Elfie decorates the tree... again.

Okay... It's time to get that tree decorated before Elfie decides to do any more decorating of his own...

Every time I turn around that elf has hung something else on the tree.  Today? Well, today it was life jackets and life preservers. 

Apparently he wanted to be the one to tell the boys that today was the day for the Kemah Boat Parade.  And since we were so incredibly lucky to be heading out to watch the parade on the water (thanks, Lisa!!) we needed those lifejackets.

And for the record I did start decorating the tree.  I pulled out this years' new ornaments by Claudia and got our family ornament and my ornament on the tree.

I picked up a few new ornaments for the boys as well.  They will be thrilled to get to help us hang their ornaments on the tree tomorrow.

Reindeer Ornaments

Turns out those Fingerprint Reindeer made adorable ornaments, too...

I know what the boys and I will be doing tomorrow morning!  :)

North Pole Breakfast (for Dinner!) - Rudolph Pancakes

Our Advent Calendar surprise for today was a special North Pole Breakfast for dinner.  Specifically pancake reindeer with dipping syrup & eggs.

I saw the reindeer idea over at Jenni Price's blog a couple of months ago.  She even has a tutorial on her blog on how to make them.  Not that I actually followed it, or should I say any more than by memory from several months ago.   What?  Read Directions??  When I can just get in there and get started and figure it out as I go??

I was still pretty impressed with how they turned out.

Though I have to confess - I think I like Kevin's assembly better than mine (he had to transfer them to microwave safe plate to reheat them all after I opened the egg container all ready to get the eggs cooked and on the table so we could eat while everything was still hot and found that there was only 1 egg left.  Oops. So he had to go to the store - and the pancakes got cold.  On a side note - they reheat really well...)

Needless to say the boys were excited to see the reindeer pancakes - Ryan said "Oh, WOW!  It's Rudolph!  Can I eat his nose, now??" 

"Please!?!"

Connor wasn't far behind and plucked the candies off as soon as he sat down, too.



Instead of cutting up the pieces and then pouring syrup over the top we gave each of them their very own syrup dipping cup and let them go to town.  Pancakes by them self, great.  Being able to dip pancakes in syrup?  AWESOME.

Connor devoured every last bite of pancake, and polished off at least 3 eggs.  I am not sure where exactly he put it all, but needless to say, he was a big fan.

Fingerprint Reindeer

Oh.my.word.

The boys and I made fingerprint reindeer today.  And I just can't get over how cute they turned out!

It was a bit of an iterative process.  First I drew antlers and gave them googly eyes.  And then I decided that maybe they needed ears (or maybe not  - the verdict's still out on this one.  Which one do you like better?)

And then before I knew it there were bows.  There are always bows.  :)  And glitter for Rudolph's nose!

And a cute saying for the inside of the cards.

And then they multiplied like bunnies.

And turned into coordinating envelopes.

But I think the best one of all is when I just let the kiddos go wild with the ink pad and a piece of paper.

Connor dotted the whole page with little reindeer while Ryan used all 10 fingers (at once) to create a veritable flood of bubbles or so he says.

Connor was so proud of his artwork.
 

And though we still can't name all 8 reindeer Connor remembered just where he put Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph!  

Reindeer Cookies

One of the great things about being a Mom is that I can tell the boys that we are going to make Reindeer cookies and they don't bat an eye - their faces light up in sheer excitement.  They have no doubt what-so-ever that there will be edible cookies that look like reindeer.  And whether they turn out picture perfect, or nothing at all like they were supposed to (see below... :)) they still think they are absolutely perfect and awesome.  And even more so because *we* made them.  It just melts my heart.

Connor was over the moon to be able to "help" me make the cookies.  Even if that meant pulling pre-made store bought cookie dough right out of the package.  The dough was a bit sticky so I pulled out pieces, rolled them into balls, shaped them a little, and then let Connor help me smush them.  He also helped me match up potential eyes and count out enough for all our cookies.

Once we had them all rolled out and our face making supplies ready to go we popped them into the oven and cooked them.

Ryan came over to help me finish counting out antlers and to keep an eye on the cookies in the oven.  Cookies that were puffing up, rising and then spreading like crazy.  By the time they were done cooking they had pretty much mushed into one giant clump.

We went ahead and popped the eyes, noses and antlers in.  You really have to work fast.  I had started trying to separate the cookies and move them off to another sheet to dry, but no sooner had I moved one than I realized that I had waited too long and that it was already pretty much set.  So I worked fast instead popping the eyes, noses, and antlers on.

After dinner the boys took great delight in maiming the cookies by plucking out the eyes and noses before even considering eating the cookie.

While they turned out nothing at all like they were supposed to (umm... smaller balls much more spread out on a cookie sheet!?!?) we still really enjoyed devouring them.

A visit from Panta Claus

We definitely need to keep an eye on that elf.

I woke just before the crack of dawn this morning for no apparent reason.  As I stumbled into the kitchen for a glass of milk I happened to glance at the tree.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear?  But an odd shape atop the tree.  As I got closer and flipped on the light it was apparent what Elfie had been up to this night.  He topped our tree with the Panta Claus book.

And underpants?

A whole tree full in fact...

When the boys got up this morning they made quick work of finding Elfie in his new spot.  And stared suspiciously at the tree.  "He put our underwear on the tree!  That's so silly, isn't it Mom?"

But they were definitely excited to get to pick new underwear off the tree to wear today.  :)

Guess it is a good thing Elfie and Panta Claus came because I am not sure we had anymore clean underwear!

They had so much fun with this in fact that since we probably won't get around to decorating the tree until Friday that we will probably leave them on the tree and let them pick a new pair each day. 

Letters to Santa

Elfie reminded us that it is time to get those letters to Santa written and off to the North Pole.



So this morning we sat down before breakfast and wrote our letters to Santa.  It was a BIG hit with the boys.  And I loved some of their answers. 

Connor truthfully said he had been “A little nice, and a little naughty”, and he wanted a purple fish “and nothing else.”  And when I asked him where we lived for the return address he looked at me like I was from Mars and said “right here, at the last house on the “court-de-sack.””

Ryan insisted we need a new box to say “VERY GOOD” instead of just “Nice.”  And he had a whole list for Santa.  He wanted to make sure I got it all in his letter.  And when it was time for him to sign his letter he started with the "R" on the right hand side, and then the proceeded to write his name from right to left (not that you could read it if you hadn’t seen him write it and tell you the letters, but it really cracked me up.) 

After we got our letters all written and stuffed in their envelopes we headed out to the mailbox to mail them.

Now we will just have to wait anxiously to see what Santa says...

Moody Gardens Festival of Lights

On Saturday we took the boys on the scenic route to Galveston headed for Moody Garden's Festival of Lights.  Our first stop was in Bellaire at Santa's favorite DIM SUM restaurant for lunch.  Which as it turns out was decked out in red and gold even more so than usual for a private party later in the afternoon.  And after eating their weight in Chinese food the boys were given balloons and Santa hats as they headed out the door giving credence to the fact that it must indeed be Santa's favorite.

The boys napped in the car as we made our way down to Galveston and drove down the Seawall looking for a section of beach that wasn't underwater with the higher than usual tide.  The boys woke up as we pulled into a parking space.

We hopped out and set off on a leisurely stroll down the beach.

The boys of course couldn't resist picking up a few [million] shells along the way.

So many in fact that we had to go back to the car and get a bucket to put their collection in less they stuff the still wet, muddy shells in their pockets when they ran out of room in their hands.

They investigated crab holes, and drew pictures in the sand.

And Connor couldn't resist chasing a few seagulls shouting "RAWR!!!"

With sunset approaching we headed back to the car to make our way over to Moody Gardens. We picked up aquarium tickets in the thankfully short line and headed inside to enjoy the Aquarium before the Light Show.

The boys were fascinated by the frisky penguins who were putting on quite a show. 

Several plopped into the water, and raced around jumping high out of the water and leaving mini vornado's of bubbles in their wake before rocketing back up onto solid ground and dancing around excitedly.  Others splashed around on their sides spraying the glass of the tank with water. 

As we visited each tank the boys excitedly called out the different types of fish they recognized from the lion fish, and stingrays to sharks, starfish, Sheldons! (sea horses), Dorey! and Nemos! and barracudas.

They also enjoyed stamping their Shark passports along the way running from station to station.

Ryan excitedly pointed out the Sea Lion skeletons calling it a T-Rex like the one in the museum in the Dinosuars Night Before Christmas book that has become one of their favorities.

Though the coolest thing I thought were the sharks.  They were on the prowl and swimming close to the glass vs. hiding in the depths of the tank.

Several made multiple passes over our heads in the tunnel.

Giving us an up close and personal view of their sharp, pointy teeth!  Ryan was particularly convinced that this one was going to eat me.  :)

With it well after dark we said goodbye to the fish and made our way to the entrance to the festival of lights.

The boys had new favorites this year, including the dinosaurs (or decepticons! as Ryan called them).

And of course the man fishing...

And Ryan of course loved just about anything yellow.  :)

I am not sure if I could pick just one favorite.  I loved the giant nutcrackers, and the mountain of butterflies.  I also really like the elf forest.

Ryan liked the elphants.

And, no surprise, Connor was excited to see the fish.

They made it a little more than half way (about the elf forest) before they decided the long walk on the beach, the running around in the aquarium and the first half of the Festival of Lights was an awful lot of walking for their short little legs and didn't we want to carry them???  Kevin took turns carrying them on his shoulders for the rest of the tour.

Afterwards we made our way over to The Original for me to get my Mexican fix in.  The queso was heavenly, and the boys were perfect little angels.  Connor devoured his uber cheesy quesedillas practically in one gulp and I am pretty sure Kevin licked his plate clean.

Stuffed to the gills the boys and I crashed in the car on the way home and made Kevin drive.  We woke up long enough to make it into the house and then passed out in bed, again.  :)