December pictures

A Christmas Tidbit from Ellery

Els is chatting with my mom on the phone today and mom was asking her about Christmas.  After answering some questions, she paused and said, "Nanna, how did you know it was Christmas here?"  Nana says, "it's Christmas, too. It's Christmas all over the world."  Another pause from E.  "It is" she says?  "I didn't know that."  Nana says, "Yes, everywhere. Call Goggy and ask him if he is having Christmas there, too."  Ellery says, "huh? It's Christmas in Anchorage too?"

Visit with Santa

Today is Christmas Eve and the busy neglectful mom that I've been lately has put off our annual Santa picture to the last minute...so...off to the mall we go.  On the way there we were prepping G that we were going to see Santa and that he was going to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas.  I was hoping that this would be the first year without a screaming kid (no such luck) and was trying to preemptively calm the fears of our 2 year old.  We get to the mall and the girls go right up to Santa, give him a hug and hop on his lap.  Hesitantly Grady looks over at him, checks him out, then runs up, gives him a quick hug, takes a few steps back and yells at him "Nanas" then runs away.  (Nanas = Thomas the Tank Engine).  Needless to say, the next few minutes were spent forcing G to sit on Santa's lap so we could snap a quick picture (which we did end up getting...its not good, but we have it!)

Oh, and...I overheard the girls telling Santa that they wanted magic wands.  Not sure where Santa is going to come up with those, but while he's making them, I'd like one too!

The Nutcracker Ballet

In keeping with the season and trying to be a good parent that exposed her children to culture (well, as much as I'm going to be able to in this small town) I thought I would take my girls to go see the Nutcracker. Not. My. Best. Idea. I think it would have been a little easier if I wasn't 7 1/2 months pregnant and of course the fact that its TWO AND A HALF HOURS long, so for a 4 and 6 year old that's like 3 weeks. Anyway....the house lights finally went down after 15 minutes of this conversation:

Child: "When is it going to start Mom? When?"

Me: "5 minutes, sweetpea."

Child: "That's what you said last time" (which actually happened to be 5 minutes earlier and and would have been correct if they had started on time.)

Me: "I know punkin, but that when it was supposed to start."

Don't these people know that there are antsy children (and a lot of them from what I saw) sitting in the audience???

Here is just a tiny snippet of the conversations that were interrupting everyone around us (poor, poor people who thought they were coming for a nice afternoon of cultural entertainment)

Act I: the party -- these are just a few of the questions I got

M: "is this supposed to be a party?"

M: "what are they doing?"

E: "Can I sit on your lap?" (mind you...belly out to here, no lap available anymore.)

M: "why isn't anyone talking?"

M: "is this all it is??? Just music??"

E: "I feel like I want to take my shoes off, can I?" (sure, why not, we're going to be here for awhile.)

M: "Can I sit on your lap?" (see above)

E: After Act I ends "it that all? Is it finally over? This is taking forever" (nope, just the first act....)

At Intermission: E: "Can we go home now???"

Note to self...wait until they are older...much, much older before trying this again.

Bribing Santa

I walk into the living room the other day to see this on the tree...

The note says, "To Santa, I love you, From Molly." Hey, its worth a try, right?

Thoughts from Ellery

Molly comes running into my office saying, "Mom, there's a problem. Mine and Ellery's toilet is plugged." Most likely someone used it and "forgot" to flush, but I went to investigate...just in case. Sure enough, no problem at all. Ellery helped me try to figure out the problem. She squatted down really low and looked under the toilet. "Mom," she says, "it doesn't looked like our toilet is unplugged."

Aahhh the mind of a 4 year old. You can plug and unplug a toiled just like a lamp!