Preschool Christmas Program and Party

Kaitlyn's preschool Christmas program was this week. Do you see her? She's in the middle, right behind the girl with the green bow. After singing the songs around the house over and over for the past few weeks, she got a little case of stage fright and refused to sing onstage--along with about half the kids in the program. In fact, if it hadn't been for the four-year olds who sang nice and loud, it would have been mostly silent. I think I saw about four of the 2's and 3's actually singing :) I can understand why they were nervous though. It looked like the paparazzi had invaded our building when the kids walked in. I think every parent and grandparent there (us included) had a camera in one hand clicking away and a video camera in the other. Flashes were going off everywhere. You'd have thought that an A-list celebrity had just walked in! We parents are truly a silly bunch sometimes!

After the program, the kids dismissed to their classes for their Christmas party. And we had two special visitors--Santa and Mrs. Claus! If you look closely, you may be able to see the chocolate on her chin that was left over from the snowman doughnut she scarfed down before getting on Santa's lap. This child truly loves her sweets. I was waiting for our sometimes "too observant" child to notice that this Santa looked different from the one we saw at church. But fortunately, she was too caught up in the excitement to notice.

We simply love Kaitlyn's teachers this year (Miss Betsy and Miss Jeannie). They are so perfect for her and she has learned so much. She thinks her teachers are the greatest and was eager to give them presents and have a picture taken with them.

Kaitlyn with Mommy and Daddy (Ethan was at his Mother's Day Out program)

Kaitlyn with Mommy, Daddy and Gran.

Tis the Season

Now that my first semester as a doctoral student is officially over, I can finally get around to all the other things that have been put on the back burner for the past few weeks...like our blog!

We've been very busy with yuletide fun lately. We put up our tree right after Thanksgiving. If we're going to spend all that time and effort decorating the house, I want to enjoy it for a nice long time :) The kids were excited to see all the shiny, glittery stuff coming down from the attic and were all too eager to help decorate.

Although Ethan looks a little bah-humbug in the picture below, I assure you that he was actually having fun overall. By our fifteenth (futile) attempt to get both kids looking and smiling at the same time, he was all done with the merriment.

Kaitlyn was really into decorating the tree this year. I had a hard time convincing her, though, not to put four ornaments on the same branch. So I finally just gave up on that one and did some stealth redistribution after she went to bed. Ethan was bored after the first two ornaments and left us to go play. Probably just as well.

Our first big event of the season was our church's annual Family Breakfast. It's a time of food, crafts, singing and, of course, pictures with Santa. We did the pictures first to get them out of the way while moods were still good. And the picture below says it all about our time with the big guy this year.

Kaitlyn sweetly smiling and Ethan making his unhappiness well known to all. Every kid needs a good screaming-on-Santa's-lap picture though. I personally think the picture is adorable :)

After quick crafts and breakfast, we headed back to the auditorium to take pictures with the festive backdrop. Again, Kaitlyn smiling sweetly...

Ethan, of course, is not interested in (1) smiling, (2) looking at the camera or (3) staying in one spot. I was tempted to post a series of photos showing just how squirmy he was, but I'm sure I would be the only one who would find that amusing.

Here's a nice look at his snowman sweater, though. Maybe that's why he was so uncooperative for pictures...payback for having to wear the cute sweater.

Next was Opryland Hotel, which was oozing with Christmas cheer and lights. One of our favorites is this enormous Christmas tree. As Kaitlyn would say, "It's the biggest tree EVER!"

And we got a little Winter Wonderland as an early Christmas present this year. It rarely snows in December here, but this year we were "treated" to an inch or two of snow. I say "treated" because it was SO cold outside that the kids couldn't really play outside for more than a few minutes. Ethan wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. He was perplexed by his mittens and baffled by the feel of the snow under his feet. But he was happy to walk around and explore for a bit.

Kaitlyn, on the other hand, is an old pro at this now. She immediately started on a snowman. She obviously didn't get very far before it was time to go in, but it was good enough for her. He hung around for a couple of days, too.

Personally, I hope that we fulfilled our snow quota for several weeks!! I don't like being outside in the cold!!