December is crazy, what with school winding down, holiday festivities aplenty, and the Littles’ ever-growing anticipation for Christmas.  Oh, and the SUGAR….so, so much sugar.  And this year didn’t disappoint!  No siree, we whooped it up and chowed down with the best of them.

Countdown to Christmas ~ 2017

#5: Christmas Lights!

No, this is not our house.  Mama couldn’t handle that workload (or the subsequent electricity bill).  But our Littles always love driving around and looking for Christmas lights…and breaking as many laws as possible because no one wants to sit still when there are lights to behold!

This house was a great find, with coordinated music to boot!  And you know what that means, don’t ya?
Minivan Dance Party!

#4: All I Want For Christmas Are My Two Front Cavities

What are holidays without a sweety-goodness overload?  We’re talking cookies, gingerbread houses, brownies, chocolate mousse, and so many more cookies.  I can feel my teeth falling out just thinking about it.

Throughout all of our baking endeavors I had three (very eager) Little Helpers.

Oh, and Daddy too.  He’s more like my Obliging Wingman.

Their skill level proved to be a bit suspect, but they made up for it in cuteness.

Side note: A few of you may have heard me remark that the Lil Mister is somewhat accident prone.  This particular injury (above right) came about by the collision of a very wiggly Lil Mr. Whirlwind and a very padded ottoman.  He had a bruise for weeks.  And just when his head had finally healed he managed to sled straight into a bush and roll out with a face full of scratches.  But more on that later.

We even got to decorate and eat more cookies at Miss Gina’s!

#3: Daddy Loves Princesses

Our next big Countdown moment was going to see Disney on Ice.  The plan was that Mama (Extraordinaire) would take the Lil Miss and the Lil Mister to the event, and Daddy would relax (contentedly) at home with the Lil Sir and talk about manly things.

That was all well and good until Mama (who has become very forgetful in her old age after relinquishing all of her brain cells to her beloved progeny) realized that she had accidentally double-booked herself, and that she and the Lil Miss were scheduled to be out of town that very same day.

Oops.

So Daddy was given the supreme pleasure of taking his two boys to watch EVERY SINGLE DISNEY PRINCESS leap and twirl and warble and sparkle.

Suffice to say, he was THRILLED.

Trooper that he is, Daddy made the best of it and the boys had fun.  Even if there were no Cars On Ice that a certain Mama may have accidentally promised (in a particularly distracted, I’m-trying-to-get-dinner-on-the-table-and-you’re-still-in-my-face-with-unending-questions kinda moment).

The Lil Mister even got to go on his first date!  With the lovely Little Miss Ellie that is, his BFF.

The same sweet Miss Ellie who was so moved by all of the PRINCESSES and SPARKLE that she occasionally burst forth in an outpouring of hugs and kisses for her Lil Mr Knight in Shining Armor.

#2: O! for a horse with wings!
~William Shakespeare

And where were Mama and the Little Miss during this sparkle-induced Hug Fest?  Why flying north, of course, to Philadelphia so that we could cheer on Cousin Haley in her play!

Haley was a Rockstar Velveteen Rabbit and her whole fan club was ridiculously proud of her.

Especially this Lil One.  Who loved the play so much that she decided we had to stay at the theater the entire day so that we could watch Haley perform a second time.

It was a great Cousin-Fest of a weekend.

And that brings us to our final Countdown to Christmas moment…

The much anticipated

#1: Preschool Christmas Pageant

As we have only one Little in preschool these days, this event got to be a special shining moment for our Lil Mr. Thespian.

(And as a Fellow Middle Child I must admit that I relish any opportunity to heap attention on my oft hedged in Little Man.)

I arrived early with my Lil Set-Up Crew,

Tweedle Dee

and Tweedle “Don’t See Me!”

They fall more into the management camp, as all of the manual labor was left for Mommy to attend to.

But at least they nabbed us some seats in the front row.

And then it was time for the performance to start!

With our Main Man leading his band of merry (and distracted) Little Shepherds.

Here’s the whole class.  To the left are his teachers, Miss Tara and Miss Ann.  They are AWESOME.  I’d become a Frog tomorrow if only they’d let me.  And if my tush still fit in those small seats.

And our Lil Mr. was ready to shine!

Here’s a video from the performance.
Type in “wright” to watch.  It takes a few seconds to get rolling.

(Didn’t get enough? You can scroll to the bottom to watch more.)

We were all very impressed.

(And identical…my Familial Companions, I mean.  Cause you know, I carried the kids, I birthed them, I fed them, and now I even teach them.  But all of our Littles still look exactly like their Daddy!)

At the end of the performance there was a very special visit by the one and only,

Santa Claus!

As the performance came to an end we tried our best to capture some photos of our Lil Motley Crew together with Santa.  But as often happens, that didn’t pan out very well.

Santa must go through some pretty intense training so that He can keep HO-HO-HOing during meltdowns.

We finally settled for this.

And then I remembered that though the Lil Mr. does not look much like me, he does in fact act a lot like me.

Meaning that he was out of steam and needing some vittles, STAT!

And low and behold, we got our merry back and had a good ‘ole Christmas-y time.

We love counting down the days until Christmas, and anticipating the birth of Baby Jesus.  What a beautiful, full time of year.  And (so long as we’re all well fed), a lot of fun too!

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TPPK Christmas Performance Videos
Type in “wright” to watch