December 23, 2012
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Our Adventures: Holiday Happenings!
I’m way behind. I realize that. And honestly, we haven’t had much TIME for ‘adventure’ trips, per se. We’ve been busy feasting, schooling, doing crazy holidays like Halloween and Election Day… which are, actually, adventures in their own right. And some adventures… like getting the flu or potty training kick-off or going to a chicken pox party…? I just don’t take pictures of stuff like that. But we have had our share of fun – the calendar has been PACKED since… forever, and we always are doing something or other!
So this post will serve as a compilation of the stuff we’ve had going on (and a picture post, t’boot!). So… shall we get to it?
The first Saturday in December is always the Santa Claus parade. At least half a dozen that I know of… we like to go to this one. It was December first, this year. Don’t they look stoked to see Santa on the… trolley? We went to this tiny (((tiny))) Mexican restaurant afterwards, and the food was SO good!!
Owen’s birthday is December 7… this year he turned THREE. And started potty training just days later. And was fully trained just days after that. And in just a few more days, he’ll be giving his crib to my brother, because Uncle Matt is going to have a baby, and the baby needs its crib… and he’ll go in and sleep with the big boys in the kid’s room! Talk about some big adventures!
December 7th was ‘Santa on the Showboat’ in Lowell, and we’d never been before, so we decided to give it a go. There were strolling carolers, ice carvings, horse-drawn carriage rides, free hot toddys and roasted chestnuts, warming fires, snowmen to hug, live reindeer… and the grand finale was seeing Santa on the Showboat (with cookies and cocoa upstairs). We had a terrific time.
Santa on the Showboat. Aaron (5) is still my child that is terrified of Santa. So this year, Daddy was his hero and got his picture taken holding Aaron (for comfort purposes). What a nice daddy!!
Hanukkah!! We had our feast on the first night, read menorah stories the second, watch ‘Hanukkah: Lights’ the third night, had a ‘fry nite’ with the deep fryer the fourth night, and here’s Brian helping me with latkes on the fifth night. Here are the kids, checking out their gelt cups. Every morning, the woke up to find chocolates or sweets in their gelt cup! Ironically, I’ve checked over our X-mess presents, and there are eight for each child… so I’m thinking next year we’ll just do our presents – one a night – for Hanukkah. I like it, better. Let the non-believers have the X-mess day for their gifts. We do Brian’s grandparents on X-mess Eve and my mom on X-mess day, and that works out pretty well.
Owen really likes his Hanukkah chocolate bear.
The sixth night was the new moon celebration, the seventh night was Shabbat, and on the eighth we used Ali’s little chocolate candies to play dreidel with. Did I mention that Ali sent us five little packages – one for each child to open – and we received them with just enough nights left to do one every remaining night of Hanukkah. That was SO kewl! Anyhow, here we are, playing dreidle!Of course, we’re not done. We’ve got all of our X-mess stuff coming up, which will include going to light displays, a big activity Grams is substituting for presents, and our nice traditional Eve with Brian’s grandparents. So of course there will be more pictures. But I had to add these fun Holiday Happenings!
