Ring In The New

This is a favorite poem of mine, by Alfred Tennyson:

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be."

Happy New Year, however you are ringing it in.

Bree Turns Three!

Bree started her day by opening a present from Uncle Shaun & Pam. She got a Dora phone! Which we brought with us to Mister Donald's for breakfast. (McDonald's.)

Later on, Bree opened more presents. She actually opened them all day long, which made it nice because she got to play with everything as she opened it and then when she was ready to open another present, I had already cleaned up after her so it wasn't like the wrapping paper explosion of Christmas.

Grandma, Papa and Santa got Bree furniture for her room. Bree got a table and chairs, a book case and an organizer with drawers. After a bit of rearranging, we were able to get everything in there.

Along with the new table & chairs, I decided to move our desktop computer into her room so that she can play her computer games in her room. She doesn't have internet access, so she can't play her Sesame Street games in there, but she can play her Reader Rabbit games. I'll be honest with you, I never thought I would be fighting with my toddler over computer time. But yet, we do. Bree wants her games, and I want my e-mail and Facebook! I am under no illusions that Bree will sequester herself away in her room to play her games - not at age three. Her attention span is still only 5 minutes, max. But at least it's an alternative to her grabbing at the mouse while I'm working on the laptop.

After an afternoon of playing games and playing with all her presents, her Grandma and Papa wanted to take Bree to Chuck E. Cheese. It was not someplace I'd ever take her to by myself, so I was glad for the extra adults!

Bree had on her "Birthday Girl" t-shirt and we were ready to roll.

Bree did NOT care for the life-size Chuck E. Cheese - in fact, she tried to crawl under the table when he walked by and waved to her. Bree seemed to like the games and most of the rides. In this next picture, she doesn't look particularly thrilled by her ride on the pretend fire truck.

Bree did, however, LOVE the rollercoaster simulation ride. Which featured the Blue Streak and the Gemini from Cedar Point. So I was able to say that I had actually ridden on those rollercoasters! Bree was not that impressed, but she did have a good time on this one. She rode it several times, as a matter of fact.

Here I come, look out!

Bree did not put up a fuss about leaving chuck E. Cheese, which I was suprised and happy. We came home and had birthday cake and ice-cream. We picked up some princess plates, and as soon as Bree realized that there was more than one scene on the plates, she wanted her cake on one plate and her ice-cream on another. In this next picture she's playing with the wet wipe after she's eaten her fill of cake and ice-cream.

All in all, Bree had a very good birthday. :)

A Very Pony and Princess Christmas!

Bree woke up at the crack of 8:30 - yay! We left cookies for Santa and I think she just realized it was Christmas morning when I said to her, "let's see if Santa ate his cookies!" She ran out to the living room and declared, "yeah! He ate them all! He was here!"



Bree sat down in the middle of both trees (her birthday tree and the Christmas tree) and started to grab a present from under her birthday tree. Once I redirected her attention to the presents under the Christmas tree she was all set.




Aunt Amy and Uncle Greg got Bree beautiful t-shirts from Spain and Bree had to put one on immediately.

One of my co-workers (Hi, Ahleen!) shares a birthday with Bree so they have a special connection. Ahleen got Bree an awesome present: princess shoes! Of course they had to be worn right away!

Bree got wonderful presents from everyone.

Bree took this next picture of me - not too bad for an almost-three-year old!

Bree found the tiara that Santa put in her stocking. So it just completed the ensemble.

Santa also brought Bree some Play-doh.

Daddy got Bree a Barbie Computer, which Bree declared was her "work puter."

So the tiara came off at some point, but here Bree is in her pj's, her Seville t-shirt and her princess shoes. Quite the look for Christmas!

We didn't have problems with "present fatigue" this year as Bree was excited to open all of her gifts. In fact, she wants to open all her birthday presents, too. So far we've been able to make her wait until tomorrow. I think we might have another morning of opening presents tomorrow, though!

This is the last present that she opened - a table and chairs set for her bedroom. It took Papa a while to put it together - probably took him twie as long because Bree was "helping."

It was a very good Christmas this year. It would have been better had Scott been able to be here, but we'll hope for next year.

Next up: birthday pictures!

The Performance

As promised, I have gotten Bree on video singing along to her Barbie princess movie. :)

Yes, she has hiccups in the video. Makes it that much funnier, doesn't it?

Bree and Santa December 2009

Uh, in hindsight it was probably a bad idea to have Bree wear a white shirt. But, we had gone a day earlier to a different mall in the hopes of seeing Santa, but the lines were insane, so we passed. We tried again today and the wait was not that long at all.

Bree understands so much more about Christmas this year, and the threat of Santa bypassing our house because Bree might be on the "bad girl" list is suprisingly effective. Bree loves the fact that she has her own Birthday Tree but is not really making the connection of her birthday being the day after Christmas. That will come later, I'm sure.

Bree told Santa that she wants princesses this year. This could be anything from princess dresses, videos or the actual people. She just loves anything with a princess on it. Bree recently got a Barbie movie called "The Princess and the Pauper" which we have watched probably over two hundred times since we've gotten it. Bree likes to role-play scenes where she gets to play Princess Analeise and I get to play Erica. Today she actually said to me, "Mommy, I'm the Princess and you're the Pauper!" I had to laugh because yeah, that's the truth! :)

And role-playing so far involves holding hands and twirling around the living room with Bree screaming at the top of her lungs, "IN MY DREAMS I AM FREEEEEEEEEE!" It's the one line of one of the songs that she remembers. It's really amusing and if I can stop laughing long enough, I'll try to get it on video.

Okay, my future posts are going to be a bit out of order because I haven't yet covered Thanksgiving and the related photos and videos.

BTW - at the doctor's office on Wednesday: 24 pounds, 2 ounces. :)