Advent- week 3

I'm tired.

But I'm done.

Would you like to share some eggnog?

A couple of days ago I had a shopping marathon...it's amazing how much I needed to pick up, considering I did the bulk of my shopping online.

The highlight of our week was the Polar Express train ride, complete with hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate (as you can see from the dregs on Kain's face), and a visit from Santa.




Last night we finally put up our tree and the kids got to open their new ornaments....

Maria's new ornament, an Irish dancer...

Kain's is kind of...odd...a big "K". He loves it because of the crystals in it. It's getting hard to pick ornaments for him.

Jack's, a Polar Express...

and for Tess, a Pooh one...

This is for Mom, a new piece for the nativity,,,Melchior.

Taking pictures of Tess has gotten trickier. She's figured out that when the red eye reduction light comes on, the flash will follow, so she's started flinching ahead of time....






...the big kids think this is hysterical fun.


Coming up for week 4?

--Today I am finishing up *almost* all of my baking. I'll still need to whip up some quick brownies to take to my mom's on Christmas as I am in charge of bringing a "child friendly" dessert. We are also catching up on cleaning and laundry...yes, we, I'm putting the children to work, they are SO, SO glad to be helpful and industrious, let me tell YOU! I need to wrap presents also...big chore.

--Tomorrow we will go to see a couple of little girl friends dance in Christmas ballet.

--Wednesday, Christmas Eve!! We will bake some brownies and make a birthday bake, and in the evening we will go to the Christmas pagaent at our parish. Maria will be singing in the choir, and Kain will be staring in his break-out performance as "cow number 2". I will be in charge of wrangling preschooler angels, and John will be in the pews with Jack enjoying the show. We will come home and have munchies and stories and send children to bed so that we can wait, exhausted, for them to finally pass out and allow us to set up the living room for....

--Thursday, Christmas morning!! Nothing new here,,,you know the drill. Gifts, stockings, filling up the landfill with wrapping paper and boxes, and then we'll pack up and go visit grandparents.

Hope everyone is having fun wrapping up their Advent as well. I'm looking forward to Christmas, but I'm also already feeling like I want to get back to our regular routines. There can be such a thing as too much sugar, too many crafts, too many disrupted routines and late bedtimes. The children would disagree.