I realize it’s been almost a week since my last update. Gasp! :) Just kidding. Life goes on. What have we been up to? This and that, laced with sugar and spice. I’ll give you a tour from my camera…

I put them to work this year. Check your mailbox.

Signing Christmas cards

We made these super easy treats I found on Pinterest. The kids did 95% of the work.

He's so good at smiling for me!

It's like heaven for them, surrounded by chocolate. See that orange M&M in Eve's hand? Guess where it's going? Not on the pretzels!

Eve, hard at work.

Lex decorated his in a very organized fashion. We had 3 different varieties of M&Ms, so he sorted them by color and then alternated type (dark, milk, pb). After awhile I had to hurry him along because the Kisses were hardening, so he settled for just arranging by color. (the unorderly ones in the front left corner were my attempt to speed things along.)

These have been relegated to the outside freezer because they were jut too quick and easy to eat when stored in the inside freezer. I’ll get them out again next week. They won’t last long.

Hugo Cabret, all 515 pages…

Lex's teacher thought he might like this book. We almost bought it at his school book fair, but it's HUGE and pricey and we worried it would be indimidating for him. By chance I saw it on display at the library later in the week, so I grabbed it. Lex was a bit put off at first but then he and I read the first few chapters together and he loved it. He powered through the rest of the book on his own. I'm going to have to finish it on my own now, I guess. I wish I had as much time to read as he does! :)

The kids “built” a masking tape race track on the floor this week. Complete with pit stops, a Nascar logo, and ads! They have been having fun racing their cars. I discovered I can run the vacuum right over it too. Fun for all! :)

This is the early version of the race track. Ove the past few days additional pit stops have been added, plus random tape patterns (Eve's contributions) decorate the area.

Mema and Grandpa Tom, I hope you're proud of your influence in this house! :)

All pit stops are labled by color. The masking tape is also colored to match. BP = black pit, WP = white pit, etc.

Lex came home with a Venn Diagram from school. In first grade! I was impressed.

A Jan Brett Venn Diagram :)

There is also an adorable letter to Santa, written by Lex, hanging on the 1st Grade bulletin board at school. I wanted to take a phone pic of it on Friday, but sadly my technology curse has struck again and things are failing all around me. Hopefully I can post a picture of it on Monday. I’m sure it will come home with him after Christmas too, but it’s so cute I want to share it now!

Eve, however, decided to bring her letter (well, list anyway) directly to the big man himself. Her school hosted a Breakfast With Santa this weekend and we all went. We enjoyed pancakes and donuts and arts & crafts projects and lots of running around with friends. (Or standing around for the over 15 crowd!) Lex wanted nothing to do with Santa, other than a peek from afar, but Eve shyly waited her turn (luckily the line was short!) and handed Santa her list. She wouldn’t sit on his lap, but that’s ok by me. She told him what she wanted and then let him keep the list! Good think I took pictures of it last week!

Eve with Santa. Silly us did breakfast first, so she has a nice wet mark on her shirt from spilling. Oh well.

Last night Alan and I went to his company’s holiday party at a somewhat local Inn. It was great! I didn’t take any pictures, but again wished the camera on my phone worked because they had a display of gingerbread houses that was just beautiful, including one of the Inn itself. His company spared no expenses on a beautiful dinner, 5 courses!, including a Passionfruit Kiwi Sorbet course. And the wine was flowing. I finished the evening off with a Godivia Peppermint Hot Chocolate while others had coffee. Soooooo goood……. His colleagues are all very nice, the babysitter got the kids to sleep, and we all had a nice evening!

One more week…