It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We are well into the swing of the Christmas holidays around here. I am such a planner and I love Christmas, so you will probably not be surprised to hear that we are ready. Christmas cards were made and sent out, gifts were created and purchased and wrapped and put under the tree. Holiday cookies were baked and consumed. The tree was set up and decorated long ago. The children have made ornaments and paper chains and we hosted a holiday party for my book group.
Now I'm planning my dishes for Christmas breakfast and lunch and looking forward to just coasting through the next couple of weeks.
Davis and Sam had their open house at school last Friday and were so cute. I loved watching them show us their school and take pride and ownership of the work they do each day. Davis got to show us how he can count into the thousands using units and then pulled out a basket with a variety of objects and used lower case wooden letters to spell out the name of each object. Sam's work was the color box. This work involved taking out colored slides and matching them to each other and then going to find objects in the room that matched those colors. Then they each offered us snacks and hot cocoa that they themselves had helped prepare during their school day. And then Sam proceeded to put on his own jacket! Needless to say, we were very proud.
Saturday we enjoyed a family lunch with my grandfather's family and later had a playdate with Cheris and Rob and Violet and Graham. We ate good food and drank eggnog and made cookies and gifted each other. My parents came over and joined the party. It was good fun.
Sunday we drove up to Houston to a really awesome Christmas party. The REAL Santa was there and the kids got to sit in his lap and converse with him. The party was held on a beautiful estate and included, bbq and mexican food, a carnival, a petting zoo, a real train on real tracks, hot cocoa and churro stands, tons of jumpy houses, a craft station, karaoke, pony rides, a balloon man (the kids favorite), wandering jugglers, a ferris wheel, coffee stations, and a fabulous concert by Bon Jovi. We had a fabulous, though very chilly time. The kids were in heaven.
Christmas is so much fun with kids who get it. Davis is four and a half and is totally into it. And Sam at three is also really starting to understand and enjoy the season. Looking at it all through their eyes is like reliving childhood. It's a blast. Enjoy the pictures.