Mini Van -- Max Fun: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Before I start my original post, I have to share a totally unrelated anecdote from this evening.

You may or may not know that Zoe can be quite a little smart-alec at times. Tonight, she was in rare form.

Early evening is often chaos around here. I'm arriving home from work, Rich is leaving, dinner is being served and cleaned up and the babies are usually getting cranky. Not a good time for an art project, but that is exactly what Zoe had in mind tonight.

After Rich left for work, I was attempting to clean up peas that had somehow made their way around most of the house. Zoe started to insist on making a craft. After much begging, I finally told her it was okay as long as it didn't involve paint or glue. After digging around in her overflowing art cupboard, she had already made a mess before even starting the project. By the time she was happily cutting and pasting (totally ignoring the no glue clause) the twins were covered in bingo markers, there was glitter and paper all over the floor and I was completely frazzled.

I started to raise my voice telling Zoe she needed to stop what she was doing and start cleaning up before I take everything in her art cupboard and throw it away. Does she start cleaning up? No. She calmly turns to me as I have done too many times to her and said, "Mom, what do you say for yelling at me?" I looked at her confused. She continued by telling me I needed to apologize to her for raising my voice. When I told her that NO, I was not going to apologize for reprimanding her, she grabbed and marker and began to write something. She asked me how to spell "I'm Sorry." Awwwww. I thought. She's writing me a note to apologize. How sweet. She's seen the error of her way. I AM A GOOD MOTHER. She carefully completed the note then turned to me and very seriously said...."Mom, SIGN IT!"

I'm still laughing as I write this.

Back to the holiday fun.

I didn't manage to get many pictures of Thanksgiving, but that evening I did capture one of the inventive games that the kids like to play. I believe Zoe calls it Stroller Train.

Our first dusting of snow the day after Thanksgiving. Zoe was so thrilled she was out the door at 7:30, only to come back in 10 minutes later after realizing that an 1/8 inch of snow is NOT that exciting.

Last weekend was Chelsea's Hometown Holiday celebration. There were all kinds of events around town. One of the biggest was the lighting of downtown and a parade that included...

Santa and his lovely wife.

If you're friends with Rich on Facebook, you've probably already heard him grumble about our over-priced buffet with Santa at a local hotel on Sunday. Zoe was insanely excited about it when I told her where we were going, but once we arrived and she chose the furthest possible table from St. Nick and I knew it was likely going to be a long brunch.

She did end up, rather reluctantly, visiting with Santa for a few minutes before we ate our mediocre meal. I'd say the look on Zoe's face is closer to a cringe than a smile, but better than Mitchell and Alyse's total refusal to get within ten feet of him.

Once at the table, they showed very little interest in Santa. Alyse busied herself playing percussion on her sippy cup.

While Mitchell made eyes at the waitresses.

After eating, we let the kids run around the hallway outside of the banquet room to let off a little steam (I think they enjoyed this more than the buffet or meeting Santa). Then we asked Zoe if she'd like to say good-bye to Santa before we left.

She was much more comfortable talking with him the second time around, but had an alternative motive. She wasn't asking for presents, she was explaining that the candy cane he gave her on her first visit had broke, so he should definitely replace it.