And Then There Were 2!!!: Parties, Advent, Zoo Lights and More

I've got a lot of catching up to do on all our activities and festivities! What an amazing time of year this is. I am truly trying to celebrate this season of Advent...hope, excitement, joy and amazement at the celebration of this miracle of Christ's birth. Every day Tate and I talk about why there is such a buzz in the air; sure I ask him what he wants Santa to bring him and what he'd like me to get him for Christmas, but I'm sure to tell him why. And my why is this..God loved us so so so very much that He sent His own Son down to this earth to walk amongst us...the greatest gift He could give us. He loved us that much; He wanted to spoil us. Isn't that what parents want to do...give, give and give to their children. We are modeling after the greatest gift by the most blessed of parents. So I tell Tate we're getting ready to celebrate Jesus' birth and we do that by sharing our love with one another through gifts, hugs, kisses and kind words. As such I try my best not to get wrapped up in the 'stress' of the holiday. Yes, I've one-clicked on Amazon a few more times already this month, called the godparents to see what their kids want and torn wrapping paper while trying to wrap too quickly, but I'm enjoying it. I love love love giving to others. I try to instill each gift with thought and love like God did. And I enjoy it...I really do.

So what have we been doing since Thanksgiving? In this season of Advent. Well I'll start with this weekend and work our way back. Friday I shuffled Tate off to swim lessons, though he didn't want to go. I hustled him on to school as I had a tour scheduled for yet another elementary...this one a private one that goes K-8. It's on my short list of private schools I'm considering for him. On my way to my tour I stopped in to say hi at the restaurant where my office was having their ~~Christmas~~ holiday party for a quick second (it was from 9-11; hard to make that when Tate swims 930-10 and I already had this tour scheduled). Then I made my way to get my hair relaxed...ahhhh. Raced back to pick Tate up from daycare to meet my mommy here at my place. We loaded up and headed out to the zoo for the Zoo Lights!!

Goodness was it cold though. 37 degrees. In Houston. We met my friend Cindy and her daughter Jemma at the train. We bundled the kids up, blanketed ourselves on the train and had a blast. And you know what? When you're dressed appropriately 37 degrees is just not that bad. It was absolutely perfect actually; what a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Yep...that's my mom in the background there :)

We all had a great time at Zoo Lights. I did however know that Tate would fade fast as it didn't start until 6...and we walked into the zoo just after 6. Sure enough at 7:05 I hear this little voice from the stroller saying "I wanna go home Mommy." I uncovered him and asked if he was tired and he said yes. Sweet boy. He was already dressed in his pjs under his clothes, so I was ready for him to fall asleep in the car. But as you'll see as finished up the lights, there was one exhibit right towards the end that I knew he would not want to miss (thank goodness friends had told me ahead of time that there was some sort of train exhibit).

Getting face paint...on his arm! A reindeer!

Sweet tired little giraffe!

As we were walking to the car I peeked in at sweet Tate and his eyes were closing. I desperately tried to keep him awake. No such luck. Sound asleep at 7:40...

I got him transferred to the car and to bed with a minimum of fuss though I did make him go to the bathroom when we got home...that was unpleasant, but we survived.

Saturday morning we hung out at home as it was still a bit chilly to say the least for us Texans. We celebrated the 7th day of Advent with our Advent Legos.

We only went to the grocery store. I cooked for my dinner party that evening...our tribal White-E party at Bryan's! After getting Tate some lunch and a bath we opened day 6's and 7's books.

We then motored on down to my parents' house where Tate was spending the night. He was absolutely thrilled to be spending the night with his beloved Grandmommy and Papa. He barely kissed me good-bye. Goodness my parents are awesome!

I then had a fantastic 90 minute massage...so wonderful. Then I came home, finished up my food for the soiree (broccoli/rice casserole and sweet potato casserole) and headed over to B's.

We were a small group this year, but a lovely group. It was really the core of the group minus two couples, so it was just so awesome. Like Nikki said, we didn't have to make small talk with anyone we barely knew. We were able to sit back, drink ourselves silly and love being together. It was just blissful. These are the kinds of nights I live for with those I love so very much. A sampling of the fun and white elephant gifts (which were all pretty much fabulous this year :) )

Seeing how almost all of us are parents now who survive on minimal sleep, and even those who don't have kids work their asses off 15 hours a day, we were all ready to lay down on the couch at 9 and just have a big slumber party. As Mike piddled around picking his gift around 930, Kristen piped up "Mike!! SLEEP!!" meaning pick something now because we all want to go home and sleep!

I crawled into bed around midnight. And slept like a baby. Though I had to get up at 7 to go pick up Tate it was glorious to have the bed to myself and to sleep all the way through with no kicks to the side or night terrors (yes I think he's having night terrors or something lately which has gotten him back in bed from the get go at nighttime). I picked him up and we headed to our church for just a bit; I really wanted to go to our church to celebrate Advent as we won't be there next weekend. But he needed to be at his school church for a performance, so we left our church early. It was the 90th anniversary of his school's church! They had a huge turnout and as always Tate has never met a stage he didn't love.