The Undie Tree

You know how when you get married, each person brings with them certain family traditions. Yeah, well, Dave brought with him, the tradition of the undie tree, as I affectionately call it. When we were newlyweds and he first told me of this tradition I laughed and laughed, totally thinking he was joking. I mean, Mrs. Claus coming New Years Eve, while you are sleeping, to drape socks and undies on the tree and leave some school supplies under it...alright :).

So, this morning the girls awoke to find pretty princess undies (for Em) and diapers (for Als) covering the tree, with some wrapped notebooks and markers underneath. Emma couldn't stop giggling. It was pretty cute. The little ones are currently running around with Emma's new undies OVER their clothes because they are much too pretty to wear underneath, or so Emma informed me. I have to say this tradition is really growing on me. Lets face it, its pretty unique. Its also an opportunity to tell the girls more about Grandma Becka (Dave's mom), seeing as she is the one who introduced us to the said tradition. I am curious to see how the girls handle it when they are teenagers. I bet they won't be having many friends spend the night on New Years Eve ;).

This year, to bring in the new year, we held a fabulous Princess and Panini party. Emma dug around in her dress-up trunk and found crowns for all of us, yes, even Dave.

Maybe that's why he is all of a sudden so anxious for a little boy ;). Anyway, poor little Ali missed out on all the fun. She crashed at 7. I tried keeping her up until Dave got off of work, but to no avail. Sadly, we had to party without her. After Dave, Em and I were all dressed up in our Princess garb we started making our yummy Paninis. I am head over heels in love with Paninis lately. My parents got me a Cuisinart panani press for Christmas and all of a sudden, I can't seem to get enough of them.

Here is Princess Emma inspecting our Panini makings....

And then snitching a few. Naughty little Princess.

After our feast we refilled our fancy glasses with sparkling white grape juice, pulled out our Tinkerbell party blowers and handed the clock to Emma. She was in charge of letting us know when the big hand reached the 12. She was so funny. I asked her a question at one point and she responded, "Shhh, I have to keep both eyes on the clock." When the clock struck twelve we kissed, hugged, yelled and blew the party blowers like crazy. Good times, good times.

Alright I have a confession...we rigged the clock. We really brought the new year in at 8:45, we simply set the clock ahead a few hours. But hey, when you are partying with a three year old and a man who has to be to work dark and early, you sometimes have to tweak things a bit ;).

To end, I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with many marvelous experiences. I love starting out a new year. It feels like a fresh beginning. I am off to make some in-depth goals covering every aspect of my life. I love goals.