Christmastime

OK, so today is the seventh day of Christmas. Just a reminder, it ain't over yet.

With that in mind, here are a few photos from the season that I had as yet failed to post. Please enjoy.

At the moment of this picture, James is saying, "Our tree broke! Now we need to find a new Christmas tree!"
Here James is playing the role of Santa driving his sleigh (thanks, Daddy!).

And here's our annual placement of the tree topper. Note: this year James recognized that Santa wasn't the appropriate tree topper and said, "Not Santa. We need a star." Yes, that or an angel. Maybe next year.
James made a painting as a gift for his cousin Ezra. He chose the color himself. Then he began painting himself! His words, "I'm James. James the red engine."

On the Second Day of Christmas, we had our first real family movie night (thank you, Disney Channel). Toy Story 1 came on at 6:30, and we enjoyed it together on the couch whilst eating popcorn. Very fun!

(Upcoming posts: Cousins unite!, Annual New Year's Eve Playdate)

Blizzard of 2010

So, you may or may not know that we got walloped with snow here last night.

It started snowing lightly early in the day yesterday, and James immediately put on his snow boots. It didn't amount to much yesterday. Just before dinner, it picked up, and so we took James out for a quick walk in the snow, but the white out was starting, so it wasn't very fun. James, however, wanted to stay outside and shovel. Unfortunately we don't have a small sized shovel yet, so he and Daddy did a bit of shoveling with the full sized shovels.

This morning we woke up to a few feet of snow. It was dumping all night and so very windy. Our cars were absolutely buried.

Dan was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a snowblower, and it still took hours upon hours to clear.

James and I went out for a little while before lunch. The snow was up to James's waist
and not sticky enough to make snowballs or snowmen, so we basically trudged around making trails and paths through the snow.

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, James was rather excited. He quite enjoyed the building of the creche during our church service. This year he carried Mary up to the altar, and was so serious and into it. Cute! I think his favorite hymn of the night was "Angels We Have Heard on High." He was singing it as we put on jammies later in the night!

After church Grandma & Grandpa joined us for the feast of the fish. (No seven fishes here, just shrimp.) We paid a short visit to the neighbors' then headed back home to put on jammies and get ready for bed. No late night meltdowns this year. Although James did yell at Grandpa for eating Santa's cookies, "Stop eating those cookies, Grandpa! Those are Santa's cookies!" James then plated the cookies-- five chocolate cookies and three chocolate chip cookies and put out a cup of milk. Then it was time for The Polar Express and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

James didn't sleep particularly well, so he woke up rather groggy. (One of the times he'd woken during the night, he called out "Santa is in the chimney.") Thus he was not quite as ebullient as we'd imagined he might be as he walked into the living room. However, he was quite happy to see the gifts. He also liked finding his (which read "James" in big letters). We did take a break for some Christmas pancakes.

It was relatively calm, and when we finished opening gifts, we had a little time to relax and play before heading to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

James was excited to see that Santa had left gifts for him in Ramsey as well.

Most exciting was the Hess truck, which was one of the two things James was hoping Santa would bring (the other being a driver for the train that goes around the tree...).

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This year James joined us to watch Elf, and even acted out a few scenes. The first was the Buddy vs. Gimbell's Santa scene; "I'm taking off your beard, Santa!" James said to Dan. The other was the mail room scene; James was breaking out the dance moves-- hilarious!

Once we got the car packed up and started heading home, James fell asleep almost immediately. So Dan and I enjoyed some Christmas tunes and drove around looking at the lights. James was good and asleep when we pulled into the driveway, so we successfully transferred him from the car to his bed where he slept like a log all night.

Recent Jamesisms

Here are some things James likes to say lately:

• "Just one minute. One minute, Mommy." (said whilst putting up his hand in protest to the request being made of him.)
• "Oh, I looove it! It's my best favorite."
• "Mommy, can you do me a favor?"
• "Ooh, I have a good idea."

He also likes to take on other identities and assign coordinating names to Dan and me. Popular personas:

• James-Mickey, Mommy- Minnie Mouse, Daddy- Goofy
• James- Santa, Mommy- Mrs. Clause or elf, Daddy- reindeer or elf or Mrs. Clause
• James- Buzz Lightyear or Woody, Mommy- Jessie, Daddy- Woody or Buzz
• James- Bumble Bee Boy, Mommy- Ladybug Girl, Daddy- the dog from the book

Also, James has been singing for us quite a bit. Some of his favorite tunes:

• "Santa Clause is Coming to Town"
• "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"
• The days of the week song

Three Years Old

James woke up yesterday morning to me singing, "Happy Birthday to You," to which he promptly said, "Stop singing, Mommy! Don't sing that."

I reminded him that it was his birthday as he headed into the kitchen. There a gift bag awaited him (filled with Toy Story figurines), and his mood shifted. Soon he was proclaiming, "I'm three! I'm not two!" for all to hear.

When I picked him up after school, he started singing, "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear me-e, Happy Birthday to me!" So cute!

We had planned to have a festive family viewing of "The Best of James" (the red engine), a DVD one of his friends gave him for his birthday, last night, but James said, "I'm tired. Let's read stories, Daddy." Hmm, could someone be growing up?

The Claw....

We just finished making the cupcakes for James's class tomorrow.

(By the bye, three years ago right now I was in the hospital in labor! Crazy!)

What a winning combination!

On Saturday, Santa came to the Maywood Train Station! James was thrilled to go to the station, and then quite pleased to find that the big guy in red was there.

As we stood outside in line, James quite enjoyed the entertainment provided by two high school girls standing in the bed of a pickup truck. One played guitar and the other sang. James was bouncing to the beat and dancing away. He momentarily forgot about Santa, and was moving gradually toward the "stage." So cute.

When we made it inside, James smiled up until he got into Santa's lap, then he resumed his freaked out look. It was fine though, and he high fived Santa on the way out.

Afterwards we explored the engine and caboose parked at the station. A very fun start to the morning.

Toy Story 3 Birthday

Since James has been so fond of Woody, Buzz and the gang since seeing "the movie" last summer, and he's turning 3, we had a Toy Story 3 birthday party for him today.

Grandpa and Grandma were ever so gracious and let us have the shindig in their home.

As the guests arrived, they played nicely together with some of James's toys. The magnifying glass was a huge hit. Once everyone had arrived, we played pin-the-tail on Bullseye (Woody's horse). That was a pretty great time.

Then we made bracelets/instruments/ornaments with pipe cleaners, bells and beads. This was not really Toy Story themed, but the kids liked it and could do it independently. I had kid-tested it on James earlier in the week, and he had a blast. Today I guess he was over it because he just kept pushing the beads all over the place with a truck or his hands. Nice.

After that it was pizza time (James ate fruit, veggies, crackers and cheese). I had planned to play Hot Mr. Potato Head, and to make toilet paper roll rockets (in honor of Buzz Lightyear), but oh well.

There was some more toy playing and general merriment (especially on the part of James & Chase) then it was cake time. Everyone returned to the table and donned their alien hats.

James quite enjoyed having his buddies sing "Happy Birthday," and he popped right up in his chair to blow out the candles on cue. Then the kids got their special Toy Story alien cupcakes while the parents had the layer cake.

After cake, there was more free play which mostly involved playing with the helium balloons. Then James was a gracious host and thanked each of his guests personally whilst giving them their goody bag.

He opened his gifts a little while after everyone left. Well, I should say he started opening his gifts. The first item he opened was a set of four puzzles all of which he put together before moving on to the next gift. Gift #2 was a crane truck which he proceeded to play with for quite a while.

"James, do you want to open another present?"

"No, I just like my truck."

Once we told him he could keep the truck and the other gifts, he was game and opened the remaining gifts all of which were quite fantastic as well. He played his heart out with his new toys all afternoon and evening. Then the exhausted Birthday Boy fell asleep on the way home and is snug in his bed now.

Such fun!

Christmastime

James is quite enjoying the Christmas season this year. In fact, yesterday morning he came into our bedroom and asked, "Is today Christmas Day?"

On Saturday night we went to Ramsey's Home for the Holidays. They shut down the main street to traffic, and then had a light parade. James loved it!

We walked around town and got a coloring book; saw firefighters; got candy, lots of cookies and hot chocolate; and met Santa!

It was finally time for the parade, and James sat himself right down on the curb. "Do we have our feet in the street, Mommy?" He enjoyed all the floats, musicians, and rescue vehicles.

At the end, James popped up to follow Santa down the street. It was SO cute. He was going in a beeline for Santa's float. Finally, the cold caught up with us (sitting on the curb was chilling!), and we headed for the car.

So fun!

What We Learned Today

. . . always check out the bottom of the slide before you head down.

James and I went to "the fish playground" briefly after school today. This was after going home briefly because Mommy cannot go to the playground in a skirt and high heels. At least not when it is so cold outside.

So, by the time I got changed and we got our coats and mittens on and loaded ourselves back into the car, there really wasn't much time to spend at the playground before A) it was too dark and B) it was time to go home for supper.

Darkness was fast approaching, so I told James it would be a quick trip. Little did we know just how fast.

After running a few laps around the little playground in a fun game of chase, James climbed up the ladder then jumped down the steps to the platform. Then he darted back upstairs with Mommy in pursuit and launched himself down the big corkscrew slide... which had a big puddle at the bottom, as it turned out.

Splash! he slid right into the sloshy mess before I could even get down the stairs. Yuck. And thus ended our outing.