Getting Ready for Christmas

Paul and I started December in such a "Bah, Humbug" mood that we didn't even want to put up a Christmas tree.  Had it been just the two of us we probably wouldn't have.  But, I flashed back to all the  memorable years of my childhood and the extreme thrill I got from decorating our tree.  For several years, my parents even got us a tiny little tree that we put next to our bedrooms and would adorn with any old home-made decoration we could create.  I also remembered all of those years when my dad would threaten (at least at seemed like a threat back then) that we were "not going to have a tree this year" or make us wait until a few days before Christmas to even put it up.  That seemed like torture!  When Paul was growing up they didn't even have a Christmas tree.  His father was Jewish, so they would do a few things for Hanukkah and would celebrate Christmas basically on Christmas at his Grandma's house where there was a tree.  Anyway, as silly as it is (and, in my opinion, meaningless), the trimming of the tree is a fun tradition to kick-start the holidays, and the Blane Boys were super excited when we pulled out all the decorations and set up our trusty old artificial tree.  (Well, maybe not so trusty since it is a pre-lit tree but only about a third of the lights work--we have to supplement the rest.)

After a while, Max and Jack got bored of the decorating, but Sam was in it for the long haul.  That kid had a blast!

My three wisemen:

Decorating gingerbread houses:

The boys each had Christmas programs at Westminster (where Sam does preschool and Max has kindergarten enrichment twice a week).  Here is Max's class, singing a few cute holiday songs:

Max with his buddies Joey and Andrew and their teachers, Mrs. Bugbee and Mrs. Zarellli:

Sam's class got to wear pajama's for their Christmas program:

Sam (making a funny face) with his buddies, Jimmy and Sammy O'Kane:

Max's elementary school does not celebrate religious holidays so instead they had a generic "holiday party" where a couple of parents can volunteer to help them play games and make a craft.  I wasn't the volunteer (it is hard to arrange a sitter for Jack in the mornings), but one of the mom's who did sent this picture of his class during their party:

Here is a random picture of Max sporting a crazy hair-do.  Reader's digest version:  we had come into contact with some kids who found out they had lice and I prophylactically treated them, just in case.  Max has about half a container of cetaphil soap in his hair (I had several people tell me that this prevents the lice from attaching to the follicle).  It seemed to work because we have been lice-free, thank goodness!!  But his hair was so stiff and moldable that he created this "rocker-do" and completed the look with a collar and headband.  He is imaginative!