Tis the Season, Part I

Counting down the days to Christmas....

Here's a few of the things we've been doing...

December Wedding

We went to a wedding a few weekends ago, and that sort of felt like the official start of the Christmas holiday for us.

The groom, Ryan, is a writer/graphic designer on The Crawfish Boxes with David. There was little doubt what Ryan and David have in common when we saw the groom's cake:

 Some bonus pics of Michael in his "gentlemen clothes" (as he calls them).

We had fun celebrating with Ryan and his bride. Michael had one request for the DJ..."We Will Rock You," which the DJ played. It was a hit!

Christmas Decorations

I had the Thanksgiving decorations up a little too long according to Michael. He turned them all around and was ready for the Christmas decorations already! I got around to putting up some decorations inside, and David got the tree set up and some lights outside.

As you can see the cats like the Christmas tree:

And, Michael goofing off with his buddy "Frosty" outside.

Jingle Bell Run

Michael and I participated in the Jingle Bell Run in downtown Houston.

Michael did the Kids 1K with me trailing behind him. His technique was to all-out sprint, walk, repeat. At one point, he took off yelling, "I want to be like Flash!!!!!!!!!"

I did the 5 mile run (and walk) with my friend, Jessica. I had been sick the week leading up to this, but I was feeling better the day of the run. Still had a cough, but overall it felt pretty good to get outside. It was really interesting running through the streets of downtown Houston. David hung out with Michael while we were on the course, and they had kids games and booths to visit.

Christmas Carol

I went to see A Christmas Carol at the Classical Theatre in Houston (also with Jessica).

Library

Our library is going to be closed for the rest of the year because it's getting new carpet. But, we had one last pajama story time. The theme was "mice."

Advent/Skype

Michael and I have been on Skype with my parents (and grandparents) to do my childhood advent calendar. My grandma made the calendar when my brother and I were little. It has characters for each day leading up to Christmas. She also wrote a daily story to tell how the character prepares to go to the tree to join the others in Christmas celebration. Here's Jack Horner:

Ten days to go to Christmas!

A Few Fun Things from November

1. Carnival

Michael had a fundraiser earlier in the semester. He met a goal that allowed him to participate in a carnival during school as one of the prizes. He played games. Lots of fun for MDC3.

Funny story about the carnival. I volunteered. Michael's friend Lillian (pink shirt below) also got to attend. We have heard about Lillian from Michael, and sometimes they exchange drawings at school. This was the first time I've met her. She said to Michael, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your mother?" Haha!

2. Football

Michael had a fun season of flag football at the YMCA. It was fun watching him play! We worked with him on how to play defense and how to run the ball on offense, and it was great to see his improvement over the season. And, it was cute cute cute to watch him play QB every once in awhile!

Here he is with this year's football medal.

3. Diego helps me write.

Books make good pillows?

4. Picnic 

Michael told us a couple weeks ago that he had never been on a picnic. (Not that he remembers anyway.) Obviously, David and I decided we must go on a picnic then! We had some truly gorgeous days in November...perfect for a fall picnic!

5. Thanksgiving

We went to Port Arthur for Thanksgiving and spent it with family. We went over Wednesday night. Last Christmas, David received a gift certificate to a sushi place and it expired in mid-December. Mary and Leon (David's grandparents) watched Michael, so David and I could get our sushi fix before that happened!

On Thanksgiving, we went over to Donna's house (that's David's great aunt on his dad's side) in Port Neches. Michael was thrilled to see Cole.

And then we went back over to Mary and Leon's for a second Thanksgiving dinner! Michael got to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Port Arthur. It sounds like he had a good time with Mimi (David's mom), Nanny (David's aunt), MawMaw and PawPaw (grandparents) and Andi and her kids (Aunt and cousins).