Christmas Morning

Cooper had a great Christmas.  You never know what they are going to really like at this age, but I have to say he loved his bike, the radio controlled police car, and the Nerf guns.  Surprising winners were also the snow globe and the light-up shoes.  He also was very happy to see that Santa put the star on top of the tree.





Sorry for the Mommy multi-tasking, but I was talking to my little sis who decided to give us a terrific early Christmas present.  Welcome to the world Brodie.  Cooper can't wait to meet you.

 

 

 

 

Being silly with AK and Uga.

 

And stopping for a little chocolate break.

I have to brag on my husband because I am going to finally get my wedding photos.  After procrastinating on making the final decision 10 years ago, we never ordered our wedding photos.  J tracked him down and we will soon have the negatives.  A friend has agreed to help us get them printed.  Small miracles do happen.

Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours.

Advent Calendar

I wasn't as good this year taking pictures of Cooper with his Advent Calendar.  I will say the first day was a funny one.  The night before, he was a terror from the time I picked him up from daycare.  It was so bad, I sent him straight up to bed as soon as we got home.  I almost forgot to put out the calendar, which Grammy buys and wraps all the presents and leaves for me (Thank you Grammy).  It gets harder ever year to find things small enough to fit in the little squares, so I end up numbering some of the presents and he has to match them up from a basket.  For the first day, I made sure one fits in the square since I wasn't sure how much he remembered from the year before.

The next morning, he was very excited to hear that he could open up a present.  He tore into the little package, and found a rock.  He looked at me and AK and asked if it really was a rock.  We told him yes, and AK told him maybe coal was next if he kept up last night's act.  Unfortunately, he has no idea what coal is and being a four year-old boy, he was happy to get a rock.  Actually, it was geode.

Good thing he got those safety glasses with his birthday chainsaw.

The other thing he has been fascinated with this year is snowglobes.  Whenever we see one, he has asked if he could have one.  I suggested that he ask Santa.

He was very excited to find this Nativity one in his Advent Calendar.

I have seen several neat ideas from other bloggers where they put family activity ideas into their calendars.  Hopefully, next year with be uneventful enough for us to incorporate that into the calendar.

Tea with Santa

This weekend our pool hosted Tea with Santa.  Actually it was red punch and sugar cookies, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

There was a guy singing Christmas songs and a puppet show.

And cookies.

And Santa and his elves doing the Hokey Poky.  Don't ask!

And time to talk to Santa!

 And to give great big hugs.

And cheesing it up for the camera.

And seriously eyeing this Christmas tree sucker.

And making a craft.

All in an hour and a half.  Whew!  I'm exhausted, but glad Cooper had a great Santa experience.  He was asking where his sleigh was when we went to leave, but then he decided he probably drove.  His sleigh might be in the shop getting fixed.

Gingerbread House

This was Cooper's second year decorating a gingerbread house (and thanks to Papa for buying the materials while he was here).  For comparison, check out 2010.  There was less diving into all the food this year.  Cooper was very intent on decorating, then the sweet tooth kicked in.

 Just getting started.

 Hard at work.

 Concentrating!

My camera ate the one where we were both smiling, but this is so typical of him these days.

I love this shot.  There's a lot of sugar on that table.

The Finished Product

Wordless Wednesday - All I Want for Christmas

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, check out 5 minutes for mom, Go Graham Go, Two of a Kind, Working on a Full house and Parenting by Dummies!

Bass Pro Shop

Cooper loves going to the Bass Pro Shop.  It is usually a place he and his Dad go to for a little male bonding time.  My Dad and I picked Cooper up from school today and drove up there.  He got so excited when he saw the sign.  His eyes just lit up.

If you have never been at Christmas, they have an entire Santa's village setup (with all the toys you can buy there - nice marketing ploy) and a Santa is available for pictures.  I need to scan in the photo, but Cooper just as well could be standing in the next room for how close he is to Santa.  He was not sure of Santa at all.  He did eventually give him a high five.

 This would have made the perfect Christmas card photo.

We even got out of there with only buying dinner and a piece of fudge we split three ways.

Here are pictures from 2009 and 2010.

Elf on the Shelf

I succumbed to peer pressure this year and started the Elf on the Shelf.  I was thinking it would help with some of the normal four year-old behavior, but I didn't realize how much work it would be.



I'm not sure where the name came from, but the week before Christmas he tried to change his name to Hans Solo.  I told you before, it's never dull.

So, I did well to remember to move him most nights, never mind being creative like others out there.

This was as creative as I got.  That is until a certain someone made Bunny fly by turning on the ceiling fan.  I will say that he didn't touch him because he didn't want him to lose his magic.  So maybe it worked a little bit.

Will I try it again next year, hopefully if I can remember to do it.

A Christmas Bite

I don't know about you, but it makes me want a doughnut too.

Oh my smokes

As Cooper and I were driving around town tonight, we took a detour to see a few houses with crazy Christmas lights.  I got a picture of one house until my phone decided to eat it.

Cooper was so excited that he exclaimed "oh my smokes."  I tried to correct him to "Holy Smokes," but he was insistent on his way.  I think I like his version better.  Have you seen anything lately that made you want to say "oh my smokes?"

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Cooper's Christmas List 2010

Cooper thinks he has this all figured out.  Maybe he does, but J and I haven't a clue.

When I picked him up from school, his teacher shared this story with me.  She said she wrote it all down because he was so animated about it.  He was remembering how Santa Poppa showed him the bells from his sleigh with their recent visit.

He has since changed his order to a big box of snowballs, which we neglected to go out and gather after the latest snowfall.  Maybe we can still stick one in the freezer.  But we are stumped on the "Big Daddy Present."  And now another kid in his class wants one too.  I'm sure his parents are very pleased with Cooper.

We had a discussion trying to figure this present out.  He said that it was big and orange, and had a star on it.  Still no clue.  After this went on for several days, I asked him if maybe it was a bike.  His response, "Yeah!" 

We are keeping our fingers crossed.  He said this morning that he wanted lots of presents under his little tree in his room and the big tree downstairs.  either way, all this should be a very interesting Christmas morning.

He has been so funny and animated with all the stories he tells us.  He recently spent part of a snow day playing with Play Dough while reciting the Night Before Christmas with intermingled verses of Jingle Bells.  Cooper also thinks that Santa is coming to put the star on top of our tree.  We are definitely leaving that for a little Christmas magic.

Hope you are having a wonderful time prepping for the family time to come.

Letter from Santa

Every year Cooper gets a very special letter from Santa.  Somehow he always knows exactly what Cooper has been up to.

Gingerbread House Time

Cooper's class spent some time putting together gingerbread houses.  Let's just say that lots of icing, graham crackers, gumdrops, marshmallows, and other yummy treats decorated more than just the houses.  Several tummies were full after this adventure.

Cooper paced himself pretty well between decorating and consuming.