Mesa Temple Lights

We went to the Mesa temple to see the Christmas lights. Caleb loved all the lights but didn't care much for taking photos. He preferred running at top speeds up and down the stairs and ramps.

Stockings

Dear Santa

When Caleb was a baby, Santa didn't bother him at all. While other babies his age cried when placed in Santa's lap, Caleb simply stared up at that white bearded face in awe. Last year, however, Caleb didn't get along well with strangers, so we avoided the whole Santa thing all together. He still can be rather shy at first when meeting new people, so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to do Santa this year or not.

Saturday, I prepped Caleb to meet Santa, telling him that he had to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas so that somebody could get it for him. We practiced what he was going to tell Santa. Then we headed to Walgreens.


There was no line, so we just marched straight up to Santa. It took the tiniest bit of coaxing to get him to go sit on Santa's lap, but I reminded him that he had to tell Santa what he wanted so that the rest of us would know what to get him for Christmas.


The picture above reminds me of the ones we have of Caleb and Santa from when Caleb was a baby. The look of awe.


Caleb told Santa what he wanted, then proceeded to point out several more things in the store that he wanted.


By the time he was finished, it was quite a long list. And from that list, Caleb will only be getting one of those things for Christmas.

After that, we picked up Harley and headed to Petco so that Harley could meet Santa too. Harley wasn't scared of Santa at all (though he was a little afraid of all the other big dogs in the store getting their picture taken too). Caleb, on the other hand, didn't like this Santa and wouldn't get in the picture with Harley.



Harley made sure to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas too. I think the translation is "lots of kisses." Or maybe that was just his present to Santa.

O Tannenbaum

We moved from our place in Gilbert (because our lease was up) and are now staying in Scottsdale for a couple of weeks. The apartment here is furnished (as was the Gilbert place and our apartment in Jersey), so all our stuff is in storage. With the Christmas decorations way in the back.

Because of that (and maybe a little help from the great AZ weather), I've been having trouble feeling like it's Christmas. I didn't hear any Christmas music until Black Friday as Jill and I were walking through the parking lot to start our shopping. In fact, only one radio station out here plays Christmas music.

Since we'll only be here a couple weeks, we decided not to get a Christmas tree. Instead, we bought a strand of lights and a box of ornaments and decorated the fake tree that was already in the corner of the apartment.







Caleb loved decorating the tree. After each ornament he hung, he'd get so excited. He'd jump from the arm of the chair where he was standing onto the chair's cushion and shout "I did it!" with the biggest smile on his face.

Clowning Around

This was a post-Halloween costume purchase. We've never been big into playing dress-up around here, but Caleb loved being Buzz so much that I thought it was worth getting him something else too.

He loves dressing up. Too bad the hat doesn't fit. He makes a cute clown.

Thanksgiving Fun

We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year. Without all the family around, it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. Fortunately, my friend Jill and her family came up from Tuscon to join us. Otherwise I don't know that I could have convinced myself to make a feast.

I seem to have this fixation with playing football on Thanksgiving. Every year I try to get Caleb to play.





Mostly, the kids just wanted to play baseball though.






There was also a little bit of Harley lovin' going on.




The turkey was ready sooner than I expected, which was nice. The whole dinner was really easy to make and not at all stressful. So I must not have done it right.

We spent the night playing a little Rock Band (Beatles style). The kiddos helped us play for a while, then decided that grown ups were boring and that they'd rather watch a movie. (Seriously, it's Caleb's favorite thing to do.)


Thanks Jill for coming to see us! We loved having you and your family over.

My Favorites

One might think that the point of taking family pictures in the month of November would be to use them in a Christmas card, right? Well, now that we live in Arizona, I have very little Christmas spirit in me. So here are some super cute pictures taken by Teresa at Little Tree Photography.

Don't expect a card. You'll only be disappointed.