Scenes from Christmas time

I title this scenes from Christmas "time" because the pictures date back to the beginning of December to the end of the month. I like to celebrate Christmas the same way I like to celebrate my birthday: all month long!

One of the local churches has this great Christmas celebration every year - pancakes, photos with Santa, story time and crafts! This is the second time we've went and sitting on Santa's lap went much like it has previous years - not well. The only way we could convince Lucan to get even CLOSE to Santa was to have Lance sit on Santa's lap too. They also wanted me to sit on Santa's lap. I declined.

Lucan sitting very patiently for story time. It helped that the same person who does story time at our local library, Janet, also did this story time. She does a phenomenal job and is great with the kids.

Craft time. Lucan is coloring the bag used to transport the craft back home. And in a moment of truth time, Lance and I were the ones to complete Lucan's craft for him. I promise not to be one of those mom's who does their child's homework for them. At least I'm going to try really hard not to be one of those moms.

We got Lucan a Little People Nativity set as a pre-Christmas gift. Lucan had fun setting the angel on top of the stable. He also thought it was fun to try and balance the donkeys up there too. Two other things to note in this picture: our Halloween pumpkin. Two holidays had gone by before I finally got the gumption to put the pumpkin out to pasture on our back deck. In previous years the squirrels had eaten the pumpkin off our front step so I figured they'd do the same on our deck. I was wrong. The other thing to note is that Lucan has on his beloved Thomas the Train socks on in this picture. This is probably the last time both of them were seen together. As a result he has two pairs of Thomas socks - both missing a sock so he wears two unmatched socks to make a set. Where do little kid socks keep disappearing?

Lucan did really well with the Christmas tree - if he wasn't running into it or trying to slide under it to get Fire. Or throwing all of the Christmas ornament balls as hard as he could - because they were balls and what else do you do with balls? It doesn't help that Lance is convinced Lucan has the beginnings of a career as a lefthanded pitcher and encourages Lucan to chuck ball-shaped objects whenever he wants.

We go to this fun Christmas celebration in Lance's hometown - they have yummy chili and chicken noodle soup. And if you ask Lucan, really yummy chocolate cupcakes.

Lucan had a bit of a meltdown. After inhaling his chocolate cupcake we went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face. He proceeded to get water all over him and wanted to take off his clothes. I told him no so he laid down in the middle of the floor and cried. A little girl saw him laying there and made a game of jumping over him. Lucan shouted at her "NO JUMPIN!" It was funny. That's when I scooped him up off the floor.

Despite the aforementioned toddler tantrum, Lucan actually did very well on Santa's lap this time. I suppose it helped that he had some time to run around and burn off some energy. Lu is sitting with his newest cousin, Ean, here. We tried to get one of his other cousin's, Easton, to sit too. But Easton just kept backing up further and further from Santa. It was comical :)

I had a coworker whose son believed that only naughty boys got clothes for Christmas. Lucan shared this sentiment as one of the first things he opened were clothes. He was slightly appalled.

Lucan started unwrapping ALL of the presents. In this picture he's getting scolded by Lance for taking off bows to presents that didn't belong to him. Fortunately it was one of my presents so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Lance and Lu intent on adding batteries to Lu's new bath alligator. Side note: Lucan told me last night that he was afraid of the alligators under his bed - that he's afraid that they're going to bite his toes. Where do kiddos come up with this stuff?

Three boys with birthdays within six months of each other = TROUBLE. Lucan is two and a half, Easton is two and two thirds and Wyatt is three. We were attempting to get all three boys to sit nicely together in their Christmas jammies. We ended up bribing them with tractors and Wyatt - a cookie. And they still aren't really sitting "nicely" (Lucan peed through his pj bottoms, Easton isn't looking at the camera and Wyatt is half-standing). But this is life and the best we get!