Christmas Happenings

With a little over a week left until Christmas, I thought I would make a post about all our December activities thus far.

We started off the month on December 1st with the Trader Joe's Advent calendars. The kids look forward to these every year, and you can't beat the price ($1). Of course we had to get K one too, because she would have been pretty upset if E and N got to enjoy their chocolate every day, and she was left out!! Sure enough, after breakfast she comes to me with her little hand held out saying "treat? treat?" (although it sounds more like "chee? chee?" It did not take her long to catch on to what was happening. Hopefully she won't be too traumatized after Christmas, when she is cut off from her morning treat!

Decorating the tree was a good time. The kids, and E especially, really love going through their personal ornament boxes and hanging them on the tree. K got into the spirit and hung several unbreakable ornaments. She got especially attached to a pillow-like ornament of snoopy from my childhood. She would take it off the tree, and walk around the house with it. I even caught her going up to it and wiping her nose a couple of times! Maybe she likes the softness.

We had our annual neighborhood Christmas party where Santa and Mrs. Claus come and pass out gifts to all the kids. N still believes, so he was a little awestruck by seeing Santa in person. But he soon got over it as his name was called first to receive presents. He got quite chatty up there with Santa, detailing his Christmas wish list. Only after he got down did he whisper to me in a worried voice,"I forgot to tell Santa how old I am!" I told him that was OK, and that he could go up later when it was K's turn. So when K's name was called N came up with me, and stood solemnly before Santa holding up 4 fingers. I told Santa and Mrs. C that N had forgotten to tell them how old he was.
K was not so thrilled with the whole meeting Santa experience. Last year she sat happily in his lap, but this year she screamed her head off. I held her and sat on Santa's knee while K looked on suspiciously.

We had a family Christmas party on Sunday. I had a chance to take some pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes, and we also got a pretty decent family shot.

Finally, last night we decided to decorate our gingerbread house and train. Ed and I struggled a little with the icing, but the kids didn't mind munching on candy canes and licking icing blobs in between decorating. I was again surprised at K's enthusiasm. I really thought she would be too young, and almost sent her to bed. But Ed felt bad for her, so she stayed up, and she loved it! She liked eating candy the most because she has a sweet tooth, but she also liked decorating.