The Knoebel Kanoodles

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Right after Thanksgiving, we went to a local tree lot and picked out what appeared to be a normal-sized tree.

We had to do a little rearranging of our furniture to get it to fit. There are still some branches who we're sure are uncomfortable smashed up against the wall. We decorated with popcorn, cranberries, and gingerbread cookies. Edie is loving the open snack bar.

She also loves "accidentally" knocking ornaments off the tree, shaking needles onto the floor, and reminding us "water, water, water" (which translates into "Don't forget to water the tree, mom and dad!")

I also made a kissing ball at an Enrichment Activity. Apparently, it's the New England equivalent to mistletoe.

We also had our first real snow. We found Edie this rockin' snow suit at Building 19. Besides the fact that she couldn't move her body, she seemed to really enjoy the weather. The whole day she shouted, "Noh, Noh, Noh". At first we thought she was just being difficult, but then we realized she was saying, "Snow!"

Here she is with her life-size snow buddy.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Tribute to the PCA

Saturday took us to the far away state of New Hampshire in search of wood for Nate's airplane. When, what to our wondering eyes should appear, but the Texas Roadhouse and a full slab of ribs! We felt it a tribute to the PCA to stop in and indulge. We thought of poor Jason Tang stuck out on Oahu with only mahi-mahi restaurants to fill his ever-shrinking stomach. Nate shared many a memory with me of quality time spent with the boys over ribs and peanuts. He told me about the time he ordered two meals of ribs so he could take one home. This, of course, was justified because they had gone without dates; Nate was only spending money he would've wasted on a girl.

Members of the PCA...you are missed.

Note: The Roadhouse can make even the whiniest kid smile.

Thanksgiving Break

Hello and welcome to our Thanksgiving Break log.

Team Kanoodle headed west to Montoursville, PA for the holiday.

Edie entertained herself during the first portion of the 8 hour drive by reading and napping.
She had only one major breakdown later on which was caused by a minor episode of choking on a juice box...well, the juice in a juice box.

We stayed at Nate's parent's house from Wed. to Sun. and had the best time ever! Edie fell in love with her long lost family and had some good sibling practice with her cousins Brynn and Kenley.

Here's a slide of some other things we did.

View Album

Get your own

We also went out to dinner a lot and to the Reptile Museum, but the batteries in our camera died, so these are our only pictures.

I wish I could've captured the sweat on Nate's brow while eating some spicy hotwings. Or Jon on the floor approximately 23 seconds after Thanksgiving dinner, who so somberly slept while some naughty boys built a block city on his backside. There were also the many WWF matches of Brynn vs. Edie on Grandma and Grandpa's bed, respectfully refereed by Adam and Jon. And finally, I wish I could've gotten the snake eating a mouselicious dinner at Reptiland on film. This will have to do.

Thanksgiving dinner was not only delicious, but well appreciated. We had a great break! If interested, feel free to look at Matt and Regen's blog for more pictures and info: knoebelluv.blogspot.com

(plus you'll see some cute pictures of Kenley)

Oh yeah, and here are a couple videos:

Playing at the gate

Best Friends Forever

A Trip to the Boston Children's Museum

Wall of Turkeys

As a child who was turned off by any food not in the dessert category (a disease similar to Kaden's), Thanksgiving was absolutely my least favorite holiday. When Nate learned this, he made it his goal to transform my paradigm. You see, Nate adores Thanksgiving. This is how our Wall of Turkeys was born. We decided to start a tradition of making hand-turkeys and disguising them as something different every year. Here are this year's creations:

A nun

By Mandy Knoebel

Modern Art Turkey

By Edith Knoebel

Bowling League Turkey, complete with a comb-over

By Nate Knoebel

Wall of Turkeys

And now, I adore Thanksgiving too.

A New England Halloween

Ma, Pa, and little chicken

Edie helped clean out the pumpkins.

A proud chick

Enjoying her spoils

Dad to the Rescue

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who had lots of clothes. She kept them all in a dresser given to her by a magical fairy named Regen when she was born. She had so many clothes shoved inside the dresser that it finally broke. She could no longer open and close the drawers by herself and became very, very sad.

Then one day the princess's Grandma and Grandpa bought her a new one! She was so excited until her Grandparents told her there was a catch. They told her that she needed to learn how to work and therefore had purchased her a yellow dresser. She would need to paint it.

The princess was so upset because she was too little to paint. She didn't know who to turn to...

Then, a studly guy showed up with paint and a roller. He painted the dresser for her!

He had saved the day! The princess then had a brand new beautiful dresser to store all of her clothes in. When she asked the studly guy for his name, all he said was, "They call me Maroon Madness."

The princess was so grateful to her Grandparents for the new dresser and to Maroon Madness for doing the work for her.

Will the princess ever learn how to work?

...to be continued.