Holiday Fun Follow-up - Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas came and went so quickly again this year, and we had a wonderful, wonderful time. I thought I enjoyed it as a kid, but experiencing it as a parent is a million times better! We get to enjoy some of the traditions I had growing up, and then we've made our own that make our celebrations all the more special.

What a dapper little fellow!

Cousin "rasslin'" as they say in Iowa

Looks.so.much.like.his.dad.in.this.one!

Grandma with her two youngest grandkids!

And look over there! Here's another one!

Babies playing by the tree

Santa made a very special visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house

Here is Santa giving Alex some chocolate coins for being a good boy.

It's hard to fool this one...he kept on wondering where Uncle Jimmy went!

This one loved the Christmas Eve cavatelli from Gino's!

And, she liked sitting on Santa's lap

The calm before the storm...

Merry Christmas!

All the best,

The Hennigs - Alexis, Matt, Alex and Greer

Anticipation...

It's almost here, you can feel it! So we count down the last day in our native tounge:


Oh the chaos, the craziness, the insanity, you can just feel it!



This kid is seriously the best big brother ever. Santa will be sure to leave him lots of presents for being so kind and helpful to his little sister!

"I'm from Holland...isn't that vierd?"

It's only fitting to feature the member of our family that the blog is named for...Lincoln. He is full of Christmas cheer and glee, as you can see, and counting down to "twee" (more days)!

Three glasses clinking...

Cheers - Christmas is almost here! For a change of pace, since little G is sleeping upstairs and A is sitting shirtless in the TV room watching "Prep and Landing" (long story, well actually, I don't know the story, because at some point today while he was playing with his cousins, he lost his shirt. I never did find it before I left, and I just had him zip up his coat on the way out!) I featured yours truly demonstrating what I will be doing later on tonight with my mom and two sisters. I picked Tagalog because, well because I'm running out of languages and only have two more days. Drink up!

Mama Mia!

Mama has been super busy today and didn't have time to be especially clever. With only FOUR days until Christmas, she's in the final stretch of present-buying, elf-hiding, child-cajoling, gift-wrapping and cheer-spreading. Throw in a 4:45 a.m. wake-up call for bootcamp class, a shift at the Y's child care area, a holiday lunch party, teleconference meeting and minor hiccup, and it's been a full day, with plenty more to follow!

Arrivederci, amici, I must go and finish!

Shalom!

"He" means five in Hebrew

It's sundown, so it means it is the first day of Hanukkah! In honor of this, we are counting down in Hebrew tonight. Greer is with her friend, Mr. Matzo, a toy that I got in Chicago at a Walgreens a long time ago as a joke. I thought it was kind of cute and funny that a piece of unleavened bread was turned into a stuffed toy, probably because a Catholic version would be Mr. Communion Wafer! Which of course, would never get made because it's probably a mortal sin or something...

I know matzo is associated more with Passover, but I don't have anything else in the house! That takes me back to The Bagel restaurant in Lakeview and the awesome mish-mash soup, cinnamon rugelach and all of the other delicious Jewish comfort food they had...yum.

I told Alex that Hanukkah started tonight and he told me that they got to play with dreidels and learned all about the menorah and candles at school. He was surprised when I started to sing the "Dreidel Song", but of course, I only knew the first verse, and as I found out, so did he!

Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

Top o' the Christmas to you!

In honor of our first bit of baked potato, a little Gaelic to let us know it's only six more days!

Two wild and crazy kids!

Hey all of you American foxes, we've only got seven more days to swing into Christmas!

Sedm = seven in Czech

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

Alexius Octavius Maximus Hennig declares in the language of Julius Caesar that there are only eight days until Christmas.

However, the party begins tonight for this young puer, as it is the beginning of Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival in honor of the god Saturn.

Domo arigato, Mr. Santa

Konichiwa! Hard to believe we are down to single digits! We are counting down in Japanese today, only nine more days until one of the stealthiest ninjas of all arrives...Santa!

Live long and prosper!

Greer is mesmerized by the nerdament display

Conversation at our house this morning:

Me: "OK, let's get those nerdaments, I mean, ornaments turned on and under Alex's tree."

Matt: "Alright, I'm plugging them in."

A jumble of flashing lights, talking voices, phaser sounds ensue.

Me: "Wow, that sounds like the inside of a Star Trek convention, or what I imagine it would because I would never, ever set foot inside of one..."

I proceed to drape the nerdaments* (be sure to read the story about the nerdaments) under the tree and set up the Klingon sign for the number 10.

Matt: "Hey, you can't have the Star Wars ornament next to the Klingon sign!"

Me: "What's the difference? They are basically the same thing!"

Matt: "They don't speak Klingon in any of the Star Wars movies. Here, put the USS Enterprise ornament over there so Star Trek is properly represented."

Me: "Oh, I forgot, the fan base for Star Wars is soooo much cooler than the Trekkies/Trekkers, they don't need to invent a fake language for their fans to speak in."

Matt: "No, but some of them DID invent a Star Wars religion, which is just as creepy!"

Me: "Touche. Now, set your phasers to stun!"

*Awhile back, I coined the term "Nerdaments" to accurately describe these lovelies. You can read about it here.


Alex's table: where Star Wars and Star Trek co-exist peacefully



"Luke, I am your Secret Santa!"

Yeah...that's the number 10 in Klingon. Don't ask where I found it, because I never, ever, plan to boldly go there again!

Reindeer Games...

Norway is home to many reindeer, so it's only natural to count down in Norweigan today next to our hooved friend...

Getting Behind...

It seems I'm posting these later and later in the day, and I'm trying to catch up. Here is Greer bringing up the rear (ha, it rhymes!) in Swedish. Only 12 (tolv) more days!

Baby, it's cold outside

So we are counting down in Inuit, the language of (most) Eskimos....13 days to go!

Alex goes in for an Eskimo kiss and Greer is not.having.it!



Carnivale...

From the land of the samba, Giselle and Rio (or Angry Birds Rio, in our case), we bring you the Portugese number for 14 days until Christmas...

Hawaii One-Five-O!

Aloha! It may be 30 degrees here in Iowa, but we're pretending to be in the warm, balmy Hawaiian Islands. Only 15 more days 'til the Big Kahuna, Santa, arrives!


Hang ten, dudes!



Sassy wahine!



He's such a good sport!



Des Moines: French for "the Moines"

Bonjour! Join us for a cafe au lait as we count down the days until Christmas. Where five year olds smoke and drink coffee and wear berets! Sacre bleu! There are but 16 (seize) days left!

I think he totally nailed the "c'est la vie" pose I was going for, no?

"Look bored Alex"

He did a nice job of looking disinterested while holding the paper cigarette, but much acting was not required

And...we started to move into almost crying mode because we were over it

Seventeen!

17 days in Mandarin Chinese!

I got to play with the chopsticks for approximately 2.5 seconds before they were taken away...

Greenland is covered with ice, and Iceland is very nice!

In honor of the very cold weather here, and Iceland, we got out our warm clothes, including the stocking hat from Iceland and the scarf I got at an outlet outside of Reykjavik made of Icelandic wool...which is not nice, soft, cashmere-y like wool...it's like scratchy, itchy, bulky wool. If anything, it IS warm and a pretty shade of green. And to agree with the quote from "Mighty Ducks 2", Iceland IS very nice!

Atjan = 18 in Icelandic...yep, it's a real language...and a real country!



St. Nicholas Day

We celebrate St. Nicholas Day in our house, and this year was no exception! The kids got small gifts under the fireplace. Since St. Nicholas is originally from Greece, we are counting down in Greek today...



Anticipation...




Checking out the fireplace, note that Legos the elf is "watching" from up there.



Opening the gift - an Imaginext Raptor

And as an added bonus, both Alex and his mom have names with a Greek origin - "Helper of mankind"

Delicious Dish

Our next-door neighbors surprised us with some homemade egg rolls last night, so in honor of them, we are counting down in Laotian today (oh, and they were delicious)! 20 days!

Santa may want to reconsider the plate of cookies...

Frohe Wiehnachten!

Im Deutsche, bitte:


Einundzwanzig (21) days until Christmas, brought to you by Otto the German Shepherd



Please fraulein, do not think about pulling my ears or trying to climb up on me!



Otto: 21 days until I get a day of peace and quiet from these kids!