Christmas with Mrs. Claus

Just like last year, last Saturday we went to our local library and saw Mrs. Claus.

Now, you may remember that we don't "do" presents from Santa here at our house, but my boys still know who Santa is and get very excited when they see him at the mall or in movies (especially one of our holiday faves--ELF!!) We had a great visit with Mrs. Claus, and a very fun morning at the library!

Mrs. Claus, doing my favorite thing--reading the true story of Christmas first to all of the children!

Colin with his bestie, Colden....

....and his soccer buddy, Matthew

Ethan looks so much more grown up than he did one year ago! (They ALL do!)

His favorite part of sitting with Mrs. Claus and giving his list?

The sugar at the end, of course.

"Heh heh heh....candy....mmmmm"

Cameron was 'very specific and very intent' with his list, Mrs. Claus told me afterward!  He knew exactly what he wanted:

1. A Mario Kart game for the Wii (check)
2. A sword fight game (i.e., Wii Sports Resort--check)
3. Bears jersey #54 (Urlacher--check, coming from Grandma Jane) 
   
4. Lip balm.

I swear, that kid has me rolling each and every day.

After list-making time, the children get to go and decorate cookies.

I'm pretty sure this is their very favorite part of the day....well, except for the 'eating' part!

I would like to take this opportunity to address four things:

1. Below is Cameron's cookie. 
2. It is half-eaten--that is as far as he got, thank God.
3. I was not present when he created this monstrosity--rather, was with Ethan on Mrs. Claus' lap.
4. If you can believe it to be humanly possible, Colin's cookie was worse. *sigh*

Dis. gust. ing.

While the boys were decorating cookies, I took Lola for her first trip (on the outside) to see Mrs. Claus.

Can I just say how precious I think this picture is?

She did really well (as long as I was within a foot of her *grin*)
but was most enthralled by the candy cane!

"Mmmmmmmmmm!"

I tried to get a good picture of all four of them at the end....but, by this point, Ethan was 

in a full-blown-sugar-coma-meltdown and would not cooperate!

{For some reason, though...I really still LOVE this picture!}