Dear Santa

Santa is more present than ever this year.  Evan believes that he is peering down on him at all times and watching every move.  Do you understand how awesome this is for discipline purposes?  All I have to say is "Santa just saw what you did!  You better improve your behavior quickly before he decides to give your gift to another little boy."  Usually Evan sheds a tear or two and then does the most amazing turn around!  I wish I had this leverage all year long.

Evan has been counting the days 'til Christmas since Thanksgiving.  Not only does he count down the dates, but he also tracks the days of the week too.  Every day he's been saying something like,"Mama, tomorrow will be Friday, number 21 and Christmas is on number 25.  Only 4 more days until Santa comes!"  Not only am I amazed by his calendar skills, but his spirit of Christmas is what the holiday is all about.  By his request, we have read The Night Before Christmas every night since the first week of December (thank you, Grandma Bopp).  We have also watched Home Alone every day for the past two weeks and sometimes even twice in one day.

Mattie and Evan take these positions every night to watch Home Alone in our bed.

Mattie is also very spirited this year, but in a different way.  She basically repeats whatever Evan is doing or saying, but gets a real kick out of all of it.  She loves singing Christmas songs and her favorite (and funniest) saying is, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!"  She says it every time she sees Santa whether it be in person or a picture. 

So, what's on the Christmas lists this year?  Mattie is simple.  She simply told Santa she wanted presents.  When encouraged to be more specific, she always says baby doll.  I'm pretty certain she has no clue what she wants.  Besides, she just wants to play with whatever Evan is playing with.

Evan's list is a little more involved.  His list for Santa is as follows:

• race car
• football
• go cart
• little cars (matchbox)
• big car (not sure what he means by this)
• baseball glove and baseball
• light-up ball
• gloves
• boots

I think Santa can handle most of that.  I wish Christmas could stay this easy for future years, but we know they only become more specific and more expensive.  We'll have to enjoy this while it lasts! 

Evan and Mattie had breakfast with Santa yesterday and they both got to rattle off their lists while smiling pretty for the camera.  Mattie was not afraid this year, but she still showed a little resistance - she's still suspicious of that beard.

We Three Kings + a Ballerina

Evan's Pre-K class performed the Christmas Story for Belin's Holiday program this year.  I was so impressed by all of the kids' performances, but of course I was most impressed by Evan's ( I'm his mom for crying out loud). 

Playing the part of King #2, he had one very important line to say - "We must follow it!"  Not only was he right on cue, but he said it loud and with feeling! Ha!  It was awesome - just as we practiced at home.   He also belted out the Christmas songs like it was his job.  I was one proud mama.

Mattie Jane's toddler class did an elegant performance of the Nutcracker.  There were toddlers in tutus dancing all over that stage - some crying, some laughing, some standing totally still.  Mattie began the performance like a deer in headlights.  She was frantically scanning the audience looking for me, but to avoid having a repeat performance from the Halloween parade (complete breakdown), I tried to hide behind the people in front of me while I took pictures.

When she couldn't find me in the audience, the water works began.  It was heart breaking.  But I just kept hoping she would get over it and start dancing with her friends.

Mattie managed to get herself together - and she danced jumped...

 

and danced jumped...

 

and danced jumped!

And as the performance came to a close, Mattie stopped, looked around...and spotted me in the audience.  The breakdown began...

But everything was fine once we reunited.  She was back to her beautiful ballerina self.

Sadly, Robert's plane was delayed in New York due to the weather.  He made it in time to pick us all up.  And while he was highly disappointed, I'm happy I was able to share numerous pictures and video of the performances.

I absolutely live for this kind of stuff now!  What a great start to our holiday!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

I absolutely love the Christmas season - the decorating, the music, the shopping, the eating, the parties...the build up to December 25th is a natural high for me.

Christmas officially begins the weekend after Thanksgiving for us.  It's been our tradition to hunt down that perfect Christmas tree and have it up and decorated as a symbol of the start of the holiday season.

As always, we made a trip to Booth's Christmas Tree Farm in Conway to find our tree.

The past few years we chose a Leland Cypress, but we had problems with all of them drying out too quickly.  This year we opted for a Red Cedar.  The one we chose is big, full and has a nice shape - we are also very pleased with its amazing scent.  It's the first thing you smell when you walk in our house.

This sucker is so big, in fact, that we had to completely rearrange our living room just to accommodate its beastly self.  We actually like our new arrangement, so everything seemed to work out in the end.  Robert wussied out on cutting down the tree this year - I think it might've had something to do with the family beside us who brought along their chain saw and had their tree cut down in seconds.  Robert couldn't bear working that hand saw after seeing that - :)

Cutting down our own tree has to be one of my favorite experiences at Christmas time.  The kids LOVE it and there's something special about taking a tree straight from the ground to your living room.

In addition to our Christmas Tree Farm visit, we always attend the Murrells Inlet Christmas Parade.  Again, the kids LOVE it and it's actually a really great parade.  Lots of floats, great entertainment, and most importantly, lots of candy.

We are so excited for Santa's Claus this year!  I definitely have many things left to do in preparation for his arrival.  Only 10 more days!!

Now I Know My ABCs

All About Me: Age Four

Trick or Treat

If I could count on my fingers and toes how many four year-olds chose to be a superhero this year for Halloween, I would need numerous prosthetics.  We all felt especially safe with all the Spidermans, Supermans, Captain Americas, Wolverines and Batmans running around.  And we were fortunate to have one of our very own Incredible Hulks to watch over us as we asked for treats.

We were also in the presence of a sweet little bumble bee that buzzed all around Broadway scoring treats.  She was thrilled to pieces every time she saw a candy fall into her bucket - it appeared she just might favor Halloween over Christmas (maybe).

It was the Halloween parade at school that wasn't such a thrilling experience for our little bee - in fact, she was very unhappy.  The walk across the stage was confusing, therefore scary for her.  Her reaction says it all...

Evan, on the other hand, was too cool for school...

Halloween, as always, was a sugar induced evening ending with a crash - but the kids enjoyed themselves to no end and Robert and I scored our own treats when they went to bed.  It was a great night for everyone.

Some other pics...