'Twas the month before Christmas and all through the house...

Life has returned to normal around here since returning from the Arctic. We have taken advantage of the mild winter temperatures so far this winter and spent much of the last month enjoying some fresh snow, sledding, and an outdoor party or two. With a forecast for more of the same mild temps through Christmas and a substantial dump of fresh snow in the last 48 hours we are looking forward to the holiday break ahead.

Now that Kieran is nearly two Max thought it was high time for him to work on his ski technique. This was his first go on the skis we found for him last year and he was excited to try them out. Looking good so far!

Weeeeee!!! He did great for the 15 minutes that he tolerated them on his feet. It was a good introduction to the sport - short and sweet. In the week following this outing Max tried too often to get him back into the bindings and Kieran seemed to protest louder with each of Max's promptings. After throwing his arms up in frustration and accepting the fact that Kieran was surely destined to become a snow boarder, or worse...a snow machiner(!!) he stopped pushing the skis. Surprise, surprise...in the last two weeks Kieran has taken to pretending to ski inside, complete with "Shwoosh, shwoosh, shwoosh" sounds and polling arm motions and quietly slipping his pajama footed feet into the bindings in the front hallway. It's that old saying, the more you push kids to do something, the more they resist. Needles to say, Max is delighted with Kieran's self-motivated interest.

After his short ski lesson Kieran turned his attention to something he knows he loves.

We had a nice snow storm before Thanksgiving.

Rufus likes to play in fresh snow too.

He is still Kieran's cat buddy, rarely very far from his side.

Of course, fresh snow means shovelling, and lots of it! This is what happens when we leave the house for daycare, or return from daycare, or go outside for a walk...Kieran's favorite activity is definitely shovelling, or at least it's a close second behind vacuuming. I hope he likes doing his chores this much when he's older!

More shovelling...

And more shovelling. Anytime we get fresh snow overnight I have to let Kieran outside at least 10 minutes early so he can get his shovel fix in before I load him into the car. As you can see, he's moved on from his little red "play" shovel. Shovelling is serious business and requires serious tools. He has been enjoying his fruit and vegetable cutting sets. He appreciates a good cutting surface - a giant butcher block is ideal. I tried to catch him while we was preparing his "salad" but it was already in the bowl by the time I had the camera ready. He uses the wooden knife (aka "Ouch") that came with the set for everything from opening boxes to cutting his own grapes for his snack. It's very useful and he keeps it at the ready. Grandma started him on the cutting fruits while she was visiting. Thanks to Emily for adding the cutting vegetables! It was the perfect present at the perfect time.

Kieran's legs have been doing some growing in the last few months and he can finally reach into the sink! He spends a lot of time like this "washing" dishes while I cook dinner. The dishes don't get very clean but dinner gets made and Kieran feels very useful by the time we sit down to eat.

Last weekend we took a walk down through the woods to the base of our property to find this year's Christmas tree. Max took this picture after Kieran had already pointed out lots of perfectly suitable trees that we ultimately rejected. I think at this point he was a little frustrated. We eventually found a nice tree and Daddy carried all the way back up to the house over his head. Kieran thought that was pretty fun to watch and was very chatty and cheerful on the way back home, rejected trees forgotten.

Tall tree, tired daddy.

Kieran stepped right into his roll as project manager for tree decorating.

After hanging all the ornaments Kieran waited patiently for daddy to return with the star for the top of the tree.

And finally the finishing touch! Kieran must be part of every project. He's a great helper.

Bring on the holidays...we're ready!