Oh-Bla-Di

Just to preserve for posterity all the fun we’ve had this month getting ready for Christmas, I thought I ought to do a little round-up.

:: We rode a train.

:: We went to a kids’ party.

:: We went to a work party.  Yummy food, but no picture!

:: We did some artwork.

That’s her new “camera” face.  Oy.

:: We got busy “elving” for Christmas gifts.

Not finished yet, but those two Habitat Restore drawers are really going to be something special for Whoozers.

There has to be a little something homemade for everyone!  What’s better for a toddler than a soft bucket?

:: We baked lots and lots of cookies!

:: And we got to see a winter wonderland (desert style!).

With all this busyness, I think we just might be ready for the big day.  Looking forward to yummy dinner tonight and a magical morning.  Happy (almost) Christmas!

We love our kids’ school for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that they throw big holiday parties and invite all the families in.  I remember that it was always so fun to be in my school “off duty” when I was a kid and so I’m glad our kids get that chance here too.

The Friday of Winter Festival is also a school-wide pajama day, so the kids went to school in jammies and parents are invited to wear jammies for the festival.

These two were so cute, it just made my heart ache that day!

At our school, each of the classrooms is open with a fun activity or project for the kids to do and there are decorations and snacks throughout the hallways.  But the main event is that each of the classes in the school practices a song or poem for weeks in advance and then does a little performance for the families at Winter Festival.

I’m so grateful for this school because they’re so fun!  I can’t imagine opening a whole classroom, filling it with sparkle paper and glitter and then inviting kids in to go nuts.  Can you imagine the mess?  But, no kidding, on Monday morning, you’d have never even known it happened.  Talk about extra effort for the good of the kiddos.

Making glitter snow angels.

Noah wasn’t so sure glitter snow angels were awesome.

The babies and toddlers videotape their performances and we get to watch the movie on the big night since there’s no way they’ll perform for a big group on demand.  But, the bigger kids all do a little show and it’s super cute.

Ava’s class performed the poem “Falling Snow” and then sang “Jingle Bells.”  We got an advance preview of her performance at home before we left for the party.

Ava was pretending to be shy when it was her group’s turn to perform and we’re not really sure why.  We know she knew her stuff and she’s quite the ham, so that will probably always be a mystery.  Regardless, we sure had a fun time and all those cute performances sure made up for the sugar crash the next day!

We took a build up approach to our Christmas decorating this year and finally finished the tree on Sunday after meeting Santa Claus. We started with just the shelf-top decorations after Thanksgiving, then put up the tree with lights and THEN did the ornaments.  This process meant that we didn’t have to have five hours dedicated to hauling stuff out of the closet and putting it out and we did a whole lot less yelling (that’s always a good thing).

So, I don’t have any “in process” shots of the early decorating stages, just the ornament finale.  That’s the good part anyway, right?

Noah trying to sneak into the black hole that is the closet under the stairs.

Matt making sure the lights are just right.

Matt always does the star.  It’s tradition.

Digging around for just the right ornament.  Is there anything cuter than two kiddos in matching footie jammies?

Just the right ornament in just the right spot.  Ava’s noticing that her name is on this one!

Oh, the temptations of Christmas ornaments.  Noah had no interest in the tree until we hung all this shiny stuff on it.

Noah helping Daddy reach the higher branches. And Daddy helping Noah not to break all the ornaments.

All that decorating is exhausting!

Somehow I didn’t get a shot of the finished tree, but it sure is pretty.  We all spent an evening laying underneath it to stare at the lights and sparkles and found that it was indeed magical.  Isn’t it amazing what light and sparkle and love can do for a plain old tree?

All aboard!

We’ve been here in Vegas for four years now and finally got around to riding the Santa Train in Boulder City this year.  It was so much fun and mid-way through, Matt and I wondered why we hadn’t done this before.

We got our tickets well in advance and had them mailed to the house, so we got to avoid one of the longer lines and didn’t have to stress about having a spot.  So, we headed to Boulder City on December 10 and climbed aboard the Nevada Southern Railway for our chance to enjoy the cool air and meet Santa & Mrs. Claus.

We got to sit in the open air car which meant that the kiddos didn’t have to be pinned down to their seats, so that meant we got to enjoy things a little more.  This was also the perfect way to see Santa since our “waiting in line” time was substituted with fun riding the train time.  Perfect for antsy children!

About midway into the ride, Santa and Mrs. Claus strolled into our car and they took time to meet and take photos with each family and kid.  So, so great.  I consider it to be a minor miracle that we don’t have a screaming toddler picture with Santa this year.  Noah is infinitely more chill about things like that than Ava was.  They both did great meeting the big guy.

After our ride was over, we got to go on another free train ride on a very old steam engine called the Eureka.  It was fun hearing the man who restored her tell her story and the whistle was really loud!

After our rides, we toured the model railroads in the restoration hanger and then had a super yummy dinner at a Boulder City diner.  Loving that town more and more every time we visit.

When we finally got home, we all put on jammies, cuddled up on the couch and watched The Polar Express.  It was a day full of trains!

We had a great day on the Nevada Southern Railroad and are pretty sure that Santa is clear on our Christmas wish list this year.  Not bad for a day’s adventuring!

We get to celebrate a little Christmas early in December around here with St. Nicholas Day.  It’s a fun tradition that we inherited from Matt’s side of the family and I love that it’s a little “tide us over” celebration between Thanksgiving to Christmas.

This year, since St. Nicholas Day was a Tuesday, we had to celebrate in the evening rather than first thing in the morning.  I had the kids set their slippers in front of the Christmas tree before we left for school and St. Nick had visited by the time we got home.  Didn’t get a very good shot of all the slippers and gifts lined up because we were in the “just arrived home” rush, so this was the best I could dig up.

Ava got styrofoam balls that she got to paint like planets and we’ll be hanging from the ceiling in her room.

Noah got the first installment of Matchbox cars for his burgeoning collection.

Apparently, we were all really excited about this one.

And, Matt received a tabletop air hockey game and I got the new She & Him  CD of Christmas music.  We’ve had lots of fun playing with our new toys.  We’ve played cars almost every night since then and Ava got out her paint and brushes this weekend to get those planets done.  Thanks, St. Nick, for the great treats!  See you again soon!