I know I said I wasn't doing a Christmas bucket list this year so that there wouldn't be a ton of pressure to do a crazy amount of festive activities, but secretly I had a mental holiday bucket list and visiting San Francisco was on it. I don't know about you, but Christmas is sneaking up on us pretty fast. There's only one weekend left before then, and it's supposed to be rainy. So yesterday I convinced Joe to take the day off work so we could visit San Francisco and see the big tree and all the decorations. I can only imagine the crazy crowds that will be there this weekend, so it worked out well that we were able to go during the week.
We walked along the piers, made the mandatory stop to Ghirardelli Square for a sundae which we ate outside shivering in the freezing (for us Californians) cold, and headed to Union Square to visit the big tree, which I had been hyping up to Ez. We capped off the night with a visit to Santa Land in Macy's and accidentally wandered into the line to visit Santa, which we didn't realize because there was no line. One of the elves actually came out and got us and led us back to visit Santa, because I guess he was feeling a little bored and lonely. Ez got characteristically shy and stared any direction except toward Santa. Declan, on the other hand, immediately engaged Santa in conversation and let us take all kinds of cute photos.
Now all that's left on my unofficial Holiday to do list is decorating sugar cookies and seeing Christmas lights. Who else is kinda freaking out that Christmas is next week?? Anything left of your to do list?
On Saturday we took a train through a redwood forest to meet Santa and wander around a bunch of decorated Christmas trees. Pretty surreal, right? My mom and brother came along as well which made it extra special. And when I say train ride, I'm talking a real locomotive train puffing steam and chugga chugging up a steep mountain. Obviously Ez was enthralled. We got him a toy train in the gift shop beforehand which automatically made him the envy of our car. Declan loved chatting up everyone around us and losing his sock every other minute. So they both had a great time in their own way.
When I booked the tickets I was just thinking Santa + a train. Complete no brainer if you've got a toddler. But I had no idea just how beautiful the train ride would be. Can we just take a moment to appreciate this:
Unfortunately half the family caught a cold during this trip so we laid low and watched Parenthood on Sunday. Hope you all had a great weekend!
Slowly but surely we've been decking our halls with all the mini trees and stars we can get our hands on. I've also been big on anything deer this season, like our stocking holders which we got for $3 from the Target dollar bins. But my favorite part about Christmas decorations is being surrounded by the lovely mingling of pine, peppermint, cinnamon, and gingerbread scents. As soon as I walk through the door it immediately smells like Christmas and I wish we could keep the tree up all year long just for that smell.
Today I'm joining up with Courtney, Sarah, and Beth for a little holiday home tour. Thanks for coming along!
Ez's gingerbread house not only smells wonderful, but it adds a colorful touch to our kitchen counter:
The view from Ez and Declan's play area:
Since we don't have a mantel the stockings are hung on our bookcase which has also been made over into a Christmas reading nook for Ez:
Our shelf in the living room also got a holiday makeover:
A closeup of some more deer decorations:
I've already shared our advent calendar on the blog, but here is is again:
And of course our tree, which is the best part of all:
And if you're curious, you can get a little glimpse into last year's decorations, which crazily enough was three houses ago for us.
Last weekend we had our whole Saturday planned out. We were going to pick out our tree from a cute farm where we could cut it down ourselves and let Ez run around while we took lots of pretty family pictures. But after driving thirty minutes the traffic came to a complete standstill and thanks to Waze we realized it would take over an hour to go the last 3 miles. So we scrapped that plan, headed back home, grabbed some Mexican takeout and came up with plan B, which was to walk 3 blocks to Food Maxx, buy a tree, and drag it back home in our wagon. No pretty picking out the tree pictures, no wielding a saw, and no running around a tree lot. But you know what? We got a nice big bushy tree for a very discounted price. And the boys seemed to enjoy watching daddy drag the tree home about as much as they would've enjoyed an actual tree lot.
Decorating the tree waited till Sunday because thanks to this being the biggest tree we've ever gotten we didn't have enough lights. One trip to Target later and we were ready to go. We had our Christmas music playing, the kids dressed all festive, and I got out the new Lightning McQueen ornament we bought Ez awhile back so it could be the first ornament he put on the tree. I'm not sure if you're well versed in Disney ornaments, but they ain't cheap. And Joe and I are by nature thrifty people. For comparisons sake, I bought Joe a storm trooper keychain from the dollar bin at Target and tried to pass it off as an ornament. So what happened when we gave Ez his super cool Lightning ornament with actual working headlights? He took one look at it and had a complete crying meltdown. I don't know exactly what his problem was, but it seemed to hinge on the fact that the ornament had a string attached (because it's an ornament) and Ez wanted us to remove the string. Instead we took it away, moved on with the night, reintroduced Lightning later, after he'd gotten the hang of how ornaments work, and he put it on the tree without a second glance and moved right on to the next ornament. Now why all this talk of ornaments and cost and whatnot? Because the only ornament that Ez is obsessed with is...you guessed it! The $1 keychain. It's the only ornament he continually removes from the tree and carries around the house with him. Which just goes to show that kids always like the cheapest toy. ALWAYS. I should just return all his presents now and buy him a few more key chains. FYI, Ez has no idea what Star Wars is, but we taught him how to say storm trooper and it's the cutest thing ever:
Other highlights of our evening included Declan trying to eat the lights and Ez putting the star on top of the tree, a proud moment that he brings up no less than twenty times a day. He's obsessed with our Christmas tree and the "beautiful star" and I love it. One of his trademark things to say lately is "show me a Christmas tree" or "show me a star" and in case you don't speak Ez language, you are not actually supposed to show him those objects, you're just supposed to repeat the question to him so he can point them out. And since we have at least three Christmas trees and stars in the house, this game of toddler I Spy can go on for quite awhile. The magicalness of the holidays has increased tenfold since last year because Ez is so much more into it, his excitement is contagious. Declan is happy with all this festiveness as long as we're all gathered in the same place and he gets to watch big bro run around all giggly and excited. I have a feeling Declan will get the hang of all this holiday stuff a lot quicker thanks to big bro's example.
What to get for the kid that has everything? That's the question I keep getting lately. Ez and Declan are the only grandchildren in our family, so to say that they get a little spoiled is a huge understatement.
Ez's favorite thing in the world is cars. The Pixar movie, watching actual cars drive by, hot wheels, construction vehicles, planes, trains, motorcycles...you get the point. But he's got about a hundred hot wheels and every single Cars character that has been made into a toy, including characters that are on screen for a total of .35 seconds. I'm looking at you Mama Bernoulli. So after scouring Amazon I've put together a little list of cars-themed books and toys for the kid that already has it all. All of these are either already a huge hit in our house or on the list for Santa this year.
Let me go ahead and preface this by saying that this is not a comprehensive list of all of Ez's favorite Cars books, but these are the ones that I find most bearable to read on repeat for half an hour at time, several times a day, for weeks on end. Or until they mysteriously disappear.
Red Truck - Shorter and less popular than his Blue Truck counterpart, this book comes into rotation pretty frequently around here, especially because I happened to find a dollar bin red truck replica at Michaels.
Race From A to Z - Ez and I both have this entire book memorized. And thanks to this book Ez can now recognize all his letters as well as tell you what vehicle each letter is associated with (ie - G for Gabby Garbage Truck). Remember a few months back when we drove seven hours to Disneyland? A good portion of that drive was spent reciting this book. Over and over. Sorry again, Uncle Brett. This book definitely takes home the book of the year prize as far as Ez is concerned.
Cars Look and Find - This was a cheap find at our library's annual book sale and boy was it worth the quarter we paid. It's basically a toddler level Where's Waldo, but with Cars. There's no real story involved, but Ez has learned a ton of new words like "anti-freeze" "motor oil" "transmission fluid" etc. I'm starting to think he'll grow up to be a mechanic. It's also pretty amazing that he can spot tiny details that even Joe and I didn't see until he pointed them out.
Truckery Rhymes - The Trucktown books are hit or miss in my opinion, but this one got 5 stars so we added it to the list for this year.
My Big Truck Book - Ez was completely absorbed by this last time we went to the book store. He's at the age where he wants to know technical names for things. Instead of getting away with calling every construction vehicle a bulldozer, he now knows that some of them are excavators or cranes. I have a feeling that means I have to up my vehicle recognition game as well, so this book may be a necessity.
Yellow Copter - written by the same author as Red Truck.
Cars Busy Books - For about $10 you not only get a board book, but you also get a dozen mini toy cars, and some road maps to drive the cars on. Ez has loved these for awhile now, so we branched out and bought some other books in the series, but a lot of them suck. The Planes one is basically unreadable. But this Cars book is actually pretty catchy, it rhymes, and it's another one that Ez and I have memorized.
I'm sure I've left some great books off this list, so shoot me a list of your favorites. We could definitely use a little variety in our story time.
Construction Vehicle Set - Every kid needs a construction vehicle starter kit. Ez obviously has these in various sizes, not to mention a few tractors for good measure.
Vehicle Jigsaw Puzzle - Ez just recently graduated from the peg puzzles to jigsaws, and he's obsessed. This was the first one he could complete on his own and it's still a favorite.
Little Blue Truck - Ez likes to have this on hand when we're reading all three of the Little Blue Truck books.
Magformers Car Set - I'm really excited about this gift. I hadn't even heard of Magformers until Liz posted about them, and since her son Mason and Ez have similar car-based interests I not only looked them up, but I entered her giveaway and....<drum roll>...WON! Probably the best thing I've ever won and Ez is going to love it.
VTech Smart Wheels RC Speedway - This was another tip from Liz and I'm kinda shocked Ez didn't have this already. Needless to say this is gonna be a pretty big Christmas with two RC cars to look forward to.
Construction Peg Puzzle - The puzzle that started the puzzle obsession. I think it's about time for this one to be retired while we still have all the pieces to pass on to Declan, but it was a good year long run while it lasted.
Sticker Activity Pad - Stickers are a big deal around here. Especially if they've got cars or airplanes on them. Bonus points that they're something Ez and I can do together while I'm simultaneously nursing Declan, so needless to say we go through them pretty fast.
Goodnight Construction Site Magnets - Magnets are also a big deal around here. Ez likes to put them on the fridge, then knock them all over the floor and begin the whole process over while I cook dinner or wash dishes in the evening.
Anyone else have car-loving kids? What's on their wish list this year?
December really is the best month of the year. There are so many festive traditions that I look forward to all year long. And one of my favorite blogger traditions is the secret Santa book exchange. Last year we got Little Blue Truck's Christmas from Sara, Mac, and Mim and it's still a huge hit in this house. A big thank you to Courtney, Liz, and Ashley for hosting. This year we got paired up with Jessica, Hayden, and Charlotte over at Hey, Little Momma. Ez, Hayden, and Charlotte had similar book wish lists, so we had a ton of fun at the book store picking out their gifts. Make sure to hop over and see what we sent them.
And us? We made out like bandits thanks to Jess and Sadie from Sadie Sky Blog, who sent us some fabulous books which have already been read too many times to count. You may have picked up on this if you've read this blog for any amount of time, but Ez is car obsessed. So Jess picked out the perfect books when she sent over Where Do Diggers Sleep? and Construction From A to Z.
First of all, thank you Jess for sending a book for each kid. That went above and beyond because Declan was seriously so excited by the bubble wrap. I saved it so he could have some entertainment and distraction while we eat dinner each night. A full week of being able to eat with two hands is priceless. Best baby toy EVER. And Ez is so in love with both books. We have read each book no less than a hundred times each.
Obviously mom reading time is more scarce, but I'm so excited for Mrs. Hemingway. I read The Paris Wife earlier this year and when I read an interesting book I want to follow the trail and read every book on the topic, so Mrs. Hemingway is the second book I'm reading about Hadley Hemingway.
And a little video of Declan and his bubble wrap:
I'm excited to check out what everyone else got. It's always fun getting some mommy and mini reading recommendations:
