Happy Birthday Jesus

Last Friday was Drew's last day of Preschool for the year - and to celebrate they had a birthday party for Jesus.  Yes, with party hats, birthday cakes and all!  Of course they got to keep the gifts.

That's about 1/2 of Drew's classmates...

They did a book gift exchange and Drew was happy he was the lucky one to get a two-for-one deal.  Two books came out of his package.

Notifying Santa

This past weekend Drew wrote his first letter to Santa. We had to remind him not to deliver presents here!





For those having trouble reading it...
Dear Santa
I want Rocky figures. Please bring them to LA. Love Drew

We gave the letter to Doodle our elf to carry back to Santa that night. If I didn't introduce Doodle last year -here he is from today's perch.




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Preschool Christmas Angels

Last Friday night it was Drew's annual preschool pageant, and this year he was a Christmas Angel and he sang about 1/2 a dozen songs - which he spent the past several weeks singing around the house.  I love listening to him sing! In fact the other night at Target he was singing songs from Rocky nice and loud... but that's for another post..

Back to my little angel...

Don't be fooled by this innocent looking angel before his performance.  He was actually put in time out earlier in the day at school because he refused to practice.

But he did great when it came time for the real thing!

Here is most of his preschool - his class are dressed as the white angels on both sides of the stage.  In the center is another class (Frogs) which are in animal costumes.  Not pictured is the Bunny class - which is especially young this year (mostly 2 1/2) and only made a brief cameo.

Afterward our Angel was happy to pose for the camera.

And then afterward Drew smiled for the camera with his friend Troy and Mason.  Troy is in his class and Mason has since moved to Kindergarten - their Mom watched Drew for his first 2 1/2 years almost 3 years.

Supporting Cousin Kady

Last week we drove out to Brentwood to support Cousin Kady who was performing in her annual preschool concert.  We couldn't make it last  year due to some scheduling conflict, so Drew and I made sure to do it this year. 

While Kady didn't sing much...

... she sure did jingle a mean bell.  I think she got intimidated looking out at all those people looking at her.   Kady is wearing the cream colored sweater. 

After the performance there was a visit from the Jolly man himself!  And he brought presents for all the kids!

Drew and Adrina shared Santa's lap and were rewarded with a coloring book.

C is for Cookie and That's Good Enough For Me.... Nom Nom Nom

C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me.... and boy were there cookies!

As we do every year, the ladies in my family get together the first Saturday of the month to bake until we drop.  I started at noon (because of the Bah Humbug race) and got home around 10:30pm.

So after baking dozens and dozens of cookies, here we are showing off the goods and enjoying some adult beverages... wine!

L-R: Rana, Mom, Me, Grandma (not pictured - Lisa who was only there for about 2 hours)

Most of the cookies... there were still some in the oven!

We Beat Daddy, Bah Humbug!

Drew was so excited to run in his 2nd "Grinch" 5K (3.1 miles).  Well to be honest I pushed him in the jogger this year (Daddy did it last year) and he braved the cold and very windy morning without much complaint.

Daddy was with us at the Start line...

But when the "gun" went off he ran ahead, while I was stuck at the back of the line because of the stroller.  Once we were out of the herd of people I managed to pass Daddy... much to Drew's delight.

The entire race he sat perched up in the stroller commanding me "Go faster Mommy, there are people way up there.  You have to beat them."  Occasionally he'd peer around his strollers asking "Where's Daddy". 

I smoked him buddy ;)

We hit the finish line and then circled back to cheer Daddy on - who is looking to get in shape before softball season...

And here's a bad shot of Daddy getting crossing the Finish line (he's in the Santa hat) and was caught in a group of people.

And we have to get the family finishing photo....

So here's our official race results:

• Brenda - 32:49, 30th place out of 64 women in my age range, 186 overall
• Dave - 36:02, 15th place  out of 27 men in his age range, 211 overall

My personal best is about 30-seconds faster, which I think I could've beat if it wasn't so wind AND I wasn't pushing a 35lb 4 year old in a stroller.  I'm impressed with my finish regardless - and Dave's too!

Kicking Off the Holidays

On December 1st, we kicked off the holiday season with the annual tree lighting in town.  We've gone the past couple of years for an easy way for Drew to get a picture with Santa.  This year there was even snow!

Drew gets silly standing in line for Santa....

One of the elves had to make sure Drew was on the Nice list before visiting with Santa... he passed.  Whew!

Must take a picture with the pretty Elf....

The big guy himself...

After telling Santa he wanted a VReader and a Wii we went over toward the colored water fountains....

Mommy & Drew

The weird Christmas bear who was all alone by the fountain. 

And then the reason we came... the tree!

Despite how it appears from this cell phone shot, the tree is HUGE!  This is looking at it from the fountains.