I wanted to do a gingerbread house this year.  But (A) I didn’t want to bake the gingerbread and hunt down decorations myself and (B) I didn’t want to pay $10 for a kit.  So I waited until after Christmas hoping they’d go on sale.  A family member picked up one of the kits at an after Christmas sale and gave it to us the day after Christmas.  Finally Walmart marked theirs 75% off a few days ago, so I picked up three for $2.50 a piece!  I was thinking he could do one and I’d do one this year, then we’d have two for next year.  I wanted my own to try to replicate one of the beautiful examples on the box.  Now I’m not so sure, it would be kind of boring if it weren’t insanely messy and Caleb wasn’t helping!

A big thanks to the folks over at Wilton for putting this together like the leaning tower of gingerbread just perfectly

Concentration = open mouth

Taste testing as usual

Ugh, he needs another haircut

I have no idea what this face is about

A -thus far- progress picture…when looking at these, take note of the roof and the tabletop.

Bring on the sprinkles.  We have been known to let the sprinkles get out of hand a here and there.  And a little here.  Maybe here too.

The table is getting worse…

…and worse…

…and worse.

Scott is holding his hand under the sprinkles container.

Just a tad too much

Lean in close, I have a secret to tell you.  You know what your kid turns into when you get on the phone?  Right, Satan’s spawn.  Anyway.  Well I have the secret.  Here’s whatcha do.  You sit them at the table (or better yet, outside if the weather is nice…close to the neighbor’s house that you don’t like, that way the ants flock away from your house) and you give them a bowl, spoons, cups, and…sprinkles.  Colored sugar.  That’s it.  You would be amazed.  I mean, we are going on an hour and a half of playtime over here folks.

I decided the $0.94 a container for sprinkles was worth it since he seemed to be enjoying himself so much.

Yikes at the background, I was quickly losing the daylight so the colors in the next few are all whack.

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Figured I had better post something!  We’ve been under a lot of stress trying to make some decisions about moving.  Caleb has been playing with his trains nearly non-stop since Christmas.  Actually before Christmas.  We built a cool traintrack (2 stories!), and he played with that daily.

Since Christmas, he’s been playing Polar Express though.  He sings the “Christmas comes to town” song and yells out lines from the movie as he’s playing.  He’ll get ready to go down a hill on his tracks and he’ll yell out “I suggest we all hold on…TIIIIIIGHTLYYYYY.”  Anyway, he built a record breaking train tonight and his poor battery operated Polar Express train that he’s had since he was one actually pulled it.  Hard to believe if you know the train’s history of abuse (let’s just say it no longer works in reverse).

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After Santa came

Santa did save him a cookie, he did!

Yum

I don’t know what’s up with this expression!  I guess because it is a “Charley book.”  And a pop-up book too.  Our first I believe.

Opening the Sprig Discover Rig, which already had at least seven miles on it.

This train plays music as it goes over the notes.  Scott of course, built the Star Wars theme song right away (shown here)

Opening THE Herbies

An important part of Christmas, something I can’t ever remember doing as a kid.

Growing up, our house never looked like this Christmas morning.  We had to open one thing, fold the wrapping paper neatly, etc.  It couldn’t be messy.

We built a HUGE train track in the living room floor.  We moved the couch for the Christmas festivities.

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Merry Christmas

Love,
The Cats

Warning, this picture will un-blur on mouse-over. I’m giving you an option not to see the carnage!  It isn’t horrible per say.  Mainly becaue I didn’t include the head in the picture.  It was….up on the porch…on the doormat of course.


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I ran around this morning like a complete nut again. I crammed two days worth of errands and “to-do’s” in this morning. The whole time I was chanting in my head “Make it to naptime, then it is smooth sailing from there.” I finished up the DVDs and the grateful client came and picked them up during lunch. His wife called me about two hours later to say that they were wonderful and they had cried for 40 minutes watching them!

Walmart was surprisingly not as bad as I had expected. I put Caleb in the stroller so I could zip around quicker than with the cart. We actually walked right up to a momentarily vacant self checkout!

Caleb was way too wired to even take a nap so I’m waiting on him to fall out as I type. He is a combination of excited and overtired right now so here’s to hoping he doesn’t put up a huge fight.

Tonight…was magical. Each year the Santa gig gains a little more momentum. He has a better understanding this year and has been counting down the days. We treated ourselves to take out from Pizza Hut for the first time in a while (we cut waaay back on eating out).

I set up the elf snowy footprints on the steps and put the gifts (the tracking pajamas and the Polar Express book) outside.

Prints stamped with SC on the bottom for Santa Claus

Scott ran around and rang the doorbell while I doubled back to nestle the wrapped bell under the tree. Caleb threw the door open and glanced at the presents for a second, then his eyes darted out to the street. He moved so he could see further down, looking for Santa, an elf, or a sleigh.

He tore into his gifts right away and was thrilled with the book. He was so anxious to read it, we could barely get his jammies on. I made stovetop hot chocolate and cooled it down a bit with some half and half. ‘As thick and rich as melted chocolate bars’ – from the book. We all sat on the couch together and read the book sipping our hot chocolate. When I had finished, I asked if Caleb had checked under our tree. His eyes widened when he saw the box and upon picking it up and hearing the sound, his breath caught and he said “I hope it is a reindeer bell!” We read the book a second time at bedtime. He is still pretty restless. I can remember laying just as quietly as the boy in the book listening for sounds on our rooftop. It is so amazing to give the magic of Christmas to your kids.

This year’s tracking pajamas (so Santa will know when boys and girls are asleep in their beds)

Santa’s cookie plate…Caleb wanted to draw a smiley face (he had a hard time with the contours of the plate) and write his name ( I make dotted outlines and he traces it).

Stay tuned, there will be many more pictures to follow, I’m sure!

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We raced through the mall and got our place in line.  Santa was on a break, and Scott headed to the bathroom while Caleb and I waited.  He returned a few minutes later and stood there with his arms crossed.  He leaned over close to me and said “I peed beside Santa.”  It just cracked me up!

The generic mall Christmas tree. At least it is really tall.

We’ve been waiting in line over an hour.  But mom says we’re almost there.

Okay, we’re drawing social security at this point.  But Charley and I are being good.

Finally at last…Santa, Meet Charley!  Up close and personal.  Charley actually jumped right into Santa’s beard.

Now Santa, if you’ll think back with me…to the first time you met Charley.  And Caleb screamed at you.

Last year was our first success (third try).

But this year, he was eager to hop right up there with Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas.

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How is it possible that we have been counting down the days until Christmas, yet suddenly I wake up this morning and think, “AH!  I only have two days!”  I knew this last night when Caleb asked seventeen times after getting in bed last night how much longer we had to wait on Santa.  But, abiding by the procrastinator’s creed, I somehow end up freaking out in the final hour with a laundry list of things to do.  I finally saw a light at the end of my DVD project tunnel yesterday.  I should show you the adorable cover and a few details from it.  I’m very pleased with how everything turned out.  I’ve been working for hours with pictures and a few videos of my brother inlaw’s grandson.  I put them all together with music into a 35 minute slideshow DVD, complete with a custom Lightscribe label (where the label is burned directly onto the disc) and a photo birth announcement-like DVD case insert.  I actually still have three more DVDs to do for them, but those will not be nearly as time consuming as this has been. Hopefully a few hours of work, and the other three will be done, for a total of six DVDs!

So now that you know where I’ve been the last couple days…

I somehow managed to forget the ham for the ham and cheese hashbrown casserole when shopping the other night.  So I need to go by the grocery store.  I need to pick up Caleb’s prescription (Did I tell you we finally switched to Zrytec so we could get chewables!), we have to go see Santa tonight!!  I figured we could get away with skipping it this year, but Caleb seems to sense that he really  needs to talk to the man to get his list in!  So after Scott gets off work, we’re heading to the mall to see Santa.  Camera and camcorder in hand, because we’re those parents.  I plan on blowing off the $25 picture and just taking my own.  Anyone else shocked at how expensive those pictures are?!  Oh, we have to return a pile of library books.  My washer just crapped out, full of clothes and water (I think hubby will be able to fix it though). I have to arrange all the Christmas Eve delivery stuff.  The elf dropping of the tracking jammies…I haven’t even wrapped them yet!

So I’m feeling a bit frazzled.  Raise your hand if you’re feeling the same way.  If you’re smiling calmly thinking you’ve got all your ducks in a row, go away, I don’t like you very much right now!  Haha, nah just kidding.  Kind of.

Hopefully you’ll be seeing Santa pictures on here tomorrow.  The way he chats up perfect strangers in stores, I don’t think he’ll have a problem sitting with Santa, but you never know, last year was the first successful year, but it wasn’t in a mall, so there wasn’t as much pressure.

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“…I’ve seen better days…”

Remember this guy and this one?

Let’s just say they have been WELL loved.  And that this Christmas gift is actually “needed.”  He is gonna flip about that!  We are so excited.  But I thought it was really sweet…we were talking about these poor Herbies yesterday, and Caleb said it would actually be just fine if Santa brought a new wheel for the very well loved Herbie his mommy painted.

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Since I live burrowed deep inside a hole, we watched the Polar Express for the first time last year.  I was captivated by that movie, I found my eyes welling up with tears, oh, say, nine different times or so!  As you’re growing up, Christmas really does lose that ‘magical’ feel to it.  But don’t worry, when you have kids, you get it all back.  I don’t know which side is more fun to be on…laying anxiously in your bed listening intently for bells and hooves on your roof, or in the living room playing Santa and putting bicycles together until the wee hours of the morning, making sure everything is just right.  I can’t remember my parents doing anything spectacular to play into the magic of Santa, but I know I believed, probably longer than most kids.  I get very wrapped up in holiday traditions with Caleb.  Trying to give him every experience to the fullest.  Christmas obviously tops that list.  I feel like I need blueprints and an event manager for this coming Christmas Eve, but here’s what I worked up in my head during lunch today.

I’ve always gotten Caleb a special pair of pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve.  Last year, the special pajamas became “Santa’s magical tracking pajamas.”  This is Santa’s way of knowing when all little boys and girls are in their beds fast asleep.  Last year, I wrote a note and signed it from the big guy himself on very fancy paper, and the elf ran out the backdoor and around the side of the house ducking past windows flew from the North Pole and delivered the box of pajamas and the letter to our front porch.

This year, Santa’s elf will deliver the Christmas Tracking Jammies, along with Chris VanAllsburg’s The Polar Express to the doorstep.  Being from the North Pole, his little shoes are covered with snow that will be tracked on the porch (baking soda and salt mixed in a spice shaker with a shoe print cut from a paper plate as a stencil).  One of Caleb’s gifts is a Polar Express train set from Toys R’Us.  A set that just so happened to include a large silver bell on a red ribbon.  This first gift of Christmas (just the bell) will be hiding under our tree when we finish reading the book.  If I can, I even want to find red and white striped wrapping paper (or fabric) just like the movie.  Of course we’ll drink hot chocolate while we’re reading.  Caleb likes to carry his lunch over to the table (an independence thing), so he puts the plate on the palm of his hand and holds it up like a waiter and sings “Ooo, we got it!  Hot hot! Yeah we got it!  Hot Chocolate!  Here we’ve only got one rule.  Never ever let it cool!…”

Next year, we’ll be checking out the Elf on a Shelf Christmas tradition (Val I thought of you and was going to send you a link to this, but I see it has already been mentioned, lol!)  The website includes a non flash version, but I must say, the flash version is very impressive and fun.  The jist of the tradition is that an elf sits quietly in your house, from the beginning of the holiday season (around Thanksgiving) watching your child(ren)’s behavior.  They can talk to him, but he is sworn to secretcy, thus cannot talk back.  Each morning he returns from reporting in at the North Pole, to sit in a different spot around the house.

So for those of you who have children, what special traditions do you do every year with the kids?  If you don’t have kids, what do you remember from your childhood that your parents did and/or what do you plan to do with your children one day?

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Yes, instead of working on my DVD projects that are looming over me, I instead chose to decorate my blog this morning.  I must say, I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and I wish I had done it sooner, so you might just see these until mid January.  It will help ease me into the new year.  If you haven’t heard me mention it, I hate the beginning of the year.  It always feels so cold and distant.  The warmth of Christmas is gone and it is back the the hum drum.  So no griping when my decorations are still up after New Year’s Day!  :)

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