Santa Visit '08

We had our Santa visit last night at the Mall of America. I would say "annual Santa visit", but last year we didn't make it as CJ refused to go. Can I say how much I love the MOA Santa? First, you can make reservations. 2 years ago when CJ was 2 1/2 we waited in line for 2 1/2 -3 hours to see this Santa. CJ was kept busy with the toy area and the movie Polar Express they had playing, it was well worth it. Starting last year you could make reservations, what a brilliant idea. There still is "the other Santa" at the MOA, but he isn't quite the same. For the past few weeks, CJ has been telling me how his Santa visit is going to go. "Mom, I'll just stand by Santa and you can tell him what I want. I'm not sitting on his lap, I'll just stand by him while Nicky sits on his lap and gets his picture taken." Well this Santa spends about 10-15 minutes with each family. He starts by sitting on the ground with the kids giving them high fives, asking what they want for Christmas and all the other Santa questions "have you been good?" "do you listen to your mom?" "do you eat your vegetables?". Then he goes into photo mode and whisked Nick in before he could realize who was holding him and get crabby. Even CJ sat on his lap and smiled for a picture.

While we were waiting for Santa we found out the boy in front of us was also named CJ and this was his 10th year of coming to visit this Santa. "MOA Santa Groupies".

I was hoping to also have other pictures because you can take your own photos too, but Charlie got in charge of photo taking and got 2. He was immediately fired from future photo duty.

And of course you can't go to the MOA without going on some rides.

Nick's 1st Haircut!

Nick had his 1st haircut today, he looks like such a big boy now! So sad to lose that little baby hair, but the "wings" were starting to drive me nuts.

Towards the end we had to use a sucker for a bribe, he SCREAMED bloody murder for the last 5 minutes when she was using the trimmer - no pictures of that!

After his haircut at home, (and a nap so he was happier!)


Now...I know some of you are NOT going to believe me but check out this unplanned oddity. Here are pictures of CJ's first hair cut - can you believe they are wearing the same shirt. And I SWEAR I didn't plan this, I just grabbed the first shirt I saw this morning from Nick's closet which happened to be a hand-me-down from CJ.

Also, check out the size difference between the boys! CJ was just over 10 months in this picture. Nick is 11 months today.

Cookies!

As promised to Tonja, here are some pictures of the cookies Sara and I decorated yesterday. While it wasn't quite the spread that Tonja and her family created, we had fun decorating our sugar cookies. We both HATE the rolling/cutting/baking portion of decorated sugar cookies so for the last 2 years we've had Charlie bring home Best Brands pre-made sugar cookies, and they are quite good too!

Here are some of our masterpieces.

And of course some gingerbread men (or I guess in this case man)...

We'll just call this one creepy..."Dude, what happened to your face?"

Sara made this one, we decided it looked like Lightening McQueen - so she sent it home for CJ (it's actually a broken Santa)

And my most favorite of all, you've all heard of the Christmas Macaw haven't you? "macaw, macaw"- I can't take credit for this one either, Sara's creativity and decorating skills far surpass my own. (It's a Santa on it's side - we decided we didn't like this Santa - too hard to decorate) (The Christmas Macaw is far more entertaining) (and who can resist saying "macaw, macaw" in their best bird voice"

Nick's 1st Spaghetti Dinner

1st Snow

December 3rd was one of our 1st significant shovelable (is that a word?)snowfalls. CJ loves to help shovel (i.e. play while Mom or Dad shovels). Nick was supposed to be taking a nap, but more wanted to be part of his 1st snow, all bundled up in the stroller he watched from the garage.

CJ's realized his bike is not so well suited for the snow.