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Monday, December 23, 2013

Christmas Cuteness


I've taken lots of cute pictures and videos this Christmas season. Now I'm just gonna dump it all here in one mega Christmas blog! 
Leo and Gus love to sing "Ring the Bells" from their school Christmas show. The lyrics are (in case you can't understand them): 
Ring the bells, Ring the bells
Ring the bells today 
Jesus came, Jesus came
To take our sins away 
Hey! 





Next time I will remember not to turn the phone horizontal. Sorry in advance if you get a neck cramp from this one! P.S. Row Row has a boo boo on her nose but she is fine.


More pictures of Row Row and Gus. Gus was sad about being put in time-out until Row Row came to sit with him. Then he said, "Time-out not over!" 





He must love her; she got him to play with dolls! 





My cookie exchange! 




 Riding the Polar Express in Palestine, TX


The Seiss cousins take good are of my boys






The Christmas show at school. Gus is probably singing "Ring the Bells!" Actually, I think he is singing "Joy to the World" and that is why they are jumping up and down.




Leo's class after the Christmas show. Leo is a shepherd on the front row. Aren't they adorable?


I hope you are not having cuteness overload because surely I will have more pictures and videos from the big day! 




Friday, December 20, 2013

Merry Christmas--Not!

Getting the Christmas letter out this year was a bit hairy. First, I had to wait until the cards arrived and they were delayed because of our ice storm. Once they got here we could have been in business except back in 2003 I committed to writing a Christmas letter every year! And I had written the letter...but the paper hadn't arrived (blame that ice storm again). The paper finally got here on the 17th. (We were still waiting on stamps. Maybe I need to cut back on the online shopping.) We started to print the letters but our printer was all kooky and that set us back a night. We thought about going somewhere to make copies but we couldn't even get one good original copy.

Finally, Frank started the fulfillment process on Wednesday, the 18th. I was at a Christmas party so couldn't help or be there for quality control (foreshadowing alert!).  Anyway, we were determined to finish them up Thursday, the 19th, so we could mail them, Friday, the 20th, and just barely get them to our recipients' homes before Christmas. I'm pretty sure this is our latest arrival of a Christmas letter!

As we were nearing the end of our stuffing and stamping, I happened to glance at the last line of my letter. And there it was. Not only a typo but a typo that totally changed the punch line of my letter.

You see, at the beginning of my letter I talked about how everyone started decorating for Christmas so early this year, like November 1st. I said that I feared that, by the time they received my letter, they would already be addressing Valentines. Then at the end I say that I hope everyone can slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. "But if not, Happy Valentine's Day!"

Well, our spacing got all messed up so the "But if" got lost in a snowman towards the bottom of the page. So the last two lines now read like this: "We hope that you are able to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. not, Happy Valentine’s Day!"

You see what's happened here, right? It now appears as if I tried to make a "not" joke, circa 1992. And while some might think "not" jokes are so old that they have come back around, that is not the case. It's still too soon! They're old but not retro. And bottom line, that is NOT what I was going for.

At this late in the game I certainly couldn't open all the envelopes and put in new letters. I mean, they were stamped and stamps are like $.50 each! So we did print new letters for the envelopes we hadn't stuff yet. So a few lucky folks will get the right punch line. The rest of you will just have to enjoy our messed up letter--not!

I'm going to paste the correct letter here because that makes me feel better. If you find other errors and typos, please keep it to yourself.






Dear Friends and Family,                                                                 December 2013

I’m going to always remember 2013 as the year that everyone got a jump on Christmas. I mean, I had barely scooped up the remains of our rotted jack-o-lantern when suddenly, halls were decked, chestnuts were roasting and elves were on shelves. I fear that, by the time you receive this, you will be addressing Valentines. Nevertheless, a Simcik family update is welcomed any time of year, right? 

This will be our second Christmas in Frisco.  Of course we miss our wonderful friends in Georgia, but we have grown to love this little town back in our home state of Texas. We’ve gotten involved in our church, St. Francis of Assisi, are enjoying our friendly neighborhood and love the endless entertainment opportunities for the kids (jumpy places and froyo on every corner)!

Mind you, we could not afford the admission at said jumpy places if it weren’t for Frank, working as a finance director at Frito Lay. Frank also found time to play on a softball team this year. At first he was reluctant but after a nudge (shove, really) from me, he ended up enjoying it.

When I’m not herding our boys, I churn out one or two articles a month for a couple of local magazines.  I’m also teaching spin (and branching out into other formats like Tabata) at our local YMCA. But mostly I’m doing domestic diva stuff like cleaning, cooking and breaking up fights.  

Leo is five-and-a-half and is doing a year of Pre-K before heading to the big leagues next year. He loves being the “big man on campus” at his preschool, which is at our church. Leo played soccer, takes gymnastics and learned to swim sans floaties this summer.  He’s a big Star Wars fan like his daddy so he went as Darth Vader for Halloween. He also dresses up as Darth Vader for other occasions like Tuesdays.

 Gus is two-and-a-half (those halves are important, y’all) and attends the same preschool as Leo two days a week. He loves sports, especially UT football.  He likes to say, “Texas Fight! Give ‘em Heck!” Gus takes gymnastics like Leo but swimming seems to be his strong suit (also like daddy). The guy can full on swim! We are totally going to save money on floaties this summer.

Frank and I celebrated our ten-year wedding anniversary with a trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico (the site of our honeymoon) in March. We went with our Atlanta friends, Josh and Claire, who were also ten years into this whole marriage thing. Then we visited Atlanta over 4th of July and went to North Carolina to see the Kinfolk that same month. We made it down to Houston a few times and added on a trip to Galveston with Frank’s family at the end of August. In November we got to see Gus’ beloved Texas Longhorns beat Kansas and visit my sister Kristin (better known as Tia). We hosted my family for Thanksgiving and plan to wait here for the big guy on Christmas. Soon after we will head down to Houston to collect all the grandparent loot.

We hope that you are able to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. But if not, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Love,
Elsa, Frank, Leo and Gus 





Friday, December 06, 2013

Frozen



Even though I haven't seen the movie Frozen, I have been told by Frank and Leo that there is a character named Queen Elsa and she has the power to freeze everything she touches. 
Well, life must be imitating art because I, Queen Elsa, made everything in the DFW area frozen today. My evil plan was to make it icy, not snowy, so little kids couldn't play in it. But apparently ice is fun too and actually makes sledding faster. 

Oh, and in the tradition of snow days, we waited eagerly to hear if schools and offices were closed. They were! And we found out the night before which was awesome. 

This is what we woke up to this morning! Thanks, Queen Elsa. 




Leo said, "I'm all bundled up" (in his windbreaker!)



That's more like it! 


Frank worked from home...as much as the boys would let him.


Ice sledding!



Leo loved the cold weather. He could totally be a Yankee. Gus liked it too...for about 15 minutes.