiday season a week before Thanksgiving by being invited to a Christmas Parade Watching Party in downtown Milwaukee.  Friends of ours invited us and the apartment was absolutely fabulous with stunning views of both Lake Michigan and of downtown Milwaukee.

I snuck out of the house for a couple of hours on Black Friday just to feel a little bit of the holiday buzz.

Candycane, the elf, came back the day after Thanksgiving to stay with us during the holiday season.

We have reservations to have breakfast with Santa at the beautiful Pfister Hotel.

My sister bought me tickets to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for my birthday, we all can't wait to see that on our local children's stage.

I made it my goal to have my shopping done by Dec. 1st so I can devote the rest of the month to conjuring up some homemade gifts.

Greatly anticipated, advent calendars made their debut today!

We had our first holiday party tonight.

Our 5th annual Gingerbread Party is tomorrow afternoon.  All 14 families replied "yes" bringing a total of 25 kids!  It's always crazy but lots of fun.

Magnolia is writing a list to Santa.  Writing!  What a big girl.

I organized an online Secret Santa with my family members this year.  We haven't done a Secret Santa in years!!!

I found pickle ornaments at the dollar store which explains the old German tradition of parents hiding the pickle somewhere in the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.  The first child to find it in the morning gets to open the first present under the tree.  This tickled me so much that I sent them to everyone in my family to join in the fun.

(Crate and Barrel)

We have two Christmas performances to look forward to at both Magnolia and George's school.

We have candles in our windows and fresh boxwood wreaths hanging inside.  George built me some crazy red wooden trees for the urns on the front porch.  I bundled a variety of different greens for the window boxes and tied them with a burlap bow.  We put white lights on our tiny little apple tree.  It was a budget decorating job but it's weird and I kind of like it.

We unearthed a perfectly wonderful stand up freezer in our basement, plugged it in and it's humming just waiting to be filled with holiday goodies.

My sister is coming into town with her girls this year for Christmas.

We booked our annual after Christmas trip into Chicago at a fancy schmancy hotel.

It's a jam packed month and I love every minute of it.  Welcome December!

 So much...

 to be thankful for.

 It was a lovely Thanksgiving.  We were taking these photos just as our guests arrived.  Then it all became a little busy and I never got the camera out again.  Nani, Aunt Alicia, and her boys all joined us from St. Louis.  A turkey on the grill, plenty of sides, and four pies.  We feasted and sat by the fire.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's time for Georgie to get a new look in his bedroom.  The very special fire engine bed that George built him last fall is just too small.  We held out as long as we could hoping he will remember having such a special bed but he needs more room.  He needs a real bed with sheets and blankets.  The crib mattress for this big boy is just too small.  We worked around the green on the walls for the last three years but I'm ready to see it with a whole new look.  It's a very small north facing room.  I wanted to lighten it up but keep it warm so we're hoping Benjamin Moore's Navajo White will do the trick.

I envisioned a room that's boyish but also not so boyish so he can grow into it.  I also wanted to work with the fact that it's such a small room and do a wall of built in bookcases for all of his books and treasures.  I want the room to look like a library that we turned into a boy's room.  Here are the things we have so far...  

This is the new light fixture.

(Pottery Barn Kids)

This will be his duvet cover.

(Lands End)

Some sort of custom built-in bookshelves painted or left white???

(Pinterest)

I got rolls of Osborne & Little's Coronata Star wallpaper at a rummage sale for less than $5.  I've been itching to use it and thought maybe in the back of his bookshelves.  Here it's used on the ceiling.

(unknown source)

His dresser is going to get a coat of paint.  Love this orange but also thinking olive green...

(Pinterest)

I love going to the Florence Eiseman Factory Sales here in town.  Once or twice a year they include their fabrics in the sale.  I always stock up because it's cheap, cheap, cheap.  This year I went with drapery fabric in mind for George's room.  I found a lightweight wool similar to this one for $6 a yard.  I bought 10 yards.  I wish I bought more.  I love it and would love to upholster chairs in it.

(unknown source)

We bought this vintage map for color.

(Pottery Barn Kids)

I bought these curtain rods for no other reason other than they were on sale.  They're pretty cute too.

(Pottery Barn Kids)

When I asked George what kind of room he wanted he said "sharks."  We went through all the different kinds of rooms, looked at catalogs, but he stayed true to sharks.  Luckily these shark sheets were on sale.  These were what started to whole room makeover...

(Pottery Barn Kids)

Well, then I had to get this too.  Then that was all I wanted to invest in sharks because I know how these little ones will be on to the next thing in no time.

(Pottery Barn Kids)

Finally, for his big boy bed he gets one similar to this; a vintage Jenny Lind.   We bought a pair last winter on Craigslist for next to nothing.  I always envisioned painting them raspberry red and using them in Magnolia's room.  We just couldn't get the pair to fit in her room nicely so George is getting one and we're leaving it with its original finish.

(unknown source)

We are starting on this soon so I'll be back to update the progress.  Georgie is not good with change (he even had a hard time with his fire engine bed when it was first moved in his room) so we are going to do this project slowly.  One thing new at a time.  :)

It was a cold but sunny evening.  I bundled them as usual and off they went with George as they always do.  I stayed behind with a fire going, a big cup of hot tea, and a whole basket of candy.  Pretty nice, I'd say.

This year Magnolia and George went along with neighbor and friend, Bryn.

George goes to his first house to trick or treat.  Love that smile!

Magnolia had real stamina this year.  They came back to drop off George ,who wanted to call it quits and was quite happy with his small stash, while Magnolia and Bryn went back out again.

He was a great helper handing out candy.

It was a big day for all of us.  Prior to trick or treating we had our annual block party complete with a bouncy house and a visit from the fire station.  We all went to bed early completely exhausted and looking forward to a (somewhat) quiet November.  So long October!

(Magnolia gets her turn as a cop at her school Halloween Party.  Here they are performing some Halloween songs for all of the parents.  "It's Magic!")

New-ish tradition for us is "booing."  Someone drops a halloween package on your front porch with a poem inside saying you've been "booed."  You tape the boo poem on your front door so everyone knows you've been booed.  In turn, you then boo someone.  George and Magnolia each chose someone on the street to boo.  Here are the packages ready to be delivered.  Later that night when it got dark we crept up to the houses and left our treats...it was a lot of fun!

Old tradition is carving pumpkins.  I asked them to draw what they wanted carved out.  George proceeded to completely color his entire white pumpkin with every color imaginable.  It was quite stunning.  Then he asked me to carve out a dog bone which I did.  Definitely a winner for most creative.  Magnolia colored the classic pumpkin face.  We lit them up on Trick or Treat night.

Introduction of the newest Judy Family tradition is Saturday Night Sleepovers.  I always intended for these two to share a bedroom.  I guess I always imagined a house crammed with kids where everyone would be sharing rooms.  Since we have just two and we realized how much work it would be to combine rooms, we decided to let them have sleepovers every Saturday night instead.  This way sleeping together would remain a special treat (like they do in hotels and on the island).  The first night went beautifully.  They fell right asleep and stayed in bed all night long.

I love how close these two are.

Six seems SO big!  She sure is growing up.  Magnolia is so much fun and we just adore everything about her.  For her birthday she didn't have school so she got to choose to do whatever she wanted to do. She chose to go the the Children's Museum which was a blast since we had not been in there in SO long.  Then we drove to Blue's Egg for lunch where George joined us.  Then we came home to play with new toys.  We had a chinese dinner then bundled up to take a walk to the Pumpkin Festival.

Every year our village puts on a Great Pumpkin Festival.  They stack up picnic tables and staple big white lights to them.  They have piles of pumpkins and a tent where you can go in to carve it.  When you are finished, you find a place to put your pumpkin on the picnic tables.  We went a couple of nights prior to carve our pumpkin so on Magnolia's birthday we walked back to see it lit up.  There's always live music, good food, and plenty of good friends to see!

Ours is second from the bottom on the far left.  Everyone got a say in what they wanted carved.  George IV chose square eyes, George III chose a triangle nose, Magnolia chose a big smile with two teeth and I chose to carve our name in the back.

When we came home Magnolia got to open her gifts from us which included a new set of flannel sheets with painted ponies on them, her very own alarm clock, a coin changer, a panda snack container, a horse book, and her own hairbrush and comb.  We kept her gifts to a minimum to justify the pony at her party.  We knew she would remember her pony far more than any gift we got her.  :)

And the grand finale of the night....birthday cake pie!

Magnolia, also known as Magpie shortened to Pie, fittingly loves pies.  She first wanted a key lime pie then we got to reading Amelia Bedelia books in which Amelia Bedelia makes the best lemon meringue pies.  So, in the end, it turned out to be a Key Lime Meringue Pie.

Our sweet girl gets six (!) candles, she makes a wish, and blows them out perfectly.  Yeah!

As I tucked Magnolia in that night I told her that it's going to be a great year being six and we talked about all of the things she'll do and learn.  The first on her list was to be able to snap her fingers which she has already mastered.  Exciting things!!!

We love you to pieces Magnolia June!  Happy 6th Birthday!!1

xoxo

A couple of side notes not to be forgotten:

George was very unhappy that he couldn't open Magnolia's gifts.  Magnolia was very kind and let him help.  He continued to be grumpy through the cake as the picture suggests.  Magnolia didn't seem to be bothered by his fussing and crying.  She happily ate two pieces of pie!  

Magnolia and I share birthdays, mine falls the day before hers.  Both kiddos were off of school so I told them that we were going to do something fun, something I wanted to do, and they had to promise they would say "okay" to everything I asked.  I asked to go downtown to the Pabst Mansion.  We did but it turned out that it had to be a guided tour so Magnolia and George got dragged around the mansion with me for over an hour and they were troopers!  Even the tour guide commented on how good they were.  So far so good...  Afterwards we went to the Melthouse for a good Wisconsin grilled cheese sandwich but in my insane hunger, I ordered wrong and never got the grilled cheese I craved.  But, George met us for lunch and we all shared soups and sandwiches, it was fun to be together.  After that I asked them to go to my two favorite stores.  And, that was when things got a little hairy.  They tried but they just couldn't help being a little wild in those stores.  I can hardly blame them and overall, they were really good.  Really great sidekicks on my birthday and I loved every minute of my day with them.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going to ballet/tap lessons, having a good dinner and a delicious gingerbread cake hot out of the oven with fresh whipped cream.  George made a fire and I opened many wonderful gifts from a lot of people who love me.  It was a wonderful birthday.