Advent Calendar, days 10-12

Man, we've had a great family weekend. Just a full day of fun on Saturday with my favorite people. I LOVE family time. And I can be selfish with my family time such as evenings and weekends. So needless to say, our advent calendar this weekend included some great time with just the four of us.

December 10: I failed. The day got away from me and I never got around doing an activity. But I made up for it by doing TWO activities on Saturday.

December 11: Part 1 - We went to Bass Pro to check out Santa's Wonderland. It was all completely free, including a picture with Santa! And the Santa looked fabulous! It was a little bit of a wait, so we ate lunch while we waited for our time slot to get a picture with Santa. We had such a fun morning at Bass Pro. Holden was messmerized by an electric toy train. The boys got to ride a carosuel of reindeer, instead of horses. And last but not least, they had their picture made with Santa. We made a pretty safe prediction on how that would go. Pax would freak out and scream and cry. Holden would sit on his lap and smile for a picture (if we were lucky). Boy were we wrong. Holden was fine and dandy with the Santa plan until it was our turn. We start walking the red carpet towards him and he FLIPS out on us. On me actually. Jeremy had Pax. I thought I was going to have the easy child for this one. Ha! Had I not had a firm grip on Holden's hand he would have made a break for it. He was attempting to wiggle away from me and run off. But not after we had waited over an hour for this picture. No sir. So Santa whips out a small candy cane and Holden warms up. Sugar can win him over pretty easily. Pax, on the other hand? No freaking out. He wasn't thrilled by the stranger. But he did better with Santa than he does the church nursery. So our prediction was way off. They snapped a picture and the boys didn't smile. What else is new. See 2008 Santa picture and 2009 Santa picture. I am hopeful for 2011. But this little place even let us snap a few pictures with our own camera. So Jeremy did just that. And of course, Santa was the only one that cooperated.
Part 2 - After much needed naps, we fed the boys an easy dinner at home. Then we took them to Panera Bread (in their jammies). While Jeremy and I ate dinner at Panera, they shared an M&M cookie. Then it was off to see neighborhood Christmas lights! This is one of my favorite activities around Christmas time. I remember driving to see Christmas lights annually with my family. We did it every single year, no matter how old we got. Holden LOVES Christmas lights this year. Every night at the dinner table, he notices our neighbors lights turn on. He goes into this weird, enthusiastic voice and normally says something like "Momma, she turned on de yites!". His crazy voice sounds nothing like his real voice. You should hear it for yourself. We laugh everytime. Where do they learn this stuff!? So obviously, Holden is very into the lights this year.Pax was not squealing or overly excited by the sights. But he seemed completely content and entertained on our little car ride. And after a good tour of the area, we called it a night.

December 12: This morning, before getting ready for church, we danced to Christmas music. We don't have much time on Sundays between church in the morning and Life group in the evening. So I needed a quick and easy advent idea. Dancing to Christmas music worked perfectly. My boys can cut a rug! Back in his college days, Jeremy was sometimes called "King of the Electric Slide". So I guess shouldn't be surprised by their moves. They are learning from their daddy. :) I should have videoed. The pictures are a bit blurry.