Tis the Season!

I love the holidays but boy am I behind this year. I usually start my shopping late, but this year, who knows when I'll even start. Plus, I am a notoriously bad shopper. I don't really have the patience for it and unless I know exactly what I want, I have a really hard time. So, I have been putting off starting the Christmas shopping. Yes, its true, I haven't bought gift number one. I am not especially proud of this, but I am not completing freaking out...yet. My main worry at the moment is my little neice in Seattle. I need to put her gift in the mail, like tomorrow. Wish me luck and if anyone has any ideas for a 6 year old girl, let me know!

I finally finished decorating the house, mainly. There are still a few finishing touches needed, but the tree is up and decorated, the stairs are done (last year I spent hours decorating the stairs ;-) and the village is lit. I wasn't allowing myself to blog until everything (decoration-wise) was taken care of, although it didn't stop me from reading everyone elses blogs.

Nick seems to be enjoying the season, although I don't think he really understands what is going on. He had a fun time going to get the Christmas tree and he likes looking at the lights. I am trying to get him in the spirit by playing Christmas carols and singing every morning while we get ready for the day and also on the way to school. He likes them, but I think to him they are just another bunch of songs.

We have taken Nick to a couple of Christmas parties with us. We made what I think is a rookie parent mistake of taking him to a very large open house at a friends home. This is an annual party that we have been to for a few years, and is very family friendly so we thought, lets take him. Bad idea. We stayed at this party for about 45 minutes tops. It was pretty much standing room only, so we couldn't really put Nick down. All the kids were upstairs, but there weren't any quite as young as Nick. So, between us Bill and I held him the whole time except for about 5 minutes. We had squirming, flying sippy cups and mini-tantrums before we threw in the towel. Next year, baby sitter.

Happy Holidays!

Mainly Pictures

I am going to try to keep the words to a minimum on this post and concentrate mainly on some pictures from some of our recent events.

I'll start with some pictures from our Illinois trip.

Nick with Aunt Peg

Uncle Bruce got a workout once he started playing with Nick!

Nick loved playing with his cousin Ellie

...And cousin Jack, who even got a hug

He taught Granny Jane, Aunt Linda and Aunt Jill the sign for More

Nick got his first hair cut (since being with us) a few weeks ago. I wasn't there, unfortunately, because I had a shower to attend. So I missed the excitement. Bill was going to take him to one of the places with the airplanes that the kids sit in while they get cut, but the wait was too long so it was back to Great Clips. As you can see from the pictures, Nick was leery of the stylist and didn't like the experience one bit! He did look cute when all was said and done.

Here are a few shot of Nick with Aunt Mary and Uncle Dan at Wintergreen. Nick had a great time taking Mary from place to place in the house, and Uncle Dan kept getting hit in the head with the chair, which was really funny to a 19 month old!

Here we are on Thanksgiving Day. We were trying to get a good shot for a Christmas card, or just to have. Alas, we'll have to try again because this is the best of the bunch and Nick isn't really smiling. I suppose its good that we're all looking at the camera.

Thats it for now. I am already way behind on getting ready for Christmas. We got our tree yesterday and hopefully by mid-week it will be in the house and decorated!

Happy Holidays!