Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Rest of the Christmas Festivities

Some recent funny sayings, before I get into the Christmas stuff...

Sebastian, in the car, pretending he's on the phone:
"Claire, I went to school yesterday.  I went trick or treating.  Ok, bye."

Adrian:  "Mama, I want Juju and Marcy.  They took care of me in the hospital.  I want to show them my army man pants."

Sebastian:  "Christmas is all done.  Cookies (the elf) went back to the North Pole.  It's time to take out the Halloweens (the decorations)."

Adrian:  "Hafta nap.  Hafta have energy for adventures."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had high winds on Christmas and the boys were distraught when Frosty fell over.


Mini and Grumpy came over Christmas morning for brunch.  We had french toast casserole, ham, potatoes, sausage and cranberry quiche and pistachio bread ("Grinch cake").   It was yummy if I do say so myself.  Mini cooked the ham for me, though.  I can't take credit for that!

Before going to Grumpy's house on Christmas Day night, we took a walk through the neighborhood to take advantage of the mild weather.


There goes "Army Man Adi" to patrol the streets with Puppy.


Adi loves his army man Nerf gun.  Oh boy.



At Grumpy's house the boys watched Toy Story that Time Forgot AGAIN.



We all made out like bandits at Grumpy's house.

Friday the 26th Carlos had to work.  The boys and I hung out at home ALL day.  They didn't want to go anywhere--it was a struggle even to get them out for a walk--because all they wanted to do was play with their loot.  That's a good thing, I guess!  Sebastian had fun putting cars and dinosaurs in his floam.


Adi played trains.


And also made dinosaur prints in his new playdough.  That boys LOVES his playdough.


He napped (or pretended to) and made me yell at him and tell him to get on his cot.  I don't know why he thinks that's fun!


Then I had to yell at him "Wakey upey time!" and he'd get up and run away.  Then he'd yell for me to do the whole thing over again.  So. Much. Fun.


Random, but here's a picture of the Lego Mini-Fig family we made.  Ha!


Sebastian wants to take a picture with Frosty every time we go out.





Adi spent his target gift card on MORE army man clothing.  He picked it out himself and wouldn't put it down.  He carried the clothing around on the hangers throughout the store.  He turned down toys, movies, etc.  All he wanted was his army man stuff.  Ok.




After posing with his new clothes, he insisted the army man outfit he had on was dirty and that "Mama needs to wash it" so that I would put on his new army man stuff.

More pictures with Frosty...

The boys' new obsession thanks for a DVD Santa brought is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


Saturday night we went to Mini's house because Santa left presents there, too.  Adi LOVED his antlers.


We could not get all the boys and Tio Jim to look at the camera at the same time.




And that's all for Christmas festivities.  I'm relieved to not have to take the boys to anyone's house in the near future since it's so much work and stress to keep them under control.  But I'm sad about all the parties etc. being over.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas!!  It's been a great holiday season and a great Christmas.  I'm so blessed and very grateful for my friends and family.  The boys had a blast and loved all their presents, of which there were too many.  Santa brought lots of stuff that he collected at yard sales for the boys...and lots of stuff they can grow into.  And Carlos and I will have fun with the new stuff, too! ;-)

Here's the tree pre-Santa.


Two nights ago, on the 23rd, we went to dinner at Bertucci's (courtesy of a student who gave me a generous gift card).  The boys were so good.  The waitress actually said to me, "These are the cleanest kids I've ever had."  Maybe she's only been on the job for a day?  After dinner we went to the Taunton Green to see the lights.  It was raining so we didn't stay long, but the boys enjoyed walking around.







On Christmas Eve day, we hung out at the house all morning.  It was a loooong day.  The boys were whiny and tired and cranky.  But there were some good moments....like this one when Adi had a few chocolate chips.



To burn off energy we went puddle jumping, but even that didn't last long because it was 46 degrees out and the water was freezing.











Sebastian and I colored.  Here is his masterpiece.  He worked diligently for about 15-20 minutes on it...

At night we went to Kitchen's house.  The boys had a blast playing with Kitchen's trucks and looking at his Lego city.  Sebastian wouldn't leave poor Kitchen alone--all he wanted to do was play with him.



Adi shared Puppy with nana and they had a moment...




 Auntie Carol had McQueen stickers, notepads, and pens and toy story stuff, too, to play with at their special table.  The boys are totally into stickers lately and put them all over their clothes and bodies.  But last night after coloring on the table all they wanted to do was play with Kitchen's toys.  Well, the stickers will be a big hit now that we are home and Kitchen's toys aren't tempting them!




Adi LIT UP when he saw his army man coat from Tia Mimi.  All the pictures are blurry :-(










At home, Santa came and left presents everywhere...



First we did stockings on Mama and Papa's bed--just like my brother and I did when we were kids.  Sebastian was thrilled with his Mickey doll.



Then we opened the presents upstairs.

 Notice the army man socks on Adi--he made us put them on right away.



 Probably the biggest hit of all with Sebastian was the two McQueen trucks he got.




And Adi is so excited about his army man clothes--he made me put them on and then he made me change him so he could wear MORE of the army man stuff.  Aside from his clothes, he was excited about his playdough and the truck that makes playdough shapes.



Santa left presents downstairs, too!  Wow--he's crazy.




Grumpy and Mini joined us for brunch.  Adi liked knocking down Grumpy's towers.


Adi got this cash register from Kitchen last night.  And the boys got the lemonade stand from him for their birthday.  It's the perfect place for them to sell things...like playdough.





Sebastian likes his trucks so much that he took them with him on the couch and put them under the blanket to watch his new Mickey's Clubhouse DVD.

Tonight we're off to Grumpy's house because he said Santa left presents there, too.  And Mini's house on Saturday.  Busy busy boys!!!

What a great fall and Christmas season it's been.  I so enjoy all the traditions we are starting with the boys and look forward to many more years of fun.

Merry Christmas!

Gifts 2014 (again, Santa was very thrifty about his acquisition of these gifts)

bristle blocks
tinker toys
lincoln logs
legos
snow boots
army man gear (adi)
Fleece pants/shirts (sebastian)
McQueen trucks
coloring books
Kinex
cardboard blocks
wooden castle blocks
mittens
matchbox cars
socks
toy story watches
toy story pez dispensers
army man walkie talkies
thomas the train wooden accessories, track, and trains
books
play dough
construction vehicles
army men, vehicles, etc
plastic dinosaurs
stuffed Mickey

Carlos got me an awesome LL Bean jacket/sweatshirt and a Mexican cookbook I wanted.  I got him a Fitbit.