A little snippet of Christmas events...

It's been a BUSY few weeks, so since I'm attempting to stay awake until the ball drops I might as well recap some of our Christmas adventures. Lucas got out of school earlier in the month, and on his last day they had the usual holiday party. Lucas is really attached to several of the boys in his classroom--his favorite partner in crime, er...friend, is Preston (middle) and he also enjoys stirring up trouble with Lance. These three amigos drive poor Ms. Engskov and Ms. Henry crazy, so I made sure they got very nice Christmas presents from us ;)
Ms. Henry is a VERY creative teacher--she always makes the classroom shine. For December, she created this Christmas cottage in the corner of the classroom--complete with a snow machine that gently snowed throughout the day, Gingerbread residents, and a mailbox for letters to Santa. She named it "Bruin Cottage" (the school mascot is the Bruin Bears). It was so adorable, so I made sure I got pictures of Lucas hanging out in it.
We also tried to visit Jolly Old Saint Nick this year...we've skipped it for several years since Lucas seemed rather scared of a strange man with a long beard and belly full of jelly, but this year he swore he was ready again. We chose the Arkansas Children's Hospital Breakfast with Santa--which was a nice change of pace for a Saturday morning. Alex was still a bit scared of Santa, so our actual picture wasn't the cutest...I actually liked this picture better--little Alex and Chloe getting ready to see the big man. Afterwards we had pancakes with our friends, wrote letters to Santa, did some arts and crafts, and capped the event off with a visit inside the fire truck--Luc's favorite part of the day. Note to self: next year, skip Santa and go see Santa Paws instead (the Dalmatian at the fire station).
I've already posted about getting our tree from the farm this year, but Lucas was very excited about decorating (and later UNdecorating) the tree this year as well.

To make this year special, I created an advent calendar on our bulletin board--for each day of the month the children got to open an envelope to reveal a special holiday treat. Some of the events included things like decorating the tree, eating a special Santa treat (cookies), reading special holiday books, or attending holiday events--like Junie B Jones Christmas play at the Children's Theater (which was WONDERFUL). Alex was still too young to really get into this tradition, but Lucas LOVED it--waking up each day and immediately wanting to open the envelope and find out what fun adventure we would be having. Defiantly a tradition I intend to continue in future years. Many of the things are tasks we would have done no matter what (like read "Cajun Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve) but this way it made it seem more special through the eyes of a child.

Each year, Lucas and my mother have decorated a gingerbread house--and this year was no exception. I was baking in the kitchen while they tackled this project and it was fun to watch them interact and enjoy crafting together. Lucas was so busy trying to eat the house, I felt sorry for my poor mother who was honestly trying to make it look the best it possibly could. It was one of those pre-packaged store kits, and I think it turned out pretty decent, but I have decided that we are going to make a homemade version next year. I have several recipes I have been collecting for a while, and hopefully by next year I will have had the time to do a test run on them. And I think Lucas is at a good age to be more creative and branch out to experiment with new "building materials".

I've got more adventures to post, but I have to download those pics from my camera, so stay tuned.