December Catch-Up Continues

Before I write about our Christmas festivities, I wanted to record a couple of other holiday activities since I'm behind on blogging.

In mid-December, Spencer and I went to see Ballet Austin's The Nutcracker at the Long Center. Steffani and Ella joined us, too! The kids had fun, but the performance was a little too long to hold their interest. Steffani and Ella headed out at intermission and we sneaked out with about 10 minutes left. I forgot how slow the beginning of The Nutcracker is...they should rethink that! :)

We also checked out the Trail of Lights with Piper, Beckett and their parents a few days before Christmas. This was the first time in several years that the city did the full-scale trail, and it was pure insanity, but fun. I'm glad the kids got to do the Christmas light thing together again - it's a sweet little tradition. Most of my pictures turned out something like this:

 So you'll understand now when I say these are the two best pics of the night:

More Scenes from the Weekend

I love getting to spend full days with Spencer on the weekends. When possible, I try not to over-schedule our weekends so we can find a balance in playing/relaxing at home with some out-and-about stuff, too. We had some good quality time this weekend for sure!

After Soccer Cubs on Saturday morning, we ran a few errands in Sunset Valley then spent at least an hour reading in the bookstore. We also stumbled upon a child safety event at Old Navy. There were several police cars and a firetruck we got to climb into, and inside the store there were various safety-related activities. Well, if there's one thing we know about Spencer after almost 4 years, it's that he doesn't like surprises of that sort. If I had told him before we set out that we would be going to Old Navy to get him fingerprinted, etc., he would've been totally on-board. But you don't just spring something like that on him! The expression in the first photo below pretty much sums it up. So we passed on the indoor activities and just checked out the emergency vehicles.

Today, we met Spencer's school friend Taylor Bee and her mommy at the Paramount Theater for a Ballet Austin production called "Not Afraid of the Dark: The Show that Glows!" This was the first theater-type-event Spencer has attended and it was fun - a glow-in-the-dark ballet for the littles. At the beginning, the ceiling and walls were suddenly covered in lights from disco balls and he gasped in the sweetest way and grabbed my hand. At one point I heard him say, "Hey Taylor Bee, this sure is nice!" Mommy's heart melted quite a few times during that hour.

It was pouring rain all day and I was regretting that I hadn't found him new rain boots or a rain jacket yet. But then I found last year's boots and they still fit (sorta). And the golf jacket Daddy brought him from Pebble Beach was water resistant, though it came down to his knees. And the purple umbrella he grabbed on the way out of the house ended up being broken. But my little hobo was happy as a clam splashing around downtown before and after the show.