"You better watch out, You better not cry..."

Do any of you out there think in song lyrics?  Me too.  I almost was going to entitle this post, "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..."  And then, I realized I did that LAST year.  And then I started looking at all the pictures from this time last year and kind of died a little at how TINY Calvin was.  He's like a little bald Buddah.  Too cute.

But, I'll tell you what, he STILL is pretty cute.  I can say that, because I'm not biased at all. 

Let's talk about how we put up our Christmas decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving this year.  Yes, we did.  Sue me.  Here's the rational:  We were leaving to Utah on Nov. 22nd and wouldn't be returning until December 3rd, meaning only 22 days left to enjoy the Christmas decor.  That, of course, would be unacceptable.  Does anyone else out there think it's a tragedy that Christmas comes on December 25th and not on January 25th?  I mean, why can't we enjoy all these fun things for LONGER?  

I digress.  Sorry.

I just am pleased about our decision to make an early jump on the whole thing.  No regrets (it's the motto I like to live by).  Tillie was in HEAVEN and I think she's now found a new calling in life... ornament arranger.  She took her job very seriously and still does (she likes to re-arrange them on the tree if they aren't looking "quite right" as she likes to say).  In fact, during one of her re-arranging sessions, she knocked over the tree.  The stand broke.  No one was hurt, but the tree is in a weak state now.  Luckily, Aaron worked his magic and "fixed" it with some wire.  I'm hoping the incident means that I get to buy a new tree.  You know, the HUGE kind?  Here's hoping.  

Did Calvin love decorating the tree?  No.  He was more interested in his Toy Story 2 library book.  Typical boy.  

Oh, and Becca got to come play too.  It was good fun.

And here is the proof:

someone has to do the dishes from time to time.  Look at how much fun I was having!

No, that's not how the mantel ended up looking.  That was MID swap.  One day I'll take a new photo.

This kid was VERY uninterested.  That's okay.  Tillie made up for his lack of effort.

::: Having a Christmas tree out and all the Christmas books is really pretty fun.  Aaron was reading to the kids one night and I had to take a few shots of Miss Matilda's hair.  She's got GREAT hair, that girl.  I had just taken it out of a bun an hour earlier.  It stays curly for so long.  Such a gift!  These next shots are blurry, but you get the idea.

::: Speaking of HAIR, Cal has a good head of hair too.  Granted, these shots were taken in our bathroom with tungsten lighting, so it makes all the colors really WARM, but he does have a nice reddish blonde hair color.  We decided to cut it to make it shorter around his ears, but to leave the top long.  Luckily, Aaron is a pro with his clippers and did a great job.  I was demoted last time, remember?  I'll have to post the "AFTER" pictures soon, but I thought it was interesting to see how MELLOW Calvin was before he got his hair cut.  This kid is a fickle pickle.  You never know what side of him is going to come out with each event in the day.

::: Do you guys do that Elf on the Shelf thing?  My mom got us one last year and this year the kids are totally into it.  It's pretty fun.  Apparently some parents do all sorts of tricks with them and pretend like the Elf undecorated the tree and other naughty things---I think all that stuff is LAME.  We just put the Elf named "Crizbee" in new spots each morning... if I remember.

One night when Aaron ran to the grocery store, he came home with this MINI Bananas!  He thought it would be a fun to pretend that Crizbee brought them.  What a fun dad he is!  So, I took a picture.  MINI BANANAS!?  Everything is more fun in MINI size.  Good work, Aaron.

::: The kids and I went to a church play group outing and we had a lot of fun.  I'm finding out that I really quite enjoy a lot of the girls in our new ward.  This new area has a lot of older women with teenagers, but I've been happily surprised at how many younger kiddos there are to be found.  In Nursery this year there will only be 6 kids in nursery, but there are something like 50 young men and 50 young women.  Crazy, right?

Anyway, we had a fun time.  And, guess who showed up?!  Santa himself.  I was shocked to see how happy my kids were to see him... Cal especially.  He just walked right up to him and climbed on his lap!  Too funny.

  

Am I crazy or does Calvin look like he's 8 here too?!  Too funny.  It's nuts when we keep saying, "Oh my word, he's only 1 year old!!"  It's true.  He doesn't turn 2 for another few weeks.  hAAA!  That's the biggest ONE year old I've ever seen!!


::: Next up, Tillie's dance teacher said that the parents could come watch one of their lessons.  It was pretty fun to see what Tillie had been learning.  She was SO happy that we were there watching and kept looking over her shoulder to make sure we were still there.  There is nothing as sweet as little tiny girls all dressed up to dance.  

I love this one with their feet up.  Too fun. 

Do you love the family photo here with us in the mirror?

Cal kept busy with some bunny crackers.

Tillie's version of a Plié (yes, I definitely had to look up that word)

Calvin moved on to his box of raisins pretty quickly.  The boy loves his raisins.

::: Church Christmas parties.  I don't have any photos of the Relief Society night we did, but a few weeks ago, the presidency asked me to put together several musical numbers for part of their program.  I said "Yes" and then started stressing out, because 1) I didn't know anyone in the ward 2) I didn't know who knew who was musically inclined and 3) I HATE asking people to do things.

Thankfully, they gave me a list of names of people who might be willing to help.  And, thankfully, those people were all very nice and helped me out.  In the end I pulled together 8 musical numbers and accompanied 6 of them on the piano.  Let's just say, THAT is the reason why I've been M.I.A. in blog-land.  I've been practicing like a motivated jr. high student.  Hours each day.

Glory! Glory!  It's all a thing of the past.  We came, we saw, we conquered... For the most part.  I botched up a few times, but all in all, it went pretty well.

Anyway, a girl in our ward saw that I played the piano and asked me to accompany her and her daughter for the big Ward Christmas Party a few days later.  It was a good time.  I played with no mistakes (whew!) and all was well.  Santa even turned up that night.

I'm including this photo that Aaron took only to point out the guy sleeping in his chair.  Top left.  Very funny.  I have no idea who he is, but I thought we chuckled when we were looking through the photos.

Yes, indeed, all signs point to the fact that Christmas is coming!!!  I can't believe that we only have a few days left!!!  Let the fun begin!!  I love exclamation points!!!  !!!    !!!