4 days until Christmas

Wow. 4 days. We have been busy here. Today we went to the Healthy Start playgroup holiday party. The kids had a great time. Crafts, snacks, stories and the man in red himself...SANTA. We have some great photos to share. The Frosty love-affair continues, however, he slept in Delaney's bed last night and had a little bit of a bladder control problem...so...he's been banned from the bed tonight. Tinna is croupy and really coughing hard so we are going to try to get her to the doctor's tomorrow for a check-up before the holiday hits. We were planning on seeing another puppet show at Balboa Park but that might be on hold until Friday. Tomorrow night there will be a pajamas and story time at the Healthy Start office...thankfully they are less than 3 miles away so it makes it easy for us to attend. The kids are really looking forward to it. They love to be busy! I just realized today that I MUST start making my cookies tomorrow. I will be making more ginger cookies and date pinwheels (recipes belonging to Mam-maw Schlosser and Meem Wolff, respectively) and Alice, Steve's mom will make the sugar cookies with the kids on Sunday. PHEW! Is anyone else tired just by reading it all? Sometimes I plan too much and then feel let down when I can't get it all done. But that's just the way I do things, I guess.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that my husband CLEANED THE HOUSE today while I took a NAP?! What a great guy.

So...here are some of the latest photos...don't get spoiled...you know when Christmas is over it will be back to blogging every three or four days with nothing much to say!




Frosty in bed with Laney on Tuesday night.




The canyon view from the Healthy Start playground.




Crafting. Notice Steve's genetically attached coffee cup.




Our beloved Miss Debbie! In this photo she was asking the kids questions about the story she had just read.




Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive!




Tinna, aka "purse girl" (or backpack girl in this case), scopes out Santa to see if he is safe. She decides that he is not and comes crying back to Mama. Eventually I convinced her she would be ok if she sat on his lap and he would bring her something nice on Christmas morning.




Delaney and Santa. Not sure what is up with the huggy arms. That is a new pose she has recently added to her repertoire.




William and Santa. When Santa asked Will what he would like for Christmas, Will replied "A present." Smart kid.




Tinna finally sits on Santa's lap!




All three kids with the man in red.




And finally...a Santa gourd (white cord around neck, says 2006 on the gift tag) arrived today for Steve's Santa collection. Gourd created by Melynda Lotven of www.justgourds.com Look for more photos of the Santa collection in a day or two.