December Happenings

Here's an update of some of the things that we have been doing this month. First, we got our Christmas tree up. Kevin also got a new tripod for his camera, so he played around with it while the kids did silly poses in front of the tree.


One day we were at Wal-Mart and I saw a gingerbread house kit. I always wanted a gingerbread house when I was kid. So I indulged my inner child and bought this one. It was a real effort to keep the kids from ripping open the box until after dinner time.


We made a big mess and spent a lot of time licking fingers. The icing got pretty warm in my hands and after the first 5 minutes I just slopped it on as fast as I could, but the kids had fun decorating.


Here's the finished product:


Later in the month we went to the Christmas Party that Kevin's company throws every year for their employees. They always have lots of fun activities for the kids. We thought about skipping it this year, because there have been so many other activities going on, but the kids started asking about the Christmas party right after Halloween and we figured they would never forgive us if we didn't take them.

There was rock climbing. Maggie and Matthew took turns bragging about how they would get to the top of the 40-foot wall. Maggie made it as high as Kevin could push her up before deciding that she really doesn't care for extreme sports.


Matthew was slightly braver than Maggie, but he didn't get more than 8 feet off the ground before he needed to come down.


There were pony rides.


And face painting.

And of course the required visit to Santa.


I asked Maggie on the way out the door if that was really Santa and she said, "No, his beard was falling off." Upon further questioning she told me, " Santa can't be everywhere so he has lots of helpers to dress up like him."

Matthew's preschool held it's Christmas pageant last week. He was a townsperson. We were in the very back, so we didn't get any good pictures. Here's the least blurry of the bunch:


The kids have been enjoying their time off this week. We are trying to wean them off TV. So we've spent a lot of time pushing them out the back door shouting, "Go PLAY! (before you drive me crazy)." With all the time outside they adopted a pet. It's called "Our Pet Stick Bug." Maggie grew quite attached to it before she lost it.

They also brought me our bountiful harvest:

Hmm. There were also a few tangerines, but the kids ate those. I still haven't figured out how to get more than one tomato per plant. Maybe I'll make that a New Year's resolution