Merry & Bright

Nothing says "It's Christmastime!" like a #2 accident in the church bathroom one day after preschool. Sorry, I just can't keep this picture to myself. I am aware that it looks staged - the hilarious part is that it's not. As I attempted to help him everything fell to the floor like this, and he ran away half naked, singing and dancing.

His sidekick, always willing to add to the ridiculousness of this potty training season (that just won't end).

We finally got our tree up! We have an artificial one (please, no hateful comments about how far superior your real tree is to our fake one - all we are missing out on is the fresh pine scent, and I get that from my 'Holiday Garland' Yankee Candle, thankyouverymuch!). The Giants game was on Sunday afternoon, which is the only time we had to put the tree up before, oh, Christmas Day. So I happily gave Rob a pass on helping get it up, and much to my surprise Robbie and Ellie were thrilled to assist me. They dutifully handed me branches out of the box and danced around me as I fanned each one out.

My sweet little helpers - I love that they are comprehending more and more of this season and enjoying it!

Her first Christmas tree.

Robbie and Ellie like to spend most of their day playing near the tree. I totally get that - my coffee tastes better in there, and my slippers are warmer the closer we are to twinkle lights.

The only time Instagram has failed me. They're still so cute, proudly standing in front of their tree with Polar Express bell ornaments.

This little lady was put to bed in the middle of all the action, but could it be that she's old enough to know that she's missing something when I take her away from all the fun and lay her in her bed? She got to stay up way past her bedtime, snuggled into the cozy nook of daddy's arm.

And we celebrated the beginning of the season by making hot chocolate in kid-sized holiday mugs, which are not plastic. They loved it!

{I'd like to interrupt this blog post to document what just happened over the last 5 minutes. It had been eerily quiet for about 5 minutes, which can make a mother's blood run cold, and so I called out to the kids asking what they were doing. After a few scurries and urgent whispers from Robbie to Ellie and no response to my inquiry, I walked into the living room to find them huddled in a corner, looking guilty as sin. Lucky for me, they're honest to a fault and Robbie pulled up the skirt on the couch and showed me all of the ornaments and candy canes they had taken off the tree and stashed, including half eaten canes. I had to keep from laughing. I feel like I'm raising field mice sometimes, not little people.}

My mom and I decided that we needed to make a trip to the mall to see Santa, and so we went yesterday morning. We spent a lot of time just observing all of the activity - the train going around the tracks, Santa with a steady stream of little kids on his lap, etc. My crew was tentative and I could tell this would not go well, if it even went at all!

Robbie and Ellie enthusiastically asked to ride the train.

Ok...

Ellie panicked and screamed the entire 3 laps around the track, while Robbie held his ears and stifled sobs. I felt badly for them but at the same time, it was hilarious. What are you going to do?! (Not ride the train again.)

And then the big moment. I put Maddie on Santa's lap first, and like a good little girl she gave his beard a tug, looked him long and hard in the eyes, and burst into tears. I settled Robbie into the chair next to Santa and put a frozen-with-fear Ellie on his knee next to Robbie and then ran out of the shot to dance and sing like a crazy woman while they got this shot:

Classic.

Hope you are enjoying this season as much as we are!