Christmas Festivities

This is, of course, unquestionably my favorite time of year and every year I want to do as many Christmas activities as possible.  I always have big plans for places to go and things to see but often, I find that sitting home watching Christmas movies is just as satisfying. I am actually trying to do something different this year in that I'm attempting to have as much Christmas shopping done as I can before going up north.  I often save it for the end because I enjoy it so much but then I find that it gets so busy at my parents with the shopping that I miss out on things.  So far I've done pretty well but I still have a ways to go on the gift buying front.

Wednesday morning I woke up and I just didn't feel like doing school.  Gifts I was working on drifted through my mind and the thought of just sitting with my tea and listening to Christmas music while I shopped online sounded so wonderful.  So I figured, what the heck...no school!  These days go by so fast and I want to enjoy them to the fullest. Thursday morning I decreed the same thing (except for piano and math. Those still happened). Which I guess worked out well because the girls didn't roll out of bed until 10:35 (boys woke up at 9:00).  My kids so take after me in the night owl department.

I have actually been having some challenges with the boys, particularly Brady, in the sleeping department.  Often Brady will wake up in the middle of the night and come into my room and say he's scared and can't go back to sleep.  At first I would take him back to his room and lie on the floor until he fell asleep but then a little bit later, he'd wake up and come to me again.  Now I just let him in the bed.  The big problem is that we have hard wood floors in the master bedroom so I can't have him sleep on the floor which is what I did at our old house.  I absolutely cannot STAND hard wood floors in bedrooms for this very reason, among others.  Shortly after we moved in we put in carpeting in the kids' rooms but have yet to do it for ours, mainly because we can't figure out what to get.  Our room needs a lot more decorating which we haven't figured out yet either and we want everything to tie in.  I'm hoping after Christmas we will take the time to do it.

The other problem with Brady is that he will not go somewhere by himself anymore...like Sabbath School or Adventurers.  Back at the beginning of September, I went to pick him up from Adventurers and when I walked into the room, which had many other people and kids in it, there was Brady near the door with tears just streaming down his face.  At first, I thought he was hurt.  But then he explained that he thought we had forgotten him there.  It really didn't make sense since many other kids hadn't been picked up yet either.  It was quite bizarre.  Ever since then, he refuses to be left alone and will ask multiple times, "Is Daddy going to come to Sabbath School with me?" just to make sure. I hope this is a phase that will pass quickly.

As far as activities this week, last Saturday night we went to Crane's Roost in Altamonte Springs as is our tradition on the first Saturday night of December.  The main draw for me is the fireworks display and they also have a lot of booths and live music.  Typically we go with multiple friends but everyone seemed to have something else going on this year so it was just us in the end.  We found a good perch on the lawn for the fireworks that went off about 6:40 pm (putting the time here for future reference). The nice thing is that we are only about 15 minutes from the mall now that we moved compared to about 30 minutes.

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

Sunday afternoon Ron and Elaine came over to take our Christmas picture for our card and then we all headed down to Disney Springs to walk around and enjoy the lights and decorations.  They have a "Christmas Tree Trail" that is very pretty to walk through with all the decorated trees although they are all Disney themed which we aren't into. We got home and watched the second half of the Patriots game we had recorded and had some ice cream.  We had a couple of close calls on the Patriots though.  Ron wore his Patriots hat to Disney Springs and several people made comments on it and I had to plug my ears to make sure I didn't hear anything about the score.  The one downside of watching the games hours after they've finished.

The Christmas decorations were so pretty there. 

It "snowed" on the tree trail.

Last night we went to "Holiday on the Drive" in College Park as we do each year.  We got there right as it opened at 5:00 pm so we didn't have to wait in a long line for the bungee jumping.  That wasn't the highlight though.  The definite highlight was the snow they make for the kids to play in.  Oh my, did they have fun! It got me looking at my phone again for the weather report for up north to see if I see any snowflakes.  We have had such a bad streak the last few years with the lack of snow but I'm hoping for a turn around this year.  Please, please!!  Surely if it snowed in Mississippi today for Ricky (who would think it snows in southern Mississippi!) it can snow in New England for us.

I was so mad.  I have Duncan's iPhone 7+ now with the great camera but somehow my pictures were coming out blurry.  I guess I needed to clean the lease or something.

Getting his sister good.

That moment when your boy puts his arm around his big sister without your even asking.  Heart melting.

Random lady standing in line for the train with a bird perched on her shoulder.  Not something you see every day.  Or ever.

This morning we went to a big yard sale and then I went to drop the kids off for a play date with Violet and Nora.  I already had decided Colby wasn't going to go due to a cough.  Brady started making excuses that it would just be girl stuff so he didn't want to go.  I told him we'd all go in and then he could let me know.  As we walked around looking at the girls' bedrooms and such he started telling me that he wan't feeling very good.  I figured it was all part of his plan to make sure he wasn't left there without me. Either way, I said he didn't need to stay and off we went.  As we were driving, I explained to him that he didn't need to make up stories or whatnot if he didn't want to go or stay somewhere...I wouldn't make him.  He muttered "Okay" from the back seat. A few minutes later I pull into the Dunkin Donuts drive through to get myself a bagel. After I left the window, I realized that they had given me an egg sandwich (overflowing with bacon...yikes!).  The drive through line was pretty long now so I groaned and told the boys were going to have to go inside.  They gave me my bagel and as we started to walk out, Brady puts his hand on his stomach and says he isn't feeling very good.  I asked if he felt like he was going to throw up and he didn't say anything so I kept walking.  As soon as we were out the door, he stops and throws up, literally on the sidewalk in front of the door to get into DD. Mercy! One of the workers came out and was so kind and said they would take care of it.  I said, "Well, I guess it was a good thing you messed up my order."  How horrible if he had done that in the car! Sometimes things can be very annoying, like having a messed up order, but then you see why it happened the way it did. And I have to look up and say, "You know God, this was a little thing but I think you had it all planned out. Thank you." By the way, no more throwing up for Brady.  It seemed to be an isolated incident.

Violet and Nora are such sweet girls.  They are almost exactly the same age as cousins Acadia and Winnie so maybe that's why Calleigh and Aubree get along with them so well.

Proud, proud Mommy moment for me this week.  Brady has had virtually no interest in learning his ABC's and I haven't pushed anything on him.  I recorded him in the spring trying to sing the ABC song and it was all messed up.  He's hasn't been able to recognize about half the alphabet.  Especially since he's a boy, I've not forced things with him and have just let him go at his own pace.  He has done really well with Math, however, which has come so much easier.  He is for sure at a first grade level with it and seems to enjoy it.  Anyway, this past week we somehow got talking about his ABC's and he took the letters and put them in order all by himself.  I seriously could have cried!  I didn't even know he knew them all!  Aubree was reading soon after she turned five but even that paled in comparison to my 6.5 year old boy finally knowing his letters.  It remains to be seen, of course, if he can do it again next week!

 
One picture in closing...

Colby apparently figured out how to take pictures on my phone and snapped this one of Donner.  I'm happy to report the dogs haven't destroyed the tree which I was seriously worried about.  Of course, this is partially due to the fact that they aren't allowed in the room with it unsupervised.

Have a wonderful Sabbath!