Mr. Sock

Mr. Sock is Maggie's first sock gnome.  That's right, there are others.  Maggie and her friends make sock gnomes.  All the time.  Out of any old pair of socks.  They are adorable and Natalie even sells hers at a store in Silver Lake for $25 apiece.  Anyway, the original sock gnome pictured here, came with us to Chicago at Thanksgiving and is pictured amongst a soap display at a store on Michigan Avenue, enjoying tea at the American Girl store, and finally back home with Maggie's teacher Danica.

Let it snow

We splurged and got a guy to make us snow.  It was awesome!   A bunch of neighborhood kids came over and played in the snow all day!

All dressed up and no where to go

What do you do when it's the day before Thanksgiving and when you call at noon to find out if your 4 pm flight to Wisconsin is on time they tell you that it was cancelled.  Months ago.  "Didn't you get the email we sent?"  Guess not.  So ... many stressful hours and phone calls to airlines later, Tony managed to get us booked on a redeye that left at midnight. So ... now it was 2 pm, our suitcases were packed, we were ready to go.  We decided to go to Islands.  No one was particularly hungry until we sat down and realized we were famished.  I guess it was the stress and all.  So we ate and ate and then ate some more.  Tony took this picture and I think it reflects the sort of aimless way we were all feeling.  All dressed up and no where to go.  

Tree

Meet Tree.  He's a 3 foot tall tree I bought at Urban Outfitters a few years ago.  Decorating Tree (that's his name) has become a family tradition and a Sally obsession.   Nobody likes Christmas more than Sally. Specifically decorating for Christmas, with ornaments she makes.  She draws pictures of snowmen, snowflakes, santa, etc., puts a ribbon on them and then puts them on Tree.  Each day Tree's branches get fuller and Tree gets more beautiful.  We also get a regular tree, like from a tree lot, and we have regular decorations for it, like from a store.  But I always end up thinking Tree is way more beautiful because he was decorated with way more love.  

Maggie's birthday

We had the first of many birthday celebrations for Maggie the day before we left for Wisconsin.  We had a cake, it was sweet, just the four of us, and we gave Maggie her presents.  She got a Dwight stress ball, some new headphones, these really cool juggling sticks Tony found and ... the new camera she's been coveting. The picture of me is the first picture she took with her new camera -- 

Bake Off

So ... because we're a competitive group, all the writer's at Grey's decided to have a bake-off and see who makes the best dessert.  We ordered hats and aprons, I got a huge trophy for the winner(who I THOUGHT was gonna be me) and we recruited judges from all the departments - a couple of the actors, an editor, script supervisor etc. (actually, in the weeks preceding the bake off, people were coming to us, begging to be judges).  OH MY God, it was hilarious and cut throat and devastating because I didn't win.  I made the Red Cake - my mom's famous red velvet cake.  3 layers, totally beautiful and delicious.  I decorated it with flowers, I had my eyes on the prize.  But one judge felt it was 'too sweet' and another thinks red velvet is 'too trendy'.  At least those were the comments they made on the score sheet.  Can you tell I'm bitter?  This is a picture of me with Stacy.  She made her chocolate fudge pie, that is amazing, I'll give her that .... oh, and I also had to give her the trophy.  Cause she won.  

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

We spent Thanksgiving in Wisconsin this year with (almost) all the cousins in attendance.  We had a VERY busy schedule - Thanksgiving dinner, movies, a trip to Winke's, Elmo Live and a trip to Chicago to go to tea at the American Girl Store.  Luckily there was plenty of time to just hang out.  I'll post more pictures later but here's a picture of Sally hanging out with some of her cousins.  There's Sophie(being held by Kate, I think), Payton is sticking out her tongue and Elizabeth is on the bed with me.  I'm holding Sally's new American Girl doll, Felicity.  She's a gift from Grandma and Grandpa, and Sally LOVES her!