It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I am really great at taking pictures, but that's kind of where it ends sometimes. I had planned to write this post at the beginning of December, but now it's almost the end of January. Oh well...better late than never!

Anyway, Brendan was such a great little helper as I decorated for Christmas. He was really excited to help and loved pulling out all of the decorations.

Every year on Thanksgiving weekend we drive to the Christmas tree lot and pick out our tree. Here's our tree getting prepped for the ride home.
Brendan with his lovely "cheese" face.
And daddy getting the tree loaded up on top of the car.And here is Brendan the next evening helping me hang ornaments.
The next weekend we started a new family tradition. Justin has become quite the boat guy and wanted us to go to the Parade of Lights. Boat owners can enter their boat in the parade and decorate with lights and such. Boy do they go all out! I was impressed. Who knows, maybe we'll enter next year ;-)
We docked out on the lake to watch the parade so Justin let Brendan be his skipper and help him "drive the boat". Brendan started calling Justin "Captain Daddy". Too funny!
The weather was perfect, the boats were beautiful and it was so much fun watching them go by while listening to Christmas music. I decided for next year we need to pack a little hot chocolate and invite some friends.
A few weekends later we went to our playgroup's annual Christmas party. The boys have fun playing together and we usually plan a craft or two. This year I brought the sugar cone Christmas tree activity my first graders do every year. The boys loved it!



Even though I am always ready to bid farewell to Christmas and all of it's festivities, I'm kind of missing it already. I guess I only have 11 more months to go before we do it all over again!

A Star is Born

Brendan has his first school performance a few weeks ago. This was a BIG deal for both him and me. He was so excited for his "sing along" and I was excited to see my little boy perform. Here he is waiting in the audience for his class to take their turn.

His teachers asked each child to wear their red uniform shirt, blue shorts, and Christmas knee socks. Have you ever tried finding little boy Christmas knee socks? Yeah, that's right...they don't exist. These are women's socks (shhhh, don't tell Brendan or he might be mortified when he gets older ;-)
He was totally that kid waving at me saying "Hi Mom!" in between songs. I couldn't have been beaming anymore than I was! I LOVED it! They sang three songs and since Brendan had just started this new school he has only been practicing the songs for two weeks before the big performance. He did his best to sing along though during Zip a Dee Do Dah and the two other songs which I can't remember now. Don't worry though, I bought the DVD of his 3 minutes of fame so I can remember this moment forever!
All that spotlight really goes to your head ;-)
Posing with the baby Jesus, who apparently is way more approachable than Santa. When given the choice of who to talk to Brendan gladly chose baby Jesus. Good choice son.
I hear they have a Spring sing along too so I can't wait to see my baby perform again!!!

The Polar Express

Ever since I had heard of the Polar Express train in Williams, AZ I dreamed of taking Brendan. I waited and waited until I thought he was old enough to get the magic and excitement and would remember going. This was our year!

I bought the train tickets back in October because they sell out quickly. We were set to go! And after a stressful car repair therefore causing a late departure to Arizona, getting stuck in traffic, realizing that we were heading into a different time zone therefore missing our train, frantically calling the train station to see if we could get on the 8:00 p.m. train rather than the 6:30 p.m. train we weren't going to make, WE MADE IT!!! And here we are...

Cold and starving!!!
But we made it on the train and boy was it fun! We had some great cookies,
got our tickets punched,
listened to the story of the Polar Express,
and saw Santa!
Brendan was and still is terrified of Santa. He freaked out a little when I tried to turn around to see Santa as he got on our train car. Apparently making eye contact with Santa ranks right up there with sitting on his lap! You just don't do it, at least according to Brendan. He did, however, accept a bell from Santa but there was no talking to him or taking a picture. No way, no how.
So that was our trip...a long drive, a bit stressful, but all for a fun short magical train ride for one awesome little boy. It was worth it ;-)