Stocking Stalking

So... what have I been up to during my downtime this holiday season? Well, besides manically changing the theme and style of this blog about 50 different times (still going with that, btw), I've been touring holiday homes across the country. Legitimate stalking ensues (stocking stalking, hee hee!).


Nester's site has a grand Christmas Tour with over a THOUSAND links people submitted to posts about their holiday decor. I cannot resist. If you have an hour or a million, go check it out if you haven't already. Even though Christmas is over now, it's still super fun, trust me.


So, I may or may not post any more of my own holiday pictures... or post anything ever again.  :)

Summary of Christmas

This basically sums up our Christmas morning! Lots of fun, family, and TOYS. We had a wonderful day, hope you all did too!

Timeless Christmas

Cleaning Up for Christmas

Previously Arin's toys ruled the living room... but we had to make room for the Christmas tree. It's a good thing we did, because we ended up with the fattest, widest tree ever! It takes up almost all the space that you see Arin clearing here. Isn't he so sweet, deliberately picking up all his books and stacking them up on his chair?

Official Mall Santa Picture

Here it is, the 'official' Santa shot. I was too lazy to take it out of the frame, so I just took a picture of it on the mantle. I did fix it up a little bit! If I get more ambitious later I'll actually scan it and make it glowy or something.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Comes to the Mall

During my take-home final last Tuesday, Mom took Arin out for a fun night at the mall, so I would have some time to complete my test in peace. I'm jealous thought, because he had such a fun night and I wish I had gotten to go! They met up with Carl and JJ, and first went to see SANTA. Arin loves Santa, even if this one is a bit creepy looking. Carl was smart and brought his camera, so he got these shots while they were taking the official ones.


It turns out that the night they went was DOG AND CAT night to get your pet's pictures with Santa! So my Mom, who is allergic to furry critters, had to stand in a looooong line with them and a toddler. Fun!


Apparently Arin would NOT smile, no matter what they did, and they tried everything! They were wiggling stuff in front of him, telling jokes, and even gave him a candy cane!



The one thing that did get his happy attention was Santa's fuzzy sleeve. Apparently he loved it, and sat there and pet it for a few moments! How precious is that? Here is him petting it, with the petting part cut off... oops. But in the 'formal' picture Mom bought it has his hand resting on the fuzzy sleeve part, so that's a cute inside story to tell when he grows up.


When they came home, Mom told me that after spending all that time there that they hadn't got one picture of him smiling (which they didn't), so she refused to buy one! I was like, what, you can't do that! But it turns out she was waiting to surprise me, and on our 'early Christmas' before Julie left for England, she gave me the framed picture that she bought, and gave mini ones to Julie and Dad.


After all this fun with Santa, Arin and JJ went on to ride the special Christmas Train, then they had a yummy dinner at the Food Court, followed by *ice cream cones* and some fun holiday walking around the mall. I'm jealous! But not really jealous enough to brave all the crowds with a stroller until after Christmas.

December Storm

We had a large storm, the first of the 'official' winter season. I'm not counting the storm we had earlier in the year, because that was just uncalled for. Now, though, we have enough to ensure a "white Christmas"... probably. We got almost a foot of snow last week and let me tell you, it was heavy and not at all fun to shovel. This "storm" was only an inch or two and came a few days before the big one... but the snow was very wet and stayed on the trees for days, so pretty!

Candy Canes

This year Arin discovered he has a deep and abiding love for *candy canes*. He is always asking for more, and is very excited every time he gets offered one. He doesn't lick or suck on it like a normal person, however... he crunches them down to nothing in record time. Guess he's just too impatient to sit there and enjoy it, he's got to chomp it up as fast as possible!

Putting the Lights on the Tree

Christmas Tree Shopping

We got our tree a little late this year... but not as bad as other years when it seems we were out a few days before Christmas. We took it easy this time and just headed to the local town courts where the Lions Club was selling trees. It was *freezing* and we were the only ones there, so the two guys were jumping through hoops to sell us a tree. Which was even more funny because the first tree they showed us we liked, and then ended up getting after seeing them all... at least we all got some exercise I guess!

Of course they knew to ply the kids immediately with candy... though Arin was so smart and wouldn't take candy from strangers, I had to take it and give it to him. Safety first, hahah!

Speaking of safety... the way they secured our tree was almost certainly a safety violation. They had this extremely thin rope, like dental floss thin (okay it was kite string), and just wrapped it around the top and bottom of the tree.


Mom is here being like... there's no WAY that is going to stay, it's going to fall off. But the guys assured us the tree would make it 'to the rotary, or your money back'. The rotary is directly outside the lot, btw. After we pointed that out, they said fine, if something happened they would give us another tree for free... on December 26th. Nice.


So the six minute drive home took more like 20 because I was driving like an old grandma... and STILL the tree slipped halfway off the car! As you can see below, by the time we got home it was sticking way off to the side of Arin's window. But, we made it!!

Smile or No Camera

Arin is just like his mommy... he loves cameras. He's constantly trying to get at mine to look at the pictures, and now whenever I grab it to take a picture of him, he stops what he's doing, runs up to me and tries to grab it out of my hand! I told him he can't touch the camera UNTIL he smiles and gives me a nice picture... so finally he got the idea! How cute?


And thanks to Juju and Lauren for this dapper Gant sweater that was one of Arin's awesome Christmas presents.


Here's the original 'gimme gimme omg gimme!' stance that prompted this particular SMILE OR ELSE ultimatum.

La Carreta apres la Christmas Tree

After we got our Christmas Tree last night we had to go out and celebrate, so we headed up to my favorite place - La Carreta! I love this restaurant, we've been going there since I was in high school and it has hosted countless celebrations, dates, girls nights, etc... It's SO tasty and the decor just keeps getting more fun every year, not to mention its a fantastic deal.

Library Tree Lighting, Part 2

Here's the second part of the Tree Lighting... starting with once we FINALLY got inside. It was cold out, and Arin was heavy! Thank goodness we convinced my Dad to come, he took over Bobo-lugging duty.


Julie showed up and her and Mom snuck in to the Santa room... without waiting in line.

And here is THE Santa picture... not that great because Julie took it, and just one! The only other one shows ... well let's just say I don't think Santa was wearing any undergarments and it is very apparent in the other shot. So here is the shot of Bobo not looking with red eye and none of the pretty background... but at least Santa's not flashing us!


After the kids get their turn on Santa's lap, they have little candy canes and bags of 'reindeer food' which is oatmeal mixed with glitter that you're supposed to throw out on your lawn. Yeah, sounds like a great idea... we just opted for the candy canes.



And on the way out we had to stop at the pretty tree, all lit up! And a mini Santa was running around too.


Merry Christmas!

Library Tree Lighting Ceremony, Part 1

Last Friday night was the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at our local library. This was Arin's THIRD year going... I can't believe it! I am going to try to find pics from when he was a baby and we went so I can make a comparison of all three times. The only bad part was that this year the fire truck that Santa arrives in LEFT before Arin had a chance to get on and play... that was pretty disappointing. Last year it stayed the whole time and the kids could get up in it and explore right until the end.


Here's the tree before Santa arrived to light it up! Arin keeps talking about how Santa 'lights up' trees now... he thought he would have to come into our living room and light up our tree for the first time too!


And there's the fire truck and Santa... the kids mobbed it immediately! When I was little Santa would throw out candy from the truck, but I guess now he just lights up the tree and goes inside for pictures. Arin was really excited to see Santa, he kept saying his name when he got out of the truck.


The line to wait to see Santa was loooooong and somehow we ended up in the back even though we were right near the door when the line started. We should have just seen the fire truck first instead of waiting! Next year.



After getting back from the hairdresser, Momo joined us! Julie showed up later on too.


Maybe she was trying to distract the crowd so we could get ahead ...


The Dance of the Christmas Lights.

Late Apple Picking

Sunset over Childhood