Little Elfen Helper

This week, we had a little pint-sized elf visit the Bramble Berry warehouse to help spread Christmas cheer. It turns out that he accepted a little Christmas cheer first. Thank you Norman (our operations ninja) for the fantastic fishing game. Jamisen caught onto it quickly and I can see that we'll have hours of fun ahead, 'fishing'.

   

 Jamisen's favorite part of visiting the office is always a toss-up between the giant 'Vanna White' wheel (seriously, we have a giant Wheel of Fortune wheel at work) and playing with my keyboard and my computer. He adores anything electronic or computer. Remotes, cell phones, computers ... he's all about it.  

 Jamisen the Elf was not just at Bramble Berry to practice his typing skills; he was also there to help deliver some presents I picked up for a few of the team. While everyone at Bramble Berry gets cards stuffed with a little sumpin sumpin (wink wink), sometimes I just run across a gift that screams out a name and then says 'Buy me, buy me!' When that happens, I channel the extra spirit of Christmas and buy 'n' wrap. All I needed was the perfect delivery method: enter Jamisen the Elf.  

 He got into the spirit pretty fast, and loved delivering the gifts. I think the big smiles and clapping helped. He is quite the little ham; he'll do most anything for praise. =) Here's to another super duper fun Holiday season at Bramble Berry. They're all better with a little Elf.  

Cookie Helper (Videos)

Remember, to watch these, you have to click through to the blog. They don't play in emails.
More cooking. Our little master chef in the making:

Becoming Martha

I've been learning to sew in my copious amounts of spare time. I even purchased a sewing machine. This is the first sewing project. Prepare to be underwhelmed but soon, my friends, you will ooh and aah over my sewing skills. And Jamisen + Baby Bell Pepper (who I can feel kicking now) will be the best costumed children at Halloween every year. No pressure. No pressure.

   

 Look at the evenness of my second project - those stitches! The tricky lines of the circle and heart:

   

 Proving I am trying to give Martha a true run for her money, I've been juicing for the family most mornings. Jamisen sometimes drinks as much as 3 ounces of it in a morning. And remember, greens are all about calcium. Goooooo strong bones!

   

 But, lest you think it's all healthy - these are the cookies I made for the Bramble Berry Cookie Exchange - Andes Mint cookies with a chocolate mint ganache .... but yeah, I didn't eat any and neither did Jamisen so maybe we are the all healthy family. Gold star. Gold star.

  

I was told they were delicious. 

PS - I was at a Winter Solstice ceremony/ritual the other night and we were told to imagine powerful women who have guided us in our lives. Of course, my Mom came to mind first. Followed by Amelia Earhart. And then, Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart. Top Three female influencers in my life. Other women at the Solstice ceremony were mentioning Joan of Arc and Athena and suitably impressive women of history. Me. Martha Stewart. I wasn't sure whether I should be proud or ashamed. But whatever, I'm following in her footsteps so I'm going for proud.

A Little Monster Booty for You?

Happy boy loves the Christmas lights. We now have two trees with lights and every morning, after he finds 'Bah!' the Elf, he asks to have the tree lights turned on.  

This morning the Elf was guarding a Christmas present - a very nice bottle of wine from Norman.

  

Chris is still in the running to join the CNN Ironman Triathlon Team (with all his spare time). We are so proud of him, of course.

  

Though Jamisen still isn't speaking (meh - he's fantastic at sign language), he clearly is learning a lot (as evidenced by this text from his Nanny, McKenna):

  

Cutest pants in the world - a little Monster Booty for you?

Happy Tree Hunting

For some reason, I have it in my head that a Christmas tree that we stalk ourselves and then cut down is somehow better than a tree purchased pre-cut. For that reason, I drag my husband (and now young son) out every holiday to freeze, while trying to hold a hacksaw. It's a delightful holiday tradition that I'm sure Jamisen + unborn sibling will thank me for one day. More realistically, they'll thank their father who does all the heavy lifting and cutting. Either way, it's all about holiday happiness.

We decided that we didn't need to walk all the way to the back to get the 'best' tree and that we'd be able to find a great tree in the front row. And, somehow, when we found the 'perfect' tree in the front row, we just had to keep walking. It was almost like it if wasn't hard to find, it wasn't somehow 'good.'

Well, after traversing the entire tree farm multiple times, we made it back to the front row where we figured out a dirty little tree farm secret: all the trees up in the front rows have been manicured within an inch of their little tree lives so they look more attractive than the average tree from the road. Thus, we happily found our perfect tree and claimed it as our own.

We love bowl cuts!

Jamisen got a little scratch on his face at Hillcrest (his 2X, half day pre-pre school). You can see it right by his eye. It's healing well with no signs of infection.  

He loves his new 'kid sized' stool, though one might argue he's not quite using it in the traditional way that chairs are typically meant to be used.

  

He is still having a major love affair with remote controls:  

Soon after that photo was taken, I took the remote away from him since eating the buttons off the remote control seemed to be possibly unhealthy and a bit excessive considering the remote was not ours. Man, oh man, temper tantrum meltdown! I did my patented 'Wander away and do something else and do not care and then, look like I'm having fun!' but it did take him a bit of time to regain his equilibrium. My belly is starting to show a lot at night, a little in the morning. I call it my 'food baby' at night. I'm refusing to wear my maternity pants yet so keep with the rubber bands in my normal jeans. I'm doing that for as long as I possibly can, which isn't much longer.  

 Daddy gave Jamisen a traditional bowl cut - do you love those bangs? How hilarious are they?!  

 Chris is on his way back from Detroit right now. I think he was in Ohio today though don't quote me. He was going to sign an agreement with a college to license their x-ray technology. It was a quick two day trip but involved 4 flights. He should land soon and be home to us by early tomorrow. Both Jamisen and I are excited. We both miss him dreadfully when he's gone though this time, he pre-recorded books on the iPad for Jamisen so he reads to Jamisen and I turn the pages. Jamisen really seemed to like that.

Two Bikers in the Family

When we visited Grandma and Grandpa Faiola, we all went to Sabbath School. Jamisen behaved so-so. It was his first time so he didn't quite understand the 'sitting' concept but he did okay. 

 

 He was way way excited about his new trike/bike/thing from our friends at Dandelion Organics who happily shared their hand-me-down.

  

 Chris has entered the CNN Triathlon team competition. You can watch his video entry here: 

 

Jamisen is hot to trot to help his Daddy win the bike portion. Look at his form!