We naturally kicked off December by decorating for Christmas. We put up our tree and indoor holiday decorations but sadly we opted to forgo the outdoor lights:( As much as I know the kids would have loved the lights we just couldn't manage to fit that in with all of the other stuff we had going on. And, I don't think the kids even realized!
Tristan had a lot of fun helping Mommy decorate the tree this year. After I got the giant tree put up and the 40 billion strands of lights strung (next year we will be buying a new pre-lit tree!), he helped put on the ornaments. We only broke a few ornamants this year, and I think it was mostly done by Parker, who was napping most of the time while we decorating (and yes I did this intentionally...next year will be his year!).
Somehow, all of Tristan's ornaments ended up together in one place on the tree. I guess when you're only about 3 and 1/2 feet tall there's only so much space to work with!
After a lot of work by Mommy and a little more help by Tristan, we finally finished and ta-dah, we had one gorgeoous tree!
I also decorated the dining room table in accordance with the Christmas style! Don't you love the Santa plates? Got them from HEB for $1.50 a piece...can't beat that can ya???
Once the house got all decorated with red and Christmas themed stuff, it was Tristan's turn! Some time in the second week of December Tristan participated in his very first Christmas program at school. His class last year did not participate since they were still a little too young so this was a breand new experience for him, and let me say, it was too cute!
Once the house got all decorated with red and Christmas themed stuff, it was Tristan's turn! Some time in the second week of December Tristan participated in his very first Christmas program at school. His class last year did not participate since they were still a little too young so this was a breand new experience for him, and let me say, it was too cute!
I got him dressed that morning in a "Christmas-y" outfit and we talked about how he was going to sing songs in the Christmas program that day at school and Mommy and Daddy and Parker were going to come watch him. Needless to say, he was excited and running around the house like a maniac!
I dropped him off at school that morning and we all headed back up there a few short hours later. I was very curious to see how he actually "performed" since he is such a ham most of the time, but he has to be comfortable in the situation. If he's not comfortable or if something is new, then he tends to get shy. His teachers had told me the week before that if he did what he does during music class then he would steal the show, but I had a feeling he would end up being shy.
And, I was half right. When he first came out to sit down, he was scanning the crowd looking for us and his teacher helped him find us, then he started to settle in to the music and songs. He did most of the hand movements and sang some, but not how he would have if he was in a more normal situation, but it was adorbale nonetheless! Can't wait to see how it goes next year when he's got one year under his belt!!
After the program, we headed back to the classroom to gather up his backpack and I was able to snap a picture of him with his teachers...he just loves Ms.Tina (on the right)!
And of course, Parker wanted his turn for a picture with Tristan's teachers...he just can't be left out these days, if Tristan does it, then so does he!
The following week we had some of Tristan and Parker's friends over for a little Christmas baking. Oh boy, a bunch of 3 year olds and few one year olds and sugar cookies, icing, sprinkles, and M&Ms...enough said!
The kids had a blast and all in all, it wasn't "too" messy! We used brushes to "paint" the icing and that seemed to work really well and most of the candy decorations made it on to the cookies, but some ended up in some hungry 3 year olds' mouths, lol!
Some of the kid-decorated cookies.
And some of the mom-decorated cookies!
The kids cookie baking/decorating was one of my favorite things we did during the holiday season, so much so we did it again for Valentine's (a whole other post!)!
Tristan ended up taking some of his and my decorated cookies to his teachers that week for their Christmas party and we also made up some yummy candy filled goodie bags for his friends at school.
You would think I would have had my fill of Christmas baking after the kids, but oh no...I went ahead that weekend with my annual Christmas baking! I must have been out of my mind.
Every year, only once a year, and you will see why only once a year, I do some major baking. I make cookies, fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered oreos, truffles, and so much more to hand out to our friends and family as a little token of our appreciation for them. To sya the least, it is a lot of work and I ALWAYS regret it once I am halfway through but LOVE it at the end and keep doing it every year. And every year, I tell myself that I need to take some pictures of all the goodies, and every year I get so cuaght up inthe moment that I forget, but this year I managed to snap a couple of shots. BEWARE, you might suddenly crave something sweet in about a minute...Courtney, stop reading right now!
4 different types of fudge
4 different types of fudge
White chocolate with almond fudge up front, rocky road back left and dark cholcate with nuts on the right ("snickers" fudge not pictured)
Chocolate covered Oreos with white chocolate drizzle...oh so yummy!
Chocolate covered sourdough pretzels with red and white chocolate drizzle
3 different types of truffles with various toppings
White chocolate covered Oreos and pretzel with green and red white chocolate drizzle
One finished platter with an assortment of goodies
Decorated sugar cookies and peanut butter kiss cookies
One platter all packaged up and ready to go
And another
Okay, so now you are probably hungry for something sweet, huh? You wouldn't believe how much sweet stuff I intake during those couple of Christmas baking days...it seriously sabotages the perpetual "diet" I am always on, lol! But, I truly do love to do it and Christmas is such a fun time of year to go all out on things...good thing it only comes once a year, because I couldn't handle more than that!
And speaking of someone who comes around once a year, I couldn't write a post about Christmas fun in December without including our trip to see Santa. We have visited the same Santa for the last 3 years, ever since Tristan was born (click these links to see past pics xmas '07, xmas '08), and we continued the traditon this year.
Patiently waiting his turn to see Santa
Neither kid was all too sure about Santa!
But they warmed up
Even Tristan
So much so that he showed Santa his funny face!
And gave him a high-five
And even finally posed for a picture with him, woo hoo!
Tristan even got to be a bit of a celebrity this year since his first picture with Santa was up on the digital sign at Daddy's work to advertise Santa's visit to Bluebonnet!
Well, hope you enjoyed a peek at what kept us so busy during December..next up, Christmas Eve! And, at this rate, I might jut be caught up to date by Easter!
3 comments:
You have me already looking forward to next Christmas with those pictures of your platters. We'll be a family of 5 by then so I'll probably need some extra fudge:)
Such cute boys :)
Seriously, your goodies look AMAZING! Take care!
So, I noticed you didn't send us any of those goodies for Christmas....not that I needed them! :-) And, yes, I should have stopped reading...I was already having a hard time avoiding the Girl Scout cookies in the pantry. :-/
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