Seven on Sunday-- Holiday Edition!

I am not really sure how to fit all the Genovese family craziness into the short amount of time I have, but here goes!

1. For the past 2 years I have "adopted" a child for Christmas from MSPCC, my former place of employment. Last year, I asked for a boy, close to Tyler's age, to purchase gifts for. I really wanted for Tyler to understand how lucky he is and to enjoy giving to someone in need. This year, I adopted to boys, brothers, ages 6 and 3. We went out a few weekends ago and bought Transformers and Toy Story stuff for them, along with other "must-haves"-- crayons, art supplies, balls, etc. We wrapped it all, labeled it and I dropped it off to the office this week. Here is Tyler helping to box it all up:
2. For weeks now I have been asking Tyler to write his letter to Santa. He finally decided that it needed to be done and sat down this week to write his own letter. We were so proud of him! What did he ask for? Transformers, hockey guys, and a television set with a remote control (?). We will have to wait and see what Santa decides to bring this year.

3. Last Friday we had a holiday get together with some friends. The plan was to load 5 kids and 3 adults into their mini van and drive through Forest Park and Bright Nights together. Lucky for us, it had snowed earlier in the week and having the snow on the ground was a wonderful backdrop to all the lights in the park. Unlucky for us? There were a lot of cars and we opted to go before dinner. Whoops! Lucky for us? We all packed snacks! Problem solved. The kids were wonderful troopers and hung in there for most of the trip, thanks to the snacks and Kids Bop, Christmas Edition!

4. After a lot of stress and worry over which teachers to buy gifts for and what to buy them, I finally settled on a plan for Tyler's preschool teachers: movie gift cards and baskets. It was so much fun to put together! I found "popcorn buckets" at the Dollar Tree, filled them with candy and a box of popcorn, included a Blockbuster gift card, and viola! Gift complete! Hopefully Tyler's Green Valley teachers will enjoy family movie time as much as we do during the Christmas vacation!

5. Grammy sent Tyler an early Christmas gift-- books! We decided a long time ago that you can never have enough books in a house. When I had more time, I loved to read and would polish off a book in a sitting. At night, during quiet time, we read 3 books. Lucky for us, Tyler has picked up on the love of reading and this was the scene in the hallway yesterday morning:

Tyler was reading to all of his animals and his son. His son, you ask? That would be Charlie Brown....

6. For the past month now, Tyler has been working on earning his latest bribe, ahem, reward, for good sleep behavior. Walking through the mall one day I saw that Build-A-Bear was featuring Star Wars outfits! Knowing that Christmas was coming and this was a much bigger prize that normal, we set out on 30 days of good sleep behavior. Friday was the last day of the reward and Tyler definitely had earned the prize! We decided to turn it into a fun holiday night and headed to diner at Uno's, visited with Santa and had pictures taken, and then made our way to Build-A-Bear. Tyler told me in the morning that he wanted to pick out a kitty, and he did just that. He dressed his kitty in a Captain Rex outfit and named him StarWii. You can see a picture of StarWii in the photo above.

By the way, what did he ask Santa for? A television-- with a remote control!

7. Saturday Tyler and I ventured into the world of Gingerbread House decorating. After hearing from people about how difficult it was to get the structure to stay together I was a little apprehensive about what the finished project would be. But I am happy to announce that we used ample frosting and allowed for lots of drying time and we were successful our first time around! Tyler had a blast once he got the hang of it and kept asking me "Can I eat this?" "Of course", I said-- that is half the fun!