Holiday Fun

Here are some pictures from the last week or so as we’ve prepared for Christmas. First, I made some holiday cookies with my assistant Eli.

His specialty is licking the spoon. And disguising himself as a cat.

Next is Eli’s favorite holiday light spectacular in our neighborhood – every time we drive by this house, Eli yells, “There’s Candyland!”

And speaking of Candyland, one morning after we had finished playing the game, Eli brought the Candyland guys over to his farm and had fun moving them around. The best was when he put them on the school bus. He thought it was HILARIOUS!

Here’s a self portrait of the two of us (Charlie was napping):

And today we picked up Davey and took Eli and Charlie to meet Santa for the first time. Eli was SO excited! It was really, really fun walking in to the mall and watching him notice where the Santa area was set up on the level below - “SANTA!!”

The best part about this particular Santa is that he is at an upscale mall in a town where the majority of the residents are Jewish. This means the mall was NOT CROWDED the Saturday before Christmas! It was so nice. There were tons of parking spaces (while at the mall closer to our house, sometimes you can circle and circle around the lots, not finding an open space around this time of year).

The line for Santa just had a few people, which was great. And each family had only one or two kids, so it went pretty fast.

Eli Waiting to See Santa (2009) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli Visits with Santa (2009) from Sarah on Vimeo.

I deem it a success that Charlie didn’t cry and that Eli was so happy sitting on Santa’s lap. Eli really wants a cash register for Christmas.

Davey took this picture of the four of us – which is not easy to do since Charlie didn’t want to stand still.

Ben took Eli up and down the escalators a few times, which was also a highlight for Eli.

But one of the sweetest moments of the morning was that after Eli and Charlie sat with Santa, Davey wanted to talk to Santa too. He told him what he wanted for Christmas (Playstation 3 and two tickets to Into the Heights musical) and then quickly got up so the next person could go. It was pretty fast and I didn’t snap a picture the first time. But it was almost time for Santa’s lunch break, and Santa snuck over to where we were standing and asked me if Davey might like to get a picture with him for free. You see – it’s free to sit on Santa’s lap, but if you want one of the place’s pictures, the cheapest option is a 5x7 for $16. We didn’t buy any of our kids since I had my camera, but I thought it was really thoughtful of them to offer for Davey.

So after the line of kids had ended and Santa was about to take his break, Davey went back and sat next to Santa for a few pictures.

Here’s the winning shot! They gave Davey two 5x7s of this picture. I thanked Santa and the photographer about five times and told them how much this meant to him. After all, anytime we try to explain Santa, Davey reminds us that he’s “seen Santa at the mall!” So of course there’s a Santa Claus.

Here we are on the ride home, with Davey squeezed in between Eli and Charlie in our Altima. Eli’s hat is a little large :)

Davey was a big help because he kept giving Charlie snacks to keep him happy as we drove.

December is such a fun time of year!