Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

This week I set up a dramatic play area for Xavier to kick off our week of Christmas fun. I put this photo on the wall in our basement and told Xavier that Santa is really busy this week, so he needed some extra help from some special helpers. We walked downstairs and I told him we needed to wrap some presents for Santa to deliver.

I put some boxes, wrapping paper, holiday bags, tissue paper, tape, scissors, and tags in one basket. Then I put some random toys in another basket. I put some reindeer ears and a Santa hat I got at the dollar store on the table for him to wear for added effect.


Then I put a small radio on his workstation so we could listen to Christmas music. I also put out some paper and crayons for him to "write" letters to the children he wrapped presents for.
Here is Santa's helper at work.

Here are his completed wrappings and surprises. The people that made the "good list" were Jack, Daddy, Skyler, Myla, Bauer, Matthew, Toby, and Shenaila (I think he made this name up) not sure where it came from.



Good work Xavier for being such a good little helper! It was so much fun to see how excited Xavier was to wrap these "presents" and to think of who they should be given to. He really expanded the idea and made it his own. Now all we have to do is deliver them! Maybe we'll just have to make a box sleigh and a pillowcase for a bag to pretend to deliver them. Maybe tomorrow......

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

This has to be one of my favorite memories/activities of this Christmas season. It was also done at the last minute one afternoon during those witching hours before daddy got home. Xavier has always had a love for guitars and drums. I thought why not make a recycled guitar, so that's what we did. I used an old shoe box, a paper towel roll, some glitter to decorate, and some stickers. For the strings we used rubber bands and voila! a guitar. Oh and I also used some ribbon for the strap to hold it over his shoulders. When the guitar was complete I turned Pandora on, made a station using "Rockin around the Christmas Tree" as the song choice, and a whole list of current artist holiday re-makes played. It was a blast and Xavier has been playing with this thing non-stop. Free Holiday Fun!



Xavier rockin' out! He said, "Mom let's rock!" Then he said where is your microphone mom? So what do you think I did? I made a microphone out of a paint stick and a ball of aluminum foil. I added some purple lightning bolts and gold stars for decoration.
So, today we were RoCk StArS!

Gingerbread House 2010

Family Home Evening this week consisted of a Christmas story; Santa, Santa, Reindeer (played like duck, duck, goose; and our traditional gingerbread house decorating. Xavier got the biggest kick out of our game that he couldn't stop running around in a circle and after about 5 rounds he started tagging himself as Santa so he could keep running around us instead of having to sit down and wait to be called on.

This year Xavier insisted on helping daddy with the frosting.
Daddy does a superb icing job. The icicles were iced to perfection. (It certainly turned out much better than my poor attempt at our Halloween house that pretty much fell apart.)
Next step- one candy on the house, one candy in the mouth, one candy on the house, two candies in the mouth. That's about how it goes with Xavier. He would rather eat all the candy and not even put it on the house, but I told him he had to decorate the house first and if there was any candy left over he could eat it. After this rule he kept saying, "Okay I think it's done after each candy being subtracted from his pile." I finally said if we ran out of candy he could have a cookie for his treat. He was finally okay with continuing on with the house decorating.
The final product from sky view. Xavier thought this year's house was pretty spectacular because it had a candy Santa and two reindeer. We added a red skittle to one of the reindeer so he could be Rudolph.
The back of the house.
My side of the house.
The boys! Next year Gavin can actually try it out himself. This year he just kept trying to grab the candy off the table.
Another successful gingerbread house completed. I'm guessing by the time Christmas gets here there won't be any candy on this house. (Those darn elves always eat it for some reason)

Breakfast with Santa

Our ward has an annual Breakfast with Santa event instead of a ward dinner. This was a really fun event especially for the kids. We got up bright and early so we wouldn't miss our picture with Santa. When we walked into the church Xavier took one look at Santa and said "That's not Santa! That's a fake Santa. That's Bethany and Connor's dad!" Leave it to my kid to figure out what the other kids didn't. I couldn't believe that Xavier figured that out so quickly. We had to quickly pull him aside and tell him that he was Santa's helper before any other kids heard his announcement.

Come to find out the original Santa was hospitalized and my friend's husband volunteered to do it at the last minute. What a great sport!

So we got our pictures and ate a yummy breakfast. Our ward even has a traditional Christmas song that all the kids sing. THe son was written by a ward member many years ago and they've sung it every year.



Look at the fireplace. Isn't it amazing. My friend painted that last year for a ward activity and they used it again this year. It looks so real to me. What a wonderful talent to have. And it was perfect for the Christmas photo backdrop. These were the first photos Xavier and Gavin have had with Santa. We've never been big on taking our kids to the mall to sit with Santa and this was such a nice picture. I'm glad we went and had a good time!



HO! HO! HO! Merry Christmas!

Jesus wants me for a

In just about 2 weeks Xavier is going to be a Sunbeam! To ease the transition I decided to make a special dinner to celebrate this big moment in his life.

I found this quote that I love! "A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows." We talked to Xavier about what that quote means and how he can be a sunbeam to others. We also sang Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam during dinner. Another song that I have sung to both my boys is "You are my Sunshine!" I love this song and so I sang that one to Xavier too.

We read some books and talked about what it means to be a Sunbeam. The book on the right was given to Xavier by Grandma Richardson. It's great because at the end it has a slot to put his picture in it as a reminder that he is a Sunbeam.

I added some vinyl letters to this jar that say "You are my Sunshine" and put some smiley face bubbles along with a couple toilet paper rolls wrapped in tissue paper (inside there were lemon drops for a treat)

For the table setting I put a bouquet of daisies and a picture of Xavier as a baby. He's always been a bundle of energy just like the sun. I also found this really cute packet of activities on Sugardoodle with stories and other activities for Sunbeams. (We'll be going through it over the next two weeks to remind him of his job as a Sunbeam)

The dinner menu consisted of everything yellow and orange.

Lemonade to drink.

Pineapple, cantaloupe, and red and yellow peppers for sides.

Breakfast burritos as the main dish.

I can't believe what a big boy Xavier is becoming. This is the next step in him getting older and more mature. Tim and I love this little man so much and are so proud that he will be moving into the BIG primary. He is our sunshine!

5 months old

Here is a sneak peak at one of the pictures on our Christmas card. I couldn't resist posting this pic for Gavin's 5 month post.

Gavin is a ham these days. He used to be such a quiet fella and this month he's really found a voice. He's constantly "talking up a storm" as Xavier and I call it. I guess he's realizing he has some tough competition with Xavier and his non-stop jibber jabber.

Gavin started rolling over this month. The first time he did it by himself was during our trip to Michigan over the Thanksgiving holiday. Me, Xavier, Jenny, and Amelia were surrounding him as he played on his belly one morning and sure enough he just rolled right over. As we all cheered and clapped he squealed with glee. So we rolled him back on his belly and he did it again. He was soaking up all this undivided attention.

Pat-a-cake is becoming a favorite finger play and he loves it when I sing London Bridge is Falling Down while swinging him back and forth. He is learning the game of peek-a-boo. Every night when I lay him down to sleep I always peek in his room to find his blanket over his head. Then I will move it down to his belly and he will giggle.

Gavin is sitting pretty good. He still needs me to catch him when he's wobbly, but he's getting there.

Gavin is also becoming very oral. He is chewing on anything within his reach. I sense the teeth are on their way. Until they come he's learning to wine for his pacifier to sooth that sucking desire.

We love you "boo bah"! (That's his current nickname) We love your squeals, we love your smiles, we love your talking, and we love your laughter. You are a one-of-a-kind special guy!

Koziar's Christmas Village

KOZIAR'S CHRISTMAS VILLAGE

The setting for this incredible wonderland of lights is the countryside. As your driving in the dark along this windy, curvy, and hilly countryside the last thing you expect to stumble upon is an entire landscape of lights. After reaching the last hill before reaching the Christmas Village it's like entering a fairyland of sparkling Christmas lights. There are more than half a million lights adorning buildings, gift barns, and landscapes. It is an incredible sight to see.




We decided to visit this place and see all the wonderful light displays they have. Once we entered the village there were buildings with all sorts of themed displays. Some of the ones we like were "Christmas beneath the sea", "The Old Fashioned Bakery Shop", "The Old Fashioned Fire Station", "Christmas in the Jungle", and "Christmas in other Lands."

Xavier requested his picture next to this life-sized nutcracker in Santa's building.

Xavier dropped a coin in for charity and got to ring the bell.

Some fun poses amongst the headless people boards. Don't we make a handsome couple?

Our friend Henry came with us. He's just part of our family out here in PA. We love that he enjoys hanging out with our family.

Xavier met Frosty the Snowman. To us adults he was looking a little less plump this year. Must have been a rough year for Frosty. Xavier was ecstatic to meet this big snowball of a creature.

Gavin was a trooper out in the cold. He was snug as a bug in all his layers.


Xavier even got to sit on Santa's lap. (Come to think of it, this was probably the first year Xavier's actually sat on Santa's lap) After talking to Santa Xavier got to pick out a reindeer nose that lights up when you put it on. He loved pretending to be Rudolph. Here is the nose in action. Xavier even fell asleep in the car with it on. It was a crack up watching my sleeping boy and this flashing red nose. I even found him taking a nap one day with it on. I couldn't stop laughing.

We had a blast kicking of the Christmas season with our visit to this Christmas wonderland.

Thanksgiving in Michigan

In this picture- Back Row (Katherine:James' girlfriend, Mary, James, Joe, Amy, Jen, Bob, Xavier, Tim, Liberty, Jeff, Kameron, Dave, Suzy, Cory: Suzy's boyfriend, Reva, John)

Middle Row (Gabe, Grace, Celeste, Me, Gavin, Dad, Mom, Holly, Ezra, Katie, Allison, Zach, Eli)

Front Row (Amelia, Lillian, Abbigael)

This picture sums up our Thanksgiving this year..FAMILY! The entire family was at Thanksgiving for the first time in two years. It was a wonderful time of celebrating family and all our blessings.

Our family spent 9 days in Michigan (minus two for driving). Xavier got to go to his friend Yohann's birthday party, play with his friends Connor and Aiden, eat dinner with his buddy Bauer, hang out with his best girl friend Skyler, and have multiple cousin sleepovers. He was in heaven. Xavier and his cousin Amelia were two peas in a pod. They really enjoyed playing dinosaurs together. Uncle John even took Xavier on a uncle and nephew outing so me and Tim could go on a lunch date at Sansu. Good sushi is hard to come by in Easton, PA.

At Thanksgiving all the boys and some of the girls played the annual football game. Thankfully there weren't any injuries this year. We ate a great spread of food and went around the room saying what we were grateful for. I always seem to be the cry baby and this year I managed to maintain that title. I cried once again, because I am so happy to be a part of such a great family.

Xavier, Gavin, Tim and I got to go see Suzy's boyfriend Cory play hockey too. That was probably the highlight of Xavier's visit. Before the game started Xavier and Tim walked down the the first row of seat and Cory tossed a hockey puck over the glass. Xavier clutched the puck and didn't let it out of his hands the entire game. Then Suzy bought him a mini hockey stick. After the game we waited in the family waiting room. Cory came to say hi to us and Xavier showed him his hockey moves on the carpet. Xavier said, "All I need are some skates, a hockey helmet, and some pants!" Later Xavier informed Grandpa that he didn't like sports anymore, just hockey. I think this sport is right up Xavier's alley. Cory has created his biggest fan! And who knows, I'm sure as X gets bigger Cory can teach him some pretty sweet hockey moves.

The highlight for me was spending a Xavier-free night with my hubby. Joe and Amy and me and Tim got hotel rooms in Grand Rapids while the kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpas. Then we went shopping on Black Friday. We weren't the crazy doorbuster shoppers, but we did have fun enjoying the masses of holiday shoppers and glad we weren't set on anything but to enjoy some shopping.

Tim was able to watch the MSU vs Penn State football game with his dad and then we enjoyed our last evening at Joe and Amy's. Everyone was so great in letting us crash at their houses during our visit. As always, time went by way too fast. Our drive home went very smooth and now we are getting ready for my favorite time of year....Christmas!