This Advent Season

I have been looking forward to Christmas since Halloween night.  I really love Christmas.  I think I always have, but especially since having kids.  And I have just been itchin' for it this year...and I would guess that it has something to do with being in our own place again after being at my parents' home last year for the holiday.  So I have been greatly anticipating this year, with our own home, our own decorations, our own traditions, and our own tree.

And oh, our tree!  For years I've been telling Brad that this is the year I will head out for the after-Christmas sales to pick up a real-sized tree for our family.  And for years, it hasn't happened.  We were gifted a lovely 4-foot tree several years ago by a friend, and it has served us faithfully ever since, but it can no longer accommodate all of our ornaments.  Plus, we got rid of the table we used to set it on to make it look bigger. :)  So without really thinking we'd graduate to a seven-footer quite yet for this year, I happened into a chance conversation with some new friends, who just so happened to have purchased a new tree for themselves and would be donating their old one to the thrift store.  Much to my surprise, they offered it to us.

And oh my stars!  I don't know if you can truly be in love with metal brackets and plastic pine needles, but if you can, I certainly am!

This baby rocks my socks off.  It is a beautiful rendition of a 7 1/2 foot balsam something-or-other tree, and she is absolutely stunning.  If one can use that word about a fake tree.  I propose you can.  Cuz I just did.  It fits perfectly in the little corner of our living room, and it can light up the entire space.  It currently lacks a tree topper (we've never had one) and some garland and glitter I'm likely to add some years down the road.  (You know I like bling.)  But wow.  I just love this baby.  It sounds silly, I know, but you must understand how truly magical it makes this particular Christmas for us.  New tree.  New home.  New start.

Love. It.

The downside to my Christmas decor this year is that I am lacking a bit of space for all of my displays and tchotchkes.  After having moved twice in the span of 11 months, we downsized a bit with big furniture, and because "Operation: Unpack Those Moving Boxes" hasn't reached it's conclusion (read: no shelves hung on the walls) there isn't a lot of room for the abundance of Christmas spirit I have stored away in seven *ahem* 18-gallon totes.  {Three of those totes may or may not have been the result of a wee bit of retail therapy post-Christmas last year...no one here is talking.}  We are hard at work building what will be new built-in bookshelves on the main level of our house, so once that is complete, I will have ample display space to bring even more Christmas cheer into our home.

Here is what we do have out:

 The block nativity that I made last year following a tutorial and printable I found via Pinterest (the link no longer works, so my apologies that I cannot give proper credit) is in the boys' room.  It is perfect for them.  I've found them playing with it on numerous occasions, and eventhough the process of making it was a bit of a pain, I'm really happy with the results.

 The boys also have a small tree again in their room this year.

 And before things got crazy busy around here, I was able to whip out new Christmas covers (Charlie Brown and the red stripes) for the throw pillows on their beds.  I guess the boys' room is probably the most decked out for the holiday!

 Our nativity.

A small Christmas display on the kitchen counter...along with the broken jingle bells that are supposed to hang on a door knob.  Probably better try to fix those.

As for the traditions we have carried on this season... Our Elf on the Shelf is here, and he's been causing trouble and creating laughs since he arrived.  A full post about him coming later.

We are also counting to Christmas by reading a different Christmas book each night, which is a tradition we started last year.

With special thanks to the book orders Drew brings home from school, and the book fairs that are sponsored by our PTO, our collection of Christmas books has grown; although, Reed and I did pick up a few from the library to make up the total of 25 that we required.

This year we are reading:

Counting to Christmas by Nancy Tafuri
Lego City Save This Christmas by Rebecca L. McCarthy
Jingle All the Way by Tom Shay-Zapien
A Gift for the Christ Child by Tina Jahnert
Froggy's Best Christmas by Jonathan London
The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty
One Starry Night by Lauren Thompson
Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
What Star is This? by Joseph Slate
Counting Christmas by Karen Katz
The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain
This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten
A Cars Christmas by Melissa Lagonegro
Annabelle's Wish by Susan Korman
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess
Elmo's Christmas Countdown by Meg McLaughlin
A Child's Story of Christmas based upon the Scriptures
The Littlest Christmas Star by Brandi Dougherty
Elmo's 12 Days of Christmas by Sarah Albee
The Year Without a Santa Claus by Phyllis McGinley
Oh, Nose! by Dennis Shealy
Olive, the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh & J. Otto Seibold
Christ the Savior is Born by Tim Wesemann
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
The Very First Christmas from The Beginner's Bible

And we are also counting the days to Christmas with our Action Advent activities.  We've done this the last two years, and it is really becoming a wonderful way to look forward to the big day.  We like to do a combination of both traditional family activities as well as finding new ways we can reach out and serve others.  It was a bit of a challenge this year finding the time to do an activity each day.  With Drew in school until near 4:00, and having some evenings with other things scheduled, there were days that we didn't accomplish our task.  We were able to introduce a few different activities this year, which were fun, and I'll share our entire list on another post.  All in all, we love this but it does get to be a little "much" with so many other "to-dos" at this time of the year.  I think that in future years we will approach this with more of a "Christmas Bucket List" angle (thanks, Missy!) and just do what we can do when we can do it.  Less pressure to kind of figure it all out, and hopefully more relaxed and enjoyable for me. :)

In all of the different ways we count to Christmas, the boys could now tell you there are five days to go.  Five days!  Whoot!

I love Christmas. :)

Bingo's Baaaacck!

Look who finally showed up!

Bingo, our personal elf, made it to our home bright and early this morning.  We've been talking about him the past few days, wondering when he'd show his face...we wondered if maybe he got a bit turned around since we've moved and all. :)

Nonetheless, he was here this morning to surprise the boys, bringing along with him his annual North Pole breakfast.

 This year he brought us mini bagels with strawberry cream cheese, yogurt parfaits, donut "snow" holes, Christmas oreos and two buckets of candy.  Apparently he left the fruit behind.  Silly elf.  

{Or perhaps he was just so tired from getting up so early to prepare us such a breakfast that he plumb forgot all about the apples and grapes he had chilling in the fridge....}

Hot chocolate mix with marshmallows and cold milk topped off the menu.

Bingo left us a note, reminding us what he duties are as our elf - to observe the boys' behavior and report back to Santa whether they've been naughty or nice.

 And he also told us that Santa is anxiously waiting to hear from the boys, so he left behind a piece of stationary for the boys to make their Christmas requests to the big guy, as well as painting pages as a surprise gift.

{Reenacting their surprised faces.}

Reed was the first to spot our special visitor this morning.  Both boys were thrilled

and began snarfing down as much sweet stuff as they could.

Apparently when an elf drops of breakfast, permission is not required before consuming copious amounts of candy and sugary pastries.  

Before the day was over, both boys had written their letters to Santa, and they are safely sealed inside an envelope for Bingo to take to Santa when he returns to the North Pole tonight.

As for the boys' behavior today?

Drew totally soaks this up.  He totally believes all of this.  I haven't heard him be so polite or seen him so kind for an entire day before.  Honestly, kid is convinced this Bingo guy is doing his job.  He's even telling me, "Mom, what do you say?" when I fail to follow up his "thank you" with a "you're welcome."  He'll do whatever it takes for him to NOT receive any coal in his stocking!  As for Reed...well, he's going along with it, but I'm not so sure he cares so much what Bingo thinks.  Kinda like he doesn't always care so much what Mom and Dad think, or say, either.  Such is Reed.

 Bingo, welcome back.

So nice to see you again.

:)

(I just said to Brad that when the day comes when the "truth" comes out...we're going to have a lot of explaining to do!)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Or rather...he's already arrived!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Santa made his grand entrance at the annual Midland Santa Holiday Parade.

We found out about the parade just a couple days before (being new in town, we rely a lot on word of mouth for such events that we shouldn't miss).  It turned out that the parade route was just up the street from us, and since Brad was out of town for the day (at the Michigan/Iowa game in Ann Arbor), the boys and I bundled up and walked the two short blocks to find a curbside view for the big event.

This parade was really something special.  I can't say we've taken the boys to a parade with outdoor temps in the mid 30s, so that made the experience all the more unique for us.  But the parade itself was huge.  So many entries (the usual businesses and politicians advertising themselves, as well as school bands and churches, etc, etc, etc) and so. much. candy.  Seriously.  We walked away with more candy from the parade than we did on Halloween night.  The beauty of it all, though (for me anyway) was that it was a holiday parade.  Christmas Christmas and more Christmas!  I love Christmas!  It was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season!  

Completely elated when he caught his "favorite candy ever!"

The parade has a theme each year, and this year it was "A Hollywood Holiday."  There were quite a few floats carrying this theme, but this one was definitely my favorite. :)

We happened to sit by a classmate of Drew's.  It was fun to see Drew hang with a buddy outside of the classroom.

Our favorite celebrity sighting.

The grand finale...

Santa Claus!

And Drew did notice that his reindeer were fake.  A quick explanation that the real reindeer were in training for the big night seemed to suffice. 

OH!  And when one particularly musical vehicle passed by, Reed caught the jitter bug and put on his dancing shoes.  I wish I would've had our video camera, but this slideshow captures it pretty accurately.  Enjoy. :)

Reed Dances-Large from Brad Vander Waal on Vimeo.

And here's a bit of trivia for you...did you know that Santa's house is right here in Midland?!?!

It sure is.

We can't wait to pay him a visit.

Thanksgiving Week

{Woo hoo!  Well, I've found a solution to my previous problem (I'm a regular MacGyver!) but it is no doubt just a temporary band-aid.  Something new and different may have to happen with the ol' blog here pretty soon.  Oh golly, just add it to the "to do" list!}  But we'll take it while we can....moving along....

For us, the Thanksgiving season kicked off immediately after Halloween, when we began recording our blessings, one by one, as a family.  Just like last year, we celebrated our thanks by writing down on a paper leaf what we are thankful for.  This year, though, we didn't create a thankful tree, but rather a thankful garland (the new board and batten on my kitchen wall is serving it's purpose quite nicely).

Each night at dinner, we recorded what we were most thankful for that day.  It was pretty cute as Reed was the one that kept us on track about it, asking each night "What are you thankful for, Mommy?  What are you thankful for, Dad?"  We can tell how much school has come to mean to Drew, as each night he would name a different classmate that he was thankful for.  And Reed.  Oh Reed.  He's just a comedian, but also very smart.  He remembers the little things (grapes, trees, cereal) along with what we would consider more notable (his church, his family, and a few friends thrown in for good measure).  And, of course, we do have so much to be thankful for.  An early resolution, perhaps: to remember our blessings.  To name them.  To give thanks to God.  Every day.

Among those blessings are our families, of course.  Traveling for Thanksgiving is going to be of significant difficulty for us, now that we are 10 and 12 hours away from our hometowns and Drew is in school.  Driving such a distance in the span of a four-day weekend doesn't exactly thrill us, especially when we will be taking more time in just one short month to make the rounds at Christmas.  So, it was decided that we'd stay put.  And lucky us, much like in 2010, my parents were able to schedule a trip to our home to celebrate Thanksgiving here!

And so, our week was full, but pretty low-key.  Mom and Dad arrived on Sunday night and were here until Friday morning.  Drew had school and Brad worked Monday through Wednesday, so that left Reed here with my parents and me during the bulk of the day.  We did a few preparations for Thursday's meal, and ran a few errands, but other than that, Reed has his pick of play buddies and play play play we did!

Here was our week, in photos:

Game play was Reed's activity of choice this week, it seemed.  He learned how to play a few new ones, and kept Grammy and Papa busy!

Drew had limited time with his grandparents, so that amped up the excitement for the air hockey tournament he and Papa had!  (Just ignore those moving boxes, please.  We're not talking about that.  Thank you.)

And, as no major holiday or vacation is complete without it, we made our traditional trip to the Urgent Care.  Reed woke on Sunday morning with a slight cough that intensified throughout the week.  A lot of coughing, a lot of snot, a lot of sleepless nights on the couch for him and me, that by Wednesday, enough was enough.  So, off to the UC to be diagnosed with an ear infection and given instructions on how to ease the drainage and coughing.  He also woke on Monday morning with the appearance of his annual herpes outbreak on his chin.  Thankfully, leftover creams from the last few outbreaks is taking care of it.  Good golly.

Thanksgiving Thursday!

Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious!  The usual fare with family to share it with!  And beautiful, beautiful weather!

Brad spent one afternoon early in the week cleaning up the last of our leaves.  We have one huge maple tree in the backyard and it seemed to take forever for it's leaves to drop.  But once they did, we had quite the pile for leaf jumping!  The boys took advantage Thursday afternoon, before the weather turned cold and snow appeared.

Black Friday shopping wasn't too high on my list of things to do, but I gotta admit it was a little enticing knowing that Brad could go with me because my parents were here to be with the boys.  And since stores are now opening as early as Thursday morning (ridiculous), Brad and I found our way out for Walmart's 8pm opening.

Oh Walmart.  You are not my favorite, but your deals are hard to beat.

It was our only stop for the night, and we were successful in what we went there for.  And I did head out again later Friday morning to spend some free money I had (those save $10 on a $10 purchase coupons are hard to just throw away!).

My parents left early Friday morning to head back home, and by the time I walked out the door to run those few errands, I was greeted with snow sprinkles.  Not enough to leave a trace, but enough to want to catch a few on our mittens.

A quick run through the driveway with excitement for our first snowfall before heading out for an afternoon showing of The Lorax. 

Our library shows free movies during school breaks, and this was just what we needed to get out of the house and do something different.  I took the boys with me while Brad stayed home to watch football.  I took a shopping break in the morning; I guess it's only fair that he gets a football break. :)

That little bit of snowfall definitely put me in the mood to get going with the Christmas decorating.  But more than that...finally, after 10 years of marriage, we have upgraded to an actual adult-sized Christmas tree!  For the past several years, we've had a 4-foot tree that has served it's purpose well, but we have definitely outgrown it with size of our family and the number of ornaments we have.  Each year I tell Brad I'm going to pick up a new tree during the after Christmas clearance, but, obviously, that hasn't happened.  So, after a chance conversation with some new friends at church, they have generously gifted a 7 1/2 foot tree to us and we I am beyond thrilled about it!  It's a beautiful tree, and fits perfectly in our new home!

I brought up our boxes of Christmas decor and the boys and I started on hanging our ornaments. 

{We'll show it off soon...we still need to find a topper for it.  We've never had a tree topper before!}

And Christmas tree decorating couldn't have come soon enough, as we woke up on Sunday morning to this...

So, our Thanksgiving was lovely.

And here's to a very merry and bright (and white!) Christmas!

A Note

Ok, so, here I am, really wanting to blog and post updates on several things, and my stinkin' blog host is being, well, a stinker.  Apparently I've used up all of my free photo space and in order to get any more space, I have to purchase it.  I'd like to avoid that, so I'm attempting to figure out how to delete some unnecessary photos off of my Google account without deleting any that have appeared on the blog.  Needless to say, after three attempts to figure it out, I'm a bit frustrated.  Grr.....  Might be time to call in my tech team...


"JUUUUSSSSSSTINNNNN!!!!!"


Regularly scheduled blogging will resume.... eventually.

Poop.

Fall Conference

Last week, Brad and I met with Drew's teacher, Mrs. Faust, for his fall conference.  And at the risk of sounding like "that mom" I'm gonna go ahead and tell ya'll what a fantastic kid we have.

We were given a really, really, really good report. :)

Mrs. Faust's opening statement to us was, "You have a really delightful son."

*insert super obnoxious, proud mama grin here*

She reminisced about how after the first week and a half of school, she was afraid that she'd never hear Drew's voice.  He was so super shy and unsure of everything that was going on, he remained quiet and timid for the first several days.  But after he'd adjusted to the routine of his school day, and learned what to expect and when to expect it, he began to flourish.  He is talking and being social and raising his hand to answer questions; he's playing and participating and working really hard.

For the fall quarter, Drew's class is concentrating on Learning Behaviors and Language Arts, and these were the two areas he was evaluated on for his report card.  In kindergarten, the students are graded on an "Achieving/Developing/Not Yet" scale.  In a nutshell, Drew is "achieving" in all categories except two.  He is "developing" in "tries new activites" {we weren't at all surprised by this; Drew definitely likes what he likes, and he likes what he's good at} and "able to hear individual sounds in words."  Mrs. Faust said that when he is reading to her, he'll look at her and say "I don't know that word" and when she works with him to sound it out, he'll be a bit unwilling and say "I don't know it."  We talked with her about how one of his hiccups is that he's afraid of being wrong, so he's afraid to try.  Something to work on this year, and most likely for his lifetime to come. :)

He's functioning well in the classroom.  He thrives on routine, and his teacher tells us he keeps her on her toes. :)  His ability to read is progressing, and I must admit that this is my favorite thing so far about school.  Drew is learning to read!  I love it!

Here's the thing, though: we know Drew is a smart kid.  He just is.  He's bright and catches on quickly and has a memory like an elephant.  We knew he would do well academically at school.  My biggest worry going into formal education was the social aspect of school.  Who would Drew find as friends?  How would he get along with other personalities?  He is shy and sensitive.  Would he be made fun of or teased or called out on an embarrassing moment?  Just regular mom worries, I'm sure.  So among all of the academic accolades his teacher was reviewing with us, and yes, we were so glad and proud to hear all of that, this is what totally made our day...

"Drew is nice to everyone."

Mrs. Faust relayed to us that Drew knows the name of every classmate.  Not many others do.  Drew is nice to and talks with everyone.  Drew takes no issue with who he has to work with or sit by.  He mentions the same friends everyday of who he plays with at school, but Mrs. Faust told us that he will play with, and have a good time, with everyone.  One thing that I have noticed when I've taken Drew to school is that so many of his classmates will say "hi" to him, even kids he doesn't mention as ones he plays with.  Mrs. Faust did label him as the "Moral Police" in the classroom.  He knows what is right and wrong, good and bad, and he'll remind his classmates when they seem to forget.  This is alright for kindergarteners, but that may be a behavior he'll want to quit before he gets too much older. :)  {And why does he seem to forget this at home?!?}

This - this - makes us the proudest parents ever.

**********************************************************

Drew brings home any number of papers on a daily basis.  His worksheets will reflect everything from number and letter recognition to writing exercises, reading and beginning math to units on the five senses and social studies pamphlets.  He does bring home some art, that we display in our "gallery" in the kitchen, but there certainly hasn't been as much of this as there was in preschool.  These are a few of my favorite papers from this fall...   

 Self-portrait.

Sight word worksheet.

Handwriting sample (the names of some of his classmates).

 Numbers (writing by memory).

Spanish colors.

Art gallery in the kitchen.

My Personal Shopper

With only Reed at home now during the day, running errands has become a much easier feat.  After a small incident late in the summer at the grocery store when upon returning home I swore I wouldn't take Reed to the stores with me again until he was 13...he has now become my own little shopping buddy.  And on some days, it can be quite the marathon shopping (it's just easier to go out one day to tackle all the errands instead of going out multiple times during the week).  He is usually agreeable to riding in the cart, and if I accurately calculate my spacing from the shelves on one side and from oncoming customers on the other, Reed's hand can't reach to swipe the products off the shelves when he insists he must touch everything.  (Why must kids do that?!?!)  

And when I said " an easier feat" I meant because there's only one kid to supervise, not two!

And when the errands get long and tired and boring, I can always count on a few suitable distractions to help us both out.

He doesn't even know they require money for the full entertainment package!  Two points for Mama!

On one particular day, while picking up a few things at Target, my phone rang, and while I was distracted, Reed went about filling our cart.

Whatever he thought we needed that was within reaching distance for him, he grabbed and slid into the cart. 

We were in the snack aisle, no less, and as he pushed his way down the aisle, he was looking for just the right treats.  It was pretty cute when he picked one up, shook his head, and then put it back on the shelf.  Kid likes what he likes, I guess.  

By the time I was off the phone, he had worked his way up one aisle and down the other, successfully filling our cart with 12-15 unwanted and unneeded items.  But for graciously agreeing to put them all back, I let him pick two to keep.

Cuz I'm cool like that.

Or more likely, cuz he's cute like that.