December Dashing

This is my last Christmas 2013 post....I promise! But, I do have a few more pictures to share from a few December outings that we took, so I have to do one final one.

One weekend in particular, we were super busy. Dave had his work Christmas party, my mom wanted us to come watch the pageant her church was doing, and the Alger side of the family had their Christmas dinner together.

We took the older kids over to my parents' that Saturday while Dave and I headed out for a dinner date with Reid in tote. His company always hosts a fancy Christmas meal at an upscale restaurant so it's always something fun to look forward to.

While we were off enjoying filet mignon and crabcakes (not our typical meal as you might imagine), the kids were having a good time too. NaNa took on the feat of trying to bake Christmas cookies and decorate her tree with their help.

Hadley has a fascination with snowmen. "Man! Man!" she says.

Growing up there were two ice cream cone Christmas ornaments that were among my favorites. Hadley is taking a taste of one here.

Caleb tasting the other

Since we got back so late that evening, Caleb and Hadley stayed the night with my parents and woke up to a breakfast treat that Pop had in store. My dad always has something up his sleeve and that day it was a Santa Claus pancake, complete with a banana beard, a strawberry hat, and a blueberry smile.

Dave and I got there later that morning and headed to church with Mom to see the Christmas play. Hadley was having a hard time sitting through it at first, but finally she settled down. My two tired boys konked out though and missed the end of the presentation.

After going back to my parents' for lunch and naps, it was time for the Alger party. There weren't as many folks there this year, but those who came had a good time. My cousin Jamie dressed up as Santa again and the kids (and the grown-ups) loved it. Ironically, my kids were the ones who were most excited when Old St. Nick showed up on the scene.

Sleeping like usual

Even though we don't try to convince Caleb that Santa is real or tell him that he'll bring presents Christmas morning, he still definitely believes in this jolly ol' elf. He has good reasoning too. Not long ago, he told me that Thomas the train and Santa were real because he saw them when we went on the Day Out With Thomas event over the summer, but that Mickey Mouse was not real. Wonder if we went to Disney World if that opinion would change quickly?

Anyway, when "Santa" walked down the hall and Caleb got his first glimpse, he began squealing like crazy. The next thing we knew he was running around in circles, yelling: "Where's Pop?! Where's Pop?!" He couldn't believe his eyes and didn't want his granddaddy to miss out on this excitement.

You'd think Hadley would be too young to know much about Santa, but she was happy as could be to greet this jolly fellow. She ran right up to him with a smile on her face and received a bag of treats.

Caleb got his treat bag too!

Hadley took it upon herself to take the rest of the treat bags out of his basket and hand them to the other kids around her.

Reid might not be quite as fond of Santa.

Grandma, all her sisters, and Uncle Shirley

The following weekend, we decided to do the "Bethlehem Experience" again at a local church as our December family outing. The wait was a long one as we stood around ready to see what they had in store for us this year. This was difficult with three little ones who had a hard time standing in line for an hour, especially since we had to tote our little chunk the whole time because we didn't bring his stroller. However, they did have a few treats along the way that helped make it a bit more pleasant. In hindsight, Dave probably should have just taken Caleb and I kept the other two at home since they are too little to really understand much about it, but at least we got out as a family for a while. 

Baby Chunk Chunk

Santa! Caleb didn't hesitate at all. As soon as he saw this mythical character, away he ran right for him.

He did tell Dave and I that this was a "different" Santa. Guess it's a good thing we aren't trying to convince him Santa is real; this kid is just too smart sometimes.

Hadley went running for him too. She didn't climb on his lap, but she sure did jabber to him about something.

Maybe she was telling him where the cookies were. :)

We let Caleb and Hadley each have some of the refreshments while we waited, but it was hard explaining to a one-year-old why she could only have one cookie when there was a whole table of them sitting right next to her. What a mean mommy!

After a while, Hadley decided she wanted to be held too. At first Mommy sufficed, but soon this daddy's girl wanted Dave.

Caleb liked watching the quartet. 

Finally, it was our turn. Caleb was in for quite a surprise to see a donkey, a sheep, and an alpaca.

They had posters of scrolls with the prophesies and biblical account of the birth of Christ. Dave read them to Caleb as we went, explaining in terms he could understand what all this was about. We'd been reading a lot about Jesus' birth lately so now he had some good visuals to connect everything.

As we walked through the "marketplace" the kids even got to sample the food. This church really made the story come alive.

A couple days later it was Caleb's turn to be a part of a nativity as he participated with the other children of our church in the retelling of Jesus' birth. This year he took on the role of a shepherd (and was a pretty cute one I might add). He did a good job, but we got a little tickled at him because he got confused a few times. At first, he just stood in front of everyone near the front pew instead of going up with the other kids. As I tried to whisper for him to go on up there, he just kept saying, "What Mommy?" He finally got the hint and did what I was telling him, but then about midway through, he decided to just walk off the stage, come back to the audience, and sit down with NaNa and Pop. My mom whispered to him that he was in the play and needed to go back up there, and thankfully he listened. He simply got back up and moseyed right back where he was supposed to be, completely clueless that everyone was watching him and chuckling.

That was certainly enough running for us this past month. It was fun, but I'm hoping for a laid back January.