12 Days Until Christmas

Last night Aiden and I watched the Grinch (the one with Jim Carrey, unfortunately) and made Christmas ornaments.  They came with paint, but we decided to have a cleaner, gentler Christmas season, so I opted for crayons.

We also made a couple of other fun things, but they are gifts for people who read this blog so.... there.  Suffice it to say, they turned out spectacularly.

After crafts and wackiness, we decided to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  Now, the thriving metropolises of Clearfield and Syracuse are not known for their Christmas grandeur, but these two houses have to be the winners.  All I could think of is that some poor husband started in October and must really like Christmas.

17, 16, 15, sigh

It is not that we didn't do fun things.  I just have had no internet connection until today to update the blog.  Sorry, so sorry.

Thursday, we watched Merry Madagascar.  If you have not seen this, it is so funny.  Here is the premise.  The animals are still in Madagascar.  And it is Julianuary (the traditional month of festivities to celebrate the birth of King Julian - the lemur king... or lemming king... or whatever he is).  On the 24th of Julianuary every year (Christmas Eve) the Red Goblin (Santa) comes to the island and pelts it with black meteors (which we find out later is ... coal.  Apparently, King Julian has been on the naughty list so often that he no longer gets one lump of coal, but an entire meteor shower).  So, they shoot down Santa, who gets amnesia because of the crash and it is up to the animals to save Christmas.  Awesome.  It even features the reindeer from the North Pole and the penguins from the South Pole who had a falling out years before.  The line "Bipolar Christmas" actually rears its head.

Friday, we went shopping for Christmas presents and made gingerbread at Uncle Chris's house.  Cousin Kelle slept over and it was so fun to have her there to help prep for ...

Saturday was the Biddulph Family Christmas Party.  I was in charge.  Imagine this... 8 siblings and their children.  Aiden is the youngest.  45 of them or so.  It went fine, but the noise is pure chaos.  I can see why the Grinch was anti-noise... Noise... NOISE.  The nativity was great.  Alec was gracious enough to play the donkey.  He was nicknamed Churro the Burro by his brother and Jack the Ass by his uncle.  Such love.

The dinner was spectacular (my family really knows how to cook...), especially Teresa's enchilada soup and Grandma Sharon's pumpkin rolls.  Oh, the pumpkin rolls were divine. Grandma Sharon actually made them and brought them with her on the plane.  

Kelle (one of his favorite cousins) drew Aiden's name and gave him a pillow/blanket lion.  And... Thomas clothes and a book.  What a cool present.  See the pic?

Sunday, church was AWFUL.  No leaders to help in Primary, so afterward we snagged Uncle Chris and went to see the Ogden Village Lights.

Really fun.  Last night, at a loss of what to do after a very long day, I took Aiden for pizza with pepperoni and green peppers.  Red and green, right?  We also sang Jingle Bells to a bunch of horses on the side of the road.  He liked he horses and I said, "horses say neigh."  He thought I said, "hey", so then we had to sing...

Okay, so I blew it yesterday, but will make up for it tonight.  Promise.

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.