Weekend Before Christmas 2013

Just 4 more sleeps until Jesus' birthday is what I told Tate on Saturday, December 21st!  It was the weekend before Christmas, and we were still in full celebration mode!!   We toodled around the house in the morning getting ready for our festivities in the evening.  Then we headed off to Second Baptist Church for The Really Really Big Christmas Show!!  We've gone the past two years and so enjoyed it! We met my sister, her husband, their 4 year old and my mommy.  Here are some highlights from a most beautiful and inspiring production.

The little boy in blue was part of the production ...
He ran up to the boys and introduced himself
and offered to be in their picture!  So sweet!

Oh yeah...the theme was 'All Aboard'.  Guess who was in heaven.

And from the production itself...

We 'rode' the train to the various stops of the Christmas story.

And a couple of videos...

Those drums are my favorite.  Tate's too.

My mom joined us back at our place and we got ready for our annual Christmas party.  I have friends over for hot cocoa, snacks and adult cocoa :).  Then we head over to the uber rich neighborhood to walk around and look at the Christmas lights.  Since Tate is early to bed, I put him in his pjs and we are all off.  We were a small group again this year, but it was really fun.

As always the lights were spectacular...

There is one family who hires a Santa Claus to sit outside and greet the children every year.  They even hire a photographer to take pictures of anyone who wants to be seen with Santa;  they then give you a link a few days later where you can download your photos for free.  Santa takes time to talk with each child and poses for as many pictures as you want.  It's such an amazingly generous gesture on this family's party.  They do it simply because they enjoy seeing the joy and happiness on the kids' faces.  This is the spirit of Christmas.

By the time we got to Santa (at 7:15pm) Tate was ready to go and told me he was tired. He rallied and saw Santa.  I laid him back in the stroller, covered him up and after fighting me on sleep for about 10 minutes finally passed out.

We had a successful transfer stroller to car and car to bedroom on the THIRD floor.

Sunday morning, the 3rd Sunday of Advent we went to church.  Tate played trains the entire time. Much to my chagrin.

Later that afternoon we headed out to see 'Frozen' in 3D.  Tate's second movie in the theater.  He seems to have enjoyed it, though he will tell anyone who asks how much he disliked the snow monster who was mean and had to be told that it wasn't nice to throw people.  Sigh.  I must admit that snow monster was pretty scary, but we made it through the entire movie and he pretty much sat entranced the entire time save the moments he was in my lap while the snow monster threw people around.

After the movie was over I asked him who he liked best, Anna or Elsa?  His response?

"Who are they?"

Seriously??  I explained who they were and he said "Oh."  He finally grasped the concept I think (the concept of what I really don't know because it seemed so obvious to me.)...in any event his favorite character was Sven the reindeer.  He now wants a Sven.  And an Anna.  And Olaf.  But not mean Hans, and not the snow monster who throws people. :)

I love this boy.