Merry Christmas

As you can see- between the Guitar Hero Rock Band, the giant hello kitty stuffed animal and the fat head ( 6 foot tall cut out of a baseball player)....a Merry Christmas was definately had by all!

Festivus for the Restuvus

Yes..this is the same day as the aforementioned Breakfast with Santa! We were really, really in the holiday spirit, what can I say? Grandma Ilene decided to treat us to the Polar Express Train ride this year instead of Breakfast with Santa - thus my previous post. Anyhoo...it was complete with old train car seats, elves with names like Cocoa, Jasmine, and Tinsel, chocolate chip cookies, semi-hot chocolate, a real live book reading and a rousing rendition of the 12 days of Christmas! What it was not complete with was restrooms...that's right... drink it up and hold it in! The kids had a blast but I just had to include the picture up top with Kalen and Adeline deeply staring out the window, nope: Deeply staring at the Polar Express Book, nope; deeply staring at the jubilance around them, nope: Deeply staring at the Nintendo DS....yep!

Breakfast with....the Grinch???

Okay People...This is a community service message to all and you will thank me later. In order to explain I must start at the very beginning...I personally have been attending some kind of Breakfast with Santa since- well as long as I can remember we'll put it that way. First, it was Downtown at the Tiffin Room in the Old ZCMI Building (still my favorite by the way), next came the Zoo's rendition (which was amazing considering I won't even eat popcorn at the zoo usually) and this year we decided to try the Thanksgiving Point festivities. First of all, the buffet included it's own security elf who would not allow anyone to make a second trip even if they were a starving 2 year old who didn't get eggs the first time around. Secondly, there were no tables with less than 8 seats on them so we Wisemans had to bust up some unsuspecting families fun by taking up half of their table...pass the salt, please. Thirdly, the entertainment included the following: A very, scary, hairy grinch who talked with too much of a lisp- if you get my drift, a gingerbread man, a sugarplum fairy, a huge white polar bear and the best for last....a Santa who looked like a 20 year old Brazilian. I mean really, you should have seen those dark, bushy eyebrows next to the white hair and beard. Even Adeline commented that that HAD to be one of Santa's "helpers" since he didn't look anything like the Real Santa. Sorry I didn't get a good picture of this brazilian fiasco...I am just too cheap to pay $20 a person and also $7.95 for a picture with him as well. Yes, they did charge for those. This my friends was an official holiday trap-the same as a tourist trap only with a giant Christmas Bow on top. We will definately be returning to the Monkeys, Lizards and such next season for our Breakfast it was the best we've found so far. So, my friends...save your money and time and please don't drink this egg-nog.

Cookie Party with the Fam

Yum, Yum, Yummy...So Good in my Tummy (that was A.J.'s contribution to this post). Lindsey, Shelby, Mom and all of our accompanying troops met last night for a baking extravaganza. As you can see we mixed, rolled, frosted and dipped our way to pure sugar nirvana. It was so fun to try everyone elses cookie creations and then share with neighbors, friends and co-workers the next day!

Snaggletooth!

Holy Cow!!! check out that snaggler growing out the side of A.J.'s gum line. He's going to kill me someday for this, but for now he thinks it's pretty cool. He obviously had to have this thing removed before it grew a head of it's own and decided to take up permanent residence. The other picture is the sad aftermath of a visit to the Dentist's office and 3 novicaine shots. Cheer up little buddy a full set of braces is just around the corner.

Attack of the Sister-Monster

A.J. and I spent hours dressing up this clothes pin to represent an ancestor who owned a farm (Wheeler Farm to be exact). While we left it to dry it seems someone could not resist the urge to take a bite of that delicious, stale marshmellow-nevermind that I have an entire bag in the cupboard. It must have been the mouth watering googly eyes that weakened her resolve. For some of us it's chocolate, for others its cookies...for the Sister-Monster it's google eyed mallows!

Snow Glorious Snow

Finally, an excuse to put on these beauties again...Adeline went out to play in the snow clothed in Full and I mean Full get-up. Piggy snow hat, orange tinted googles, lady bug scarf, turtle neck, winter coat, ski pants, gloves, long socks and UGG's. I thought she'd be out there all day-alas, I was wrong. 20 minutes later there she was at the back door ready to take it all off again and have her ceremonial cup of hot cocoa. Just as she was taking off the orange tinted googles she said to me, " Mom, I can't believe it's been a year since I saw the world in orange."