It's beginning to look a lot like something.....

A Santa-Pirate and his disheveled sister (seriously) decorating the Christmas tree. In between hanging up an ornament or two, Will was busy defending us from approaching marauders. All of the shooting noises and explosions didn't really fit into my idea of a peaceful, holiday evening but what can you do. He's a boy. And he's four. An artsy (blurry, hurried) attempt to capture Reina carefully decorating the tree. She was particular about which ornaments should we hang, and frankly at this point we don't expect any different from her. She hung up cats, those little fake marshmallows that look like snowman and shoes. Yes, we have shoe ornaments. We had another nice snowstorm last week. While it added a certain holiday touch to our landscape, it also brought with it some bitter cold. I shoveled the driveway and sidewalk for a few minutes on Saturday while Will and Trigger romped in the yard. Both dog and kid were wanting to stay outside long after I was ready to come in.

After my post last week, Reina did develop croup and an ear infection on top of that so my long Thanksgiving holiday weekend was extended for a few more days. Will has the cough now but we are hoping that all of his different "breath-y" (his words) medicines will keep him healthy.

At church, Will has been practicing to be in the annual Christmas program. I've been trying to teach him some of my favorite Christmas Carols like "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night." He's been mildly interested but every time I try to sit down with him at the piano it quickly deteriorates into a whine-fest. Last week, as we were driving home from preschool, he started singing sweetly in the backseat. His song of choice? "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay. Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel....." He knew all of the words to the first verse. He's learning a lot at Montessori!