December in a Nutshell...

So coming off the cruise made me feel a little behind for the holidays. Plus, we loaned out our Christmas tree for our Church's annual Creche event and we didn't end up getting our tree up until about the 15th of December! By the time we took it down on January 3rd, it felt like I had just barely put it up!

No matter, it was still a wonderful Christmas season and as a family, we tried adding a few events that I'm hoping we can keep up in future years and add to our repertoire of Harker Family traditions.

So here, for your viewing pleasure is December with the Harkers through the pictures we snapped and my (hopefully) witty narrative!

Though some of the pictures are not exactly in order, I hope you enjoy!

Quinton is a pretty happy kid in the morning but as I mentioned before, once there was even one present under the Christmas tree, all I heard a couple of hundred times a days was, "Can I open my presents???????" This picture reminds me of how cute he is and how much fun the magic of Christmas can be when you are four!

Now this is Chicago - we are known for a few things but one of our most infamous claims to notoriety is our WINTERS. I try not to complain since I knew what we were getting into moving back here for the second time, but I found this to be somewhat ridiculous:

FROST on the inside of our kitchen window!

Even if it was bothersome, the frost actually made this picture of our little glass nativity look beautiful.

And what are the holidays without sweet smells from the kitchen?

I was lucky enough to watch our twin friends, Ethan and Holland while their mom had a meeting downtown. We had so much fun making AND eating gingerbread people!

Holland was so funny when her mom came to pick her up...She told her mom that she wanted to hide the cookies from their dad since he "eats everything."

This past fall, Matt helped some friends tear up concrete in their backyard so as a thank you, they booked us a room at the downtown Hyatt so we could have a magical Christmas tour of the city. This cute display was near the hotel.

Although a dreary day, this was the cool city view from our hotel room.

We ate at a delish Irish pub when we arrived downtown and this was Quinton's favorite part!

Staying overnight downtown gave us a great advantage the next morning in getting in line to meet SANTA at Macy's.

Now, in years past Quinton has NEVER enjoyed seeing Jolly Old St. Nick...NEVER. He has cried every time but I just HOPED this year, since he's 4, that it would be different.

So after standing in the not-too-bad-line for about 30 minutes, we arrived and much to our relief, Quinton was unbelievably EXCITED to talk to Santa!

The Macy's Santa was so nice! He took his time with Quinton and had a nice chat.

Inside Macy's is the "Walnut Room."

This is a cute restaurant with a GIANT beautifully decorated tree in the middle of the room.

I hope we can make visiting Santa and a nice hot cup of cocoa in the Walnut room a family tradition - as long as we live in the Chicago area anyways!

Quinton and me standing in front of the tree. Unfortunately, you don't really get the full effect of the size of the tree but it's two stories tall!

After Macy's we walked through the crowds to Daley Plaza to see the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" at the German Christmas market. Chicago decided to save money this year and used a Christmas tree donated by a family and saved taxpayers a couple hundred thousand dollars by not doing their usual tree.

Then we went through the German market going on and had some fried dough with sugar and bought our version of the Christmas Pickle - which is what Quinton calls a "Dr. Pepper" - It's a red hot pepper that we can hide on the tree just like the pickle! New tradition!

Later in the week, I was able to help some of the nice women in my ward feed about 50+ missionaries for our church their holiday dinner. It was so fun to work with these ladies and provide a delicious meal to the missionaries!

While out shopping one afternoon, we could SMELL the deliciousness from P.J. MoonDoggies and Quinton begged me to go for lunch. Once there, Quinton discovered the juke box and we put a few quarters in for Christmas songs and Quinton entertained the diners with his cool moves!

The El trains have the Santa Train every year and it runs on certain lines during certain times, so some friends tipped us off to our local Santa train time and we hopped in the car and took a ride!

It was fun! I'm sure regular train riders were annoyed because the train was packed with kids and CTA workers passing out candy canes. Quinton loved it!

Plus, Santa rode on an open car waving to people and taking pictures with people during stops. I'm sure poor Santa was chilly, but it's such a cute tradition!

This picture of Quinton and his friend Holden screams Christmas, right?

Holden's family invited us and several other families over for Christmas Eve dinner and this is what the boys decided to wear.

It just cracks me up!

On Christmas Eve, we allowed Quinton to open 1 present but it actually became two presents since the first one was a lovely box of chocolates from my Grandpa John and Quinton was hoping for something to PLAY with, not eat!

Since taking the Christmas tree down, I really miss the soft glow at night, when all the house is quiet. Plus, it was great for me to see where I was going in the middle of the night since my pregnant self has to go at least twice a night!

Quinton inspecting his goody pile on Christmas morning.

Quinton's favorite toys were these Bakugans this year.

Too bad they are so easy to lose! As I look at this picture, I realize we haven't seen this particular Bakugan in a while...

One of Santa's BEST gifts to Quinton was this little archaeologist kit. It came with a big chunk of clay, safety goggles, a chisel, mallot, brush and book about his dinosaur.

Quinton and Matt had to chisel the "fossils" out of the clay and then they were able to put all of the pieces together to make his dinosaur. Quinton LOVED it! Matt enjoyed himself, too, I think!

See the fossils inside?

For Christmas, I was given a new digital camera!!!

My old one was three years old and wasn't working so well. Matt gifted me with a new Canon S90 which is awesome!

This is one of my first pictures with my new camera!

Later on Christmas morning, Matt and Quinton wanted to do some exercise, so we pulled out Quinton'a kid yoga DVD. They were totally cracking me up!

The Sunday after Christmas, Quinton was able to give his first ever talk in primary!

This was Matt and Quinton practising before church so that Quinton wouldn't make burping or farting noises in the microphone - our efforts kind of worked.

And this is Quinton's rainbow masterpiece.

He was SO impressed with his artistic skills, he wanted me to take a picture!

And there you have it. The long and short of our December!

Stayed tuned for highlights of New Years including a certain friend singing Spice Girls on Rock Band!

Happy Happy Birthday Matthew, Dear!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

It was so cute, last night. Quinton ended up in our bed early this morning because he said he had a bad dream. Sometime around 4am, Quinton said, "Dad?" in his little voice. Matt groggily answered him, "Yeah?"

Quinton said quietly, "You're my best buddy."

And then he was back to sleep.

What better birthday present than hearing from your best buddy first-thing in the morning?!

We love you, Matt!!!

Matt's Cruise Magic Show

For talent night on the cruise, Matt decided on a whim to perform a magic show .

Be amazed.

Be astounded.

Be entertained!

Cruisin' With Family

My grandparents on my mom's side, Gardner & Dorothy, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year. Two years ago they took a bunch of us on a cruise and we had so much fun, my grandmother thought it would be a great way to celebrate their anniversary with as much family as could be there. In total, I think there were 23 family members in our party on this cruise.

And what a party it was!

These are my grandparents 60 years ago on their wedding day!

And this is them earlier this year at a fundraiser.

Aren't they the cutest?
The best time that worked out for the majority of us fell during Thanksgiving so we spent a wonderful 10 days aboard the MSC Poesia, an Italian cruise line.

This is actually a shot of our ship while docked in Cozumel.

It was big but not too big.

We left from Ft. Lauderdale on November 20th.

This is my my younger sister, Jessi and her three kids: Sara (4), Taylor (10) and Evan (8).

Taking a tour the first day, we were happy to find a mini-golf course on board! Too bad most days were too windy to really play but I know Matt and the kids had a lot of fun on the course!

The first two full days on the ship were at sea so we found lots of ways to occupy ourselves.

This is my youngest sibling, Jeff and my sister, Jessi. They are both goofballs but the best siblings a girl could ask for!

Matt and two of my nephews enjoying some fresh air after the breakfast buffet.

He is with James (5) and Evan.

Matt with a bunch more of the gang, Taylor, Sara, James & Evan.

My disco diva older sister, Alyee and her cutie, Winter (3).

Matt enjoying some lunch in between pool times.

The food surprisingly was not spectacular. It wasn't too bad but when we went on Royal Caribbean 2 years ago, the food was a lot better. Oh well! One good thing about that is I don't think any of us put on weight. Especially me! I spent about 3 days out of the 10 sick to my stomach because of motion sickness combined with pregnancy hormones. I was fine as long as I could be on non-moving land but more than 24 hours at sea and I found my body did not agree with the motion of the ocean!

Our first stop was Curacao. I guess it's a pretty small island but the beaches we went to were fantastic! Matt, Quinton and I are on the bridge to the touristy side of the island in this picture.

On this leg of the trip, Matt ended up hiking up to a radio tower on a tall hill while the rest of my family and I went to a private beach and spent the day getting crispy! Unfortunately, the majority of us live where we haven't seen the sun too much in a few months so that much sun, all in the first day, proved to be a bad combination!

My mom will probably shoot me for two pictures on the blog and this would be the first one...but really...Why do you need to advertise a dancing pole inside of your tour bus???

Our second stop on the cruise was Aruba.

We were so burnt from the previous day that we decided to spend the day touring on a nice air-conditioned bus with my family and Grandparents.

Apparently, Aruba is not a big island because we were able to see it pretty quickly. Our tour took us to the lighthouse on the island which afforded us some magnificent views of the surrounding beaches and clear waters.

Jessi, my Granddad and me posing in front of the light house.

This is another stop in Aruba...some big rocks.

Seriously, in Moab, these rocks might be considered "pebbles" but in Aruba, they make up one of the higher point elevations of the island.

That night, we had one of the 'fancier' dinners. Matt, Quinton and I didn't make it to the dining room for dinner every night because the service was SO slow which is not great for a 4 year old with a normal four year old attention span!

But here we are one night, with my younger sisters, Melanie and Jessi. Melanie probably won't love this picture of herself but it makes me laugh! Thanks for the giggles, Mel!

Sara and my brother, Jeff. Sara used to tell her mom all the time that she wanted to marry her Uncle Jeff and you can see she is still a big fan of his these days!

Our third stop was in Cartegena, Colombia.

It was kind of a gray and rainy day which was fine because I don't think Cartegena is known for it's beaches. Instead, after a LONG haggle between my mom and some bus drivers, we ended up in 'rented' cabs for the whole day for only $40! What a deal!

This is our cab group with our cab driver. He'd been studying English for a couple of years and chatted with us non-stop! At one point, though, I think he asked me how much I would sell my sister, Melanie, for...maybe my Spanish isn't too good, though!

Another cool stop in Cartegena was the old fort. It was really cool but it was SO hot and SO humid only a few in our party of about 25 people decided to climb to the top.

Quinton enjoyed climbing the part of the ruins that didn't cost $14 to go up!

Instead of the fort, my family's priority was finding some GOOD Colombian food!

Some good friends of ours in Florida are Colombian and they make the best food and have the best fiestas at their house. So of course, we HAD to have good food, especially since the food on the ship was nothing to write home about!

Our driver took us to this GREAT restaurant and we had the most delicious Colombian food. Below are Melanie, Jessi and Jeffrey looking like they just won the lottery because my grandparents didn't want their tostones (fried unripened plantains) and these three snagged them.

That night, when we got back to our cabin, our WONDERFUL steward, Ricardo, made Quinton a cute towel elephant!

Our fourth stop on the cruise was Panama.

Luckily, my grandparents had us pre-book on an excursion that included a nice air-conditioned bus with a friendly tour guide.

First, our guide took us into a tame area of the jungle where we saw howler monkeys, the coolest leaf ants I have ever seen and some gorgeous blue Morpho Butterflies.

While in Panama, we also got to see the Panama Canal and learn more about how the system works. It's an amazing feat of engineering that I never really contemplated before seeing them in-person. Unfortunately, around the time we saw the canal and then a trip to a really cool old fort, my camera battery died. so this is the last pic from Panama..

Sara and Jessi exploring the Panamanian jungle.

And our last stop, Cozumel!

Originally, we were supposed to go to a smaller island off of the coast of Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, but the winds were too strong for it to be safe for us to get there so our boat went straight to Cozumel.

None of us minded the change in plans and ended up having a great time!

My mom, always the tour guide haggler, haggled us a great rate for a tour guide. My family and my grandparents took a mini-tour of Cozumel including these ruins which I guess the term is used very loosely when it comes to the ruins we saw!

Matt and Quinton channeling their inner Chupacabras in this picture!

One of the two best parts of Cozumel was going to this private resort beach with TONS of toys!

This is my Granddad enjoying the sand and surf!

And this is the second picture my mom my shoot me for posting but she looks so YOUNG in this picture! She had a lot of fun in the kayak and then some snorkeling.

You can barely see them but at the top of the mammoth slide are Quinton and Matt inside of the netting. I don't know who was braver but they both went down and had a great time!

After playing at the beach, we found a nice taco joint and had the yummiest tacos, guacamole and chips on the trip, YUM!

And on the finally evening of the cruise, Matt and my brother, Jeff decided to be in the talent show! Jeff played his bee video which can be viewed here and Matt performed an amazing magic show. This was his outfit. I'll have to obtain his permission to post the video of his magic show and then figure out how to post it!

Needless to say, Matt had the WHOLE crowd laughing and cheering by the end!

We all had a great time, even with motion sickness and not-so-great food.

At dinner the first night, 21 out of 23 showed up in bright blue shirts that said "Rockin' Russell 60th Anniversary Cruise" and presented my grandparents with a photo book with photos of all of their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids and almost everyone of us wrote them a letter in the book, too. My grandparents LOVED it!

Another evening, my brother, Jeff, surprised our grandparents with a 20 minute video of their 60 years together with still photos and old home movies dating back to their wedding day! They were so shocked and happy! It was such a fun way to celebrate two of the greatest influences in my life!

Thanks Grandmother & Granddaddy for a wonderful time and for all of my family members who made it memorable!

Just Overheard...

Little Einsteins comes on and Quinton says, "I remember this when I was a baby."
It's true, we haven't watched LE for AGES.
It's starting and Quinton asks, "Do they have moms?"
Good question. You never see or hear of parents in this show.

Me: Yes, they have moms but this show is about the kids playing together.
Q: Where do live live?
Me: With their families.
Q: No, do they live in America or South North?
Me: I think they live in America.
Q: Yeah, I knew that when I was a baby.

Fresh Conversations with a 4 year old!

Without participating in Black Friday shopping this year, I have been a little lost in my Christmas shopping endeavors. I have a hard time buying stuff that I know was even cheaper two weeks ago at 4 in the the morning!

Yesterday, however, I ventured out WITH Quinton and bought a few goodies to go under the tree for said shopping companion. It wasn't easy hiding the stuff in the shopping cart and I had to pretend, at one point, that the toy underneath the cart must have been left there by the last person and that I would put it back.

So later at home, while Quinton was watching TV, I wrapped his goodies. Quinton came along just as I finished wrapping one of the presents and saw the three other wrapped gifts nearby. He asked if he could open them and I said, "No, those are for Christmas. You can open them on Christmas day." Quinton's response, "Mom, it's Christmas! Now, can I open them?"

Now here is where the pattern comes in and our conversation this morning:
Q: Mom, I have to go potty. Are you coming?
Me: No, you can go by yourself.
Q: Mooooom, come with ME!

So I walk with him to the bathroom.
On the way to the bathroom, he sees the presents under the tree and is reminded, AGAIN, about wanting to open them.

Q: Mom, can I open my presents?
Me: No, it's not Christmas yet. When it's Christmas day you can open them.
Q: (from the bathroom) Mom, it's Christmas! Now can I open them?
Me: Quinton, we have to wait until Santa comes on Christmas day.
Q: Mooooom, can you get with it? (seriously, he said this)
Me: You have to wait until Christmas day!
Q: You're not my friend.

So there it is. I am sure we will have this conversation at least 10 times a day for the next 10 days!

Happy Birthday, Sara with no 'H'!!!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Sara!

My niece is one of the funniest little girls I have ever met!

She, like her older sister, Taylor, are just like their mom and my sister, Jessi! Sara definitely has her mom's sassy and fun-loving attitude. She knows exactly how to get what she wants with a slight tilt to her head and batting her sweet little lashes.

See what I mean?

We love you Sara!

Quinton said we should get on an airplane and come to your birthday party!

I wish we could!!!