MORE Christmas fun...

This has been a busy week! Monday night we went to Christmas at the Zoo. It looked like, weatherwise, it might be the best day of the week so we decided, a little sporadically, to just go! And, of course, a good time was had by all. Seth doesn't like to loiter at the zoo exhibits. He walks up, sees the animal, and announces, "Okay, I'm ready." Normally I suggest we stand for a few and take it all in. But it was really quite windy and I was fine to play along with the quick tour of the zoo. I think his favorite (and mine too) were all the decorations set to music. These three trees changed colors and "danced" to the Christmas music. Pretty nifty!! And we even got to see real reindeer. Both were missing an antler. Seemed a little suspect to me but they didn't seem too bothered by it.

Then last night Santa paid a visit. I know Santa is not the point of Christmas! But to me there is something fun about Santa. We have our Little People nativity set up (and Mr. Particular/Seth didn't care for something about the configuration so he rearranged everyone Sunday afternoon AND informed David that Baby Jesus will stay in the tiny gift box as he's not supposed to be in the manger yet. LOVE this kid!!) and I do stress that Jesus' birthday is truly what is to be celebrated.

However, the reaction that Santa brings just makes me laugh. When he was knocking on the door, ringing the bells, yelling, "Ho ho ho," I think the blood drained from Seth's face. He looked at us and the door and we all went to answer it together. Luke too. Except the second the door was opened, Luke burst into tears and had to be picked up by Daddy to be consoled! And Seth, well, he just stood there. Funny too since we had made brownies and wrote out our Christmas list yesterday, "just in case."

Anyway, the visit went well. Seth chatted with Santa. He said, "I'm sorry for being disobedient for four days." Really? Which four days, I was wondering! Santa dutifully reminded him that those elves keep an eye on his behavior and he should try hard to be good. And Luke warmed up enough for a few photos on his lap. Both boys got books and matching stuffed animals. And Seth even walked Santa to the door. Another fun Christmas memory!

A few of my favorite things. Err, people.

I am going to digress (briefly, I promise) from my usual posts about the kiddos. For this post I want to tell you about some of my favorite people. These are my go-to girlfriends. The ones I've known forever. The ones who spent many of their oh-so-important high school functions (dances, etc.) at Olive Garden together (rather than the dance). The ones who stood in line for the Elvis stamp debut, even though we didn't really care so much about Elvis. The ones who fed bread to random ridiculous ceramic geese. Just harmless fun. Everyone started out at different colleges, although some ended up the same place eventually, but we all remained friends.



Well, we have an annual holiday gathering and we let the husbands join us. Fun side story - David's friend John who invited him to church, where we met, was already friends with one of the other husbands so Dave was actually hanging out with some of the guys without me introducing them. See how God was working all of this out - I believe David and I were supposed to meet somehow! Anyway, the guys are friends too so that makes it that much more fun.



This was our fourth (?) annual holiday gathering and this year Lynette had the BEST idea ever. Rather than bring the kids and come to my home, which is the norm, we should get sitters and go out! It was absolutely wonderful. I love getting all the kids together but at this point we are 10 adults and 10 kids, ranging from 20 months to 11 years, and, well, it's just a little loud and chaotic. So we went to Iozzo's - a new restaurant downtown - for dinner and acted like grown-ups. Well, mostly. Did I mention it was fabulous?

They are my sanity restorers, sounding boards, inspirations as moms, and just wonderful friends. Thank you all for hanging in and together for so long! Love you all!!

Jolly Days!

The Children's Museum creates a wonderful winter wonderland. David's employer is one of the sponsors of this event. So, as a perk, the Museum opens one evening and for 2 hours it's just co-workers and their kiddos taking over the Museum. I think the boys had a great time! On the way home Seth pretended to be sleeping and actually fell asleep. I don't even remember the last time he slept in the car. Luke had a good time pretending to sleep too (except he didn't really sleep, just has already learned that it's his job to mock his older brother!).

We started off petting and grooming the "reindeer." Pretty great replicas of the real things.

Then there was some ice fishing.
(Or fish stirring.)

And finally a trip down the huge slide. Amazingly, both boys really seemed to enjoy the slide. They both even went down it twice! And for the record, Seth won both times. Of course, he was on the inside lane!

Oh Christmas Tree...

I love the annual downtown tree lighting. David and I actually got engaged 7 years ago, downtown, after the tree lighting. We never miss the fun. However, this year, we were putting up decorations and things got confusing and it was cold and we just didn't go. But what we did was even better. In my opinion anyway. We went the next night. We started the evening by going out for pizza. Eating out had been put on hiatus but Luke seems to be chilling out a little so we're trying to brave it again! Then we headed downtown. Not much crowd to fight, a very short line for hot chocolate, and we could walk right up to the monument and check out the tree and lights. An added bonus for Seth - the horses that pull the carriages were hanging out on the circle AND there was a fire truck parked on the circle that we got to walk all around and ooh and ahh over. He definitely loved his "warm chocolate." Thanks to a much smaller crowd than Friday I was able to ask them to cool it down and go light on the chocolate. I needed him to sleep eventually that night!A group shot of my guys. We tried some with me, but I've discovered we always take Dave and the boys first and then they are done with pictures before it's my turn. Oh well, every group seems to have a designated photographer.

Funny sidenote: We drove downtown, paid to park, loaded everyone into coats, Luke into the stroller, got out of the parking garage and Luke screamed, "moon" and Seth screamed, "fire hydrant." Ummm, yes, but we could've seen both of these things outside our front window!! You have to love the simplicity of children!

Wednesday's belated thanks...

The day before Thanksgiving, in my head I was posting about how thankful I was that my house was clean, my Toll House pies (without Toll House chips as they are possibly 'contaminated' with Lukey allergens, but with Hershey's chips instead) were made, the deviled eggs were done, and even the mashed potatoes were mashed and waiting patiently to be reheated for lunch the next day. Ahhhh, this would've been a very thankful post! Had it all happened before about 11pm when my bed started to beckon to me!!

Oops (and belated Tuesday thanks)

Well, I guess I failed quite miserably at sharing what I was thankful for each day last week. I got caught up in the cleaning and cooking. This is NOT to say that I wasn't thankful, for I composed blogs in my head each day. It's just to say that my fingers and the keyboard neglected to bond. So, I will pick up where I left off....

Tuesday I was going to share that Seth is thankful for horses. I asked him at breakfast and this was his response. And I believe him. The highlight of nearly any outing is driving by the horses on the way home. He has named them - Chocolate and Chip and Cookie. Or maybe Dave named them. Either way, Seth calls them by name. If they are not out, he likes to come up with reasons why not. Maybe they are napping? Maybe it's bathtime? And he often yells 'Merry Christmas' when we drive by. Even in July. [He doesn't tell anyone else 'Merry Christmas' in the middle of summer so I'm not sure why the horses, but that's okay.] And that's Tuesday's belated thanks!