Happy Friday and happy
almost Christmas Break, y’all! We are
counting down the hours until noon when the babies get out of school for TWO
WHOLE WEEKS! I think I’m ready for a
break just about as much as they are.
We’ve been keeping busy, busy and today I’m recapping what we’ve been up
to these last couple of weeks!
Shoulda called this post
Twelve on Friday, though… sheesh!
O N E – Stopping to Enjoy the Fall Foliage
Sometimes you see a tree
with gorgeous leaves and you just have to stop and take a picture! A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I had
parked and were about to walk into Olivia’s dance studio for her Monday
ballet/tap lesson, and I couldn’t help but stop for a minute on the way in to
admire this beautiful tree. I let the
kids toss some leaves into the air for a couple of minutes, and it was nice for
all of us to take a quick breather and stop and enjoy something instead of
rushing straight in like we always do.
The kids also saw the little blow-up ballerina near the front door and
they requested a picture with it as well.
Sometimes you just have to
stop and smell the roses… or stop and admire the beautiful fall foliage and
Christmas ballerina blow-ups. ;o)
T W O – Fun Christmas Outfit Pictures
We took some time a couple
of weeks ago to take some cute pictures of the kiddos in festive Christmas
outfits! They are just so stinking cute,
I swear.
T H R E E – Visiting Santa at the Mall
We have been visiting Santa
at our local mall since Jacob was born, and this was our eighth year seeing
him. B and I discovered a few years ago
that if you go on a week day around 5 PM there’s never a wait, so that’s what
we’ve been doing ever since. Sure
enough, there was only one child in front of us so we only waited about two
minutes before it was our turn. There
was a new festive backdrop to take pictures in front of while we waited, too!
When it was their turn, both
kids marched right up and they got to spend more time with Santa than ever this
year because there was no one behind us in line! Jacob said that he asked for Nerf guns and
Hot Wheels track, and this time Olivia asked for… a real unicorn. Sigh.
I explained to her that Santa probably won’t bring a real unicorn because
we have no place to keep one and she said, “Yes we do, Mommy! We have a huge back yard!” She’s not wrong, y’all.
After the Santa visit, we
stopped by Victoria’s
Secret really quickly so that I could redeem a free panty coupon, and all the
while the kids were cracking up at the fact that I was buying underwear. Lol.
We had dinner at Chick-Fil-A
in the food court – something we’ve been doing every year after visiting Santa
– and then we let the kids ride the rides in the mall. This has been our tradition for several years
now and we always have a great time!
F O U R – Christmas Art
The kids always bring home
more artwork than usual this time of year, and Christmas art is always my
favorite. I loved this little Christmas
tree of Olivia’s so much I asked her if she wanted to take a picture with it. Of course she did. Haha.
F I V E – Girls’ Annual Scarf and Ornament Exchange
My girlfriends and I have
been doing a Dirty Santa scarf and ornament exchange for at least 10 or 12
years and we did this year’s last week.
As I’ve mentioned, our group of girlfriends is dwindling because so many
have moved away throughout the years, but those of us remaining still love to
carry on the tradition. We used to
always meet at someone’s house, but since our group is so tiny now, we save
ourselves the extra work and head to Bonefish.
Bonefish does have Winter White Cosmos this time of year, after
all. ;o)
After two rounds of those,
we ate a delicious dinner and then exchanged scarves and ornaments. I got a beautiful pink scarf (perfect for
me!) and the most adorable owl ornament.
It was a fun evening with my favorite girls… even if we did forget to
take the picture before my friend, April, left.
S I X – Mannheim
Steamroller
We took the kids to their
first official concert earlier this week – Mannheim Steamroller Christmas! They’ve been to plenty of casual outdoor free
concerts in our city, but we’ve never taken them to a concert at a venue
before. I was a bit worried because the
concert started at 7:30, which is late considering they go to bed at 8 PM on
school nights. I was thinking they might
get bored/tired/delirious, but they ended up loving every single second of
it!
They were pretty much the
only kids in the whole theater and we were in the fourth row, so if they had
misbehaved everyone would have seen it.
Haha. Fortunately they were both
little angels! They were so good that
several people went out of their way to tell us how wonderful they were on our
way out. It made me feel so good!
Jacob loved having the
program because he always knew which song was coming next, and each time he
would read the upcoming song to Brian.
Each time a song would finish, Olivia would clap and go, “Woooo!!!!” and
then she would lean over and ask me which song would be next. It was the funniest thing hearing her clap
and shout like that… she was just really caught up in the moment and it was the
dang sweetest thing ever. I will have
the fondest memories of that evening always.
The concert ended around
9:45 and the kids were both out like lights within about ten minutes on the
drive home.
S E V E N – Kids’ Christmas Program at School
The kids had their Christmas
program at school Tuesday night. This
was Olivia’s very first one at her new school and it was Jacob’s last one as
they only do the program for K4 through 2nd grade. So it’s the only year that they will ever be
in it together!
We got all dolled up – Jacob
had to wear church attire and Olivia had to wear all white since she was an
angel in the Nativity. Before we left,
we took a couple of our typical outfit pictures and she said, “Wait, let me do
a cute pose for you.” And then she posed
several different ways. Lol. This girl.
The Christmas program was in
our church and it started promptly at 6.
Olivia’s class lined up in the aisles and sang three songs, and then
Jacob’s class sang three songs at the front of the church. After all of the singing was done, Pre-K4 put
on the Nativity. Olivia was an angel…
much to her dismay. She was sad that she
couldn't be Mary… she wanted to hold baby Jesus.
Lol.
Both kids did a fantastic
job and all of their grandparents were there cheering them on, too! Afterward, we went out for a late evening
dinner to Panera with my parents and that concluded Jacob’s final Christmas
program.
E I G H T – Work Christmas Dinner
Some of my old coworkers and
I got together Wednesday night for a Christmas dinner at a local Mexican
restaurant. Several of us no longer work
for the company and several still do so we are all going in different
directions these days, but it was nice to have most of our old group back
together for one night!
N I N E – Jacob’s School Project
Jacob had his first big
school project this month. He had to
choose any Christmas book and pick a character from the book to make a body
mask (hole cut out where you put your head).
He chose Rudolph, so we spent the day working on it last weekend. I helped him sketch it in pencil and then he
did the rest, outlining in marker, coloring it in, and adding
embellishments. I think it turned out so
fantastic! He had to present it to the
class earlier this week and he said that he did a great job!
T E N – Polar Express PJ Day at School
The kids got to wear their
festive Christmas jammies to school this past Wednesday to have Polar Express
Day at school. They got to have hot
chocolate with marshmallows while they watched the movie. Jacob has been able to do this for the last
few years, but I think this is his last year since he’s growing up! He also told me that his class watched a
different movie this year instead of Polar Express.
E L E V E N – Pretty Pictures
Here are a few more pictures
that I’ve taken over the last couple of weeks… the Christmas season is coming
right along!
T W E L V E – And a Funny
Finally, I had to include
this meme because it’s extremely appropriate for this time of year, and OH SO
TRUE. Lol. I don’t know about y’all, but we have had
pretty much had an Amazon package (or two or three or four) on our doorstep
every single day for the last three weeks.
Even on Sundays. Haha. What in the world would we ever do without
the glory that is Amazon and their free two-day shipping with Sunday
delivery?!
Happy happy Christmas
weekend, y’all! It’s the most wonderful
weekend of the entire year! Soak up
every single second!
