If all the Christmases to come in the "new" house are even almost as good as this one, we'll surely be lucky! It was wonderful!! The entire month was filled with decorations and events and anticipation!
I usually don't want to decorate until the first weekend in December but this year, we were having house guests that weekend so I wanted it done early. So the weekend after Thanksgiving, Kenny and Uncle Aaron tackled the tree. It's not real (I know, I know) and it's 8 years old so it's starting to show some age and they had to do a fair bit of work to get it all up and lit but it sure looked pretty when they were done! The boys helped decorate a little but Max was mostly concerned with taking his favorites off the tree. Anything that moved or made noise, he was all about. Jack was a bit more helpful, though he tended to hang all of his ornaments on the same branch. Grandma showed up that day with a fresh wreath and poinsettias and candles for the windows* and things were really starting to look a lot like Christmas!
*Oh the candles for the windows - I wanted battery powered...because old houses don't have outlets near windows...and apparently it is not possible to make them that don't look oddly orange or blue or that aren't so dim you can't even see them from the street. After many attempts, I bailed on the window candles all together this year but I'll try again next year. I refuse to believe we can send people to the moon and can make flashlights that work great on battery power but can't make decent Christmas candles. If anyone knows of any good ones, please feel free to share!
We had a jam-packed holiday schedule full of family, friends and fun that made the month delightful. Jack gets so excited about holidays that it really makes them a lot more fun! One of our first outings was to celebrated Grandma's birthday! We visited Lewis Ginter to check out all the lights, which is always so much fun!
There was a trip to Build-A-Bear with Unk to make a couple of Rudolphs!
Next up was a trip to see Santa! It didn't exactly go as one might have hoped, but I guess I'm not that surprised really.
Jack did ok. He wouldn't really make eye contact with Santa and fiddled with his shirt a lot, but he did tell Santa that he wanted a Detroit Lions football and Detroit Lions Calvin Johnson action figure. Santa was so kind and patient and even talked Lions football with Jack for a bit. Max stopped crying as soon as the picture was over and I snatched him out of Santa's lap. WHen Jack was 2 we didn't even take him to see Santa because we knew it would only end in tears. Hopefully next year will be better...though I will admit it was still magical for me. Santa even came down the chimney! While I think the whole Legendary Santa thing is a bit of a racket (read way too expensive!), it was really neat and I'd totally pay it again next year. And hopefully next year I'll find some pants that aren't way too short for Max!? I swear they didn't look like that before he got in Santa's lap!
That same weekend we got to go to our second annual gingerbread making party at the Pelletier's! It was wonderful, as usual. There were 5 crazy boys and 2 sweet girls all having a ball!
That next week we had the annual sing-along at school with Miss Elva. It was adorable, as always. When we arrived in Max's class, all the little reindeer were standing up ready to sing. He saw me and yelled "Momma" and came running. He spent the rest of the time in my lap. But as I recall, this is exactly what happened with Jack at this age too but this year, he was ready!
Then it was time for the actual Christmas celebrations to begin. Since Grandma was headed to Florida to spend Christmas with the O'Donnells, we got to have Christmas with her on the weekend before Christmas. It was, as usual, so much fun!
Next up was Christmas with Andy and Dillyn which included a trip to see the lights at the James Center!
After all of that fun, it was ALMOST time for the BIG day. Stay tuned for a separate post about that, coming soon!
