Christmas Time Part 1

Christmas is MY very favorite holiday of the year. Jack shares my love. And I love that he loves it! He turned on the Christmas tree every morning. He moved the marker in his advent calendar to the next day. He also asks if he can have the chocolate piece from his other advent calendar every morning. Each morning I say, " Do we start the day with chocolate?" and depending on his mood I get that half grin or a frustrated grunt. He also has a miniature tree in his room that he say is, "just beautiful".

Each Christmas season I try to get everything out of the way(decorating, presents bought and wrapped) by December 1st so that December is just a time of fun and celebration. However, I completely failed this year. I am trying to figure out exactly why. I think it is because I tried the approach of one thing at a time. I did a lot for the first day of school, Brad was gone a lot early on in the season. We also made Halloween bigger and then I hosted Thanksgiving at my house. I focused on those as they came and did not look forward. So I guess I will try a new approach next year.

We still had a GREAT Christmas! Due to my parents coming in town and my Aunt Susan coming several days, we were able to get everything decorated, all things wrapped and almost all of my handmade gifts completed the week before Christmas! Thank you so much! I will be forever indebted to you guys!!!!!!

Therefore ,we were able to do the all of our favorites just not as many times. We played games, read a ton of Christmas books, watched our favorite tv specials and movies , visited out favorite Christmas places, ate our favorite treats and sang our favorite carols. We missed a few of our favorite outings this year by being in Indy but we will pick them up next year.

Our favorite Christmas books are :How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Crippled Lamb, Who was Born This Special Day?,Merry Christmas Stinky Face, Bear Stays Up for Christmas, Who is Coming to our house?, The Gingerbread Baby.

Our favorite Christmas specials/movies: Elf, Rudolph, Grinch, Christmas Lamb, and new this year Merry Madagascar,Merry Monkey Christmas and Disney's Prep and Landing.

Our favorite Christmas foods are: Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Gingerbread cookies( not together)

Our favorite Christmas toys: Our Nativity sets and the low rider car that Santa drives with reindeer in the backseat wearing sunglasses which plays "All my friends love a low rider" and lights up green neon on the bottom (a passed on gift from a gag gift dirty Santa that my mom played- Thanks mom!)

Our favorite Christmas outings are: Nashville Christmas parade with dinner at Demos, A Walk through Bethlehem, Opryland Hotel( Carriage rides, dinner, Santa, lights show, fountain show), Decorate gingerbread houses, bake cookies for Santa, drive around with hot chocolate to look at lights, new this year: Grinchy night- eat roast beast (Arby's roast beef) and watch the Grinch then play our Grinch game, and read the Grinch before bed!Our family playing Quelf... the best game ever!! Jack and Brad having to wear a Kleenex bib, Dad as a ballerina with a Kleenex tutu. Allie with a complimentary makeover by yours truly! We also had a lot of fun playing the Grinch game. We had to sing to the game so that the Grinch would release our presents that were inside the sleigh from the top of Mt. Crumpit.These are pictures from Opryland with the Sophie and Will. We had so much fun!

Indianapolis

We have a love/hate relationship with the town
of Indianapolis! We love their Children's Museum! It is truly amazing! They have great hotels and a very fun downtown with everything very easy to find! They have great shopping and eating! We were all sick but we still had a blast!

The hate part comes with the Colts. As we drove away from the town my darling husband rolled down the window and in a very screaming/screeching sort of way let the city and a fine policeman know how strong his hatred is with many choice words and some unintelligible words. Aww the memories...fortunately my cherubs were asleep and stayed asleep through the rant!

No bells and two songs with the word "Come"

So this was my big boy's first musical debut! The preschool Christmas concert was Monday night at 7:00. We had my parents from out of town, my best friend and her little girl from Atlanta, Brad's parents and my Aunt Susan. We had no idea what to expect! Oh what a show the St. B's preschool put on for us!

All of the students filed into the Sanctuary and made their way onto the stage. We all waved wildly at Jack and he waved and beamed back at us! I teared up at my big boy so comfortable on stage. Was this going to be the beginning of something? Would he show his big personality off for everyone to see?

During the weeks leading up to the show we did not want to make a fuss about the show and make Jack nervous so our questions were few and far between. He had told me that they were singing Silent Night and that there were probably going to be bells. So The day of the concert I tried to get a little more information . I asked if he knew the names of the songs that he was singing, and if he knew what color his bell would be. He responded with a huff and a slight roll of the eyes, "Mom, there are no bells and I dooon't remember the songs. I just know that two songs have the word "Come" in them. Out of the mouth of babes...Uh... folks, no truer words were ever spoken. He never opened his mouth through a memorized Bible verse and five songs except to sing the word "Come" in "Come All Ye Faithful" and "Come Now is the Time to Worship". We all laughed so hard we cried.

*There was one part that was very beautiful and in which no singing was required, they performed "Silent Night" using sign language. It took my breath away to see 3,4,&5 yr. olds using their hands to convey the words to such a special song!

Oh Christmas time! I would love to say that I have not posted in so long because all I have been doing is enjoying the season! However, the truth is ...

• our computer was sick for a week
• we went to Indianapolis for a week
• we have all had pink eye
• we have been sick many times and swaped it many times
• Jack has had a rash with welps twice
• Jack is making his Jumbotron debut this weekend
• Cole has droped a glass pitcher on his toe which led to a lot of blood and screaming
• Cole has started walking
• I have lost my wallet
• I have made many Christmas gifts that have led to many hot glue burns
• I have decorated every inch of our home
• We have hosted all of my family for Thanksgiving
• Jack has had his first program(more on that later)

So now that most of that is behind us I will be back to posting!