Catch the Spirit

Yes...I'm alive ;)

This past week has been busy++. Alex was off of school for 3 days due to parent teacher meetings and professional development so I had a nice 5 day weekend with lots of mommy son time. We did some crafts (Alex's first use of a glue gun), played some games, baked alot of cookies and continued to decorate for the holidays. We ventured out to an old fashioned christmas tree decorating party at the local independant bookstore and froze our butts off waiting for the parade on Saturday. At the end of our little vacation Alex and I lugged all of the tree decorations upstairs and made up quite a few appetizers to have a family tree decorating party.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. There were stockings to prep for sewing (Alex is getting very anxious for his to be sewn), guests to prepare for and an awesome dinner party/stitch night to look forward to. I had a wonderful time at Faith Ann's, Cathey's account of the evening sums it all up in her blog ;)

Saturday we headed to Alex's Christmas bazarre at the school and were joined by mom and dad there later in the morning. What a great time! Apparently it's quite popular as even the Premier (equivalent to a governor for my friends south of the border) was there for awhile. Alex was really excited, it was the first year he won at the cake walk. Matt was even more excited where it was a black forest cake ;) Saturday afternoon mom and I headed to the coop to do a little shopping and then we had a nice family dinner with Swiss Chalet. We were all kind of zonked so the Jesse Stone tv movie hit the spot.

Sunday we headed off to church where it was the first Sunday in advent. Sunday school was interesting, about 5 minutes before the kids were scheduled to come back one girl came back in wailing, poor dear. When Alex returned he said he didn't really like Sunday school as one kid said 'Santa isn't real'. I reminded him that he was a good boy and asked him if there was ever a year that didn't have presents under the tree and he seemed satisfied with the notion that Santa only comes to good boys and girls and children that make others cry wouldn't be on the list. It's the best I could do in the middle of the service. I know that some day he'll figure it out on his own and probably carry it along with him like I did one day seeking out the confirmation that the physical entity doesn't exist but still have the spirit of giving. I know there are more and more 'realists' in the world that don't start the Santa tradition for a number of reasons (don't believe in lying to their children, or want them to be thankful to the right people). However, imo, kids have to grow up way too fast as it is and deserve that magic. It's nice when people say thank you and are grateful but it's not in the spirit of giving to be looking for it or looking to have it reciprocated. The best thing about Christmas morning for me now is watching Alex get super excited about a present, and the icing on the cake is hearing him call out his thanks to Santa, even though he is no where to be seen.

Mom and I checked out an open house in the afternoon and then did a little bit of shopping. Apparently alot of boys size 6x-7 are getting pj's for Christmas as they were pretty hard to find ;) I also picked up my two Christmas movies I budgetted in for this year, a 'Muppet Christmas Carol' to replace my very worn out VHS and Home Alone 2 where Alex loves the first one. After supper last nigth Alex and I watched that until bedtime and our sides hurt from laughing so much, surprising after his new obsession with Shrek the Halls ;) Needless to say I'm really enjoying being 'done' all of the preparation for Christmas and now just sitting back and enjoying the show (even it it means a little less stitching that usual)