The Kriz Family » Holiday

Christmas 2011

jim — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:42:18 +0000

Ok, I’m not even going to try and explain or rationalize the fact that we haven’t posted anything here for 7+ months. I could go on about how busy we are, or how much time it takes raising these kids, or any number of other lame excuses, but what good would that do. So I’m just going to say that one resolution of mine this year is to keep things more up-to-date so that our family and friends who are not close by can still have a small window into the little things that go on here.

Anyway, on to the first post of 2012 – which is actually a recap of Christmas 2011… We did have a really busy Christmas season this year – cutting down our tree in early December, decorating the house, me risking life and limb to hang icicle lights from our second story, Lukas’ preschool Christmas pageant, finding time to shop for presents and make cookies, Heidi having to work til 2 days before Christmas, me procrastinating on building Elsa’s Christmas present (a kitchen with oven, fridge, and sink) and having to work 50+ hours in the 12 days leading up to Christmas to finish it, etc. I feel like December ran right past us without us even seeing it.

But I can’t really say enough good things about this holiday season either. The kids were both really excited this year, and Lukas especially is really starting to get the real meaning of Christmas. He would tell us all about Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph, and was fascinated by the little manger scene we have. Of course he was also looking forward to presents, but hey, he’s only 4 And little Elsa was so cute, it seemed like every day she saw the Christmas decorations and lights was like the first time she was seeing them again. Even today (over a week after Christmas, and when the tree and decorations are about to come down), she was pointing out all the pretty ornaments to us. All in all, despite all the rushing around and seemingly endless last-minute errands, we had a really wonderful holiday season, and we really enjoyed having time to spend with our family (one more week would have been great!). We feel truly blessed.

Thank you for checking in, and we wish you the best in 2012.

Hauling the tree back to get wrapped up and strapped onto the 4-wheel drive sleigh

Elsa loves checking out all the ornaments

Lukas takes his decorating job very seriously

Our little angel – he sang great in the Christmas play!

The kids in some silly hats

Elsa didn’t help make the cookies this year, but she sure loved licking icing off the beaters!

Boone thinks he is going to get some icing

Lukas helped make the kolacky this year – his Great Grandma Kriz’s recipe

Elsa was beside herself – all the people, all the presents, and staying up past bedtime!

One of the many (many, many) presents Lukas was excited about

Elsa’s kitchen – hope she likes it

Lukas on the streetcar

Elsa on the streetcar

Burger Cheese!

New PJs (complete with tutu…) and new hat

McQueen, we have you surrounded.

Happy Easter!

jim — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:02:02 +0000

Happy Easter everyone. He is risen!

I can’t believe how fast this year is going by. Just a few months ago, we celebrated Elsa’s first birthday, now Easter Sunday is almost over and we’re heading in to May. It’s been a while since our last update (as usual lately…), so I thought today would be a good day to finally post something out here.

Last weekend was busy. We went to Kevin and Erin’s to celebrate Kevin’s birthday on Saturday. The kids had a great time over there, and the parents did too. (Thanks for having us Kevin & Erin!). The next day, we went to Palm Sunday mass, then had two Easter Egg hunts. We were all tired at the end of that day! Our little Elsa has started walking (just last weekend, actually), so she was able to walk around and get some eggs. She’s still pretty clumsy, but it is fun to watch her. She really gets going, and her big belly is always leading the way – and keeping her balanced when she starts to topple backwards

Yesterday, we colored Easter eggs. Elsa is still not quite old enough to have any interest in this, but Lukas was excited about it. Then in the afternoon, we went to Kevin & Erin’s again to celebrate Caroline’s birthday. Once again, a fun time for us all. And of course, we celebrated Easter today. We went to church this morning, then had Heidi’s parents over for Easter dinner. All through the service this morning, Lukas was talking about how Jesus’ body wasn’t in the tomb when they rolled the stone away. And where did he go?? He is risen! I love that he is so interested in this, but just wish he had a volume control for places like church, the car, at home, pretty much everywhere. We asked him today to turn his volume control down about half way, and he responds (loudly), with a laugh, “But daddy, I don’t have a volume control! That’s silly!” “I know Lukas, I know…” I replied… And this evening, we started to notice that Elsa is probably just as bossy as her brother. Granny took her shoes off and had them in another room. Elsa brought them over and tried to get them on Granny’s feet as best as she could. Then pretty much every time Granny took her shoes off after that, Elsa would bring them around to put them back on. Everything has to be in its place!

Anyway, I have some videos I’ll be posting soon, but in the meantime, here are some photos from the past few weekends.

Lukas found an egg – collecting in the Home Depot bag

Green egg in one hand, other hand holding on to Mommy… Now how do I get this yellow one?

I have a bunch of eggs now!

Mommy loves when I make this face

Checking out the loot

Just out for a stroll…

Checking out the colors – orange is almost done!

Always putting on a show for the camera…

Elsa in her Easter outfit

So ladylike

Happy Easter!

Decking the Halls

jim — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 03:40:48 +0000

Since the first week of December, we’ve been gradually decorating for Christmas in our new home. It’s taken a lot longer this year, partially because it’s a new house, and partially because we don’t have as much free time as we used to…

What did we learn though the decorating extravaganza this year? For one, Heidi and her parents don’t like when I am climbing a ladder 2 stories high during a snowstorm to screw brass hooks into the soffit so I could hang icicle lights. Probably a valid concern. Another lesson learned is that LED lights, while they have come a long way, still don’t quite have the warmth of incandescents (the icicles are LEDs, you can kind of tell the difference in the photos). Oh, and don’t count on your various strings of lights to work from one year to the next. This year, over half of our lights decided to not work at all, or to only partially work. So the outdoor lights are kind of sparse (don’t worry, it is on our list for next year), and the tree lights for inside are almost all brand new as well.

Anyway, we’re done now, and we have a lot of ideas for next year, for inside and outside. And now we just get to sit back and enjoy it each night. So here’s what we have this year…

The Christmas tree is home.

Lights are on (all 1200 of them…), now it’s time to decorate

Our Christmas Tree

Tree and Hearth with some Socks

Nativity Scene

More trees – these are above our front door

Our house, with the first light snow of the year

The first heavy snow

St Nicholas Day 2010

jim — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:34:46 +0000

Since I was little, my family always celebrated St. Nicholas day. St. Nicholas was a Catholic bishop in the 4th century, who was canonized as a saint for his kindness and generosity, among other things. He used his own wealth to help out those in need, often leaving gifts in shoes left by the fireplace. Today, a lot of families will celebrate St. Nicholas day by putting small gifts in stockings hanging over the fireplace, and that’s what we did when I was growing up. I can remember waking up early to run into the family room to check and see what St. Nick brought us. And if it was a school day, we’d have to get up extra early so we’d still have time to get ready.

So the tradition continues with our family, though I’ll admit that so far, the gifts for our kids are coming from Grandma and Grandpa Kriz (thanks Mom & Dad!)

Here are a couple photos of Lukas and Elsa after they opened their gifts. Notice they’re still in their PJs and a little groggy looking

A nice red bow for Elsa

Lukas got a cool Slinky Dog from Toy Story

Elsa got her first purse, complete with makeup and money

Cutting Down Our Tree

jim — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 04:03:16 +0000

We made our annual trek in the 4-wheel-drive sleigh to cut down our Christmas tree today. This year, we tried a different tree farm – Big Tree Plantation in Morrow – and it was a perfect experience. To start off, we had the first real snow of the year, so that made it really feel like Christmas. When we got to the farm, we bundled up, grabbed our camera, and loaded the kids up on the wagon (in tow by a red tractor) that took us out to the tree farm. After that, we got a saw and a sled, and hiked around to find that perfect tree. It didn’t take long, they had some really beautiful trees! Once we found it, we cut it down, dragged it in the sled back to the wagon, and then went to the barn to warm up with some hot chocolate and candy. It really was a perfect day – the weather, the wagon ride, everything made it a truly memorable experience. A great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Heidi, Lukas, and Elsa, ready to pick out our tree

Found our tree, just have to cut it down now

James and Elsa by some future Christmas Trees

Lukas and Elsa in the sled

Hauling the tree back

Trick or Treat – 2010

jim — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:09:53 +0000

This was the first Halloween in our new neighborhood, and it was definitely a good time. The neighborhood has a parade for all the kids, and after the parade, there are games and prizes – all before trick-or-treating starts. It was a lot of fun, and for the first time, Lukas was really excited about it. It didn’t hurt that he got to dress up as the “real” Buzz Lightyear, wings and all! Fortunately, he did not try to fly (or fall with style…) like Buzz does. Elsa, well, she won’t remember it at all, and probably could have cared less, but she sure was cute in her doggie costume

My parents were in town, and Heidi’s parents came over too, so everybody got to help pass out candy, play with the kids, and all that jazz. We enjoyed it, and I know Lukas and Elsa really did too.

Granny and Elsa the Doggie (Elsa has 4 teeth coming in, so her "chew toy" was a teething ring)

Buzz Lightyear, preparing to save the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg

Buzz Lightyear to Star Command. I’ve discovered a strange creature in some sort of transportation device.

The start of the WHA Halloween Parade (we’re on the right)

Grandpa Kriz in his hobo clown getup

Elsa the Doggie

Lukas the Buzz Lightyear

Spider Pumpkin

Woody and Buzz Pumpkins

Jack O’Lantern Pumpkin

Lukas checking out his booty

Granny says "Hey Lukas, what do you have in there? Anything for me?"

Boone, the raccoon hunter

jim — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:52:08 +0000

So we moved out to the “country”, and Boone has already had a run-in with a raccoon. He was up to date on his rabies vaccine, and luckily no harm was done other than some pretty badly scraped up paws (probably from skidding out in the driveway while he was chasing the raccoon). So now he is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for a week. And we have to wrap up his paws in old socks to keep him from chewing at his feet and making matters worse. Pitiful, eh?

Boone with his socks (actually, my old socks)

The Icing on the Cookies

jim — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:41:47 +0000

We’ve been busy getting ready for Christmas, and although it’s been a little hectic, we are just glad to have the time off together (2 weeks!), and also glad we’re not renovating a kitchen or anything like last year.

Lukas has been taking it all in, and he is so much more aware of (and excited about) everything going on this Christmas. He’s taken on lighting up the trees and the house as his job. As soon as he walks out of his room in the morning, he turns on the Christmas trees, and uses the remotes to turn on the lights. He gets really proud of himself when he finds the right button to push to turn on the lights. “I did it daddy, I turned on the lights! Wow!” It’s pretty cute.

We also had to go out Christmas shopping for him without taking him with us. It’s funny – last year we bought his presents with him with us, and when we got them home, we left them sitting out, unwrapped, and he couldn’t have cared less. This year, we are pretty sure he’d rip open any presents under the tree, and I don’t even want to imagine the scene if he found one of his but couldn’t play with it!

So a couple days ago, we made sugar cookies, and Lukas got to help ice them. While it didn’t hold his attention for too long, he did keep coming back to the table and wanting to help. And surprisingly, it wasn’t too big of a mess either.

Stirring the icing, and, as usual, hamming it up for the camera

So serious…

Of course, we get to lick the beater before we start icing (still not too excited about really sugary stuff like this though…)

Steady, steady…

Christmas Decorating

jim — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:28:16 +0000

This weekend officially marked the beginning of the Christmas season for the Kriz home. We took our annual trip to Dirr Nurseries to cut down our tree on Saturday. This is the 6th year we’ve gone there, it’s become quite a nice tradition. Lukas enjoyed it, especially getting to feed the goats and sheep. He was a little too young last year, but this year, we had a hard time getting him back to the car.

After we got home from the Christmas tree farm, we started decorating the house, putting up the lights, etc. We had a to do a little yard cleanup, to get rid of the last of the leaves (finally) before putting lights on the bushes and trees. Lukas “helped” with that – he took his rake and pushed a pile of leaves into the street, and then when I raked them back up, he decided to play in them. What a nut. He’s so much fun now though.

Then on Sunday, we decorated the tree (including Lukas’ little tree), and finished up the rest of the decorating. I really can’t stand winter, but Christmas is probably my favorite time of year in spite of that. I just love looking at all the lights and decorations – it is well worth the time and effort to get it all done. And our boy is beside himself with all this stuff in our house and all around. I love watching him take it all in with huge eyes and lots of statements like “Wow, look at that daddy! Look at all those lights!” or “Look, there’s a star, and another star, and a snowman!”

This is going to be a great Christmas!

Found our tree, time to saw it down

Mom & Lukas

Hauling the tree to the 4-wheel-drive sleigh

Lukas loved feeding the goats & sheep

Playing around in a small leaf pile

Some "garland" with cars, trucks, and planes on it

Putting the garland on the tree (It was kind of clumped on there, so we fixed it later…)

Decorating is finished!

Our home, decorated, and "blanketed" in the first snowfall of the year – all 1/8 inch of it

100th Thanksgiving Day Race

jim — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:01:23 +0000

Derrick and I went down to the city this morning to participate in the 100th running of the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race. I’ve run in this race 9 of the last 10 years, and being the 100th, I was really excited to be a part of it again. So were more than 17,000 other runners. It was definitely the biggest field I’ve ever seen at this race. The weather couldn’t have been better – it was upper 30′s and sunny at the start, not too bad for a late November day!

So, being a kind of historic run, I decided to lug my old camera with me and try to take some pictures along the way. I am not in very good running shape right now, so I figured why not make the most of the day and just enjoy it. It’s not very often that the streets of Cincinnati are closed off and you can just stop and take photos of the city and riverfront.

Heading to the starting area

A view of the skyline at the start

We somehow were able to meet up with Matt and Brett

Finally crossing the starting line

About to cross back in to Cincinnati

Only .2 miles to go