Too Much Christmas Cheer (Or Our Weekend in Photos)

We had a great weekend. Every once in a while, we have a weekend where we schedule absolutely nothing to do. We spent the last three weekends visiting family out-of-state, so we needed this "nothing" weekend before the Christmas traveling started!

Friday night, we went with friends to take the kids to see the lights at the zoo. The entire zoo was decorated with Christmas lights, and they had some great lighted animals as well (not the real animals!). Jamie had fun trying to spot any real animals sleeping, but the only glimpse we had was of one of the reindeer. (Which he thought was great!) Santa was there as well, so Jamie wanted to see him. We took the kids to see Santa at the mall a couple weeks ago. Clare wanted nothing to do with him, but Jamie did sit on his lap stone-faced. This time, Jamie sat on Santa's lap again and, when he was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he was able to stutter out a "trucks." (Which is pretty funny because, although Jamie does like trucks, it is nowhere near his obsession with dinosaurs, pirates, and superheroes.) And the big shocker was that Clare even sat on Santa's lap! Neither Jamie nor Clare would smile for the photo, but at least we got one!

Saturday was a laze-around-the-house day. Kind of. Shawn tackled some small projects that had been waiting since we moved in eight months ago. Nothing earth-shattering, but each one took about five minutes, so we're not sure what the hold-up was! (Like hanging up our wall mirror, installing the smoke detector downstairs, that kind of stuff.) Jamie and I made gingerbread cookies, and we all decorated them. The cookie with the missing leg naturally became a pirate! We are most likely having a green Christmas this year, it has been so unseasonably warm. It was in the 50's on Saturday, so we took the kids for a walk in their new wagon. Clare LOVED it. She was such a big girl riding in the wagon instead of the stroller! She kept clapping her hands and grinning. She has a new facial expression which we adore. She grins really big while scrunching up her eyes and tilts her head to the side. Her charm is totally coming out now, and she knows how to use it! Both Jamie and Clare went to bed at 6pm because they were exhausted from our fun-filled day, so Shawn and I looked forward to a nice, relaxing evening. Which ended up not happening since my pregnancy tummy got the better of me, and I spent a good portion of the evening in the bathroom. Ahh.... those pregnancy joys.

By Sunday morning, I was fine. After church, Clare's godparents and their 2-year old boy (who is our godson) came over for our pre-Christmas visit and gift exchange. Jamie received a pilot's costume (he loves dressing up these days) and wore it for the rest of the afternoon. Clare had fun with her new ABC blocks and taking ornaments off the tree. We recently brought the walker downstairs so she could zip around the house. She enjoys being mobile. I cannot wait for her to crawl or walk (for her sake, certainly not mine!) because she wants to go where she wants to go. Not where I plop her down. She had a blast circling the house, chasing Midnight into the basement, and causing general mayhem. Sunday was another wonderful, lazy day. All good things come to an end, however. Jamie got sick Sunday evening (maybe mine wasn't just pregnancy sickness after all...), and was fast asleep by 5pm. He woke up this morning right before 5am, watched about 20 minutes of TV while I dozed (Shawn was already up and running for his early morning Monday class), then he fell back asleep in our bed. Almost four hours later, he is still asleep.

Today is usually my babysitting day, but it looks like it's just going to be a quiet day around here instead. I am going to enjoy the peace and quiet of today (unfortunately, even if it comes at the cost of a sick child!) of our last week before Christmas.