Christmas has come and gone again, and I'm kind of glad it has. We had an amazing time, but it's nice to have all of the excitement and anticipation wind down into relaxation. And there are less tantrums, which is never a bad thing.
We decided to try and find a more economically priced tree this year, and wound up with a great one from Home Depot. It was beautiful, and we remembered to water it this year so the needles actually stayed in the tree. Unfortunately, a week or so after putting it up and decorating it, we started seeing strange fat bellied beetles around the tree. The closer to christmas it got, the more beetles made their way out of the tree. They were really gross, and would leave purple smears on the floor if you stepped on one. So we wound up taking the tree down on boxing day. Luckily the beetles didn't seem to fare very well outside of the tree, and we haven't seen a single one since the tree went into the backyard. Next year I think we'll go back to the tree farm and cut our own again.
We had a green christmas this year. Our lawn was greener in December than it was in July. We finally have snow now, but I have no idea how long it will last. So long as it doesn't go back to freezing cold rain on cloudy days, I'll take snow with a smile.
The boys wrote their letters to Santa this year. They were pretty happy to please. Arthur's says "I please want an airplane and a car for christmas. Thank you, Love Arthur. P.S. I also want another Steelers Bear" And Felix's says "Dear Santa, please Santa toy and snack. Love Felix"
Arthur got a few DS games for his birthday that he's been loving. Here he's playing Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. It's a really cool game where he has these little action figures, and places one at a time on the "portal" and then gets to play as the character in his game. His other favourite is Mario Kart, which is pretty awesome too.
Both boys got a hair cut from me, in preparation for christmas photos and going to see Santa.
Arthur was over the moon excited to see Santa in real life. Felix was excited but still wary. In line, Travis tried to cajole him into smiling for the camera. It didn't quite work out as planned, but the photo turned out pretty great anyway! Both boys managed to let Santa know what they wanted for christmas. Santa was confused by Arthur's request of "another Steelers Bear", "How many do you have?" asked Santa, "Two" replied Arthur. When it was Felix's turn he told Santa very clearly that he wanted "a toy", Santa replied "I think I can manage that" lol Santa must hear some of the greatest one liners from kids during the christmas season.
In between all the christmas excitement, Travis downloaded an NES and SNES emulator on his computer. Arthur spent a pile of time playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Mario on it. Felix was having some issues with feeling left out, but just couldn't get the hang of playing yet. It won't be long before they're battling head to head on video games though.
The TMNT obsession started with a trip to Zellers with allowance money. The boys each picked out a Ninja Turtle to buy with their own money, and Grandma bought them the remaining two because "they have to have all four!" The boys are so lucky to have Grandma around so much :) Arthur started browsing youtube for Ninja Turtles videos and decided to make his own video talking about the features of his toy turtles.
While Arthur was busy with his turtles, Felix was going full throttle with Lego. He concentrates so much on building his rocket ships and helicopters. It's pretty awesome. So, I decided to take a video. That went well until Felix realized I was playing paparazzo instead of paying full attention to his creations.
Amid all of this, we attended Davan and Cian's joint birthday party. Held early because Steph and Tyler were heading to Marathon for a month of christmas celebration with family.
Then it was back to christmas craziness. We got a package in the mail almost daily with gifts for the boys. They started to get really impatient with it all, though they were always excited to see newly wrapped presents multiply under the tree. Luckily I had tools at my disposal to distract them. Chief of which were empty packing boxes and bubble wrap.
The christmas crazies hit in more ways than one. Felix started to constantly bug me for a bowl of water and a face cloth. Thinking that he was just going to dump the water on the floor as usual, I kept saying no. Finally I gave in, and was shocked to witness my youngest scrubbing diligently away at the walls. He had watched me scrub the walls not long before since *someone* scribbled marker on the walls from the kitchen to the front door, so I guess I made it look a lark.
And then christmas was upon us. The Santa hat was out and in use, and the kids were practically humming with excitement. Arthur liked to wear the Santa hat but would take it off almost immediately because it made his hair itchy. Felix loved to put it on and walk around saying "ho ho ho".
And christmas eve brought both boys down with the sickness. Felix especially was looking and feeling awful. They had fevers, they had runny noses, they were coughing, and, on christmas morning, Felix vomited all over himself (and me of course) right in the middle of opening presents. Both boys were in pretty foul moods as a result, only mildly mitigated by the ridiculous amount of toys they got. Unfortunately my mom took the brunt of their bad moods. She didn't deserve it of course, but Felix wanted nothing to do with anyone who wasn't Mommy for a large portion of the day. That didn't really help my plans to cook an entire turkey dinner that day, but we survived and the turkey was delicious.
Felix's favourite toy by far was his Jake and the Neverland Pirates pirate ship. We almost had an incident when Arthur saw that Felix got one, since they had both asked for it. Luckily we had just the gift to distract Arthur, a Millennium Falcon play set. He was blown away, Travis couldn't be more proud. He and Arthur have been watching through the Star Wars movies (starting with episodes 4-6, then moving on to episodes 1-3 and the Clone Wars) for the very first time this month. Arthur is enthralled with the movies, he can't get enough, and it's become a special bonding time for Travis and Arthur.
Arthur really got into the spirit of giving this year. I've been bugging him to let me read him his "Mater Saves Christmas" book at bedtime and he keeps saying no. Turns out that was because he was planning on giving his book to me for christmas, he even wrapped it himself!
Overall, vomit and tantrums aside, it was a pretty great christmas, which left me feeling grateful and happy. But I'm still happy that it's over ;)
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