Ho Ho Ho

We went to the mall this morning to get some pictures taken of the kids for our Christmas cards. That was a miserable failure (more on that after I've had a chance to have a few glasses of wine), but we figured that we might as well work a visit to Santa into the outing because it couldn't possibly go any worse than our visit to The Picture People did.

Hayden and I went down to check out Santa while Daddy and Claire searched out an elevator to bring the mule we travel with downstairs (it's really just a double stroller, but from the way we load her up, you'd think she was a mule). We listened to Santa and his elf talk about the Red Sox while we waited. Apparently, Santa hates the Yankees. Hayden waved at him from afar while trying to decide whether he was scary or not. He got closer and closer and when I told him to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, he shouted, "Presents!" from about six feet away. Claire and Daddy showed up then, and Claire is completely fearless...she would sit on the lap of Freddy Kreuger if he sat on a throne in middle of the mall. She climbed up and started telling Santa about Ariel and Peter Pan and all of her other favorite things, and then Hayden decided that Santa was probably okay. He stood next to him and asked for some Thomas the Train things, but he had no interest whatsoever in sitting on his lap. When it was time to take the picture, he only wanted to do it if Mommy and Daddy would be in it, too.

Oh, the things we do for our kids:

 

Preparations

We've spent the last few weeks sorting through the house and making a donation mound to rival Mt. Kilimanjaro. On Monday, a big van pulled up and took away 13 garbage bags and 5 boxes full of donations. I nearly kissed that driver. How have we accumulated so much crap?! And there is easily at least one more big donation pick up in our future.

All of this is being done in an effort to prepare for the big move. We close on the new house on January 15, and since we're hauling everything but the furniture ourselves, we'd like to haul as little junk as possible. Nana is coming up to help us by watching all the wee ones while Justin and I navigate driving a UHaul through Boston traffic. Hmmm...I wonder if UHaul has the option of hiring a marriage counselor to ride along with you. We are very excited to move into the house where we plan to live for a very long time (remember, we're Army brats...."very long" means at least 4 years).

In other news, Reid has begun eating "real food." I use quotation marks because I'm not sure pureed carrots is actually food, but he seems to enjoy it. He's very interested now in what everyone else is eating, as evidenced here:

 

Happy 5 months, Barnacle!

 
 
 

Yes, we can!

 

Bowling

You know what's a good way to burn off your kids' Halloween sugar highs? Bowling! Justin and I took the kiddos to a bowling alley on Saturday morning because they were, quite literally, pinging off the walls from the amount of sugar consumed the night prior.

A good time was had by all...well, until Hayden came crashing down from his sugar high and became a terror. And you know what's fun to do when your two year old becomes a terror? Going out to lunch! Don't ask what we were thinking...just know that he's not welcome at Chick-fil-A anymore.

 
 
 
 

It was ugly.