Merry Christmas from Team Lamb

My super talented friend from high school, Erin Thomas with Between the Sheets Co, designed our cards this year.  I love them and the "Love & Laughter" message really spoke to me this season.  

Merry Christmas from Team Lamb!

Tangled in the Curtains

Sometimes it's really tough being one.  Good thing you have a big brother to come to your rescue when the curtains win.

Christmas Eve 2012

We had a nice, low key Christmas Eve.  At home for most of the day doing a few traditional Christmas activities, then we headed to Gammi and Poppi's house for a delicious dinner.  Where, somehow, I didn't take a single picture.  Darn.

Making and Decorating Cookies for Santa
The book Gingerbread Pirates became a favorite this Christmas season, so when it came time to make cookies for Santa, Coop had the great idea to make gingerbread pirate cookies just like in his book!  We had so much fun doing this--making canons, swords, pirate ships, pirate hats, a captain with a peg leg (just like in the book), all the pirate details.  I only took a few pictures because my hands were in cookie dough the majority of the time.

This is our Captain Cookie, complete with a peg leg.

Little Santa Practicing Walking

While Coop and I worked on the cookies, this little guy found a Santa hat, put it on himself and practiced walking around the house, all while saying, "Ho Ho Ho!"

Leaving Food for the Reindeer

After cookie decorating, we moved on to leaving out food for the reindeer.  We visited a little Santa's Village this year, where we were given two bags of hay, aka reindeer food.  Coop has been so excited since then to leave it out for Santa's reindeer, which he can recite all by name, by the way.  I assumed we'd leave the food on the front lawn for the reindeer, but Coop quickly asked me how that would work since the reindeer land on the roof...  Hmm, good point.  Very matter-of-factly, he informed me he needed to climb on the roof to leave the food.  So, off he and Philip went.  I wasn't sure I really wanted to see him up on that roof, but I'm not one to miss a photo opportunity, so I grabbed the camera and met them in the front yard.

 

Emptying the food into a dog bowl, happily loaned out from Drake.

 Coop decided that right by the chimney was the perfect place for the bowl of food.

 Loved that I could hear them talking.  Philip was pointing out the path in the sky he thought Santa would fly in his sleigh.  Super cute moment.

 Merry Christmas!!

Leaving Cookies for Santa
When we got home from dinner, we tucked in super sleepy Austin, then Coop left his freshly baked and decorate gingerbread pirate cookies, with milk, out for Santa.  Then, we finished the night by reading The Night Before Christmas by the fire.

 So excited!!

Merry Merry Merry!!

What a Fun Day We Had

Today (December 18) was one of those days that reminded me, again, how lucky I am to stay home with the boys.  We started our day by making a gingerbread house (one of two activities from Coop's Christmas calendar countdown).  Super fun and Coop was in to it more than I thought he would be.  We cheated a little by gluing the house together and then decorating it.  Just made it a little easier, I thought.  Plus, he had to wear his construction vest since we were building a house.  Makes sense to me.

 Then, after lunch, we headed downtown to drop off some toys to the families at a homeless shelter.  (Activity two from the calendar.)  Coop helped me pick out several toys that don't get much play time around here.  We've purchased a few toys for a toy drive at Coop's school, too.  So between the two giving opportunities, we've had several good talks about kids in need.  I think today hit him differently, in a good way, than just dropping off the store-bought toys at his school.  Today, he got to see where these kids "live" and I really tried to explain that they don't have a house or their own bedroom like he does.  I think he got it as much as he can at four years old.  As he handed over the bag of toys at the shelter, while dressed as a fireman, I might add, I could tell he was proud.  Yea.  I think my lesson was grasped.

My original plan after dropping off the toys was to stop by the downtown park and play for a little bit.  Maybe stop by Gammi's office, too, depending on time.  But, I quickly remembered that Neimans has really great windows at Christmas.  We were right around the corner, so I thought we'd check it out.  So glad we did, too!  I had forgotten that their windows during Christmas time have a huge slide/maze thing that spans two sides of the building.  Parts of it even go out over the sidewalk.  I was a little nervous at first, asking lots of questions about if he get stuck--are there exits?  will we hear him calling for help?  what if he gets scared?  Coop didn't hesitate a bit and jumped right in the entrance slot!  And off he went!  Up, down, round and round, sliding, climbing, crawling.  And stopping to wave a me a time or two, with a huge smile of his face.  The first go around, I lost track of him pretty quickly and got nervous until I saw him sliding out of the exit.  He ran up to me and excitedly said, "That. Was. AWESOME, Mom!"  Again and again he went.  For half an hour!  Each time, laughing, smiling and waving.  So much fun!

Before we headed off to see Gammi, we walked inside Neimans because I wanted Coop to see the cool Christmas tree from inside the store.  (When I worked at Neimans, I wrote an article on the Neimans Christmas trees and the extensive planning and construction process the team goes through every year, so I still like to check out the tree each year.)  As we approached the tree, however, his attention was diverted to Santa (it didn't occur to me that he might be there).  Coop got so excited and began asking if he could go see him.  I was surprised by this reaction because so far this year, Coop has shown zero interest in getting up close to Santa.  There wasn't a line, so Coop, still dressed as a fireman, went right up to Santa, wide-eyed, and began telling him what he wanted for Christmas.  (I'll get the picture scanned and add it here soon.  It's super cute--Fireman Coop and Santa!)

I tried to put Austin on Santa's lap, too, but he took one look at that sweet Santa, opened his mouth, closed his eyes, and after a 30 second silent build up, let out a huge wail.  Oh well!  Maybe next year.

After a quick stop by Gammi's office, where Coop enjoyed an ice cream treat and Austin enjoyed trying to sneak in the conference room during Gammi's meeting, we headed home.  In the car, I asked Cooper what he told Santa he wanted for Christmas.  Coop's reply was, "Mom, it's a surprise.  You have to wait until Christmas."  Fingers crossed that Santa and I are on the same wave link.

12.18.2012