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After missing it the last couple of years, we started up our tradition again this year of going to the Holidazzle parade, and Macy's Eighth floor holiday display.
We bundled everyone up, met up with Mom, Julie, Megan, and Ana and took the lightrail downtown. That in itself was exciting for the kids! They thought the lightrail was pretty awesome.
While I knew Kinzie and Malichi would enjoy the parade, I wasn't sure how the twins would do, with it being so cold out, but they absolutely loved it! Finley was frantically saying and signing "more" in between each float, and squealed with excitement when he saw the next one coming.
After the Holidazzle, we went to Macy's. This year the Holiday display was "A Day in the Life of an Elf". The big kids had fun going through each section reading the story as they went. The twins were just in awe of everything they saw. It was so fun watching them enjoy it so much.
We decided to skip waiting in line to see Santa since we just saw him at the mall. But we went to Mrs. Claus' Bakery and got our treats as usual.
This has been one of my favorite holiday traditions. I have been taking the kids to it since Malichi was probably 2 years old. I look forward to many more years of going with my kids!
After sending Aaron home with 4 exhausted kids, I went and had a little girls night with Mom and Julie. Mom even brought a little Christmas tree and fake presents to put under it so the hotel room had a little christmas spirit too (some were real presents too). That is so my mom. Gotta love her.
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...have set in.
Ok, let's be honest. They set in a long time ago. But now it's official. They are two, and sometimes terrible. And if it's not one twin, it's the other, but mostly it's both.
On this particular day, the twins woke up from their nap and I heard them talking on the monitor. I needed a few more minutes to finish whatever I was doing, so I left them in their room for probably like 10 minutes. Then I went in to get them up, and they proudly showed me what they had been up to.
Apparently we left a new, full tube of desitin on their changing table.
I put them in time out by the wall, while I ran the bath water. Meanwhile they smeared their hands all over the wall, leaving greasy desitin streaks and little handprints all over.
Clean up for this little stunt of theirs was not fun!
Things that desitin does NOT come out of:
clothing
rugs
bed skirts
walls
sheets
It does come out of hair, and off the skin. But not so easily.
I guess we hadn't toddler proofed their room as well as we thought.
...our Elf on the Shelf.
We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year with the kids. We read them the book, and then the kids named our Elf "Ralph".
Ralph watches over the kids, then reports back to Santa during the night if they've been naughty or nice. Then he returns by morning, always perched in a new place to keep watch.
The kids are having fun looking for Ralph every morning! The one rule of the Elf is that you can't touch him or he could lose his magic. One day Ralph fell off the entertainment center where he was sitting, and Kinzie says to me skeptically, "I think Ralph came from the store. He has a tag on his butt". She thinks very logically and I maybe even has some doubts about Santa and Elves and such. But she loved going to see Santa and has been working on her letter to him, so even if she's not fully convinced, she loves believing anyway.
It's been a fun little way to celebrate the holidays, as well as keeping the kids in line! Remember... Ralph is watching you!
Kinzie told Santa she wanted a pink car for her doll house, and Malichi wanted some new books and a DS game.
And the twins didn't really talk to Santa... I was just lucky to even get a photo with them near him!
