Sweet presents have started piling up under the tree. Lex brought home a gift from school a few days ago and Eve brought one home today. Eve made a gift for Lex and tucked it under the tree. Lex made Lego treasures that he sweetly tucked into each stocking. It’s beginnings to feel a lot like Christmas.

Sweat treasures under the tree

Plus we had a visit today from FedEx and UPS, in addition to the regular mail delivery!

Today’s advent box activity said to “Drink Holiday Milkshakes” so we whipped up some milkshakes for afternoon snack. Vanilla bean cream, peppermint extract, crushed candy canes, and milk. Topped with fresh whipped cream and sprinkles of their choosing and a candy cane on the side. They were both very excited! (well, Lex was excited once I told him every single ingredient in the milkshake and the whipped cream, he’s definitely my boy there!) Serve with popcorn and see two very happy children!

Adding sprinkles

Milkshakes

Yummy! Happy Holidays!

I think this is the title I use for this post every year! :)

We got our Christmas tree today. It was a beautiful day and I was hoping for a lovely family outing to the Christmas tree farm. Romping through snow mud to find that perfect tree. Sadly things came to a head with Eve and her lying, so she and I ended up staying home while the boys got the tree. I sent the camera with Lex, but they forgot to take pictures until the very end so they came home with a few pics of the tree stuffed in the car but nothing quite like I was hoping for. Oh well. You’ll have to imagine a gently falling snow, happy children running from tree to tree looking for “the one” and loving parents following behind, bathed in the glory that is Christmas. A lovely thing to imagine.

What can’t you fit in the back of a Prius?!?

So they came home and we all had lunch. In the past Alan and I have used quiet time to get the living room ready and the tree set up, but today he took a nap and I read Harry Potter with Lex, so when the kids came down from quiet time we made them wait “FOREVER” before finally getting the tree up, the lights on, and letting them decorate. Finally!

Little Lex, eagerly waiting to decorate (and sneaking on a few early ones, you’ll notice)

It’s time for decorating! We skipped the whole “let it relax” part of the process and went right on to “loading it up!”

Done! That was quick! :)

Light’s out! Oooohhh… aaahhh….

Merry Christmas! The family picture came out a little weird due to a brightness in the corner (flash reflecting off the table the camera was on, perhaps) and Eve’s normal camera face these days. Oh well. That’s our family! :)

Lex decided to add tunnels to the train tracks so it looks like the train goes into a tunnel on one side of the tree and comes out on the other. It kind of looks like that anyway, if you use your imagination!

Eve and Alan added this one.

After dinner we decided to hang up the stockings. But before hangings, there comes the mandatory wearing of the stockings!

Lex ran into the living room first and we found him like this! :)

THERE is the smile I love!! The true “having fun” smile, not the “smiling for the camera” smile. :)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

“Merry 15 days until Christmas,” announced Lex. And to all a good night!

The kids seem to think Santa reads the blog and therefore there is no reason for them to actually mail their lists to Santa. Lex also wrote a letter in school that will run in the newspaper next weekend so he thinks he has his bases covered.

Sooo… in case Santa is reading the blog (awesome!) here are their lists. :)

Lex’s list

• a hockey Lego set
• another remote control train
• some Lego construction sets
• some tracks for my electric train
• a Battleship game
• some invisible ink markers
• a magic book
• a Lightening McQueen watch
• a Wall Track Hot Wheels race track
• a remote control helicopter
• a remote control airplane
• a Bumblebee transformer and some more Decepticons

Eve’s list

Eve’s list started awhile ago with a real chick-a-dee and a dog, illustrations included. Once I convinced her that any live animals that Santa brings will be sent right back on his sleigh, she decided to add more items to her list. It goes something like this…

Dear Santa, I want a Hello Kitty watch, and a fluffy white bunny, and a super great princess, and a fake kitten, and a toy kitchen, and a toy heart.

We had a lovely weekend to start off the new month. As I mentioned yesterday we started advent boxes and Christmas decorating. Lex is super excited to have his Christmas train set back out. He was also super excited this weekend to go to a hockey game that some of his classmates were playing in. There is a group of boys in his class that brought a hockey trophy in a few weeks ago and they were in the newspaper last week. He really wants to play hockey now. He came home this week with a copy of their home game schedule. The games are all at 8am, except today which was at 9:15. We got there by 9:30. He was thrilled and his buddies were happy to see him. I got to chat with some other mothers and we all had a good time. While we did that, Eve and Alan went on their monthly “Daddy/Eve date.” They went out to breakfast, ran some errands, then went out to lunch!

After quiet time we packed up again and headed over to a friends house to make gingerbread houses! We had a great time. We built two houses and all four of the kids worked really hard decorating them. Now they’ll have to work even harder to not pick at them all month! :)

Just getting started.

Eve’s side. They started off with sides, but towards the end they were working on both sides together and I was throwing in my additions as well.

Lex’s side. I like the Crunch bar roof!

Check out the fancy Crunch bar entry way on our friends’ house!

The hardest part was getting all four sugared up kids back to the table for a photo. Yes, there was some candy sampling along the way. :)

There’s the sugar crazies!

Aahhh… our house is under attack!!

At dinner Alan and Lex discussed their plan of attack (which pieces of candy to eat first) for once the ok was given to dig in! I suspect pieces will slowly start to disappear over the next few weeks. :)

PS. Many years ago I made a gingerbread house with this same friend. Back when Eve was a baby! The house I made looks a bit different than what the kids did today. :)

The kids were up late last night, chatting with each other. I had to settle them down a few times and when Alan went up he found Lex sitting on the floor next to Eve’s bed chatting. They were so sweet, but it was late!

This morning Lex comes downstairs and the first thing he says is, “I’ve decided I’m going to start my Christmas list today.” Apparently he and Eve were discussing Christmas and all the things they want. When she woke up she started her Christmas list as well.

It was sweet listening to them chat over breakfast. Lex was helping Eve with her spelling and they were discussing the reality of Santa. Lex said he doesn’t believe in Santa, “Well, sometimes I do!” he added quickly. I think the logic befuddles him (as it should) but he’s a little worried about NOT believing! :) Following his statement the conversation went something like this:

Eve: “I had a present from Santa last year.”
Lex: “Did it say From Santa?”
Eve: “No, it just said Santa on it.”
Lex: “It was probably just someone in our family who wrote Santa on it.”
Eve (laughing): “No! That is just too silly. No one is that silly!”
Lex: “Aunt Katie is pretty silly. Maybe she wrote Santa on the package.”

I love the childhood logic!!