Of course, what does one do after Thanksgiving? One finds a Christmas Tree! We searched around and found a great little place and got a decent deal on a very full tree. The kids REALLY got into decorating this year and did almost the whole tree on their own.
This year, we joined the YMCA... AND they had a free visit with pics with Santa. Mrs. Claus was there too! Both kids did really well. We have never forced them to do the Santa pics. I don't really believe in the NEED to have them done. Grace was a little nervous, but together they were both troopers and had fun. There was a professional photographer there and they took pictures and sent them via email. Alas, I cannot find the professional one at the moment.
AH, wait... I have found it...
Elijah's class had Gingerbread Day. Parents sent in gingerbread dough and the kids designed their own little Gingerbread Creations. They read 5 or 6 different Gingerbread people stories. They compared and contrasted each story. I thought it was really neat. Since his school is a charter school and doesn't do hot lunches... hence no cafeteria, some parents volunteered to bring the creations home, bake them, and then bring them back. They had fun... and got to eat yummy cookies!!
Each kiddo earned enough stars on their star chart to get a date with one of us. They both choose Jerry and as luck would have it, the Railroad Museum was having a reading of the Polar Express. So I ordered the tickets and Jerry went.... twice. Each time the kids got a ticket, a bell, hot cocoa and a special little gift bag with goodies. Jerry was less than impressed but the kids had a BLAST!
Elijah had a Christmas party at school. I SWEAR I took video of the kids singing, but I guess I'm an idiot and didn't. But I got a couple of pictures. It was a little Christmas social and some of the classmates handed out little goodies. Jerry took a long lunch to come and play too!
Grace also had a Christmas party. I went and hung out with her for a bit. They had special snack and sang a few songs. The 4 year olds came down and caroled to them. It was very cute. I actually have video, but I am fighting with the computer and applications that are incapable of talking to each other. sigh.
AND then school was out! So what to do with the littles? Well, luckily the weather was mostly AWESOME so we spent a lot of time outside, we cleaned rooms inside, and of course, we did art! We did some melted crayon on wax paper art.
And playing outside in the back yard... really it was quite warm. And when the rain ran them inside... nothing like emptying the rooms of everything soft and making a wall of stuff!!
And of course, after the rain.... super hero puddle jumping!
And then Christmas crept up. Two days before, we made some cookies. Um, I MAY have stopped paying attention for a moment while they were icing the cookies... maybe. hehe. I gave them a few to ice. I gave them half the icing to do said task... I thought I would have some left over for the other cookies... WRONG! hehehehe! But ya know. It was pretty dang cute!
On Christmas Eve we went of for breakfast and then we went to Mayfaire and rode on the "Polar Express." This is a couple of wagons pulled by a lawn mower... all covered to look like a train, so it's all good. *eye roll* The kids liked it. Though, right as the train was pulling up, Grace decided she had to pee... OF course she did. So Jerry and Elijah went and then we waited and then Grace and I went. Christmas Eve night, we went to an early church service at Church of the Servant. They do a family friendly service. All children are given things to dress up in (or they can come dressed) and they participate in the telling/acting out of the Christmas Story. Grace was an angel this year and Elijah was a shepherd. Near the end, anyone that wanted, was allowed to go up and see the baby Jesus...Grace was SO distraught that she didn't get to see Jesus (the baby playing Jesus was not happy with all the attention.) It was a little amusing to me. She kept saying over and over, "I didn't get to see Jesus!" (A few days later, however, she announced to me that SHE was the baby Jesus... sigh.) Anyway, my little angel and my little shepherd did amazing!!
After coming home, we got ready for the grand arrival of Santa. Notes were written, cookies and carrots were left out, jammies were put on... The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was being read, and then Jerry stuck his head into the room... The Nutcracker was on PBS!! Earlier in the month, we took Elijah and Grace to see their first ballet. A company out of New York performed an abbreviated version of The Nutcracker. We took them and sat in the nose bleed section and the kids freakin' LOVED it! They wanted to listen to the music FOREVER after this. They also BEGGED for me to find video of it online. I found a movie version of it and they watched it. So to see the New York Ballet perform it ... man! So, we set them up in the guest room (where they slept anyway...didn't want anyone getting up to pee and accidentally see that Santa had come thus waking the whole house at 4 in the morning! As fate would have it, I ended up having to wake them up the following morning... but I'm jumping ahead of myself. So the kiddos watched The Nutcracker. Grace fell asleep while watching... Elijah made it through the whole thing, and beyond. It was literally like pulling teeth to get him to sleep. He did finally fall asleep around 11 (which, FYI was earlier than last year!!)
So finally, after a restless night for this mama, and after much poking and tickling and finally saying, "I wonder if Santa came?" Christmas morning arrived! If it were up to Elijah, everything would have been opened in under 10 minutes. heh. I think he was really getting frustrated with Grace. She took her time. She wanted everything opened and then unpackaged and wanted a few minutes to play with each thing. She kept going back to her jewelry box too. Elijah loved everything he got, but he was much more, "This is cool, what's next?" Once everything was opened, Monkey bread consumed (thank you pinterest!) and clothing adorned, Elijah and Jerry headed outside to play with the Nerf guns, while Grace and I hung out inside. She played while I straightened up and finished cooking for the trip to Grandma and PopPop's house.
We went to Bladenboro later in the morning to spend the rest of Christmas with Jerry's family. Carry and Ron were the only siblings there, but we got to meet the newest member of the family, Jayden. Grace was very taken with Jayden. I think she would be just fine if we thought about bringing a baby into this house... alas, my dear, that ship is long gone. So, ya know...
That evening, the kiddos posed for me in their new robes. I think they had a good Christmas. They are still playing with their toys they received. And there were no tears, so I label that a success!
There were plenty of playdates with friends and trips to the park with just family. There were also a couple of birthday parties we attended which were loads of fun. The kids had a good break and I think it's safe to say, that we did too. I will continue their break in a January post. I will leave this post with two of my favorite pics from playdates.
So Merry Christmas (almost a month late!) and Happy New Year.... Maybe I'll post a January post BEFORE February. ooooo, it may be to much to wish for!
