Here comes Santa Claus

I'm pretty proud that we made it to see Santa downtown the first week of December. Usually, it's a oh-shoot-we-haven't-gotten-Santa-pics-yet kind of a thing.

Not too bad, I'd say. I mean Landry is looking down but what are you gonna do with a 15 month old, right? While she did fuss, it wasn't one of those screaming kid Santa pictures. I'll take it!

Looks like Landry loves candy as much as her mama does.

This is the first year that Campbell went right to Santa. Usually he's got a death grip on one of us.

 Probably because he knows that he better be sweet with all that naughty stuff he's been up to. No one can resist Campbell's big blue eyes and cute hugs. He's a quick learner.

I love downtown Fort Worth so much and especially at Christmas time. I know it's not NYC but our downtown turns into something so magical and heart-warming during Christmas time. It's like those little snow villages that you watch with wonder when you're a little kid.

Minus the snow. In fact, my poor children were sweating as we saw Santa on a 80 degree day. Sigh. One can dream of a white Christmas, right?

This picture on the left is my new favorite of my trio. Do you know how incredibly hard it is to photograph all three looking at the camera?

I made these shirts for the boys last year and I was so happy to see that they fit for one more year!

Many many years ago, I was an assistant buyer at Pier 1. They do an amazing light display and we took the kids to go see it. They love it every year.

Love our Santa pictures every year. I keep an album of each kid with Santa. Love this tradition and I hope my kids keep being good sports about it.

Christmas smorgasbord

I'm about to give you a full dose of our Christmas month of celebration...better known as Christmas smorgasbord. You know, kind of like when you have the most random meal ever known to man with leftover mashed potatoes, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup so that you can go one more night without cooking. Yea, just like that.

In an effort to not post Christmas pictures until February, I'm giving you a glutinous portion whether you're ready for it or not. Hope you've got elastic pants on and that you're in a Christmas mood because there's not room for any "Grinchiness" over here. Because when it comes to Christmas, we go full throttle.

We trimmed our tree Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, it took two days. But I'm pretty proud of the fact that it ONLY took two days. With the amount of Christmas we put out, hearing "I'm hungry" every couple of hours and nursing the baby every 3 hours, I'd say that's pretty darn good.

  I gotta say, Landry looks like she's gotta fit right in lovin' her some Christmas.

And I can't believe that the tree has been left alone this year. Well, I take that back. Nolan makes ornaments almost daily (out of the most random materials). I'm proud to say I'm embracing the fact that our tree isn't "showroom" ready but it's definitely a showroom of our children.

I absolutely love the movie Elf. I'm not sure if my favorite part of this picture is the fact that they're captivated watching Elf or that they're snuggling while they're watching it.

Next year, I have a feeling a certain Miss is going to have her hands all over that tree. And in case you're wondering how many ornaments a baby needs to commemorate her first Christmas....we're at three and still counting.

The house and tree weren't the only things decorated around here. Nope, Landry was equally trimmed. I'm pretty sure she has an outfit for the 12 days of Christmas. 

 ****

We've had a lot of fun with Pickles, our elf. I see all these posts on Facebook and Pinterest with all these elaborate mischievous things that others have their elves up to. We hardly have time to move the darn thing. One night we even forgot and had to do some major covering. And, my boys are mischievous enough as it is...I don't need to be giving them any ideas. 

The elf is great but not as great as the big man in the red suit downtown. This was our second attempt to see him after seeing a line that was way too long and in the bitter cold. 

Waiting really was half the fun. I think the kids thought they were in Candyland.

 I'm so glad we waited. He beats any mall Santa any day. 

Although, Cam looked like he could have waited a little bit longer...

 

My favorite part of this picture is that Campbell is surely thinking, "I got my eye on you, Santa."

 

Landry was such a trooper even though she could hardly see with her little crocheted hat. The things we put our kids through for the cuteness factor.

Grandma and Granddad joined in on the Santa fun and like always, we discover it's a good thing that they're coming for backup until we keep working on fine tuning our zone defense now that we're outnumbered.

 Santa visit...check!

 

You know Santa has a lot on his plate and so we decided we better write him a letter just to make sure that he knew what the boys wanted. (And we had to get this down on paper...Christmas lists were changing way too much for this mama trying to get shopping done). 

Yeah, my baby is reading. We grow geniuses in our family.

And we definitely grow sweet big brothers...well to their sister, at least.

 

I'm amazed at Nolan's ability to write nearly all of his letter. He has come so far from last year. We only had to help him with a few words but he was deep in thought over that list. We have the boys narrow it down to three things because the wise men brought Jesus three gifts and he has so many other children to deliver to. The rest will be up to us or the grandparents. 

 

Campbell was able to draw what he wanted with a little help from his artistic older brother. 

 

Pickles was watching the whole time from an ornament in the tree. So it was really convenient that he could just take the letters with him to the North Pole on his way.

But my favorite moment after all the craziness of seeing Santa, wrapping presents, and shopping are the sweet moments like this that no present can even compare.

I sometimes feel that all this "Santa is watching you" and accidentally touching the elf that causes a meltdown about his magic being gone might land my kids in therapy. I really hope not. I want my kids to look back at Christmas knowing the true reason we celebrate it, that giving is better than receiving and that their mama loved her some Christmas and did her best to make sure that memories were made.

Polar Express

There's something about this time of year that makes me just want to wrap my arms around my boys, grab a blanket, climb in bed and watch Christmas movies. The more sentimental the movie, the better and the tighter my snuggles get. Snuggles, or as I refer to them with Nolan...Nolie 'nuggles and with Campbell they're lovingly called Cam Cam cuddles or whatever made up language that comes out of my mouth for that day.

We went to go to the Omni IMAX theater to watch The Polar Express a couple of weeks ago. Nervous is an understatement of my emotions considering that Nolan is still getting over his traumatic 3D theater experience from this summer and Campbell had never been the movies. I did love that we just got to throw on jammies to watch the movie.

Even Dynamo the Dinosaur was all dressed up in his jammies. Now the overall theme for Campbell this particular day was UNCOOPERATIVE. The pictures will tell the story.


Before the movie started they were giving out hot cocoa. It was a first experience for both boys.


How picturesque, right? Sipping cocoa in their jammies about to experience the Polar Express. Well before you think that these outings are perfect for scrapbooking, what you don't see is right after this sip is right when Nolan spit the hot cocoa out the second he drank it all over his jammies.  "Now it's hot, so let it cool," might as well have been, "Hurry drink it really fast and make a big ol' mess on the floor." I guess you could say it got lost in translation.

 

Once we dealt with chocolatey jammies and spills, it really was quite a cute sight.


We got settled in our seats quickly and the panic started to set in with Nolan. The first 15 minutes were pretty scary for him but soon he was so much into the movie that he forgot his fears. It was an hour and a half of snuggles. I was in heaven. It was the only time Campbell was actually cooperative that day.

Grandma and Granddad came along. My mom is the biggest Polar Express fan there is known to man. This has got to be one of the worst photos ever of my children but it so perfectly demonstrates Campbell's uncooperative attitude that I had to include it.

After meeting my sister and nieces for lunch we just happened to see Santa in the parking lot. They had a live reindeer. It wasn't so much Santa we wanted to see but the boys flipped when we saw the reindeer.

Since this is the fourth Santa we've seen in two weeks, I know Nolan must be thinking, "Ok, dude seriously you already know what I want!" But he made sure to tell him exactly what he wanted again. Santa does have a lot of children to remember after all.

The boys absolutely loved Prancer and were wondering where Rudolph was.

Another picturesque moment, right? About one minute after this was taken Campbell ran in a sprint headed straight for a very busy street. I did my best Olympic run after him and let me just tell you, I don't run unless I'm chased. We don't spank very often but this one was definitely justified since it was so dangerous. Yes, I was totally THAT parent that spanked my child in front of everyone. That's when I knew the party was definitely over. We did our walk of shame to the car, packed up and headed home.

Awww, the holidays. Gotta love them.

Next on the agenda..painting. We started painted what seems like a month ago. Justin thought it would be fun to have a little fun with the paint. Nothing that says let's have a Christmas party and company over to our home like a little graffiti on the walls.

At least there's no doubt on who lives here and where you can find our elf, Pickles. 

Portable North Pole

If you have a child that really is into Santa or even if they're not, then you really need to check out the Portable North Pole. It proves that Santa knows everything about each boy and girl. He has a book to prove it with some very important information including pictures of them and milestones that they experienced over the year.

Our boys were completely mesmerized when they were able to watch their videos and they want to watch it everyday, multiple times a day! Here's Nolan's message from Santa.

Santa must know that my toddler can't pay attention as long so he's personalized message is shorter and was just the right length. Here's the video for Campbell.

And here's the boys' reactions when they watched for the first time.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The boys make Christmas that much more special seeing it through their eyes. I love living vicariously through them.

Phone call to Santa

Behavior this time of year seems to be its best. With our Elf on the Shelf, Pickles, and knowing that I have Santa on speed dial. I can pretty much get what I want with a quick conversation to Pickles and just acting like I'm going to call Santa. That usually does the trick.

Over Thanksgiving break, I decided that we were going to do potty training boot camp or as Campbell calls it, "Boop camp." I can't believe that I got him trained in three days. Never in a million years would I have believed it after every hair pulling moment I went through to potty train Nolan.

There were accidents... A LOT the first day and I even wondered if it was too soon but by day four we were accident free. We've had random accidents here and there but overall, it's been a very quick and easy transition.

So in an effort to not always use Santa as a threat, I called Santa so Campbell could brag for once. Granddad, um I mean "Santa," was great and for once I actually caught it on film. Gosh, I love this kid.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Santa Claus is coming to town

It's been a yearly tradition that we go downtown and see Santa in front of the Christmas tree that blends in with the skyscrapers. The lights bounce off the glass of the buildings and it may not be Rockefeller Plaza, but it absolutely will make you take a long glance and admire its beauty. It definitely beats waiting hours in a mall.

And so far to date, this Santa is as real as it comes both in physical appearance and his spirit. The anticipation of waiting in line is hard to contain. We practiced what we were going to tell Santa and I was a little nervous about how Campbell was going to act this year.



Nolan is a pro at this by now. He and Santa are pretty much BFFs. I mean the kid wants to be his elf. I'd say he's his #1 fan.

I love how Santa really takes his time to listen to the kids. Nolan asked him what his favorite cookies are for Christmas Eve. Just in case you want to get it right, they're sugar cookies, of course!

 

Campbell was awesome. At first he wanted to sit on my lap but by the time it was time to say good-bye, Santa got some love. I think it was just jitters from being in the presence of such a celebrity. Either that or he was a little ashamed that Santa knew about his rough morning at school.

And here's the one that goes in the scrapbook.

What you may or may not know about me is that I worked at Pier 1 Imports corporate office for six years as an assistant buyer right after college. On our way out of town we discovered that Pier 1 decorated their landscaping into a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful and definitely stopped traffic.

 
How much does our family love Christmas and its magic? This much...

Visiting Santa and looking at Christmas lights...check!