When Mas and Pas arrived we lucked out an Matthew didn't have school Wednesday for Thanksgiving break. I thought I'd take advantage of the morning to get pictures of the kids in their sibling owl shirts. It failed miserably! John wasn't really into it:
Such a good big brother, but it's so hard to find a position where Matthew can easily hold the long, lean and squirmy John:
We tried this but then big brother was too squirmy!
So we tried this and John was too squirmy!
The Watsons were welcomed by some heavy, wet snow so the kids headed out to make a snowman!
So we thought we'd try for a family picture, but the snowman just wouldn't get his arm out of the way!
And with Mas and Pas!
Mas and Pas were introduced to our new favorite game, Monopoly Junior.
Thanksgiving morning we kicked off the day with Pumpkin Turkey pancakes!
The kids did a great job counting out the supplies and Matthew wrote names on all the plates.
Another one of our kid traditions for Thanksgiving is "Fox Pie" so Catherine prepped the ears for us! Because the kids will likely never have a family tradition of going to the same house, having the same house guests or getting together with all of one family, we have some sillier traditions to help them get into the spirit (plus, a large, kid friendly breakfast does wonders for a poor planning with the timing of dinner!)
The kids did a fantastic job of setting the table, though Catherine was so excited about her "Cheers cup" (aka wine glass) that she gave me a near heart attack a few times!
We all added a leaf to our gratitude tree. Matthew needed a bit of help from Pas to spell Kindergarten, which is what he was thankful for this year. Catherine chose her preschool. While I was thankful for an amazing husband, I am also very thankful the kids have had such a fantastic relationship with their school experiences. I was also very thankful to have Mas and Pas to give us an amazing thanksgiving with great food and company.
Poor Catherine was a little overwhelmed by the day and when prompted to take her tastes of dinner at 6pm, she opted to go straight to bed and fell right asleep! Matthew however was ready for fox pie!
We hung around the house on Friday.
And John spent some time admiring himself in the mirror!
After watching the Macy's parade (and its 85,000 commercials) on Thursday, Matthew was in full on Christmas mode and wanted to work on his Christmas list. I think he's made his "want" very clear:
We also got some very exciting news on Friday as we heard the news of a new cousin in the family! We were all thrilled!
And ready to celebrate!
As Mas asked about taking James' coming home outfit over to the newest member of the family, I realized I had yet to put John in it! We remedied that:
And could'nt keep the big siblings off of him!
Matthew in the outfit:
Saturday took us downtown where James and I got some early Christmas presents and were fitted for new running shoes! It gave us a good excuse to participate in Small Business Saturday.
And then Baby John got to experience his first snow!
But as we got out the Christmas decorations, all he had to say was "Bah Humbug!"
My favorite part of the day (as long as it occurs closer to 7am than 5am of course!)
Pas and John watched some football on Sunday:
Then it was time for someone's first bath! He handled it pretty well!
On Monday we kicked off December with Lego advent calendars from Mas and Pas, including "girl Legos" for Catherine which made her ecstatic!
Mas and Pas got to help take Matthew to school and pick him up, and then we spent the rest of the day wrapping gifts, decorating and more. Mas and Pas very generously put up the tree and put lights on it for us! And in case you weren't celebrating it, it was National Hulk Lego day, which was the day after Sunday allowance day where Matthew had enough money to buy his goal set. I kinda thought his head might explode he has been so excited about this! We went right after school and discovered that Target was running a promotion and due to a shipping error, his Hulk set also came with a Star Wars set! Mind blown! Matthew has definitely been interested in purchasing other toys over the past 3 months but every time we pointed out that meant it would take longer to get his Hulk set, he's decided not to spend his money.
One last night of stories with Mas and Pas:
And some quick photos before the headed out of town:
And we can't take pictures without a silly shot:
We've been decorating the tree slowly but surely:
Catherine helped make some hats to decorate our family photo (at least until I get a new one up there!)
But really, we have a hard time getting the decorating done because the kids are constantly taking dance breaks! With two kids and two singing ornaments, they certainly crack me up, even if the sound of the Ghostbusters theme combined with 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' makes me cringe after hearing it 832,000 times. Enjoy their dancing insanity:
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