These are a few of my favorite things...

 
 
  

Merry Christmas!

 
 
 
  

Blinky

Click here to see Justin's recent Bloomberg appearance. When you watch it, you'll know why "Blinky" is the title of this post.

Hayden eats food!

Oh, what's this?
 
Gag...why are you trying to poison me?
 
Maybe if I swish it around....
 
Cutest boy ever.
  

Daddy?!

Justin did another TV stint this morning and Claire went crazy when she saw him. What is Daddy doing in Elmo's box??

 

Brrrrr...

The local news just said that it's 9 degrees outside (-9 with wind chill!). I asked Claire what she wanted for breakfast, and she said, "Want blanket!"

  

First Snow!

It has been so warm in Vermont that we were beginning to wonder if we'd ever left Alabama. Last week it was 60 degrees! Yesterday it FINALLY snowed and the kids got to try out their snowsuits this morning. Poor Claire was bundled up like the little brother in A Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!").

 
 
 
  

"Uh, I'm not so sure about you, Santa"

I took Claire and Hayden to see Santa today. I tried to get Justin to do it with me over the weekend, but I quit pestering him when I realized that he was much more likely to have a meltdown at the mall than either of the kids.

We waited in line for about 20 minutes (on a Monday morning right when they opened!) and just when it was our turn, Hayden got hungry so we had to pull out of line and feed Little Man. When we got back in line, there were about five other families in front of us and every single child seemed to be terrified of Santa. They'd all walk up to him weeping and wailing and their moms would sing and dance only to end up with red-faced, puffy-eyed photos of their terrified children. Claire, before we got out of line, was stoked to see Santa. Well, she really doesn't have much of a concept of Santa yet but she knows who he is and she was happy to see him. After seeing the reactions of the kids in front of her, she started looking at me like, "Who the heck is this guy??" When it was finally our turn, she slowly walked up to him like she was heading to her execution. There were no tears, but there were a lot of worried looks when he picked her up and put her on his lap. Hayden, however, thought Santa was fine and enjoyed munching on his tasty beard. Poor soggy Santa.

  

They should make year-long chocolate calendars

I used to love my chocolate Christmas calendar when I was little (a piece of chocolate every day...is there a better Christmas tradition?!). Of course, I was known to eat all the chocolate on December 1 and then close up all the little doors to make it look like I wasn't so incredibly lacking in willpower. Here's Claire's first chocolate Christmas calendar experience:

 

This face totally says, "One day I'm going to eat all the chocolate on December 1st, just like Mommy."
 

Mmmm...
 

"C'mon, just this one exception to my all-milk diet."