Pre-Christmas fun

This week has been full of pre-Christmas fun. On Monday, we went to a friend's house to decorate Christmas cookies. Knowing that Mady is not a fan of decorating food, based on her reaction when decorating our gingerbread train, I just set her up in a chair and let her eat the cookies as I decorated them. The funny part was that she would request certain decorating items, like sprinkles, icing, etc... Trip did a really good job decorating his cookies and waiting to eat them until he was finished. His favorite decorating item was definitely the icing. His cookies were covered in it! That night, Aunt Betsy came into town and the kids were going nuts waiting for her to get here. I gave them baths before TJ and Betsy got home. Trip got out first, and after I finished with Mady, I found him jumping on his bed, completely naked, with his window shutters wide open for our entire neighborhood to see. Lovely! On Tuesday night, we were invited back to the same friend's house for an intimate visit with Santa. They have a friend who looks like a real Santa, and he offered to swing by after his regular Santa job that night. Since our kids had done so well with Santa a few weeks ago, I figured this would be great, because it would be less people and a more low-key environment. I was WRONG! I put Mady in his lap first and she was not happy. Then, I tried to convince Trip to go with Mady and help her be brave. Well, he was more scared than she was. What is so scary about Santa? Especially to a 4 year old? Anyway, as you can see from the photo this time with Santa was not really enjoyed by our kids. Mady looks especially sad because she has a big carpet burn on her nose from falling off of Trip's bed earlier this week. She is our family rudolph. I think they still had a good time despite being forced to sit with a big man in a red suit. Yesterday, Betsy and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. Trip has been a few times and this was Mady's second time. They both had so much fun playing games with Aunt Betsy. The funniest part was watching them all play skeet ball together. It was Betsy's favorite game as a kid, so she wanted to play a game and told Trip she would show him how to play. Well, Trip is not strong enough to get the ball high enough to score any points. But, he kept trying anyway. And, Mady had no interest in throwing the ball, but enjoyed climbing all over the lanes. So, here is what we had: a grown woman trying to get the ball in the highest point holes to win some tickets for her nephew and niece, a 4 year old throwing/rolling a heavy ball up a lane that wasn't even on or working and a 1 year old climbing up and down the lanes. It was quite a site to see! We all had a lot of fun. It really is a treat to have Betsy here to celebrate Christmas with us this year!