Santa's bringing me a list!

We've been singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with Nadine, so now when we discuss that he's coming she says, "And he bring Nani a yist, an' he bring mama a yist, and he bring daddy a yist." Because, you know, Santa's making lists and giving them out. So cute.

We live in a really great county, and one of the traditions is for the fire department to come through the neighborhoods parade-style, with a Santa who gives out candy. Last year it took us by surprise (and they woke our sleeping baby, so we cursed fire Santa), but luckily this year we had the schedule, so we pushed Nadine's bedtime back a bit. They came through our street on Wednesday at about 8:00 p.m.

They rolled into our neighborhood with lights going and sirens blaring. It was so loud. And so ridiculously cool. Nadine loved it. They had the large fire truck with the ladder (the engine? Megan, help me out with the proper lingo! Ü), an ambulance, an SUV, and a pickup truck with Santa in the back. Then they stopped and gave candy canes to all the kids. The public relations nerd in me was so impressed that the firefighters do this for our community.

So now Nadine knows that Santa comes at night, but if you wonder why she thinks he also fights fires, you'll understand.

Merry Christmas all.

Crafty McCraftsalot

I have been doing lots of crafts recently. Sewing has become such a wonderful outlet for me, something to do to unwind and be creative and use another part of my brain and be alone for an hour or two.

Here are three of the non-scrub cap things I've made recently.

1. A diaper case found here (the case pattern is a bit down the page). These things are so dang handy. I have one in my church bag and one in the diaper bag. Sewing this took me only a couple hours; I was surprised how relatively simple it was (hooray straight lines). When you do her tutorial, though, use the measurements from this first page, but use the inside-out instructions here; these ones are much easier to follow.

I enjoyed being able to use my very cute extra Seuss fabric.

In this case I can fit three diapers, a wipes case, a small Butt Paste, and a small container of anti-bac. It's surprisingly roomy.

2. A hooded towel found here. I love hooded towels for Nadine; they're adorable and so snuggly, and quite necessary in the winter. But it's tough to find ones that are big enough and soft (especially for toddler size and up). I like that with this tutorial you can go to any store and pick your towel, so you get the exact color and softness and size you want (at a decent price; Target worked well for me). Also, these were amazingly simple--I finished each in 45 minutes.

  Yep, it really is that bright. Yikes, it's especially bright on screen.

Instead of trying to get thread that matched the towels, I used a zig-zag stitch and opposing thread color, and I really like the result.

To spice up the towels, I added a ribbon to the end of one and a piece of fabric to the end of the other. Nadine is so excited to have a "Pooh towel."

To compare, here's my hooded towel and a dinky Target hooded towel. Psh.

3. An adorable Christmas card holder found here. I bought everything for this craft a year ago, and finally got around to it at the beginning of December. This year.

I doubled the ribbon in the cutout in our entryway; I really like seeing the cards every time I walk through the door.

(Do you see yourself on here? If so, thanks for the Christmas card! Ü I love getting them.)

I don't love how my pins turned out--I used the wrong color paint. BUT, I made some for my mom and sister, and I learned from my error, and I love how theirs look. As is always the case, what a difference the paint makes.

Carol Singing

On the Nadine blog, I've posted a video of what is possibly the cutest singing voice ever. Especially singing a Christmas song.
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ALSO, the title of this post is taken from Love Actually's way of saying "Christmas Caroling;" that's my favorite part of the movie.

Family pictures

We got family pictures a month ago. Our favorites are on the Nani blog.