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I spent the day cooking (roast), cleaning, and table setting (which I love – I used one of Samuel's preschool projects as our centerpiece).  We also enjoyed puzzle making, story and scripture reading, and general quietness (ya right, I have 3 boys).

That afternoon  we skyped with Derek's parents and the boys got to open their gifts.  What a blessing technology is!  So fun to see them live and in person. 

Audra and her fiance Paul came over around 5 and we opened gifts with them.  Then Nana, Pops, and Grandma Haymond came over.  We had a lovely dinner – roast beef, carrots, mashed potatoes, asparagus and jello salad.  We performed our annual version of the nativity, and Pops read "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  It was a lovely evening.

Afterwards, it was time for annual pajama opening/pictures, laying out cookies for Santa and oats/glitter on the lawn for the reindeers and off to bed for my little sweets, so they could dream about toys and sleighbells and a certain red-suited man.

And my favorite from the night…me and Sam:

I like to do something "artsy" each Christmas season and luckily, it seems that there is always lots to choose from in this area.  Last year we took the big boys to see "Grinch" (the musical).  This year I got us tickets to see A Christmas Carol at the Kalita Humphries Theater…an older building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  We left Samuel with Nana, which was a wise choice since it was a late night and the play had a few scary parts (ghost of Jacob Marley).  I read most of the book to the boys through the month and then on the 17th we got to see it acted out in grand fashion…it was great!  We took the boys to Nick & Sams Grill for dinner (uptown)…loved it!  We had a great night and felt very "cultural"!!  Hoping my boys will have great memories of Mom's annual "arts" outings.

With the Hicken's now leaving us for a better life in Utah (*sniff), Mae asked them if they would host the Christmas piano recital.  They did and we enjoyed a fun night of music and food and visiting – I will miss the warmth and coziness of the Hicken home.

Jacob played: Angels Voices, Batman and Sheep Will Safely Graze (a duet with Megan)

I loved seeing these boys work hard on a recent homeschool science project.  Jacob was studying viscosity and was asked to create a ramp and test the viscosity of various household liquids by measuring how far a drop of the liquid would travel on the ramp after 10 seconds.  Luckily Caleb got home from school near the onset of the project, and Jacob determined that he needed an assistant. 

Samuel continues to love his cute little preschool "Dalmation" class.  They had a teacher change – we loved Ms Tami (who left), but now we love Ms Holly too.  I joined his class for their Christmas party last week and brought gingerbread cookies for each of them to decorate.  They made those cute Christmas tree centerpieces earlier in the week to take home as gifts for the moms (wowsa, huh?!). Along with the gingerbread cookies, they made a gingerbread man ornament and read some books.  He is so happy and excited to go to school each Tues and Thurs and I loved getting to have a peak into his little preschool world.

I love this sweet picture of him…

He also had a darling Christmas program for all the parents last Thursday with lots of cute songs.  My sweet Samuel was not exactly the model performer…let me demonstrate:

First of all, I promise that I sent him to school with his hair combed and his shirt tucked in, but we'll ignore that.  The sweetie pie was elbow-ing his neighbor and was more interested in sucking his thumb or playing with his sleeves than singing the songs.

 Here he is playing with his shirt.

  He's in the background – notice the arms above his head.

 Here he is with his cute hands doing the motions – oh, wait, there were no motions in this song!

  Here's the "Is this thing over, Mom?" look.

I kept just having to smile and mouth the words "hand down" and "sing" to him.  But then I got this cute look that melted my heart and made any poor stage behavior seem pretty trivial.  What a doll.

Here's the picture that his teachers sent of his class – taken before the program:

Is it just me, or does he look like a giant?!  I'm having a hard time facing the fact that my baby is almost 5.  Slow down, time…you're moving too fast.

I get to be the room mom for Mrs Rutter's 3rd grade class this year.  I LOVE this teacher (Jacob also had her) so I jumped in line to be her room mom.  This year I also needed to step into the role of "lead room mom" in planning the 3rd grade "winter" party.  So after lots of store runs and planning and budgeting I was able to pull off a pretty cute party (if I do say so myself :).  We played "snowball shovel" where the kids had to shovel cotton balls onto a bowl on their head – it's really fun and much harder than it looks!  We did "scratch" ornaments (a mitten and a snowman) for the craft.  And we made snowmen out of donuts (chocolate chip eyes, a candy corn nose, and a licorice scarf).  We ended the party by reading "A Stranger in the Woods" (cute book).  I love this little class and have so much fun when I'm with them.  I love when your the room mom and the kids start to recognize you and call you by name or run up with hugs or say things like "Thank you so much for the party" (melt my heart).  Fun times! 

But the best part about being room mom is getting to spend time with my cute boy and seeing his face light up when I walk into the room.  Love him!

Earlier in the week I had been in the classroom to help celebrate Mrs Rutter's birthday.  We presented her with a book that I had the kids make.  They each drew a picture of them with her, and wrote a note saying "Thank you for…".  I took each one's picture and put it on their picture and laminated it for her.  I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of the book.  But I did get a picture of Mrs Rutter with her faithful students.

Anne let me babysit my cute roly-poly nephew, Graham, as she was wrapping up things at work to be a full-time momma.  So for two weeks in a row I got to spend a few hours of Graham time!!  SO FUN!  She hasn't let him come back yet, (hint hint), but I'm hoping we can make it a trend, because he is adorable.

Nana came over on the second day to say "hi" for lunch.

"I think we need a house elf." (He's been reading too much Harry Potter, I think).

"Mom – how are you at first impressions?  Because I'm unsure of how I am at first impressions."  (We had a great conversation about that – I love that he thinks of things like this.)

"When I grow up I want to be eclectic and exotic." (Enough said – cracks me up).

Sam.I.Am has a birthday on New Year's Day, which is wonderful!  But it's also hard.  We're usually tired (after being up late), people are "partied" out after the holidays and it's usually when we're packing things up and getting ready to go back to school.

So I felt like a brilliant Mom this year when I decided to have a party for him in early December.  It was the first "friend" party he's had, and he was SO excited.  To eliminate his asking me every day if it was "party day", I made a paper chain with major highlights like "Thanksgiving" and "school" and it ended on "Party Day" – we cut off a chain each night…it was a perfect way to keep the excitement up.

This was the party theme:

Our original idea was to heat the pool, but that day is was cool and sprinkling so we decided to heat only the hot tub instead which proved just as fun for a group of 4-5 year old's. 

I borrowed a bunch of polar bear decorations from a friend who LOVES polar bear (and has decorated her kids' rooms in that theme) – it made it really look like the North Pole!  We did polar bear cupcakes and each child got a scarf to keep warm when they came into our arctic playland!  We played "ice fishing"…Caleb was under the "water" hooking each person's cast with a prize while Jacob helped them with the pole.  We also did a penguin relay – where they had to hold a balloon between their legs.  Pretty cute.  Then, we had lunch (pb&j, ham, cheese sticks, cheese puffs, and fruit) and cupcakes.  Then we opened gifts, read a polar bear book, and finally, let them swim.

It was a perfect party for Samuel and a big success.  But boy was I tired at the end.  My mom came over to help and laughed as I plopped down on the couch after the children had left.  How do Kindergarten teachers do that?!

Caleb LOVES being part of the choir at school.  I think he likes it because the choir director/music teacher is fun and engaging.  I think he likes it because he gets to go to school super early and sing fun songs.  I think he likes it because his best buddies are in it (including several girls).  And I LOVE that he loves it.  They sang some really neat songs for the Veteren's Day program at their school – including the armed forces medley.  Nana came to see him perform!

They also did a great concert at the mall with all of their fun Christmas songs – including the "Grinch" song.  Let's play "who can find Caleb"…??

 (that's a tough one)

 (hmmm…there's a reindeer obstruction!!)

 (sorry, folks…that's as good as it gets!)

Afterwards they got to go ice skating – Caleb was anticipating this event for weeks asking me everyday when it was.  And despite the fact that I detest malls on the weekends, let only holiday weekends and become terribly claustrophobic – I obliged him by staying for several hours just so he could enjoy his afternoon with his buddies.  Great job, Caleb!