A Day With Great Grandma Buss

Matt's Grandma Gloria is a wonderful piano player and has been playing since she was a little girl. Someday I would love for my kids and I to learn to play too, but for now we get to listen to Great Grandma play at the Georgetown hospital the first Monday of each month. The kids really enjoy it and so do I. As they have gotten a little older they have also gotten braver. The first time we went awhile back the kids pretty much would walk by and peek, or Aidan would stand next to Grandma for a minute. Now, both of them are sitting on the piano bench next to her pecking away at the keys right along with her. I even had to tell them to quite their "playing" down a little because you could really hear it! Great grandma got lots of hugs while she was playing too. I like to sit back and listen and sip on the great coffee they have at the lobby.

Our future piano player

Asher practicing her piano skills while Aidan gives Great Grandma Gloria a hug.

This was the best shot I could get of the kids by the beautiful Christmas tree in the hospital lobby. Too bad the outfits I picked that day didn't match!

Aidan and Great Grandma

After our holiday concert by Great Grandma we headed over to Super Salad. I love that place! It was a wonderful lunch. The kids ate some, I ate a lot, and we had a wonderful afternoon together. I look forward do doing this again next month!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Well, snow has arrived in Round Rock, Texas. Unfortunately it was just flurries for about 20 minutes, but it was such a joy to play around in. When there is a chance of snow - any snow - everybody talks about it all the time. And when it arrives you better be out there enjoying it before it is gone! I am thankful that our whole family was home at the time and able to run out and play together. The kids had a blast.

Aidan catching snowflakes

Proof that there was snow! This is not doggy dandruff!
Look at the joy on Ashy's face! We were having races in our driveway. For this race Aidan was really sweet and wanted to let Asher win. What a good big brother!

Later that day we made sugar cookies, our first cookies of the holiday season. I think this year I may make one more batch of those since they were so yummy, lots of Mexican Wedding Cakes (Matt's favorite!) and Grandma Moore's cinnamon sugar pecans. The sugar cookies turned out great!! I was even able to make my first ever batch of homemade frosting that actually turned out right. The kids were the official sugar sprinklers, while I did the frosting part. Then they were both the taste testers. Later that night we shared some with our awesome neighbors: Katy, Elise, Lukey, Angelina, and Miss Debbie and Mr. Allen. It was a little chilly to be delivering, but still fun.

We had a bunch of different cookie shapes including a ducky, cross, tree, star, a bell, and hearts.

The taste testers seemed pleased with the way they turned out!

On Saturday we went to the parade in Georgetown. Growing up in Belvidere, IL in a town about the size of Georgetown, I went to MANY parades in town. I always loved it. I love being able to share that with my kids. It was VERY cold, but we bundled up with winter coats, hats, and a blanket in the wagon.

We are watching my favorite part, the high school band, walk by. I thought it was neat to be able to tell the kids that Daddy marched in this band in a parade just like this when he was in school.

Aidan was trying to say warm and Asher was finishing up a peanut butter and fluff sandwich while watching the rest of the parade.

We visited Bethlehem Village on the square in Georgetown. It was really neat for the kids to see what life was like at the time Jesus was born. Asher was given a headband that represented one of the tribes of Israel. That was neat too because she was named Asher after one of the tribes of Israel. Either way, she looked super cute!
I call this look Ghetto Eskimo.Matt is ready for lunch after the parade with a hot bowl of chili with a jalapeno face. Aidan actually had some jalapenos and seemed to like them.

While Asher napped, Aidan had it made watching Toy Story with his little DVD player, kettle corn, and a sippy while Daddy watched football. What a life!

I am loving our holiday so far. I really feel like we are having fun and making memories, but also taking it easy and not making it a holiday all about rushing around from this place to that. That is a perfect fit for our family right now. Hope you all are having a wonderful relaxing holiday season so far!

Ready for Christmas!

We are ready for Christmas here in the Buss household. The kids have had their little tree (Matt and my first tree in our first apartment) up in their room since before Thanksgiving. We put our tree up and decorated most of it the night before Thanksgiving. I really liked doing this and think it is going to become a new tradition. We have put up the rest of the ornaments, as well as inside decorations and lights on the house too. We have about 75% of our presents bought. We have also been trying to watch the holiday cartoons on TV and read our Christmas pop-up holiday books that were Uncle Zach's, as well as a bunch of other Christmas books. Our project for tomorrow is to make sugar cookies. I love the holidays! Merry Christmas everyone!