Christmas 2011

I think it's safe to say that Silas was more excited for this Christmas than every before. He's at that golden age when the sweet anticipation of Santa's arrival is at it's purest.

Silas left out the obligatory plate of cookies, which was soon joined by a steaming cup of coffee (gotta keep Santa awake while he assembles that puppet theater).

Surprisingly, the first thing Silas noticed was not the ginormous quilt-wrapped present behind him, but the shop vac Santa graciously bestowed upon his mom and dad (thanks Santa! You are so practical).

The coveted orange. He asked for one every year.  Not like we don't eat oranges pretty much every day this time of year, but I guess there's just something special about the ones Santa grows up in the North Pole. Santa also fills our stockings with nuts.  He is very traditional in that way :)

Santa also hides things in the tree each year for Silas to find.  How fun is that?

Finding the treasures in his stocking next to the warm glow of the pellet stove.

Hooray for puppets and puppet theaters!

This kid is a performer at heart.  Our goal with this year's gift giving was to acknowledge and nurture this side of him.  We have already seen a number of shows and can't wait for what this creative kid comes up with next.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to Silas' puppet Christmas.  You may just be witnessing the emergence of the next Jim Henson.

We spent both Christmas eve and Christmas afternoon with Patrick.  Patrick and Silas even hung out for a while so that Drew and I could go to a Christmas day Yoga class (thanks Patrick!).

Later that day, at Patrick's, Grandma and Papa got to watch Silas open their gifts.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good 2012!

Xmas card rejects

 Here are a couple of pics that didn't make the holiday card cut, but for various reasons, were funny enough to post.  The top picture is the one we almost chose.

Silas really wanted Olive to be included, but it turns out Olive doesn't care about posing for pictures.  I like this shot of the three of us, if not for the 4-eyed mutant cat.

Mustaches are in vogue.  But the candy cane stache didn't quite work the way he wanted it to.  Guess I wasn't a fan of it either.

We were all pretty sick during this photo shoot, Silas especially. I think we limited the photo shoot to 5 minutes and then went with whatever came out the best. So, this was the Christmas 2011 family photo, such as it is.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Letter to Santa, 2011

This Monday, we mailed off Silas' letter to Santa.  Poulsbo has a special mailbox set up just for letters designated for the North Pole.

"Yep, that's how they get there" he said as he dropped his letter in.  It must have gotten there fast, because we already got Santa's reply in Wednesday's mail.

The letter: Silas insisted on addressing it to both Santa and Mrs. Claus.  "That's how you know you'll get what you want" he told me, "if you let Mrs. Claus know. She'll tell Santa to get on it."

Transcription:

Dear Santa and Mrs. Claus,

Merry Christmas!
I want a puppet theater and some Backyardigans costumes.
I have snowflakes on my windows.  My mommy and me made them.  I have three Santa statues on the piano.

I would like an orange in my stocking.  Penguin, my stuffed animal, wants a Spider-man mask and an orange in his stocking that he can look at and study, because he's never seen and orange before.  That will be his lucky day.

My friend Orangutan wants a guitar that he can share with me.  Also an orange.

Love,

Silas

Deck the halls with balls of jelly!

You gotta love how kids re-write lyrics...

Our cozy home is in fact all decked out for the holidays.  This year's tree:

24 felted trees, three Santas, and one gingerbread house atop the piano:

My 2011 Christmas decoration additions: knitted lights and strategically placed mistletoe:

Another view of the piano. A crochet's knight guards the gingerbread house. Each day in December leading up to Christmas, Silas finds a different handmade puppet (including the knight) under that day's tree. Only three more trees to go!

Community Christmas Performance

 

 Silas got to participate in a small community Christmas performance on the 10th.  .

In the morning, the kids made snowflakes and paper chains to decorate the old school house, which is now the community center.

Rehearsal:

Performance time: Patrick came to watch!

Jingle Bells:


Who's that?


I thought for sure he would think this Santa was totally bogus, but nope.  All he cared about was that Santa had a present with his name on it.  And, it was a Wizard of Oz pop-up book, no less.  How did Santa know that we'd gone to see the Kitsap Children's Musical Theater performance of Wizard of Oz that very afternoon!  Wow!

Dorothy meets Glinda the Good and the Munchkins.  

Silas, fresh from the critical acclaim he received as "boy who brings Christmas cards to girl sitting in chair" in the community Christmas performance tells us that he does want to be in a KCMT production once he's old enough.  And when they do Wizard of Oz again, he's going to be the Tin Woodman.  I can see it :)

Santa...or just Some Guy

You may recall from last year's Santa disaster that Silas has been more than a little hesitant to get anywhere near the big guy.

Clearly, as is evidenced by these pictures, he's over it. Not only did he sit on Santa's lap, but he talked his ear off as well.

These pictures were taken at Silas' preschool holiday party last Friday.  The kids were beyond excited to see Santa show up, and I think Silas got caught up enough in the moment that he let go of his fears.  While we were in line, he kept saying things like "Is that a real Santa or just some guy? I think it's just some guy.  If he was Santa, why wouldn't he just send his elves to do this?"  He kept going on about it until I finally said "Oh, just go with it Silas."  On the way home, I asked what his take was on this Santa. Real, or not real. "Not real," he replied.  "I knew because of his hat.  That's not the real Santa's hat."

 By the next morning, however, he was singing a different tune:  "He's one of the real Santa's."  Apparently, and quite logically, Silas has decided there are many.

Looks like he might be a Santa-in-training himself!

Christmas, staring Silas

I thought I'd better get these posted... Above and below: bright-eyed and ready to go! Silas waited patiently for Drew to go let the neighbor's dog out before opening his presents. In order to deal with the suspense, we opened Olive's present, a bouncy ball, which Silas is about to throw in this picture:
And we must not forget the stockings! I am going to have to reinforce the yarn loop on his stocking. Sticking an orange at the bottom each year is taking it's tole.
We played with Busytown all morning (and the next day, and today). Santa made a good choice! (note the lower part of the tree is short on decorations. You can thank the cat for that.)
These next pictures are for Grandma G in particular. This is the new outfit she sent, and yes, Grandma, those are the space-themed rain boots you got for him for Christmas. He loves them!
Lumberjack. All that's missing is the axe:
I hope everyone had a holiday as lovely as ours. On Sunday, we had an open house, which brought just under 30 friends and neighbors through our doorway.

I think I'm ready to swear off sugar for a long, long while.

Eve

The picture above was taken just before Silas headed off to bed. He was a wee bit wound up tonight. I can't imagine why... (p.s. You win a bonus point if you can spot our cat in the photo)

And, our offerings to Santa. Silas selected herbal tea as the beverage this year and decided fruit would be a proper addition to the standard cookies and carrot sticks:
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Silas' festive tour and music box

Happy Holidays!

We made a gingerbread house

This was not only Silas' first gingerbread house, but also the first for Drew and I. Neither of us can remember making one (our parents can correct us if we're wrong). Silas' method for decorating the gingerbread house was to fill every available space with candy.
I told him this wasn't the kind of candy you can actually eat, and he bought it. So, just about every piece we could fit on went on.
And Silas, making one of his characteristic goofy faces in front of our tree:
One more week!

Dear Santa

I dictated a letter to Santa today on Silas' behalf. I thought I might have to coach him a bit on what to say, but apparently, he's got this letter to Santa thing all figured out. Here are his exact words:

Dear Santa,

I want an orange and a BusyTown. I have been a very good boy. I will give you something. I will give you a glass of milk and some cookies and a muffin. And a big clock. I will send you some decorations for your tree. I will give you candy to decorate a gingerbread house. I will give you some tofu.

I love you!

Silas

Crossing Santa off of our list

We went to Clear Creek Nursery this weekend so that Silas could see Santa. I don't know what I was thinking. He did enjoy seeing several of Santa's reindeer.

And the curious camel:
He looks so happy, so excited...
But this was as close as we could get to Santa:
See that grin? That's the thankful-to-be-nowhere-near-the-real-Santa-smile. We got all the way to the front of the line before it became perfectly obvious that Silas wasn't going anywhere near Santa, who was accompanied by Mrs. Claus, an elf, and a reindeer.

I don't know why I thought this was something he would enjoy. He LOVES Santa, or more correctly, the idea of Santa. He can't wait for Santa to come. I thought maybe, just maybe... But he doesn't want to sit on his lap or be anywhere near him. Or talk to him. Or make eye contact. Or eat Mrs. Claus' cookies. Or have story-time with him (he's been very specific on this point).

It's not worth it, especially if it's just to get a picture. Next year, we will write a letter.