Holiday Preparations

Last night we went to have our pictures taken for our holiday card. It was the first time all four of us went to have our pictures professionally taken. Typically, we beg the relative who looks like they have the most patience while we're dressed up to take our picture. This year we decided to spare our relatives the hour of agony while we tried to get a picture with all four of us smiling.

Getting all the holiday attire together was quite interesting. I got Lucy's dress and shoes last January. She loves it! I got Gus a little jacket and pants. He even got his own fancy black dress shoes, or tapping shoes. He definitely prefers tapping in his own shoes, instead of Lucy's princess shoes. Dave put on a jacket, shirt, and pants and Lucy looked at him and told him, "You don't look fancy enough Daddy. You need to wear a tie." So Lucy helped Dave pick out a red tie. It was so sweet. Gus got to wear his bow tie from last year. Both kids loved being dressed up. It was like Halloween all over again.

We typically wear our holiday best for Thanksgiving dinner, so I wanted to get the pictures taken before Thanksgiving. I called last week, a little late in the game, and they could get us in Friday night at 7 (read almost bedtime). The kids did relatively well. It's near impossible to get either of them to sit still and smile for more than 10 seconds, but we got a few decent shots. The kids were still really happy when the picture-taking portion of the evening was over. The photographer said the pictures would be ready for viewing in 20 minutes. We didn't bring a stroller into the mall, we weren't planning on viewing them then (we were planning for the worst). So we walked around the mall riding up and down the escalators. The kids were in heaven: they were dressed-up, with tapping shoes on, and they could ride up and down nearly every escalator in the mall. We went back to look at the pictures and the kids were still behaving. We were able to pick out our holiday card and order some other pictures. The photographer told us they would be printed and ready to go in 10 minutes. We rode some more escalators and went to Panera. The kids split a shortbread cookie, they were ecstatic to have a cookie that late at night. We got the pictures and went home. The whole ordeal was so incredibly painless.

Apparently Lucy and Gus didn't go to sleep until 10:45 and they got up at 5:25. Dave took care of them and let me sleep, such a wonderful gift. They both were fighting colds, so by 8:45 this morning they were a mess. We decided to give them Benadryl and let them sleep. While they slept we put up the tree and all the Christmas decorations. This is the third year we've been in our house for Christmas, so we know where stuff goes. It took less than three hours to get everything out, up, and the boxes back up in the attic. We've never done it that fast!

Lucy keeps asking if it's Christmas time yet. We tell her that it doesn't start until after Thanksgiving, but people put up decorations ahead of time so they can be ready to celebrate. It's nice to be ready to celebrate and really enjoy the holiday season!