And good will to men

I was extremely close to not sending Christmas cards this year.

But then I couldn't resist.

Light it up!

Over the last two weeks we've been creating our window piece by piece by piece.

Tonight, we finally put it all together!

Just what we needed this evening to remember some holiday spirit.

 Now if only I had a camera that could take an awesome picture at night. In the rain.

A week before Christmas.

Adding trim to the tree

I love when I find a project that is simple, cute, and I happen to have all the supplies around the house.

I trimmed a few colored wooden sticks in order to form the "tree shape."

Gavin did excellent with the glue and arranging them from largest to smallest.

Sitting on the table to dry.

 Later, we did one drop of glue and one pom-pom at a time.

The pom poms were very tempting to scatter all over the place.

Temptation won.

The next tree, we used our "gems."

And Mommy won against temptation to scatter these all over with a quick look and a "Don't you dare throw those in the air or Firehouse is going tell Santa!"

He quickly set them down and just ran his hands around in them for a bit.

They are sooooo sparkly! Soooo tempting....

Once again, we did one drop of glue and one gem at a time.

They are soooo pretty to look at, Mommy :)

Two more ornaments for the tree completed!

Good Morning, St Nicholas

After talking about St. Nick, being good, and leaving a shoe out tonight, Gavin decided his puddle jumpers on the stairs would do him the best. He swears up and down that he has been good and that he will wake up to find Monster Trucks.

I had to explain again that this isn't Santa, and they would be small gifts, in his shoes.

Or maybe just a wee bit more....

 I had the best of intentions to be up before Gavin this morning. I wanted to get a snapshot of him discovering that St. Nick had made a stop here. Instead I woke up to, "Mommy!! Come down here! There's presents!!!"

 How could I sleep through the excitement and wonderment?!

 Oh yes....because I'm not 3. And I like sleep.
{Yaaaaaawn}
But I'm pretty bummed I missed this initial discovery expression.

 "Mommy!! He brought Monster trucks!"

 Someone must think you're being a good boy lately...

 Let's keep it up, big man!
St. Nick left this good kid TWO monster trucks, a Santa pez, new jammies and some cookie cutters.
(that most likely will never see the likes of cookie dough)
But pancakes...Oh yes.

 I did get to witness his face when he discovered Firehose this morning! I, OH SO WISH, I would have had my camera glued in front of my face to capture that look!
It. Was. Awesome!

And so is Firehouse. For making breakfast :)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Counting down til Santa

The countdown has begun!
Although I've had the Christmas countdown app on my phone since it read "92 sleeps until Christmas."
This countdown I saw on Pinterest.

I made it with scraps of paper and alphabet stickers I had on hand. (notice I ran out of similar E's)

In attempts to reuse it every year versus making a new one, my wonderful Mom laminated it for me and I picked up some Velcro sticky dots.

It's perfect...

...except for one thing.

I totally screwed up and put a 25th on there. Santa comes the night of the 24th! Oops.
Guess we will add a ball of white every night before bed for the next day. As Gavin would say, "Is that better?" :)

Milk Jug Snowmen

There wasn't enough snow outside, but there was enough stuff inside to create these Frosty wannabes.

After school and work the other day, I quickly cut up some foam and paper scraps...

 Then let Gavin design his own.

 I even let him use the glue by himself.

 I made one too!

 Without assistance, he mimicked the same mouth I had created.

They are going to look GREAT in our window once I add some lights and our snowflakes :)

A Christmas Story

Fall holidays be derned, we've got Christmas on our minds now. The other morning I was checking my email and turned to see this:

Gavin has a Fisher Price nativity set which occasionally seems slightly irreverent (especially when the angel on top of the manger is replaced with, say, a sheep) but mostly it's cute.

 

He had lined up all the figures and was telling a story. "Awwww. Everyone loves the baby. Watch out for the car. Come here, doggy!" He kept telling his story and moving Mary around this way and that. I was pleased at how nicely he was playing. And then...

I guess I forgot about the part where Mary hops on a sports car and rides off into the distance.

Followed by Joseph in a pick-up.

Introducing....

Firehose!

 I've been delaying this post, because I thought hoped that Gavin would change his mind.
But it's been three days. It's official.

 You wouldn't want someone to change your name, would you?

 But do you know how looney bin crazy I sound telling Gavin that if he doesn't pick up his toys/get in bath/in bed, etc, that I'm going to tell Firehose to tell Santa??

 Ya, I have no idea how he got up there either...
Kooky little elf.

CLAUStrophobic

If you have been reading my blog for the past year, you may recall that Gavin DOES NOT like Santa (or the Easter Bunny for that matter)

The beauty of this is that every year I get CLASSIC Santa pictures.
Call me a mean mom, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the crying kid Santa pictures! I know, I'm awful. It's not that I enjoy seeing him scream, but he is a completely fine, smiling little boy, mere seconds afterward. If I thought he was being traumatized, I would not put him through it.

Let's take a trip down memory lane & review the Santa visits over the past 3 years.

2008. Gavin's first Christmas (2 1/2 months old).2009. (1 year)

 2010. (2 years)

 

Merry Christmas!