We're almost there. Almost decorated for Christmas. Almost ready to wrap some presents. Almost ready to send some Christmas cards. Almost ready to make a snack for the neighborhood Christmas party Monday night. Almost done painting the new guest room. Almost ready to maybe look at Santa this year.... Or maybe not.
Dexter is almost diving for his starts for swim team. Almost. Even with jumping in, he still rocked his 25 yard freestyle swim, in like 25.6 seconds. A full five seconds faster than he swam last time. I was taping it and had to look away from the camera and check to be sure I was taping the right kid. He shaved a couple seconds off his back stroke time, as well. And he swam the 50 yard freestyle, too, for the first time. He got super tired, but he finished. Well done, Dex. We enjoyed watching you swim.
Dex with his Cuda Buddy, Mike, making posters on Friday night. Dexter's says "Swim Fast Like a Rocket"
I have almost figured out how to use my new smart phone. At least to call and send text messages. Anything else, I am useless. Like last night, when I wanted to video Dexter using my phone. Ummmmm. Fortunately John was there.
I am almost sick of the musical Christmas Carousel, and it's only been up and running for about 20 minutes.
Almost every surface of our house is covered with some sort of note to Santa, courtesy of Dexter. Hope Santa has lots of time at our house - he has lots to read.
Almost the only thing Erin has played with in the last 24 hours is her Flower Power kitty she got at breakfast with Santa yesterday. She says she got it "because she sat next to Santa." Which - yeah. You didn't really sit next to him, kiddo. But ok. You did ALMOST look at him.
We almost decorated the Christmas tree without breaking any ornaments. It might have gone better if Erin had used TWO hands to hold her ornaments, instead of one hand for a cookie and one hand for an ornament.
Dexter is almost tall enough to put his angel at the top of the tree. Give him another year and I think he will be able to. Erin was delighted that she made an angel at school, too. So now we have two angels at the top of the tree, next to our Christmas star. This has prompted many a discussion with Dexter about angels and why they are part of the Christmas story. He said he needs lots of books about Jesus, because apparently my limited knowledge is not enough to be helpful.
We almost have room for people to walk in the living room. Almost. Just give us one more Christmas train (we've currently got three) and there will be no room for a tree next year.
ALMOST time for Christmas. Almost. Now we're off to the park. In our tee shirts. Because it's 70 degrees. Almost feels like Christmas. Or not.
We enjoy our nice quiet four day Thanksgiving weekend around here. We cook. We get rid of some leaves. We do some house projects. We do some on-line shopping. We stay in our PJ's all day. We hang out with each other and relax and play and really just enjoy having some time together. We had a nice Thanksgiving weekend.
We discussed things we're thankful for. Dexter is thankful for Daddy, and also for space ships. Erin is thankful for her entire family, Buddy included. I am mostly thankful for chocolate and pumpkin pie. And olives. And I can't remember what Daddy is thankful for. Me, I am sure... Dexter did discuss what he is NOT thankful for - namely, Erin crying and generally being a big old pain in the butt sometimes. Which, me, too. Me, too, Dex.
The kids had cranberry sauce and olives and pickles for dinner. And pie. Lots of pie. We decided that next year we should skip the turkey entirely and just make sides. We warmed up mashed potatoes in the crock pot, made stuffing on the stove, and made corn bread in the morning. Oh, and gravy from a jar. So we didn't have the last 30 minute mad cramming of stuff in to the oven. I just tossed the green bean casserole in after the turkey came out. I made chocolate pie on Tuesday night, and pumpkin pie on Wednesday afternoon with the help of the kids (awesome at licking beaters and eating brown sugar, those two). John made potatoes Wed night while I was sleeping, as I went to bed at 7:30. So Thursday was good. The kids never left their PJ's - they played outside in them after dinner, with no coats, because the weather was so perfect.
Friday I took the kids to Longwood to take some Christmas pictures for our family calendar. It was us and about half the population of the world, I think. That place is too crowded this time of year for my taste. Saturday I went in to Newark to ride some bikes (and buy one! Should be here Wednesday) while John and the kids put up the Christmas lights. Sunday I finally sat the kids down for a few minutes to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. They were enthralled. I suppose we should watch some more of it some time.
Now we're back to school, and play group, and PT, and swim team practice, and all that other stuff. Missing our little four day weekend. We should do that more often.
Apparently wearing fuzzy PJ's and moose slippers all days makes this little girl tired...
Happy PJ'd kids after Thanksgiving dinner in our back yard
Fast skeleton. She is OBSESSED with these PJ's. She has two pair and she'd wear them every day if they stayed clean.
Cool wreath in the Bird House tree house, and child who looks at least 12 years old.
Dex was a trooper and totally game for taking pictures at every tree we saw. Erin... a little less so.
Now looks to be like 32 years old. STOP GROWING, KID.
Still chases the water. Still giggles when doing so. I do believe he is faster than the water now.
Still watches the bubbles. They still make her giggle.
This week's shower...
Dex was actually really displeased with his wet head.
Saturday snuggling. About the only time he lets her do this is when he is too distracted by the video on his IPad to care.
On Sunday Dexter emptied his piggy bank and went to the local dollar store, where he purchased two presents for Erin, one present for Daddy, and four presents for himself. Which he is anticipating forgetting about by the time Christmas rolls around. He was SO EXCITED to be shopping and paying for things with his own money. So cute.
The Wall of Thanksgiving, courtesy of the children
Dex drew the Thanksgiving story. Here is the Mayflower, with a picture of a ship now just for comparison.
Here's the Mayflower sailing across the ocean
Here's the Mayflower landing in Mass. The brown dots getting off the boat are Pilgrims. The orange dots are Indians.
It was apparently a very hard and snowy winter for both brown and orange dots alike.
And here's a picture of the Pilgrim's houses, with a table and a Thanksgiving feast in the middle.
I am thankful for my dad because he likes to play with me. I am thankful for space ships (and the people who build them) because I like space. I am thankful for my teacher because she always teaches the class the right thing. I am thankful for a lot of things.
Erin is a little turkey. That's pretty accurate.
Erin colored this one all on her own. She really did an excellent job.
For the first time ever, John put up the Christmas lights all on his own. With special "assistance" from the children, who mostly just fought over the rocking chair.
Sunday afternoon project was to put up Erin's custom wall decals. Can you see the light purple horse head over her name? It's pretty cool.
They sent this extra little pink pony, so we happily used it.
Here's the horse head
And here's the big jumping horse
And the curtains and shades John installed on Thursday.
John also worked on Erin's old room, repairing the terrible looking walls.
Give him a week or so and I think it will look like an entirely new, still blue room. Ready for Christmas company.
