December Madness

It's been a busy December full of merry making.

We decorated the house and wore our Santa jammies.

Visited the reindeer and camel at Swanson's Nursery (twice).

Listened to lots of Christmas music.  My sister, Beth, makes an awesome mix CD every year.  2008 and 2010 are my favorites thus far.

Attended a gingerbread house decorating party.

Made Christmas crafts, read Christmas books, and watched lots of old Christmas television specials.  I happen to own almost all of them. I'm still on the hunt for the old Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smurfs Christmas, Snow White Christmas, and Claymation Christmas. Anyone? Anyone?

Made our annual downtown monorail trip.  This year we visited the Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton and the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmount. Linus was mad when he was told he wasn't allowed to go on the bed. We looked at the winter village at the Seattle Center and even got a turn driving the trains.

Went to Wildlights at the Woodland Park Zoo.  Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment. Lights were sparse in comparison to zoolights. We liked the fake snow at entrance and carolers.  Building your own snowmen and throwing snowballs at Snowmazium was a good idea but totally crazy with hoards of people.

Lots of cookie baking and cozy family time upstairs. The upside to having our basement out of commission has been all the increased opportunities for fort building.  The house feels more cozy in a good way, not in a cramped way.

My brother and Dad have been coming up to help us repair the basement.  They've been a Godsend.

Tim was great and let Linus in on the action installing drywall.

Visited Santa.  The picture doesn't do the kids justice with how cute they look in the Christmas outfits.  I was impressed.  There were no tears.  Eileen walked right up to Santa and gave him a hug when he asked.  She was able to tell him she wanted a dolphin, although Linus was ready to help her out in case she was scared.

Drove around Olympic Manor to look at Christmas lights and then get holiday cupcakes at Cupcake Royale (Eileen's idea).

heading out for some light viewing there was a lot of love and jingle bells

Practiced driving a one horse open sleigh.

He used Dave's belt as a whip.

Taught baby bear how to fly a remote controlled helicopter we got during white elephant exchange at my extended family's Christmas party.

Linus came up with his own helicopter pilot uniform.  Personally, I think he looks like Murdock from the A-Team.

Finally, I took a few head shots of Eileen in an attempt to have a picture to give relatives along with Linus' school picture.  It was also to commemorate Eileen's hair before I chopped off her mullet, leaving her with a short bob.

she loves her pooh bear and lovey

Next up this week we have Linus' first Christmas pageant.  He won't tell me what he is singing and wants it to be a surprise.  I plan to do some more cookie baking as well.  The kids have been awesome recently, minus a weekend of puking.  I don't know what it is about the holidays but it just seems to put everyone in a good mood. I'm loving it.