Kitchen Envy

Probably the biggest present Bobo got this year was a giant and awesome play kitchen that inspires real kitchen envy from me.  It's so nice and pretty and I very much want a mommy version!  He didn't open it on Christmas day, so he had a while in between presents to sort of extend Christmas out a bit.  Plus, this thing required a lot of set-up.  You can see that from the two separate boxes!  Which Bobo loved playing in, of course... Finally with Grampy's help it got set up, and is now sitting in our living room taking up about half of it.

Santa's Lap

 Friday was our library's annual Christmas Tree Lighting, and of course Santa was there to do the honors and then ask all the little munchkins what they wanted.  Bobo was sitting on him so nicely with his hands folded so sweet, and ventured to ask for Thomas trains and a Mickey Mouse toy.  He was so well-behaved and looked adorable, so cute that a lady from the newspaper had to write down his name because she was sure the picture she took of him 'was a keeper'.  I'll be checking tomorrow to see if he's in there of course!

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?

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.

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!!

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.

Christmas Picture

Well, the only Santa Arin's seen was last year and this year at the Library. There are a lot more up on facebook. It was a fun night, involving a real firetruck that Arin got to get up and play in, and the biggest Christmas tree ever lit up all pretty! Lots of fun for the little guy (and me, hee hee!)

Nothing fancy, but here he is:



The past few days when I've had spare moments they have been spent cleaning up baby barf or barfing myself. Oh, and we lost power for a day in that horrible ice storm. Our lines our still ripped off our house and in the driveway. Yey for safety, thanks National Grid for fixing it so promptly! Let me tell you, having to yak over and over again in a 20 degree bathroom is less than fun, in case you were wondering.