The chaos started off on high gear right at the beginning of week 221 with Eric's company Christmas party after work on Monday evening. My parents (who had been in town the weekend prior) stuck around for the day and evening to watch the boys while Eric and I enjoyed the evening out. We headed to a steak house in Gurnee for a night of dinner, adult conversation and of course a white elephant gift exchange (where I came home with a candle and chocolates and Eric came home with a puzzle).
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| Avery making a marshmallow structure earlier in the day while home with Grandma and Papa. |
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| Fort time with Grandma |
The next day was equally busy. For the second day in a row, I left work early and headed straight to Asher's school. There I got Asher from his after school care, met up with Eric and Avery and then said goodbye to Eric who headed off to another work function while Avery and I found seats for Asher's School's Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert. The program was cute and Avery especially enjoyed seeing his big brother up front and dancing/singing along to the songs as best he could.
(4) Videos: Asher's Winter Concert
When the program was finished, the boys and I headed to McDonald's for dinner and some fun in the play place.
When Tuesday was complete, the rest of the week continued with only the normal everyday chaos, but when the weekend arrived my focus turned to Christmas cards...another thing I'd hoped to have done early but was unsuccessful to achieve. It took up a good chunk of our weekend, but I was able to finish the cards and send them off the following week.
That evening we took a family trip out for dinner and grocery shopping, promising the boys that they could pick out some ice cream for dessert when we got home. When I realized getting them to decide on a flavor was not going to be easy I let them each pick out a mini container of their own.
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| Note: This was NOT Avery's mini container! :) |
The next day was Sunday and in true Christmas Chaos fashion one of the kids was not feeling well. In this particular case it was Asher, so rather than going to church we spent the final day of A Team Week 221 having a lazy family day at home.
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| Since the weather was decent we also took our "Fall" family picture which we had forgotten to take earlier. Oops. |
Later in the day, the boys began to get bored and Avery was begging to do a craft with me. I remembered that I had some shrinky dink type ornaments that I'd purchased earlier in the month and introduced the boys to the shrinking fun. They loved it (& I did too...I forgot how great those are!).
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| We have a rule that if you stay home from school for sickness you are required to take a nap. On this day Asher kept insisting that he was not tired but Eric had him come lay down with him in our bed. About five minutes later Eric said he had passed out. |
Wanting to find something to do together, Eric and Asher started working on the puzzle that Eric had won at his company Christmas party. When Avery and I got home that evening I was shocked to see them working on it. Eric is not a fan of puzzles and in our 16+ years of marriage I don't think I've ever seen him work on one! Avery was also shocked because he is the puzzle lover of the family and they had started one without him. He immediately was interested in the task and ended up talking Eric into working on it with him that evening as well while Asher went to bed early.
On Wednesday, life again went back to our normal everyday chaos. Asher was feeling better and back at school, so we finished out the week per the usual before the boys' Christmas break was underway.
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| Asher decorating gingerbread men at school with his classmates. |
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| Thursday night Asher came home with a Leader of the Month award from his teacher and signed by the principal. He was beaming with pride and so was I! |
On Friday night Christmas break officially began. The boys both received presents from Christina at daycare and were thrilled to work on their new crafts/activities as soon as they got home.
On Saturday we enjoyed a family trip to Choo Choo Charlie's for lunch at Charlie's Christmas in Candyland.
That night, my parents arrived to get the Christmas celebrations underway. The next day we headed to church for a special service. Asher sang with the kid's choir for one song during the service (which I was surprised and happy about since last year he refused to do it) and I sang with the adult choir as we led the congregation in worship.
Video: Asher in KBC's Kids' Christmas Special
When church was over we headed to Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast with my parents and then finished out the week with more lazy family time at home to end the Christmas Chaos and begin the true holiday celebrations.
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| I ordered a hot chocolate for each of the boys at breakfast and Avery was thrilled beyond belief. He kept saying that this was his lucky day. :P |
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| ...and when I allowed the waitress to give him a pile of whipped cream for his apple pancakes he said it was a "REALLY REALLY" lucky day! :) :P |
Video: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
On Sunday afternoon Avery entertained Papa with his own rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Adorable. <3
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