Nutcracker Workshop

Georgia and I went to her school for some quality, creative time together at the Kindergarten Nutcracker Workshop. They provided the Pringles can and a few decorations and we raided my craft closet at home for all the special touches. As you can see, no ordinary looking nutcracker would do...we made Princess Snowflake. She was covered in jewels, large snowflake sequins, and even had a iridescent skirt (leftovers from Halloween). She is also sporting some very curly hair, thanks to a donation from Georgia's friend, Marina, who also bucked tradition and made a very pretty ballerina. It was a really good time, despite a few hot glue burns for Mom.

It's Christmas. Give a Garmin.

I love the Christmas season, but dread hearing Christmas music, now that I have kids. They don't like the traditional standards, so no White Christmas or I'll Be Home For Christmas or Silent Night. They opt instead for Frosty, Rudolph, Jingle Bells, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And we must hear them over and over and over for maximum enjoyment. The only compromise is Brody's favorite again this year, which is Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys. It's catchy, but not something you would expect a kid to pick with all the annoying seasonal songs out there.
Which brings me to my point. Brody is learning to sing and Georgia often helps him fill in the gaps when he forgets words. But the words are often not the correct ones which makes for some semi-silent parental snickering in the front seat. Today, I distinctly heard Georgia continually humming Carol of the Bells, which I personally do not like because of a junior high band instructor and the chimes, but that is a different story. As she hummed on, she kept garbling some words in the middle instead of saying the actual lyrics of merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas. I asked her what she was singing and so she sang "Give a, give a, give a, give a Garmin." It didn't register for a while, until I realized she had seen the commercial for the Garmin GPS. Christmas commercialism at its best.

Breakfast With Santa

The kids had a good time at the club for Breakfast With Santa. This was the first year, Georgia has ever approached Santa to sit on his lap. They took a picture of her for an ornament, but I forgot to snap one myself. I will try to scan it in. Brody stood in line, but chickened out at the last minute.

Georgia ran around endlessly with her friend, Marina, with Brody close behind.

Santa's elves did magic tricks, juggled, rode unicycles, and told jokes, much to the delight of all the kids.

Gingerbread Houses

My friend Darci hosted a gingerbread house making party for the kids. What a wonderful way to get rid of that excess Halloween candy! Here is Georgia's creation. You can tell she was sampling it during mid-construction by the tell-tale icing on her face.

Seasons Greetings

Here are some pictures that we took today in our quest for a decent Christmas card photo.

I truly love trying to get three other people to cooperate with you for pictures (including one grumpy husband). Add cold and tons of rain, and lots of other people getting pictures made.... Now that is a recipe for one fine afternoon! Oh well, the kids took some cute pictures.

Lollipop. Lollipop. Oh, lolli, lolli, lolli....... Lollipop!

Just a few pictures of the kids really enjoying some big lollipops that I brought home. It was hard not to take a picture of them trying to stuff the whole thing in their mouths. Too funny.

Candy Land Ball

Chris and Georgia attended the Daddy Daughter Dance that my Junior League chapter put on as part of the Festival of Trees Fundraiser. A picture of them together will be coming soon. I was working the event and left the house early and despite carrying a camera all night and taking pictures of other people, I could not get one of Georgia with her Daddy. She had a fabulous time and Chris was a trouper. It was basically about 150 girls all dressed up and running around playing with each other, not really dancing with their daddies. The big draws are the raffle boxes for some of the kid-themed trees: Webkinz, Hannah Montana, Barbie, etc... and the live auction for the bigger ticket items. I think Georgia would have had the American Girl package easily, if she had stayed with Chris instead of running off and playing. She hooked up with her new friend, Lexi, and that was that.

Turkey Music

Georgia participated in her first live performance tonight. The kindergarten and first grades at her new school put on a Fall/Thanksgiving music festival for their parents. It was very cute with lots of kids singing and dancing and lots of kids in varying stages of attentiveness on stage. There were many songs about fat turkeys, turkeys not wanting to be eaten, turkeys dancing, etc... She did well playing the wood block during her feature song. I had forgotten to tell Chris that she was doing this, so he was very surprised and very proud.























I was just glad that there weren't any of those recorders (the flute kind, not the recording kind) in the program. She told me that they had been practicing with them in music class. I am sorry, but those things make the worst noise. My dad thought that he would be funny and buy Georgia one when she was two years old. I thought that I would go insane. Somehow, we unfortunately lost it in the move. Sorry, Dad.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I was trying to take pictures around the two men who kept moving about with their video cameras. I had intended to record it, but that just didn't happen. Hopefully, will get my act together before her play next week!

The Usual Suspects

Just a couple of pics of Brody and his MMO crew the day before Halloween and posing with his "Mr. Pumpkin Head" creation.

Dino Roars and My "Goof"

The dinos are back. I turned around from working on the computer and saw that Brody had lined them all up. I even got a 'roar demonstration' for each one. I guess they got bored of hiding in my cookware. That is my little one. He is in such a funny phase and learning such oddball words. Whenever he does something really silly I call him 'Goof', which he thinks is hilarious. He is now calling everyone in the house 'Goof', but it is Momma Goof, Daddy Goof, and JoJo Goof. I also got the feeling that we eat out too much when he went from saying 'more milk' to 'refill please.' I am worried that the next time I am making dinner he will say something like 'I would like to start with the bruschetta.'