Kick-off to Christmas

After our visit to the Saco Museum- Alec was sent to his room for a little while to have some quiet time to reflect upon his wild behavior at the Festival of Lights.  He did relax and settled down a bit – I am not sure if he was plotting and planning on how to get me back the next time we are in public or if he just rested but he came out of his room much nicer then he went in.

Now under control (Alec and I)we drove down to see the Todd girls to deliver their gifts. I suspect the lovely ladies enjoyed their homemade picture frames…I also think they liked the books we gave them too! We delivered a plate full of cookies too. Sharing the calorie wealth. :) The Todd family gave Alec a personalized Scooby Doo book.  He was pumped! He started running around the room screaming Scooby Doo!  I think he might have just liked it a little. Just a little.

We got the kiddos together in front of the tree for a Christmas picture:

And then…when he could contain himself no longer…..

And the little ladies joined in.

If nothing else….Christmas should be fun!  Right?

A little ciaos never hurt either.

We all went to dinner when the men came home from work. 50 million trips to the bathroom for Carrie and Erik(awesome to have children of the opposite sex!), warm meals for Todd dad and I since we were not trudging back and forth to the bathroom, children playing patiently under the table (lord knows what they were doing under there..but they were quiet!) while we finished our meals – and lots of laughs.

It was a great kick-off to the start of the holiday weekend.

Festival of Trees

A few days before Christmas Courtney, Donna (Nana) and I took the boys to see the Festival of Lights at the Saco Museum.  The trees are decorated by local folks and establishments and then auctioned off to raise money for the museum.  Courtesy of some donor, the admission to the museum was free. Donations are welcome of course.

Now, each boy on their own would be very well behaved in this setting but together?  A little wild. Especially because they had just been reunited the night before.  I would hate to say mine was the instigator but I am afraid it is true. A little wound up and on the wild side. And always in motion. Yikes.

 

Clearly…well behaved. :) At least nothing was broken…well…not in this room anyway.

There were trees decorated in all the rooms so we went upstairs to check out the children’s room.  As luck would have it (and the very moment they stopped fooling around) Alec walked past the tree and an ornament fell off and broke. We (Alec and I)carried it downstairs and explained what happened and they were very nice and comforting. Told us not to worry –it happens- of course it was the first time it had happened this year yet. (Really….I didn’t need to know that)

And then we left….phew!

A little too stressful for this momma.

Merry Christmas!

I hope the reindeer dust brought Santa to your house for a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Program

Alec had his Christmas program on Thursday afternoon.  All these kids with their little props and their little voices singing just melted my heart. I think I spent half the time fighting back the tears. Not because he is growing older, not because I was a proud momma but because it was just so darn cute.

But before I get to the program – lets talk about Alec’s new hair cut.  I took him on Monday for a little trim before all the holiday pictures. The lady asked him if he was ready and he said yes but please don’t push his hair to the side- he doesn’t want to look like a girl.  She asked if I wanted the bowl cut still and I said yes…and then Alec said no. At the same time. Hmmm. So she ignored me politely and catered to her client.  :) She went to get the book and had Alec pick out the picture he wanted to look like.  I was not consulted. Didn’t she know who was paying the bill?  :)  Alec picked something short all around with a spike in the front top.  And away all the hair fell from his head.  His attitude went from  sweet innocent 4 yr old with a bowl cut to a punkish 4.5 year old with every hair that fell away from his head.  He can sport this hair-cut better than I would like.

I miss the bowl cut.

But he loves his new ‘do.

Which means …yes – I do really understand it is not about me.  :)

And here are some shots from the program:

Erik took video the kids singing – maybe one of these days I will put it up.

So stinkin’ cute!

A child decorated tree

This is the first year we have used our $1.99 tree. Erik’s mom bought it for us after Christmas one year (Macy’s of course)-it was 90% off.  The bag we bought to store it in was more than the tree. We’ve had it for a few years but I haven’t been able to give up the real tree deal.  This year it just seemed easier to walk into the basement –carry it upstairs, plug it in and call it good. I might almost be convinced to keep doing this in the future but it is pre-lit and I really prefer white lights to color lights.

Alec pretty much decorated the entire tree himself.

We did not fix or rearrange any of the ornaments.

Just left them as they are.

It’s better that way.

It’s a child decorated tree. :)

Aquarium

We drove to Boston to go the aquarium on Sunday. It was awesome to get out of town and away from the holiday hub-bub for a while.  We were getting a little sick of the frantic pace of pre-holiday festivities and so it was nice to remove Alec from all of it too and watch him engage with his love of nature.

We brought Heather and Marshall along with us on this adventure. It’s always nice to have some company on our family adventures. Marshall is the most mild mannered baby I have ever met. Wow. He was such a good boy all day. Alec was not quite like that when he was that age. Not.at.all.

And Heather? She was pretty good too…. for a weirdo (inside joke).

She was kind enough to allow Alec to borrow her sunglasses. Mostly so he would stop talking and watch the movie. He talks a lot.

It was fricken’ cold.

We stopped for some munchies in Quincy Market before visiting the ‘fish museum’. We stopped after too!

We got lucky at the aquarium –it was not crowded and we had plenty of space to check out everything we wanted.

Whoa….jellies…

Marshall and the puffer fish checking each other out.

It was a great (and tiring) day.

Alec and his elf

Alec and his elf (me) have been busy making presents for his friends..

there is the spelling of names and choosing decorations and then applying said decorations…..

then picking out the favorite picture for each frame…

this elf tried VERY hard not to be a control freak over the pictures he chose…

it was difficult.

But I think he did a pretty good job.

Next up were the cookies to be delivered with the frames.

We are having a pretty good time making presents but convincing Alec that making things is better than buying things for his friends is a little tough going.

He remains unconvinced in our abilities.

“Maybe we should just buy them books mom. They might like that better or Legos. I am sure they would like Legos mom.”

Oh he of little faith.