18 Days... Santa!!!

To all the faux Santas around the world who sit day after long day with children coughing, sneezing, gross, hungry, tired, and fussy on their laps, worn out, working so hard to be jolly:  bless you.  Bless you all.

Especially the one who had the "privilege" of letting my son sit on your lap last night.  I know he kicked the crap out of your leg during the picture.  I know it was 6:30 and you were probably hungry.  I know that it was hot in the mall.  I saw you trying to itch your neck slyly because of the crappy cheap suit.  I know that you probably need to drink heavily to counter the stuff you deal with every day.    I don't blame you.  But we love you.  We really do.

Thank you for having a real beard, a real button-like nose, and a belly full of jelly.  You were amazingly patient.  Especially with the kid that screamed and the parents that thought it was funny.  You are my hero.

The little "elf" that was helping Santa kept insisting that "Dad" get in the picture.  Uncle Chris was with us and rather than make her feel bad, Chris graciously stepped into the picture even though he didn't want to.  Thanks, Uncle Chris.

This is a bad copy since I had to take a picture of the picture.  I will scan in a real copy soon.  Promise.  Since Aiden would not sit on Santa's lap, we didn't fight it.  We turned it into a family photo opp.   

19 Days and a promised video

First the video.  Jingle Bells.  A la Mom and Tater.  As funny as this is... think how much more funny it would be to have Aiden WATCH this video.  I have to figure out a way to record him watching this.  SO stinking cute.

I totally cheated tonight.  First of all, Mondays are really hard for me to do anything with Mister other than sit exhaustedly on the couch and read stories.  BUT!  'Tis the Christmas Season, so that would not do.

We wanted to go to the Festival of Trees this year, but it was such a drive and Mister probably would not have enjoyed it much.  So, what to do... what to do...   We kinda did our own Festival of Trees.  We went to Tai Pan Trading and saw all the decorated trees there.  Honestly, I think Mister enjoyed it more because we could touch things, pretend like we might buy them, then put them back.

For anyone with a toddler, try it!  It is great fun.  And there were not BILLIONS of people there.

20 day and counting

We stayed in and didn't do much of anything last night, but we did read stories.  Lots of Christmas stories.

We read these books.  Some of them were books that were read to me as a child, but they are all wonderful, tender books.

Try some of these.  They will definitely bring the Spirit of Christmas to your home...

21 Days

On Saturday, Aiden arguably had the best 30 minutes of his life to this point.  Newgate Mall has this totally wicked train that goes around and around the mall.  We HAD to try it.  (Thanks, Steph, for telling me about it.  It was truly the best!!!)

You see, Aiden has this thing for trains.  He saw the train and went CRAZY.  Truly crazy.  We were lucky enough to get to the train while the conductor was on break, so we could spend about 15 minutes climbing around it and loving on it.  I think there was even a kiss placed at one point...

So just sit back and enjoy the pure bliss...

22 Days - and internetless

Our weekend was great.  And I took pictures.  Unfortunately for me, the person or people supplying my unsecured internet have decided to wise up and secure their connection, or didn't pay their internet bill.  Either way, I was without internet this weekend which was sad.  I couldn't update this blog and we were severely limited on which Thomas movies we could watch.  (I love you, Netflix...)

So, on to the Christmas Fun.  Friday night was AWESOME. Toddler + Gingerbread House = hysterical laughter and sugar overload.

Bad Mom of the Year award... frosting right from the tube.  Ah, well, he loved it.

Started off innocently enough.

It was about this point that Aiden realized that these things he was placing so nicely on the roof were edible. 

And he began to eat the shingles off the roof.  

He tried to eat more icing by himself.  Ended up looking like Don Quixote

Finished product...Toddlerized.

Only about a third of the candy actually made it onto the Gingerbread House, but we knew that going in.