Santa Success...Sort of.

I've been intending to post Jonathan's lone Santa portrait, so y'all get a double post tonight as I wanted to take care of it before we travel to WV. We were at the mall last Sunday trying to finish up buying gifts for Bryan/Daddy. Jonathan saw Santa and wanted to sit on his lap. The line was forever long but he was insistent that he wanted to do it. I was secretly happy because it was completely initiated by him and we were at the mall with the Santa with the real beard, the same Santa Jonathan was photographed with for his first Christmas in 2005.

Jonathan did great standing in line and was perfectly fine chatting it up with Santa about Thomas while he was waiting on the photographer to get ready. However, after one picture was taken, he was done and wanted nothing to do with Santa, declaring that he "needed some Mommy." Since the price they charge for Santa pictures is akin to the proverbial highway robbery, I am posting it here. Maybe next year we can have no crying AND looking at the camera!



Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas to Me!

Jonathan and I were recently talking about Santa and Christmas. He's really into the whole Santa concept this year. He's got the "ho, ho, ho" down and he understands the concept that Santa brings presents. When I asked him for whom Santa brings presents, he says "for me." I followed that up with asking him "what about Mommy?" To which he replied "no, for me." So I said "who brings Mommy presents." He thought about it for a while and replied "maybe Daddy?"

Well, I should have forgotten about Santa long ago and looked to Daddy instead because Santa never brought me anything as great as this:



My lovely husband has spent an inordinate amount of time and effort so that I can have the vehicle I've wanted for some time, a Honda CR-V. He spent all day yesterday at three separate dealerships just to bring me happiness. In exchange, he inherits my Honda Civic. Great deal for me, less than exciting for him.

I, of course, GREATLY APPRECIATE his generousity and selflessness, so much so that I may even allow him to drive it sometimes. ;) Thanks, honey, you're the best!

Christmas Preparation

This is what happens when Jonathan and Daddy put lights on a Christmas tree. I suppose this is one way to keep them from getting tangled:





And THIS is what happens when Daddy gets bored with the lights and decides to play with the camera:



In light of Andrea's recent post regarding trying to find the Christmas spirit, I have a few examples of my own to add after a weekend of Christmas shopping. First, thank you to the lady at Kohl's who very patiently walked behind us as Jonathan dawdled and wanted to look at every item in the store on our way to the cash register. Second, thank you to the very nice Target employee who pulled out numerous red plastic carts, trying to find one that was dry for Jonathan to sit in. Both of these folks made my miserably cold and rainy shopping experience a lot better!

'Tis the Season

Related to my last post, I picked up Jonathan's holiday pictures today, taken by none other than Jon. It is so great that they come to school so all I had to do was dress him in the appropriate attire and wait a week for this:



Oh, and I had to pay, but it was SO worth it:



Coy much? You'd never guess that when he first saw this hat he announced "I hate it."



Guess which picture made an appearance on our Christmas cards, said cards to be picked up and mailed this weekend. This will be a spoiler for some of you...



Happily, despite the fact that it was a record-breaking 74 degrees in the 'ville yesterday, we finally got our Christmas tree up. Some fun pictures of that coming soon...

We're Famous!

OK, not really, but my friend Jon, whose work you can see directly above, has a new website and some of Jonathan's pictures are on there. You can see Jonathan under the section titled "environmental portraiture."
I know most of you do not live in Louisville, but for those of you who do, please check out Jon for your photography needs. He is a really nice person and he does a great job!!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

I realized today that I haven't taken any pictures of J-man for awhile. I guess he did, too, as he asked me to take his picture tonight as he was taking his bath. He was very happily lining up his bath toys and, when I asked him what he was doing, he said he was having a party. Notice how everything is lined up like a "choo-choo."



When I asked for clarification on the party, he told me it was a "nakey party." Apparently, when you are two, this is the best type of party.



He totally cracked me up when he spontaneously burst into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday." He got all the words right (of course, there are not very many) and the tune was dead-on.He kept putting "Mommy" in the song's name slot, but I am trying to get him to insert "Daddy," seeing as how Bryan's birthday is a mere one week away.



A couple of funny Jonathan-isms from the past week or so:

1. He only refers to himself by his last name. If you laugh, he is offended.
2. If you ask him what Santa Claus says, he stops whatever he is doing and says "Ho, Ho, Ho" just like the Santa from "A Christmas Story."
3. He loves to look at the ads, particularly the toy sections. He points out all the things he likes and says that he "needs" (fill in the blank).
4. When he gets mad, he stops his feet, jumps up and down and collapses into a puddle. It's endearing, really.

We definitely have our hands full with this one!

A tisket, a tasket...

...a flower making basket. Does anyone remember that toy from the 80s? It was a basket that you used flower scented Play-Doh in and somehow or the other made flowers? I know my sister and I really wanted one but we never got one.

Well, that product's jingle went though my head as I made the following cake. I had my final cake class in Course Two and here is the finished product. I am embarrassed to admit how much time went into this cake, but I am psyched about how it turned out. If only I could make money off this sort of thing as it is much more laid back than being an attorney, at least most of the time!