Christmas Morning

Cole keeps asking me, "So what was my MAIN present this year?" I keep telling him it was this Powerwing scooter, but I guess it must not have made such a big impression on him. I think he'll see how cool it is though once we take it to the park. I knew we had to get Luke a car. There are two cars like this in nursery, and Luke constantly gets into fights over them. He has practically been living in this car since he opened it.
We seemed to have a theme this year among the gifts: Spongebob! My mom and dad got them a McDonald's drive thru. They love it and one night discovered that they could really get the full drive thru experience by using Luke's car. It was so fun to watch.

Jimmy's Christmas Eve

Well, this is at my parent's house as we're heading out to the car to drive to Jimmy's Christmas Eve party. Luke, along with the rest of the grandchildren, cannot pass by these jolly, dancing, singing snow men without stopping to dance a bit with them.


Luke goes right up to them and stomps his foot so they'll start moving.



Once we made it to the car, we drove to my uncle Jimmy's house. Every year my mom's side of the family has a big Christmas Eve party. For the last several years, it has been hosted by my mom's brother, Jimmy. His house was so beautifully decorated.



The food was so delicious. I love Jimmy's tradition of setting out a two pound box of Sees nuts and chews.




My favorite part of Christmas Eve is the music. Cole and Luke started the singing off with "Little Drummer Boy" (Cole did the singing, Luke did the drumming). My brother sang, some of the cousins sang, we all sang Christmas songs from the hymn book together, Jimmy sang "O Holy Night" which is always amazing, and my grandma and grandpa sang Silent Night, which is also a tradition. The singing was so fun and beautiful and I love how EVERYONE gets choked up mid-song and struggles to get out the words. That is what Christmas is all about.

One of the things I love

One of the things I love about Kindergarten is all of the arts and crafts that Cole brings home that become a colorful collage on the fridge.



His class made some beautiful things for the holidays including this votive made out of a baby food jar, stickers and salt.



When Cole was younger, I used to have to beg him to do crafts with me. I would say things like, "Please Cole, if you finish coloring this I'll give you a...". But the last couple years things have really turned around. He loves making things out of pipe cleaners and pom poms and glue and felt and...toilet paper rolls. He made our tree topper last year. He wanted to re-create his small stuffed polar bear that wears a purple scarf and hat. Now I ask you, how many people can say that they have a toilet paper roll on top of their tree?



Another toilet paper roll craft designed by Cole. It's a penguin that he decided would make a good pencil holder.



Here's a funny bird, and baby bird. I love the bird's string tail.



And a penguin ornament.

Raisins

Ever since Cole was little, every time a Sun-Maid Raisins commercial came on, he would say, "Mommy, that's you!", implying that I look like the girl, not the raisins. I definitely don't agree, and don't expect anyone else to, I just don't look anything like her. I guess to kids, just having the same hair color makes people look alike.
Anyway, now Luke joins in with Cole when this commercial comes on and so I get to hear my two little boys say each time, "That's you" and "dat you". It makes me laugh.

Vet

Cole's class had a vet come speak to them about her job. They each got to take home a plastic bag containing a pair of gloves, a mask, a tongue depressor, a bandage, and one of those head cover things. So tonight Cole wanted to have his own pet clinic. Thanks to his vast knowledge of animal care and animal medicine, he was able to help Mr. Turtle, Lickin' Lollipops, and CTR bear reach a full recovery.

His care included listening to heart beats, lung sounds, and grumbly tumblies with his stethoscope,




bandaging up cuts,




taking temperatures,




and administering breathing treatments via aerochamber.

It's not easy "seeing" green

Cole's class earned a small party by filling up the class bucket with good behavior drops. For the celebration, they had a Kindergarten Zoo where each child was to dress up as an animal. The kids all laughed and laughed when the teacher revealed her penguin costume.


Cole decided to be a frog which was wonderful for him because his favorite color is green. This brings up an interesting point though. Colors are all mixed up in his head due to some mild color blindness. Sometimes he gets them right, but he always has to ask which crayon is the right color when he does his homework. So after I had put the green make-up on Cole's face I showed him in the mirror and he asked, "Why didn't you make my whole face green?" All he could see were the two or three darker green dots. Though later he said he was starting to see the lighter green in the background.

Gumball machine

My mom bought Cole this funny little gumball machine. I just think this picture is so silly. You can't see the tupperware filled with Grandpa's loose change sitting next to him, but it just makes me think of the simple pleasures in life: a miniature gumball machine and a bunch of coins. Yes, this is bliss to a 5 year old.

My B-day

My sister Emily was so kind to watch the boys while me and Clay had some birthday fun. Clay was so sweet to take me to see this.


My review: LOVED IT!!! I had heard both good and bad about this movie but I knew I would love it and I did! Oh I loved all the characters; the wolf pack, the Volturi, Alice, and Jessica was even pretty funny. Go see New Moon!

Aside from the movie, that morning I finished up part 1 of a project I'm working on. I'm trying to make a sort-of scrapbook kind of thing about my grandpa (my mom's dad.) I want it to have pictures of him, but it will mostly be his stories. So on my birthday, I was able to finish interviewing him and video recording him telling his history, advice for posterity, testimony, etc. He is amazing and the stories he shared with me are golden. I'm thrilled about it.

Later on, Clay and I also enjoyed shopping, trying on fancy formal dresses (well, just me) and going out to dinner. Oh my goodness, I ate way too much at dinner. I felt so stuffed and it was so freezing outside that we put off doing more shopping to just sit in the car with the heater on for a while. I only mention this because it was so wonderful--laying in the reclined passenger seat, heat on, just talking to Clay, having his undivided attention. It was lovely. I had a great birthday.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Clay's parents. Suzanne prepared a beautiful feast for everyone and we helped a little with side dishes. It was all so delicious!


And here is the lovely couple, Mark and Corrine. It was nice to see them and get to know Corrine better. She is wonderful and obviously head-over-heals in-love. Mark and Corrine will be getting married in Feb. We are very excited to have her as a sister soon!


Luke had his own private feast a couple hours later after he woke up from his nap.