Christmas Countdown

The kids all have been excitedly counting down to Christmas for about a month now, marking the days off the dry erase calendar that hangs in our kitchen and working their way through a wooden Advent calendar over the mantel.  As AJ eyed the calendar today he said "Hey!  Christmas is only four days away!  I think it's time to throw away all of the good food to make room for more junk food--cookies, candies, ice cream, cake!"  Not sure exactly where he got the idea that Christmas is a big junk food fest.  Based on the level of adrenaline running through the house this time of year, I am certain that the last thing my kids need is more sugar!

Lunchtime Conversation

This blog is the place where I am recording some of the little things the kids say that I want to share with them when they are older.  At lunch today, AJ announced to the table that there are only two shopping days left until Christmas.  As I was trying to figure out where he had heard that one (at school?  in an ad before a Youtube clip of Transformers?), AJ leaned over and whispered to me that we still need to get daddy a Christmas gift and he thought daddy would like a Bears hat and a Bears jersey because that is daddy's favorite team.  I whispered back "Good idea!  Let's talk more about that later.  Remember, gifts are a secret!" Not two seconds later, the boy who must drink truth serum with his morning OJ announced loudly "Daddy, I want to get you a Bears hat and a Bears jersey for Christmas because the Bears are your favorite team!  I like the Dallas Cowboys."   David promptly chimed in with "I like Batman!" and Julia, without missing a beat said "I like Elmo!" and grinned as she looked around the table, proud of her contribution to the conversation.  I groaned and said "AJ, remember how you are supposed to keep gifts a secret?!"  It was a step forward for our family, though--rather than parallel talking where one kid blurts out their thoughts and the next blurts out something unrelated, everyone's comments here were at least relatively on point.

We Braved the Mall

Somewhere around the time I had kids, I decided I was done with the mall at the holidays.  Just the parking alone was enough to send me over the edge, and once I wrangled a kid or three through the crowds, it just wasn't fun.  For the last three or four years, I have done nearly 100 percent of my holiday shopping online.  It creates a big stack of boxes to deal with and the returns are a bit of a pain, but other than that, I think it is great.

So when AJ started talking about going to see Santa back at the end of November, I cringed.  A session on Santa's lap is one of the few things I cannot get on Amazon.  The only place I know of where the guy reliably appears this time of year with time to listen to kids' wish lists is at the mall.  I didn't say anything about it again to him, but when we started putting holiday plans on the December calendar on the dry-erase board we keep in our kitchen, AJ kept bringing it up and was so excited about it that I decided I needed to get over myself and brave the mall.  And what better time than mid-afternoon on a Sunday three weeks before Christmas?  It happened to have dropped 30 degrees here this weekend making it a winter hat/coat/gloves required event, which only adds to the hassle.  We made it through all of that to the end of a line that stretched outside the Santaland only to have AJ proclaim he needed to use the bathroom.  I was by myself with the kids so we left our place in line and returned 15 minutes later to find the line longer than it had been before.  But we survived it all and even managed to get this picture to show for it.

AJ and David insisted on submitting a joint request to Santa claiming that they "will share everything!" and asked for a Transformer Bruticus, a cookie ("that we will split in half!") and an ipad that they don't have to share with mommy and daddy.  I keep telling them that Santa only brings toys, not computers, but this doesn't seem to be getting through.  Julia only wanted to ask Santa for one thing--trains!  I love that she has big brothers to inspire her play.

My favorite part of waiting in line (if there is such a thing) was when AJ asked me if Santa was God's other son.  I love how the mind works at this age and how it reminds me that things which appear obvious to us as adults have to be figured out by kids with their quirky and fascinating minds.

The Play-Doh King

A certain someone has been enamored with play doh lately.  I have to admit that I truly don't mind spending an hour doing things like this.