More Catching Up: Christmas 2011

I know, I know, I know. It's almost summer for crying out loud. But I don't want to deny you the pleasure of these treasures:

 On Christmas Eve Katie and Mommy made some reindeer food for Santa's reindeer.

We put it with the milk and cookies to make sure he saw it.

 On Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa came to our house! He left Katie this tea set...

And Ethan this basketball hoop.

Sometime after we finished opening presents Katie asked me where Santa was. She thought he was actually going to come hang out at our house and was really disappointed when I clarified that he only comes Christmas night and we don't get to see him. It was so cute and so sad at the same time.

Ethan was not a fan of his Santa outfit, but was all about dress up shoes and a hat. Aunt Linda and Grandma thought this was just the funniest thing!

 

Auntie Jenny drove in from Cali to have Christmas dinner with us. That was so fun. Good thing, too, because we needed lots of help putting together this awesome train table!

 

We all couldn't wait to get chugging along.

 It was special to have Uncle John come celebrate with us, too. We didn't know it at the time but this would be the last picture we would take of him and Grandma Jody together (they are twins, by the way.) He died a couple of weeks ago and we all miss him so much.

Catching Up: Gingerbread Houses

 We had GG and Grama over to decorate gingerbread houses this (last) year. It was a blast.

 

 Mommy made the gingerbread form scratch this time. It was DELICIOUS!

But she didn't cook it long enough and the roof collapsed under the weight of the candy before we could even finish it. Oh well. Now we know for next time.

 

 

It was so much fun!

Catching Up: Ethan's First Professional Haircut and Decorating the Tree

On November 24th Ethan had his first professional haircut. We have buzzed it at home in the past, but Daddy thought it would be cute to have "a little boy haircut." That is totally impossible for a couple of home hairdressers so Mommy took him down the road to Cool Cuts for Kids.

 He was pretty excited to sit in the car, chow down on some M&M's, and watch a movie. He barely noticed the spray bottle- at first.

 He started to get a little red-eyed when the comb touched his hair.

 And he fell apart when the scissors started clipping.

 It actually turned out really well all thins considered. (The haircut, not the outing itself. He was pretty miserable when all was said and done.)

 All that crying can really tire a guy out.

 After a good rest and some dinner we put up the Christmas tree. This year Katie was really into putting the ornaments on herself. All in that one spot. Every time. Pretty funny. Mommy snuck over there after she went to bed to spread them out a little.

 Ethan helped a bit, but was really more interested in the choo choo on Polar Express.

When we had finished putting all the ornaments up everyone pitched in to push the tree back into just the right spot.

Visiting Santa

Tonight we thought we'd try visiting Santa real quick. There was literally no line and Katie was really excited when we walked up to him. With very little encouraging she sat in his lap and discussed what she wanted for Christmas. (She wants presents...in case you were wondering.)

Ethan was another story. He held on tight and didn't really want to get too close. He cried the second I started to set him in this very young Santa's lap. (He seriously had the the most youthful voice I've ever heard.)

 I tried to get Daddy in the picture, but he was busy helping the photographer get Ethan to smile. He really wasn't interested in smiling while he was next to Santa. He did give him a low five between takes, though. That's progress, I guess. Don't I look thrilled? And check out the frump on Ethan's face. Too bad because Katie looks so adorable.

Here we are with my arms trying to hold Ethan without being seen so we could get a decent picture. Well, we gave it our best shot. I am very seriously considering submitting these photos to Ellen's Bad Photos with Santa.

Ready for the Book Advent

If you follow any "mom blogs" or are on Pinterest, then you've probably heard of this. It's a fun way to keep track of the days until Christmas. 24 books all wrapped individually. (Actually, I think some/most people pick out 25 and read a special one on Christmas night, but I had trouble picking enough age appropriate books for a 3-year-old...not to mention a 20-month-old). Unwrap one every night. We'll unwrap ours at bedtime. I can't remember if they are supposed to be numbered, but that's what I did because I wanted to follow a certain order with some of the books (ie: make sure that sequels were read in order). I pulled them out of my teaching supplies from the depths of the attic with some help from Trav the other night and am pretty excited to read them again. It's been a while...