Putting up the Tortora Christmas Tree

One of the many traditions we have continued in our family from my childhood is putting up the Christmas tree and all of the decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Having a three piece pre-lit tree helps make this possible. Last year I hit up the after Christmas sales at Target and spent $20 to completely redo my tree for this year. I wanted it to look more kid like and girly for Guiliana. With colors including pinks, greens, oranges, blues, reds, and silver, and the best part is some of them are glittery and sparkly, it reminds me of something out of Who-ville! Guiliana was very excited to help, but with these being new ornaments we had to attach ornament hangers to each of them, she kind of lost interest during that process. She wasn't very interested in putting the ornaments on the tree, she decided that she wanted to go through the Christmas bins and play with everything. After it was all done she said "Thank you for my tree mom, it's so beautiful. You did that for me mom?" She did enjoy once it was done looking at all of the ornaments on the tree. Her first Christmas we ended up buying like 3 "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornaments between Grandma Tortora and I. I started a tradition with Guiliana last year. Every year I want her to have an ornament that represents her interest for the year. Last year she LOVED Tinkerbell, so her being so young still Grandma picked out and bought her a Tinkerbell ornament. We have gotten her last 2 ornaments from Hallmark so I thought we should continue that tradition. So today we had to run out for some things and decided to stop at Hallmark and let her pick out her 2010 ornament. I wasn't surprised when she picked out an Ariel ornament. I love that we started this tradition and that all of these that she continues to pick out will someday be on her tree when she grows up.
We finished our Christmas decorating with the outside today and now our house is complete. I love our house during the holidays!
Her ornament:














Love this picture! This was taken today at Johnny Rockets. Gules and I shared a chocolate milk shake.

Thanksgiving 2010

This was our 3rd year hosting Thanksgiving at the Tortora House. We have our family tradition of watching the Thanksgiving parade as a family and this year it was cold enough for a fire! There were 8 of us this year and everyone did their part in making it a super yummy day. I am so thankful for the family and friends in my life and continued to feel blessed everyday!
















Here are some pictures at Guiliana's Thanksgiving Pot Luck for her school. She loves her Best Friend Zoe and they are so cute together!

Guiliana's love for music!

We have really noticed over the past several months that Guiliana's love for music continues to grow everyday! She loves to listen to music and has her fair share of her favorite songs. One in which is "Just the way you are" by Bruno Mars and Iridescent by Linkin Park in which she knows all the words. When we are in the car, she will tell you as you browse through the stations which song she wants to listen to. She will say either, "No, I don't like" or "Leave this one on" and then ask me if I like that song too. She likes fast music and always says "I need to dance" She is in a dance class every Friday at school and I think that has helped develop her love for both music and dancing. More recently she has really started paying attention to the instruments in a song. We love Josh Groban and we were watching one of his concerts on TV. When he played the piano she was very interested. She can listen to a song and pick out the part of the piano and then make believe that she is playing it too which is very impressive. Just this past couple of days she has started listening to Celine Dion on her own, which for me is VERY special! We were coming home last Wednesday (the night before Thanksgiving) and I decided to give in and listen to a little Christmas Music (I refuse until the day after Thanksgiving usually). Well, a Celine Dion Christmas song came on and it was beautiful. I turned to Guilana and said who she was and that she was Mommy's favorite. She said that she was her favorite too, but I knew that she was just repeating me. After the song had ended she said that she wanted more "Celine Dion" I was surprised!!! We were just pulling into the house so I told her that we could listen to her inside. She loves visuals so I thought she might enjoy watching her "NEW DAY" Las Vegas concert. It is very colorful and full of special effects. Needless to say... she watched it non-stop for 2 days! I hope that her love for music and dancing continues. We see how much she enjoys it and she is quite the little dancer!
Here is a video of her that we shot yesterday morning. We caught the tail end of her favorite song!

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND 2010!

We started off this weekend with welcoming some out of town visitors from both NJ and Texas. Guiliana got to meet her cousins from NJ, Amanda and Dana, along with Aunt Pat, Uncle Richie, and Uncle Vinny (who flew in from Texas). They all arrived Saturday afternoon and we all got together at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the evening after they got settled. I thought it would be fun to make SMORES with the girls and it turned out to be a YUMMY idea. Dana who is 7 and Guiliana took to each other very well. They are like 2 peas in a pod already. Oh, and on our way to Grandma and Grandpa's that afternoon Daddy and I decided to stop at the pumpkin patch right by our house to pick out a pumpkin to carve Halloween morning.
HALLOWEEN DAY.... We started Halloween off with some pumpkin carving. We left it up to Guiliana as to what was going to be carved on the pumpkin. She is very much into wanting to write her name (and picking out her name when it's written) so we thought doing her nickname "Gules" would be cute. She actually helped carve and cleaned out the "goo" for a few seconds till she thought it was icky!
After a nice long nap it was time to head back over to Grandma and Grandpa Tortora's for the Halloween festivities. We all hung out, ate dinner, and watched the girls play until it was time for Trick-or-Treating. This years costume for Guiliana was Ariel, The Little Mermaid. About 2 months ago I received a costume catalog in the mail and decided to let her pick something out. She has very much been into the Disney Princesses, particularly Ariel and Belle. I showed her a few different choices, Minnie Mouse, Tinkerbell, and then all the Princesses and she chose Ariel. I have to say I was VERY pleased with her choice as The Little Mermaid is my all-time favorite Disney movie. I got 2 years in a row! Last year she was my favorite flower, Sunflower and now Ariel :)
Amanda, Dana, and Guiliana all got ready together in Grandma's room. Guiliana looked so beautiful! She had gold sparkles and curly ribbons in her hair and it went along perfect with her Princess tiara. I have to say thanks to Aunt Pat - Gules wanted to take off her tiara and Aunt Pat told her that no one would give her candy without it on and that worked perfect!
We went trick-or-treating through Grandma and Grandpa Tortora's neighborhood and the kids made out well. Dana was a great big helper taking Gules up to the door, ringing the bell and helping her get her candy. The whole time Guiliana kept saying "I need my Dana". Those 2 had a fun time.
Last night when we got home it took Guiliana a bit to relax and calm down from the evening. When it was time for bed she REFUSED to take off her costume! Since we all took the next day off from school and work I thought that it was okay. Plus, as I see it, aren't I just getting my money's worth??? So, it's currently 10:30am on Monday and she is STILL wearing her costume! We are all headed out @ 3pm today for lunch with the family and I am thinking "Ariel" may be the one attending the lunch and not our Guiliana!! All in all, it was a very nice weekend and another successful Halloween!!!