Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monday, December 10, 2012

Visit with Santa

Tonight we took Michael and Katie to see Santa at the mall.  When we arrived there, we realized that we had once again gone on "pet night".  Every Monday night in December until Christmas, you are allowed to bring your pet to the mall so that he or she can visit with Santa.  Some of these pets are dressed better than the kids there!  One good thing about going on pet night is that the pets don't take nearly as long to tell Santa what they want.  We were about the 8th or 9th customer in line but I think Michael and Katie were the first kids to see Santa that night.  We usually try to get there right when Santa gets back from dinner to minimize the wait.

This year was the first year that both kids were excited to see Santa.  They couldn't wait to tell him what they wanted.  Michael's list had 4 things and Katie asked for 3 things.  The picture wasn't the best but we are going more for the experience of seeing Santa. 



After we left, Katie said that she forgot to tell Santa that she would like some girl Legos too.  I asked Michael what he wanted to get Katie for Christmas later that night.  He told me girl Legos since Katie forgot to ask for those from Santa but he still wanted her to have them.  Wasn't that sweet?

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Gingerbread House

Katie brings home many pieces of artwork from school.  Yesterday she brought home a gingerbread house.  The "house" itself was a box covered in brown construction paper.  I thought that was an easy way to make the structure without having to bake a lot of gingerbread.  They used icing and candy to decorate the rest of the house.  That made it much less involved, which I think is key when dealing with 3 and 4 year olds.




Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Even More Decorating


After Christmas last year, my mom brought us some mini artificial trees and wreaths.  I kept them in a bag all year and took them out over the weekend.  Todd had the great idea of each kid decorating a tree to put in their room.  I went to the Dollar Store earlier this week and got some ornaments and garland that were just the right size for the tree.  I wrapped the trees with red bell garland to start.  Katie and Michael put the ornaments on the trees and picked out a place to put them in their rooms.  They turned out really cute!


Sunday, December 2, 2012

More Decorating

Michael brought home a Christmas tree poster to decorate to bring back to school this week.  This was a family project in which we all participated in.  His teacher wanted us to decorate the tree creatively.  I gathered several different things around the house to use on the tree.  I found stickers, cotton balls, marshmallows, foam decorations, and Christmas ribbon for wrapping presents.  Michael, Todd and Katie all colored the tree and base before putting the decorations on while I took some pictures.  We all had fun doing this together and the finished product looked pretty awesome!



Finished product

She finally smiles!