Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, but it is always nice to look back and share how we spent those days.
The Saturday before Christmas was action packed!

1. Rudolph

We transformed our car into a reindeer, and Toyota became known as Rudolph for the next 2 weeks.

2. The Tree

While mommy stayed at home getting the house ready for Christmas, we ventured off to the local 100 Foot Christmas Tree.

We managed to take a couple of nice shots. Even managed to visit the Nativity scene, climb past the ropes and greet the Baby Jesus.

We also saw the man in red...

Before venturing inside the tree...

The tree is over 100 feet tall

3. Lunch

Is there anywhere better for lunch in terms of value for lunch than Costco? $1.50 for a giant hot dog and soda with free refills!

4. Christmas Lights

We rounded off the day with a trip to see the Christmas lights from the car. 

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The Irishman was given the task of blogging about the lead up to Christmas. He had most of the pictures for those events on his phone. I thought that would be 2 blog posts, but it is looking like it might be 4 or 5! The only thing I was going to add to this post was that my grandmother came with us to the lights. Sean was SO impressed that 'B' was in our car. He is still talking about it!

The Beach - Before

The "before" in the title actually refers to before Christmas. The car had to go in for service. The Irishman called to say that it would take a couple of hours. The kids and I initiated "Operation Rescue Daddy." When we pulled up to the dealership, Caitlin said, "We are here to save the day!"

We had an hour or so, so we headed to the beach.

(Ignore my finger in this one...)

I wasn't crazy about the idea of burying in the sand, but I was out numbered!

Monkey see, monkey do!

I've been complaining a bit this year about just how warm our winter has been. Days like this help. A little.

We definitely saved the day!

Super Fun Times

The local children's art museum had a super hero exhibit this month, so I took my favorite super heroes down to check it out.

Caitlin was more impressed with the puppet making.

Not to mention the water table...

Daddy got into the fun with this one! He stood on one side of the wall and made impressions for the kids.

Which of course meant they had to try it too!

The only way to get the kids to leave is the promise of a snack and time to run around the giant letters.

(Unfortunately the only way to get them to leave the giant letters is to drag them kicking and screaming, lol!)

Playin' at the Park

Future Rocket Scientist

Always Time for Tea

The Irishman got a box of Santa's Tea sent over from Ireland.

A certain little girl was most impressed. Once the tea is cooled, so has been known to steal the mug.

There is always time for tea!

Happy Zoo Year

We love our zoo membership! When we heard that they were doing a NYE celebration, we decided to join in the fun. Of course, Caitlin made sure we had quarters before we left the house. No trip to the zoo is complete without feeding the ducks!

As noon approached, we headed to the fountain area for the box drop. 

They had apple juice for the kids. They didn't really understand what was going on, but they had fun anyway!

Best of all was the SNOW!

A few soap suds go a long way for a couple of Florida kids!

Happy ZOO year to you and yours!

New Year's Eve Fun

After the "Happy Zoo Year" celebrations (more on that later) we headed to West Palm Beach to see Sandi, the 30 foot Christmas Tree.  NYE was the last night for the tree and other sand sculptures. )(Or sand vultures if you ask Caitlin!) Almost as soon as we got there, a nice older couple stopped and offered to take our picture.

The kind woman was wearing an ugly short sleeve Christmas sweater and had a collection of Santa hats in her bag that she let us wear for our picture. Morgan had just passed comment about how we left our hats in the car when she walked up to us. We took their picture and parted ways.

Next to the tree was a mini golf course. Caitlin was thrilled to play and started to get the hang of it.

Sean tried,

but found it more fun to throw the ball.

Caitlin took a picture with the 'mingos just for 'B'

After golf we loaded the kids back into the wagon for a snack and to see the rest of the decorations.

Caitlin took this picture.

We picked up some pizza on the way home and watched Dumbo together before putting the kids to bed. They had a great day. We'd decided at the last minute to check out the Christmas decorations in West Palm and I'm glad we did. Caitlin woke up this morning asking to go back!

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One of my big goals this year is to get back into blogging. Last year I really focused on my teaching blog. In the spring, I often stayed up late and worked on that and it took up all of my free time. Once I changed roles at school, I just didn't have time for any of it. I let both blogs go a bit. Funny enough, I am now making a (little) money monthly from my teachers pay teachers store even though I've put less time into it. We'll call that dumb luck and the products I put time into last spring finally paying off!

Regardless, I miss blogging and reading blogs. When I was nursing, it was easy to write a quick blog each morning while pumping. Now that a certain young man wakes up as soon as my feet touch the floor in the morning, I haven't found the time in my day that blogging fits into. We made the move from PC to Mac, and while I love the computer, I just haven't gotten into my grove yet. I loved Windows Love Writer to blog and Google Reader to keep up with the blogs I read. I haven't found replacements I like. 

My goal for the new year is to find time to make it work. We'll see how it goes. Like most working moms, it is finding time for myself that is the hardest. I'm going to make an effort though!