It's been a Christmas-sy weekend!  Friday the kids were off school except for a brief scheduled assessment.  So it was a lazy kind of day.  In the evening Jack brought a friend to the ward Christmas party.  It was nice to get out and chat with people and enjoy some Christmas music.  They had a few small instrumental performances and had the kids sing "Stars Were Gleaming" - much to Jack's embarrassment, since his friend got to watch him sing.  :-)

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Today we decided to take an adventure downtown for some Christmas cheer.  For extra fun, we took the light rail train.  It was a dreary gray day, but I mostly stayed warm.

Visited the Giving Machine at Writer Square.  

Sam and Ben bought some fancy cheese from an Irish cheesemonger selling Dutch wares at the German market.

All testing the cheese in the Christkindlmarkt Festival Hall.  

I was very tempted to buy all the wurst and potatoes in a variety of forms at the Christkindlmarkt, but it was SOOOO crowded and the lines long.  Instead we went to Mellow Mushroom for a warm meal indoors.  (Notice Sam is piling on the parm while our photo is taken)

I impressed/embarrassed my family with my wealth knowledge for lyrics from radio hits of 1998 and 1998, which seemed to make up the restaurant's playlist.  Here I'm serenading the boys with a Britney Spears ballad. 

There was a pop-up market in Larimer Square.  Mostly fancy-pants boutique wares.  Jack and I ducked into the festival tent and found an a cappella group singing a Disney medley.  They were really good!

Home again on the train.  Sam tried to play it cool, riding backwards away from us.  But he came back after one stop to share a bench and play Farkle on Ben's phone. 

Not pictured, they each picked out treat at Rocket Fizz. Sam took a sour apple Blow-Pop, Jack took a Chocolate Frog.

I spent in the afternoon in a bustle getting groceries and picking up Christmas cards and a popcorn tin.  Then I baked cupcakes for my Sunday school class and did laundry while watching Nutcracker.  We had a lovely brief snow, but no build-up on the ground.  To finish the evening we watched Home Alone 2.  The kids were howling with laughter and declared it just as good as the original.

Freddy has a basket:

He likes to be in a high position in the kitchen - close to the food smells and the people.  I installed a basket on the counter to try to keep his fur and feet restrained to one spot, rather than roaming over the whole counter.  It works well and he spends most of his naps there.

Nimbus is more free range with her napping locations.  Unless I have an electric blanket on me.  She purrs so loudly when she's sharing it with me.

Tonight we were dining on baked potatoes and Freddy was prowling about hoping to sneak a bit of bacon.  While his focus was on the table, we spied Nimbus slowly settling into Freddy's basket.  The kids howled with laughter, we knew this was going to cause trouble.

Shortly after, Freddy noticed the egregious invasion and was MAD.

But Nimbus was not about to yield to this plebeian.  We had a full-on battle, pitting claims of Territory against Dominance.

They ran to the living room to finish wrestling.  I'm not sure who they think won the battle.  The basket was abandoned.  Thirty minutes later, as I was leaving for book club, I walked by this scene:

Hmm.  No one looks happy.  Perhaps this was the first skirmish of a long war.

We came home and launched into Christmas mode.  Thanksgiving was so late this year!

The kids had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, like usual.  With a snow storm coming, I decided to come over super early on Sunday to visit.  It was great to have many relaxing days on vacation.  The boys got the play with the Mason grandparents during the day.  Amanda and I had lunch with our parents.  I even squeezed in a couple zumba classes at the local gym.  Ben joined us on Wednesday via bus.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving spread with far too much food.  Everything was delectable and I came home with generous leftovers.  On Friday the Waterhouses went to a pottery painting studio and got creative juices flowing.  In the evening we saw Frozen II together.  It was a wonderful holiday time with family!

The school has a new initiative to celebrate academic and behavioral success to spur more positive behavior.  It was no surprise to me that Jack won an academic award for his classwork.  I was on the invitation list to see my child be honored.

Atta boy!

This year the PTA organized a Readathon for the fall fundraiser.  Jack is an avid reader, and Sam is quickly catching up to him, so it was no surprise to me that they would do well with a contest based on reading.  They were dedicated to their goals.

But then they both won the Top Reader spot in their respective grades, for the most minutes read over the 10 day contest.  Betty and Rick were in town and able to attend the assembly where the winners were revealed. (Picture of Sam below)

They both won a limo ride to a local pizzeria for lunch with friends.

But beyond that, Jack won Top Reader for the WHOLE school!  I was so impressed!  He actually won a great prize for it too - a family zoo pass!

So this past Saturday we celebrated their wins with a trip downtown.

We can go to the zoo for free anytime for a year now.  I loved this fundraiser, and not just because my kids killed it.  I hate when they have the kids "sell" something and the school has to kick back a ton to the corporations that run them.  Apparently we were not the only parents who felt this way, because it was a rousing success.   The fundraiser promoted academic growth, the school got 100% of the profits, and they said they earned so much for it, they won't need to do any other fundraising this year!

Ben shared this conversation that he had with Sam on the way to his ninja gymnastics class.

I've always stayed home to be warm and greet the trick-or-treaters.  This year it was so cold, I followed them in the van.  The kids were able to hop inside and warm up occasionally, and we explored a bit farther than usual.

Happy Halloween!