Christmas Eve Eve

We have a fairly new tradition in our family (it's been done the last 2 years). On Christmas Eve Eve we blow up an air mattress & all pile on it to watch a Christmas movie together complete with hot chocolate & popcorn. When it's over we all sleep in the living room together with the Christmas tree lights on. Then in the morning we have cinnamon rolls. This year the movie was The Santa Claus 3. It wasn't bad ~ about what you'd expect out of a kids' movie with Tim Allen playing Santa trying to outwit Jack Frost played by Martin Short. ;-)

After about 30 minutes we realized that Jonathan needed one more year before he could fully partake in the event. He was just running around on the air mattress & throwing himself down over & over - there was also high pitched screeching involved. Soooo...Jon slept in his crib. We'll give it another try with him next year.

Holiday in the Park

We had a few free passes & decided to take Emily to Holiday in the Park this year. It was her first visit to Six Flags ever. She loved the carousel and really got excited when she got to drive one of the old timey cars all by herself (she reiterated several times in line that she was going to drive the car). She was a little uncertain of the funnel cake...until she took her first bite. By the last few bites she was getting really territorial over the cake.

We did have a moment or 2 when she wasn't very enthusiastic about a ride. I rode with her on the little roller coaster in the kid's part of the park. She was excited at first, but quickly became freaked out & kept saying "I want to get off!" It was very sad.

All in all, we had a great time. It's been years since either Joel or I had been there for Holiday in the Park. But, the best part this time was just watching Emily have fun & laugh.

Christmas Parade

Emily's Parents' Day Out program participated in a local city Christmas parade this past Saturday. We got to ride on the float with some of her classmates. Joel was in charge of holding a tree & fake ax and looking like he just got in from chopping it down. The kids and I were supposed to smile, wave & say "Merry Christmas!" a bunch. The kids did well with it over all & did smile, wave & say "Merry Christmas!" some. They also frequently said "Bye people!" to the onlookers. And Emily apparently thought Christmas was that day as she often said "Merry Christmas tonight!" It was the first parade for all of us & we had fun just goofing off & being together.

The float we were on also won 1st place in the large commercial category. Go PDO program!

Clifford at Grandma's School

We went up to my mom's school where she teaches tonight for a literacy night. Clifford was there in person & both the kids freaked out. They were so excited to see a real Clifford. I was a little curious to see if the large dog would scare Jonathan, but he ran right up to him. Emily even said she wanted to take Clifford home with her. Just a few minutes ago during bedtime prayers she said she wanted to pray for Clifford & she did - it was very cute & very sweet.

Road Trip to Virginia

We drove to Virginia to spend the Thanksgiving week with Joel's dad & step-mom, known to our kids as Pappy & Jan-P. The kids did GREAT in the car - seriously they were awesome. The photo above is of them napping in the car - no, we didn't drug them with Benadryl ;-) It was a 20 hour drive both ways & we split it into 2 days up & 2 days down. We even got to drive through snow on the way up. It was beautiful.

We had a great visit (except for a stomach virus that hit Em, Joel & I while up there). We went to the indoor pool at the local gym, toured a local winery that Jan's son is head wine maker at, saw Charlottesville from a birds-eye view on the top of Carter's Mountain, and spent Thanksgiving day at Jan's son's house with their family. I was also treated to an early birthday gift - a 1 hour massage - a much needed one, I might add.

On the way home we got to stop by Joel's grandmother's house & spend some time with her and Joel's uncle & family too.

It was a great break from the ordinary & we all got the chance to relax and enjoy visiting. The scenery was beautiful. We are glad to be back home now though and get into full Christmas mode now. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

(The picture below is a view from Jan's son's house out in the country that we went to on Thanksgiving day. It was great weather that day & absolutely beautiful.)

Gotta love Craig's List!

We have a new playhouse - well a new to us, used playhouse. It's actually an answered prayer. I'd asked for a playhouse for the kids with a door, window & little kitchen inside, under $50, within close driving distance from our house. Yesterday I found this one on Craig's List - all the amenities I wanted and it's not super girly so Jon can still feel like a little man while playing in it. ;-) And it was $40 & about a 3 minute drive up the road from our house!! Gotta love that! Thanks Craig's List & God!

Side note: yes, Emily is wearing her swimsuit in the photo. She, all the sudden, wanted to wear it really, really bad yesterday. I didn't see anything wrong with the request so I let her put it on before bed. Then she really, really wanted to sleep in it so we let her. Then this morning she didn't want to take it off when getting ready for her speech class. Sooooo...I let her wear it under her clothes. It's a little strange, & I don't totally get it, but it makes her happy for whatever reason & that's OK with me. It'll be fun telling her when she's older all the strange little things she did. Cute stuff.

The back half of our backyard has been taken over by bamboo. The neighbor behind us has it planted in her yard. We've tried to stay on top of keeping it from growing in ours, but have pretty much given into defeat as the stuff grows crazy fast & just keeps coming back. One plus to the bamboo forest was discovered today. Apparently Emily calls the bamboo her house & the kids love to walk through it & play back there. I will admit that I think if I were a child I'd love playing in it too. And it's pretty to look at so I guess we'll keep it. ;-)