Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

(Previous years' pics here.)

Santa Smiles

In previous years, we haven't had much luck visiting Santa.

Back in 2012 in Winston-Salem, Sarah did this...

And even Nathan didn't want to get too close to Santa...

Then last year in Boston I just skipped it due to Brian's crazy December schedule and knowing that (definitely) Sarah and (probably) Nathan would be more scared then excited. 

But this year??  This year Santa was a hit with the kids!!

Nathan ran up and gave Santa a hug first and (surprisingly) wanted to sit in his lap while he made his Christmas requests.  Here he's telling Santa about the watch he wants, one that glows when you press a button on the side. (We gave him one of these for his 4th birthday but it somehow got lost in Boston.  I kept expecting it to turn up while we were packing/unpacking from our move but since we still haven't found it, Nathan decided Santa could be the answer.)

Nathan's Santa List for 2014

• Box of candy canes and chocolate
• Watch/pocketwatch (this may have been two separate things?)
• Spiderman Lego set (he spotted then when we were shopping for Angel Tree presents - looks like we will be jumping into the world of Legos this year!)

Then when it was Sarah's turn.  Though she gave Santa the biggest, sweetest hug (to my amazement), she then decided that she wasn't comfortable enough to sit on his lap to make her requests. 

Sarah's Santa List for 2014

• Castle
• Box of chocolates
• Doll (She got shy and Santa offered this prompt. I - I mean Santa is going to give her a Minny Mouse stuffed animal that she spotted during Angel Tree shopping.) 

The Christmas countdown has been underway for a while now thanks to Nathan... just 3 days left!! 

Sarah's 3 Year Birthday

Sarah's 3!! (well, three and a month now actually!)

We had a wonderful day last month celebrating our sweet little girl!  Her birthday was on a Tuesday, which meant it started off with a day at preschool.  How I hoped and prayed that she wouldn't cry at preschool drop-off, since I would just feel like a terrible mother to make her cry first thing on her birthday (even though everyone assures me she always has a great time and cheers up almost right away).  And thankfully my prayer was answered!!  I think it was because she was so excited about bringing muffins (with sprinkles on top!) to school for her special treat and that Ms. R got down the "Birthday bear" first thing (a stuffed bear that "sings" Happy Birthday during chapel).  So she was very cheerful when I dropped her off!

Per usual, I spent part of the morning running errands, then headed home to do some party prep.  Sarah had helped me make the muffins for school the morning before her birthday, then the previous afternoon we made the layers for her chocolate cake.  So I was left with making and applying the chocolate frosting, then making the extra frosting, though I left it white until she got back to school and could pick her colors to decorate the cake.  I also pre-made the chicken tetrazzini that I was going to serve for dinner (though that didn't turn out as well as planned - after making, cooling, refrigeration and then cooking, the noodles absorbed WAY more of the sauce then usual so we were left with dry tetrazzini.  Everyone complimented me on it, which was sweet, but next time I'll know better!)

Brian fortunately got off of work a little early that day, so as soon as he got home we pulled out Sarah's presents from us - a Tidemouth Shed (pronounced "tid-muth", where Thomas and all his friends go to sleep at night) and some extra character engines to beef up the kids' train collection.

Since Nathan's birthday present had turned into a joint present for the kids (which we had planned), we made Sarah's birthday a joint present too, with a Tidemouth shed for each kid.  Nathan was so sweet about the whole thing - he was SO excited for Sarah when she opened her present and then when Daddy went back to his closet to retrieve Nathan's (unwrapped) shed, he was so grateful!  I told him that since he had done such a great job sharing his birthday presents with Sarah that we wanted to get him his own shed even though it wasn't his birthday.  He gave me some really sweet "thank-yous" at three different times during the evening, which just made my heart melt!

So once again the kids were busy playing with their train sets all afternoon leading up to the birthday dinner.  We had an almost-identical birthday dinner to Nathan's - broccoli salad, pineapple and chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  Sarah, of course, picked pink and purple icing to decorate her cake with!

And just like her brother, she was beaming ear to ear as we all sang to her and presented her with her cake.

We didn't get a group shot of everyone that made it for Sarah's birthday dinner, but with Nana, Granddad, Granddaddy and Grandmother in attendance our Sarah girl felt so special and surrounded by love. Happy birthday my sweet girl!

Sarah's 3 Year Interview

Christmas is just around the corner, but I still need to finish birthday recaps - eek!

Here's Sarah's 3 year interview.  Enjoy!



Mommy's Notes:

• Favorite color - Pink (obviously) and purple are definitely her favorite colors for clothes.  I have no idea where "brown" came from.
• Favorite food - She loves "egg and burrito" - more correctly described as scrambled egg and black bean burritos, kind of like a breakfast burrito, though I serve it for lunch.  Its a favorite for Nathan too who has just started asking for picante sauce on top.  She LOVES veggies - pepper sticks, mini peppers, cucumber slices, baby carrots and broccoli salad are some of the biggies. She's usually a great eater at home, though it's hit and miss when we're at a restaurant or someone's house.  She still will sometimes ask to eat my entree over her kids menu order when we go to a restaurant, though that doesn't happen as often since we've moved to Knoxville. 
• Favorite stuffed animal - Kitty Cat, whom she picked out for herself when a generous man in our congregation at Brookline brought in a slew of stuffed animals for the kids (just because).  Since we've moved, Kitty Cat has been indispensable for school and church separations, in addition naptime and bedtime.  Sarah likes to pet the cat with her bare feet (in bed) and Kitty Cat's tail is an excellent kleenex substitute for wiping teary eyes and snotty noses.  We bought Sarah a "spare" stuffed animal (thankfully easy to find on ebay) before Brian and I left for our out west trip, and it has been indispensable.  First off, Kitty Cat wasn't getting washed frequently enough - she looked so dingy next to the new one - so that's been a lot easier for me to tackle since now I can easily throw one in the wash and pull the clean one out from its hiding spot.  Sarah didn't seem to notice there was a new one for a while, then caught on when one was living at our house and one at Nana's, but then I disappeared one after they both made it back to our house and she hasn't asked about it since. The spare is also useful when she's left Kitty Cat at a family member's house, or we can't find her right at bedtime, or the time Sarah threw Kitty Cat into the bathroom trash at church (ugh!).