Toy Land

Well, Santa ate all his cookies and left behind a tricycle for Brody and an Ariel's Princess Salon for Georgia. The salon is an interactive toy and pretty neat, although I heard it tell her, "Let's cut and style our hair!" Hopefully the play scissors will suffice. I had a horrible thought that she might start looking for the real scissors if the play ones did not get the job done.
Christmas was quiet this year with just me, Chris and the kids. A little sad with family so far away. Nevertheless, the far away family sent many presents and the living room looked like we were a small testing lab for a toy company. Speaking of toys. Brody loves dinosaurs and received two new ones to add to his growing herd. He takes them everywhere and we have seen them enjoying the tricycle, hanging out in Georgia's barbie horse stable, and jumping through the basketball hoop. They are pretty energetic and seem to get around. I found another taking a siesta in one of my cooking pots this evening. I will have to catch them in a photo so that people don't think that I am crazy.

Hark! The Hairless Angels Sing...Brody Dances

During this time of year, I keep several Christmas CDs in the car so Georgia and I can fight over hearing our favorite songs. It is really funny to hear kids sing what they think are the lyrics. Yesterday, from the back seat I heard Hark! The Hairless Angels Sing instead of the Herald ones. Diet Dr. Pepper almost came out of my nose. One of those little priceless moments.
On the car ride back from preschool, Georgia actually let the disc play past "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys started to play. I like the song, but it is not one of my traditional favorites. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw Brody totally jamming out--head shaking, hands clapping, legs moving. It is something Chris affectionately calls his "Little Stevie" in honor of Stevie Wonder. We have seen it quite a few times and he does not seem to have a particular music genre that sets him off yet. It just makes me laugh out loud when I see it because it is so cute...and not because I am his mother!

Can I be a ballerina?

Today, Georgia and I spent some quality mother-daughter time together and experienced her first ballet, The Nutcracker. She was so excited that she got to wear her fancy, new red dress. I think that it is so entertaining to watch little girls in their best dresses. They act so prim and proper, resist covering up with a coat, and often spin continuously, just to make sure that everyone is watching them. My child is no different and during intermission, she pirouetted and pranced all throughout the lobby. She is a natural ham, so the more that people watched, the more she performed. At the end of the show, after marveling at all the beautiful dancers and their sparkling costumes, she asked, "Can I be a ballerina?" She was especially impressed with the children her age that were in the production. My favorite part was looking over and seeing her face all lit up as she watched the dancing and listened to the music.

Would you like duct tape with that?

The kids are on Christmas overload. I think the lights hypnotize them and make them slightly kooky. I have had to move the nativity set collections to a high shelf because I got tired of telling Georgia that baby Jesus cannot play with Barbie or go for a ride on a tractor. The house is looking pretty festive, the tree is decorated, and the presents are under the tree. Make that WERE under the tree. Now there is just an empty void and a tree skirt under its branches. I now have a hall closet stacked with wrapped packages, which is as safe place (at the moment) since Brody cannot yet turn door knobs. He started by innocently poking at the boxes and progressed to ripping at the paper and quickly glancing around the room to see if anyone was watching. Of course the sound of tearing paper does seem to get one's attention. As does your other child making that "Uuhhmmmm" sound. As in "Uuhhmmmm Mom, Brody is tearing all the presents!"
I later found him climbing on a homemade "gift box ladder" to reach an ornament on the tree that caught his eye. My little construction expert was standing on the top of three boxes and flashed that killer smile of his as soon as he saw me. I thought that I was being intelligent by shoving the larger boxes behind the tree, but one should never underestimate the willpower of a toddler. There he was, not five minutes later showing off his jumping/dancing skills on a box that was particularly bouncy. I think he waits for me to do laundry or load the dishwasher and then makes his move.
So I patched the holes and wondered if I should pick up some duct tape in holiday colors in case the damage becomes more extensive. There are still 19 days until Christmas and I don't know if the wrapping paper will make it. I swear I saw him studying a door knob this afternoon.

All Aboard

Today we had lunch with Santa on a train ride from Monticello. Lunch was a PB&J sandwich, but the scenery still covered with snow made up for it. It was FREEZING out, but the kids were good sports. Georgia was a little disappointed when she realized that she would have to share her time with Santa, but perked up when he sat at the front of the train car very near to where we were sitting. She had no problem telling him that she wanted various barbie items for Christmas and that her brother liked trucks. Both of them posed for a photo without the usual expected kid reaction when posing for picture with the big guy. It must be the shopping mall that makes kids cry.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well I guess winter is official. Our first winter storm came and dusted us with two inches of snow. Too bad there was a nice layer of ice underneath that made driving to and from pre-school very interesting, if not extremely slow. The temperature has been about 9 degrees, which will warm up to a balmy 25 (maybe) or so degrees by noon. Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Texas anymore. Nevermind that Georgia and Brody do not know what thermal underwear is and are giving me annoyed looks as I say, "Yes, you do have to wear a coat.....and hat...and mittens." Temperature aside, it was nice to wake up to such a pretty, white scene outside.