Santa Claus is Coming to Town

You better watch out,
You better not cry,
Better not pout,

I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town.

He's making a list,

And checking it twice;

Gonna find out,
Who's naughty and nice.

He sees you when you're sleeping.

He knows when you're awake.

He knows if you've been bad or good,

So be good for goodness sake!

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!  Looking forward to seeing many soon.

Cameras, Lights, Action!

One of the most fun parts of preschool performances is checking out the audience of adults.  The number of people filming, snapping pictures and competing to get the best view is almost comical.  However, I am one of those adults now and did luck out with scoring the second row for the boys' daycare Winter Concert.  Too bad my camera can't compete with the others though!

This is the best photo I was able to take of Handi's performance and I ended up deleting all of Bear's.

Gotta love the costuming for The Reindeer Pokey.  "You put your tail in, you put your tail out... and you shake it all about."

Our godson's class sang a modified Bingo song to S-A-N-T-A.  He is below holding the "N".

I think the organizing of the 2 year olds on stage, getting the sequence of the letters and a relative line, took longer than the song.  They were all so cute though.  The teachers really do a great job putting on the performance - and rehearsing.  Now, whenever Abera hears Jingle Bells he points excitedly to the radio and sings his lines, which consisted of "Hey", "Way", "Ha Ha Ha" and "Yeah!"

Later the same week Mehandis's 4K class put on a performance during his elementary school's Winter Sing.

As you might be able to infer, Rudolph was one of the songs!

I think the secret to keeping 4 & 5 year olds still is to stand them on a stage or risers :)

"Connecting" via cabinets, cuddles and cookies

Who knew that a narrow cabinet with a broken out shelf could bring so much joy?

Where there is a will there is a way with my two...

And two DO fit in this tiny space.

Maybe not as comfy as they do in Bera's crib though.

My good friend Dara and her little Lou swung by for morning coffee and conversation.  Mehandis and Abera are some of the few boys she encounters in her circle of friends/cousins.  Looks like she thinks they run at a bit of a different speed.

Didn't stop my boys from cuddling up and celebrating the time with her.  Lou gave lots of smiles for the toys they shared and a good one for me too!

The next day brought about 10 friends and at least 30 dozen cookies.  You have to get creative with cookie cooling rack placement when baking in mass.  The angel appears to be longing for a taste.

As always, we had moments of panic when recipes didn't seem to be turning out as expected (or a batch of cookies is forgotten in the oven) but the fun and laughter won out. 

Or maybe our friends and families were the winners with the huge assortment of cookies they had taken to them.  Some real beauties...

It is amazing what an appetite (and thirst) one works up when baking over several hours!

Our Thanksgiving Stay-Cation

The flu hit our family last week... the kind that you REALLY don't want to catch.  Our friends and families really wouldn't have wanted us to join them in celebrating Thanksgiving.  Cancellations were sent out on Wednesday... and a frozen turkey purchased on the way home from work.  A revised plan was quickly created and implemented!

The boys and I were awfully disappointed that we had to cancel our plan of gathering with friends at our annual pre-Thanksgiving celebration.  To compensate I told them we would have a pajama party at our place.  A propped up projector and couple pairs of PJ's later - a party was born.

I was hoping to find Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving on Hulu, but the only kid related turkey day show was Casper the Friendly Ghost.  It guest starred a turkey named "Timothy" whom they were trying to prevent being made into Thanksgiving dinner.  I think we have now created a vegetarian... he asked about Timothy when we were carving up our bird.

Thursday morning Michael was feeling much better.  He whipped up a coffee cake and I gathered our picnic supplies so we could enjoy a (chilly) breakfast at Lapham Peak.  At least the coffee and hot chocolate helped warm us a bit!

After fueling up we were off for a hike.

We have some great little hikers.  Mehandis was on the look out for "clues" and Abera loved his ride in the carrier.  Of course, they both celebrated the chance to run in the wide open spaces whenever they got the chance.  Thinking they are pretty well qualified for both sprints and cross country. 

We stopped a couple of strangers to see if we could catch a Christmas card photo.  This isn't the winner... but we did have success. 

Our little photographer captures the rest of the family, at hikes end.



Happy that the kids are still HEALTHY!  Thankful for a helpful, healthy husband too ;)

Promptly upon returning home I needed to start my first homemade pumpkin pie... cause the turkey needed to get its turn in the oven!  Both turned out to be delicious.  My favorite part of the meal was definitely the pie.  I am thinking that Michael enjoyed the turkey best, or at least he ate 90% of it.  Mehandis LOVED "Grandma's" fruit salad - who wouldn't with marshmallows, pudding and fruit.  Abera rocked out on the cranberry sauce... who would have thought?

A cozy feast for four...

The following 5 photos are Mehandis's view of our family's Thanksgiving fun.  Including his favorite little Packer, the carving of "Timothy", my off-limits soda, some newly hung art, and a recently used up stapler.

Lots of smiles to share :)

And they continued through the next day, especially when Mehandis realized it was finally time start thinking about the next holiday... Christmas! 

 He started the morning in his Santa hat.

Then joined his brother and father in making donuts.  Decorating them with the Christmas themed sprinkles was the icing on the cake, or should I say donut?

Our time together at home turned out to be a pretty awesome Plan B.

Full of variety!

All Types of Costumes (for Uncle Gregg!)

This post is for you Uncle Gregg!  I know I am a bit delayed in getting our Halloween pics up but at least we aren't yet onto the next holiday. 

Here are the costume photos that were requested.  Recognize anyone?

There were more friends that joined the group as the night went on... but the group was harder to corral as the candy was further consumed.

I got creative with an old bridesmaid dress to craft up a "Queen B" costume.  Some of the trick-or-treaters had awfully creative guesses as to what I was dressed as ;)

And now we transition into Thanksgiving/Christmas...

Handi is shown above, at the downtown Christmas parade, given a high five to a local celebrity.  It is Chorizo of the famous racing sausages.

We saw sausages, hot dogs (Weinermobile), Star Wars characters, Jelly Belly mascot and Disney princesses.  Not exactly the perfect tie-in to Christmas or Thanksgiving... but proud that Mehandis shouted out "The Bible Mama" when he saw the 3 Wise Men on camels.  Guess I am a pretty decent Sunday School teacher after all.

Old Mr. Bulitz had a Farm... E, I, E, I, O

And on his farm we saw some very cute and happy kids...

E, I, E, I, O

With a run around here,

And a pet a pot belly pig there. Here's a pig, there's a Handi, everywhere animals and happy families.

Old Mr. Bulitz had a farm.  E, I, E, I, O!

Old Mr. Bulitz drove the hay ride... E, I, E, I, O.

And on his hayride we should have brought sunglasses.... E, I, E, I, O.

With a worried Bear here...

And a silly Bear there.

Here's a pumpkin,

There's a pumpkin.

Everyone picked some pumpkins!

Old Mr. Bulitz had a pumkin patch.  E, I, E, I, O!

Old Mr. Bulitz had some rides... E, I, E, I, O.

And on one ride rode Abera and Emily... E, I, E, I, O!

With a wagon here,

And some ponies there.

Here's a proud mama.

There's a thrilled Handi. Everyone's on a pony!

Old Mr. Bulitz farm was AWESOME.  E, I, E, I, O!!!