Breakfast With Santa

My mother bought the kids tickets to Breakfast with Santa at her country club. The event was top notch and the kids had a blast. There were elves all over to accommodate any and all of the children's needs. In addition to that, there was: a delicious spread of food plus all-you-can-eat pancakes, balloon animals, craft rooms, bubble machines making snow outside, Santa to talk with, a hot chocolate bar, and a fondue fountain for the kids to enjoy. Grammie knows how to give the kids a good time.

Pixie Stixs the balloon elf:


Blake checking out the balloon dog he requested for Reade:


Blake posing with Grammie and Auntie Amy with his balloon candy cane (notice meat carving elf in the background):


We were first in line to give Santa our Christmas lists (and for Blake to tell Santa how good he really is even though his mom threatens, on a daily basis, to tell Santa all the naughty behaviors that occur):

This is how the list came about. We were driving somewhere and Blake said:
Blake - "Mom, I think we should talk about what I want for Christmas now."
Me - "Okay, what do you want."
Blake - (in one breath) "I want a Bumblebee Transformers iPad, cell phone, and tablet."
Me - (somewhat mortified) "Hmm, we will have to tell Santa."

My three year old wants an iPad, cell phone, and tablet for Christmas. Is this a reflection of my parenting? Do I yearn for the newest electronics? No. Oh, that is his father. Yup, the blame is going straight to him.

(Oh, and Reade's list was completed by Blake. After writing his list I asked what Reade might want. His response, "A penis and some poop." I told him that Reade already had those things and he came up with the rest)

Blake meeting Santa:


Reade disliking Santa:


What a great morning that was:

Sacrifice

What I sacrifice for a few minutes to myself:

1st of December

I love advent calendars and have always dreamed of having a house like this with tiny, individually wrapped gifts for each day of December. Way too much work though:

Pottery Barn Kids (no longer available)

Or what about an advent calendar with a little birdie for each day:

Gardener's Supply Company

For now, I am going to stick with basic, chocolate advent calendars. They are cute to look at, fun to open, and the kids love the chocolate goodie at the end of the day:


Is the wind blowing at 30mph where you are? It is for us.

Dickens Fair

Aunt Shirley took these great photos at this year's Dickens Fair. We had a blast.

Jessica and David singing in the choir. This is during an act where some scallywags come in and add vigor to their show:


The bunch of us doing our best impersonations of Victorian peeps:


By the way, if you click on the pictures, Blogger now takes you into a photo previewing mode. To get back to the post you simply click the "x" in the top right corner. I kept hitting my back button and it would leave my post. Not the best upgrade if you ask me!

Thanks-we-gave

Thanksgiving the Burton way. My mom putting those marshmallows to use as she assembled the cranberry salad:


The table:


Tom and the turkey:


Full people:


The group minus my Nana, sister, and her boyfriend:


I wish I had pictures of the neighborhood boys playing together. It is fun to have a group of kids roughly the same age to play with. It was also a relief to hear how their boys behaved during Thanksgiving. I am not alone!

Slowing Down or Reving Up?

What a whirlwind Thanksgiving we had this year. I am thoroughly drained from all the fun and wouldn't have changed a thing about it. We started in Sacramento. My kids were pent up from the rain and holiday bustle so we let them run in Old Town Sacramento on Black Friday. Here we are blowing off some steam:


Blake was upset he couldn't ride on the trains:


Grammie and Papa Tom showing them the river:


My smartphone is dead so I feel super cut off from the blogging world. These were the few pictures I had on my camera so my goal for tomorrow is to download the pictures from Andrew's camera, phone, and tablet.

I love that I have three more days of November to revel in the fall leaves before winter sneaks on in. Can I find calm before the brouhaha? I hope so.

Grams

My mother has started preparing her time honored Cranberry Salad.  It is a mixture of sugar, cranberries, and marshmallows.  She used to cut large marshmallows in quarters with scissors until she realized that my grandmother didn't have the option of using mini marshmallows.  We were giving my mom a hard time about counting out hundreds of mini marshmallows one by one so we decided to get out scales and do some math.  One Economics major,  one Computer Science major, one English major, and one Psychology major later and our problems were solved.

How many mini marshmallows equal one, large marshmallow?

Guess now...

The answer is eleven.

I can't believe Jet-Puffed makes flattened marshmallows for s'mores.