Christmas Lights

The little town that we visit for the 4th of July parade also has a Christmas lights display every December. They fill the park with a variety of Christmas lights, blowup Christmas characters, the Nativity scene and decorated trees. It's small, but cute and always worth driving through a few times and walking through at least once. We took the boys last week and planned on just driving through since it was such a chilly night. After driving through once, Henry convinced us to get out of the van and walk around to see the lights. We enjoyed seeing the lights. Fast. And we were ready to jump back into the warm van by the time we were done.

A glimpse at the decorated park. Quite the variety.

Henry plodding through the snow.Me, William and Henry
Hilarious. I'm the only one smiling. Everyone was so frozen.Patrick, William and Henry

Me and William

Ok funnyman. If you're not going to smile for a picture, this is what happens. I love the way William is looking at Patrick. So confused!

William wearing Patrick's gloves.
Bless his heart, he still tried to point at everything with those big, floppy fingers!

More pointing.

One of the boys' favorite things to do this month is to drive around our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. They both get so excited; William pointing and Henry exclaiming about what colors he sees. I think it's sweet which light displays a child finds the most beautiful. In general, the more lights and blowup characters in one yard, the better.

Visit Santa? Nah!

I've been trying to come up with things to do with the boys to celebrate the Christmas season this month. Ideally every day in December I'd like to do something a little extra special to celebrate; some spiritual and some just traditional fun. We've done a few things, but I'd love any ideas. What do you do to celebrate with your children?

Last Friday I decided to dress the boys up in cozy sweaters and take them to the mall to visit Santa. Lucky for me, my friend Rachel called me that morning and told me she had the day off. So she came with us. It's always so much more fun having someone else to go with, not to mention super helpful. We got to the mall, dressed and ready for pictures with digital camera and video camera in hand. Santa's helper, the photographer, told us that there were no cameras of any kind allowed. Disappointing, but it didn't end up being a big loss because both boys refused to sit on Santa's lap. Henry yelled in his defiant voice from the stroller, "I'm not gonna sit on Santa's lap" and when I decided to splurge on the picture anyway with just William, he clung to my neck with a grip even Santa couldn't pry. Still, I would have gone through with it and had a cute, crying picture to treasure forever except Santa refused and suggested that I come back several times and let the boys get used to him. Ha! Who has the time to commit to that? Maybe if he could be at the mall throughout the year, we could get used to him then and not have to use precious holiday time at the mall acquainting ourselves with him? I'll suggest that next time. Or maybe home visits?

So no Santa in 2008 for us. But we did go for a ride on the carousel in the mall which was equally fun and not threatening like a big, bearded man.

Me, William and Henry

Getting our tickets. This sweet woman cracked us up. She handed us our tickets on this side of the counter and made sure we were all holding them. Then she opened up the little gate and held a bucket down on the opposite side to immediately collect them. So funny.

Henry absolutely loved this ride.Here is he with sheer joy!

I was holding William's hands while keeping him balanced on his horse. The sweet woman didn't like that. She insisted that I "teach him how to hold on" by himself. So, we tried.

Sooo excited.

Rachel and Henry

I wish I had a picture of Rachel with the boys at the mall pushing the huge and oh-so-heavy double stroller. She was awesome! We came home for lunch and Starbucks after the mall.

Rachel, William and Henry
Thanks Rach!

Oh, Christmas Tree

We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Sadly, it's artificial. Since we've been married, Patrick and I have always cut down our Christmas tree from a tree farm that Patrick worked at when he was in high school. We took Henry there his first Christmas and brought both boys last year to cut down our tree. This year I'd been putting off getting a tree. Mostly because I was worried about William and his sweet little curious fingers.I had visions of him pulling the tree on top of himself when I left the room to get his sippy cup or some other terrible thing. So for safety, we opted to put our tree in the office. We can still see the tree from the living room, the lights from the tree can be seen through all of the office windows and most importantly, there is a door that can be closed if necessary. We decided to use our artificial tree (a neighbor gave us her old tree a few years ago) since it was going to be in the office anyway.

I worried that Henry would be disappointed, or even a bit weirded out by the Christmas tree in a box that had to be assembled. But it was quite the opposite. He loved finding all of the pieces to help put together the tree. It did seem a little bit unnatural, but it was still fun. And with the Christmas music playing in the background, even this artificial tree started to feel festive. When William first brushed against the branches, he screamed and then started to cry. A tree in the house definitely freaked him out!

We waited until William was in bed and then brought up our boxes of ornaments. Henry literally put every single unbreakable ornament on the tree. For each one he pulled from the box he'd exclaim something about it. "Oh look at this!" or "This one is so cute!" I didn't expect him to stick with it for so long, but he didn't stop until the box of ornaments was empty. He did a great job hanging them; some branches are piled high with ornaments. I actually didn't even move them or rearrange any. I'm usually a little bit of a perfectionist, even with the tree. But this year I love the way the tree looks - just like a three year old decorated it.

Henry putting the star on top of the tree.

When he couldn't get it to stand up, he decided to lay it on its side.

William's first look at the tree the next morning.

Within seconds he's wearing one ornament like a necklace around his neck and he's eyeing another one to pull off next.

William loves to pull ornaments off the tree and carry them around the house. I usually make a pile of the ornaments he's pulled throughout the day. At the end of the day Henry gets to hang them back on the tree!

Cookie Day

Henry's school had its annual Cookie Day last Thursday. Parents donate the supplies -plain sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles- and the children decorate and proudly bring home a plate of cookies to share. The children are all so darling sitting at their tables, beaming with pride when the parents come to pick them up from school. Henry was no exception. He was proud and so excited. He already knew which one he wanted to eat first, and then told me which one was for me, Patrick and Santa. There were four cookies. I asked him which one was for William and he looked at his plate and quickly realized the four were already claimed and told me that I could share mine with William because "we need to share." They are as precious as can be. I love that he made them with the intent to give some away.

His teacher told me at the door that he didn't want anything to do with the frosting, but they convinced him to use it so his sprinkles would stick.

He chose the one with rainbow sprinkles. They were actually Mickey Mouse sprinkles, which made the cookie even more irresistible.Finally, a taste!

Fall leaves

Even though the leaves fell long ago, I couldn't resist posting a few pictures of the fun we had playing in them this fall. As much as I don't love the winter, I do love the changing of seasons. Fall is one of my favorites, second only to summer (and summer will always win). Since we only have an evergreen in our yard, we had to find leaves to play with in other places. And when we did, Henry and William loved playing in them.

Henry and William.
Playing in the leaves at the park.William at one of my favorite Fall spots. It's actually just a block away from our house, at the corner. There are always leaves that blanket the entire ground and sidewalk. I love walking through them. After we went to vote in November, we stopped here and I let William get out of the stroller to play. This is Henry, November 2005, at the same spot!

Henry and William playing in the leaves at their cousin's house.

Celebrating 28

In October I turned 28. I'm inching closer and closer to the big 3-0. It's funny that as I get closer, 30 doesn't seem "old" like it once did. Plus I remind myself that Jennifer Anniston is almost 40 and she looks great, so maybe getting older isn't as scary as I think?

To celebrate, Patrick took me out to dinner on my birthday. My pick? The Olive Garden. I get very stuck in a rut and I usually either choose that or Chilis. He was really thoughtful - he called a babysitter and arranged everything for the evening. Then the weekend after my birthday I went to Chicago and celebrated with Holly and Rachel. It was the perfect weekend - good food (Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen), sleeping in, shopping, Starbucks and fun with great friends. It was so much fun to spend time with friends and felt good to relax and also laugh hysterically. I definitely came home feeling refreshed (and excited about all of my new stuff from our shopping extravaganza). It's always hard for me to leave the boys, but I think it makes me a better mom to get a way sometimes.

Me, Holly and Rachel.

Leaving the jewelry show.Presents!
Thank you H & R ---super generous! Love it all!

Me and Rachel.

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.

Holly and Me.

At CPK. Delish!

Holly, Me and Rachel.

At Holly's beautiful condo.

The first snow

It is definitely no secret that I'm not a fan of winter, cold weather and snow. I love the summer. And in general, the hotter the better (with the exception of being pregnant). So seeing this first snow didn't fill me with the same delight as it did the boys. But, I must say that once I mustered up the gusto to bundle up and go outside with the boys, I had so much fun. More fun than I've had in a long time in the snow. It was just so hilarious watching the boys play in the snow. William was totally Ralphie from the "Christmas Story" ("I can't move my arms"). He was the most still that he's been since he's learned how to walk. He sort of just stood there and took it all in. When he did move, he slipped and then lay helplessly in the snow until I came to rescue him. He never cried though or got too upset. He was pretty mellow. Henry was a shoveling, sledding, slipping and sliding snow fool. He loved every last bit of it.

William seeing the snow for the first time. He was glued to these doors, pointing to the snow.William and Henry looking at the snow. Henry was ready to go outside as soon as he woke up and saw the snow.Henry all suited up and ready to play.William's first few steps in the snow.Henry slid down our front yard on his belly.

Henry, post-belly slide.

William trying so hard to walk through the snow...And slipping...Waiting to be rescued.

Henry making a snow angel.

Henry, William and Frosty.

Patrick and Henry built this snowman earlier that morning and it started to tip over by evening. Ha! Those baby carrot teeth look very threatening at that angle. Sledding down the front hill. The boys loved this and went over, and over, and over again. William always leaned way back and lay in Henry's lap. Henry let him, which was very sweet.

Me, William and Henry.

I pulled the boys on the sled up and down the sidewalk and driveway a-lot of times.

Long overdue

I have definitely been neglecting my blog. Get ready for this earth shaking confession: I've been cheating on Blogger with that little known website called Facebook. Ha Ha. No it's certainly not little known. It's well known and widespread. In fact I have friends on Facebook ranging from elementary school best friends, to little girls (now grown up) that I used to babysit for, to friends of my Mom's. I think it's no exaggeration to say that everyone is on Facebook. Ok, so I know that is a little exaggeration because of I can think of a few people who aren't, but it's not much of one.

I'll spare you the infomercial for Facebook though and tell you that I do miss you Blogger. Facebook has been a great tool for reconnecting with friends from high school and staying in touch with others, but it has also made me a little bit lazy. I seldom do much on my Facebook page (adding pictures, or updating my status), but I find myself able to be on the site for up to an hour. A mindless hour. I find myself cautious about what I write and post on Facebook; more self conscious because I realize that all of the aforementioned "friends" and all of the others who can see my account will have a glimpse into my life. I'm cautious about what I want to share. One reason I started a blog was to stay connected to my friends and family. Another is to have a place to document all of the important (and some pretty mundane) stuff in our family's life; ideally I'll turn my blog into a book on Blurb.com one day and have a scrapbook of all of these events. Wasting mindless hours on Facebook won't help me document all of this stuff though.

Will I still check it? Definitely. More than once a day? Probably. But I'll try to devote at least equal time to blogger too. So I'm back to blogging and with a vengeance. I have lots of updating to do.