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Sunday, 5 December 2010

Holiday Festivities

The holiday season is upon us!  Our Thanksgiving turkey leftovers are pretty much gone and it's time to start thinking about Christmas!  We're very excited for Christmas-we'll be having visitors-Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian will be joining us for Christmas and New Year's.

The boys are very excited about Christmas.  Brendan, at 4, is quite knowledgeable about Santa and how the whole present and stocking thing works.  Kieran, at 2, doesn't understand quite as much-but he's very into Santa and Christmas lights, trees, everything!  I think he's so excited about it because Brendan is-I don't remember Brendan being as into Christmas at two.  Kieran points out Christmas lights and trees everywhere we go.

We started our Christmas festivities by attending Tinsel Town on Kadena AB on the 4th.  This is the fourth and last year that we've gone.  There is lots to do-games, rides, food, Santa...

We started out by seeing a magic show by Colonel Popcorn.  Brendan sat up with the rest of the kids. He was very hesitant and quiet at first, but really got into the show towards the end.  It was a very funny show with lots of laughter and yelling from the kids encouraged.  It was overall a silly show.  For his first trick, Colonel Popcorn told the kids he was going to make water disappear from a glass.  He poured the water in, held the glass in his hand and covered it with a magic cape.  Then, he put the magic cape over his head and quite obviously drank the water-and then insisted to the kids that he had made it disappear.  The kids got a kick out of this, shouting and yelling that he hadn't made it disappear at all, but that he drank it.  While he continued to insist that he had made it disappear, he began the trick again, only this time the water did disappear-much to the amazement of the kids!  The rest of the show was like that-silliness mixed with tricks.  It was great for the kids and parents alike.

After the magic show, we went to see the tree lighting.  However, once we walked outside, we discovered that it was already lit. (Who screwed that one up?!?!)   Even so, the tree was beautiful and huge! This is the first year they've had a tree like this.

We look a little weird-it's the wide angle lens.










We had some dinner and then took the kids over to play in the bouncy houses and run around.  We ran into the newest member of Jason's shop and his oldest (5) and Brendan ran around for quite awhile having fun.  Kieran got into the mix as well, running around with the hula-hoops and having a grand time.  After the bouncy house and running around, it was time to let the kids ride a couple of the rides.  Unfortunately, Brendan had a mini-meltdown over not getting the spot he wanted in the train, so instead of getting to ride the train in another spot, he got to miss out on it all together.  Kieran happily rode the train in the spot that was left for him.  I'm pretty sure riding the train was the highlight of his night!










  


We continued with Christmas fun tonight at home as well with decorating our Christmas tree.  The boys jumped around while I got the tree out and generally got in the way while I set the tree up.  :)  They were pretty overexcited about it.  After a break for dinner, the kids got their jammies on and got right to work putting ornaments on the tree.

I have a (not nearly large enough) collecttion of wood and plastic ornaments for the boys to hang.  These are also the ornaments that decorate the bottom half of the tree.  Brendan knew exactly what he was doing and started hanging right away.  I had to show Kieran how to open up the loop of string and hang it over a branch.  After a few tries, he got the hang of it-and then proceeded to pretty much hang every one of the ornaments he grabbed on the same branch! Brendan helped him move them to other areas.  Kieran then spent the rest of the time taking off and rehanging his ornaments.  I can see this being a daily issue

If you look right above K's right hand, you can see all the ornaments hanging on the same branch!




 The boys decorated the bottom half of the tree and I decorated the top half while Jason took pictures.  He played around with the tripod and some of the settings on the camera to get a nice shot of the tree in the dark room.  I think they came out pretty well!




After hanging up stockings the boys headed up to bed, protesting the whole time.  I know that tomorrow they will make a beeline for the tree as soon as they are downstairs! 

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