Benjamin the Bear

 At Emily's preschool, there is a new face in the crowd:  Benjamin the Bear.  He gets to go home with students each Friday for the weekend.  He also brings his journal so that the parents kids can write about what they did with Benjamin Bear that weekend.
I, of course, went above and beyond!  I printed out the pics that you see here so that Emily and I could glue them into the journal.  I wrote down everything that Emily told me about their weekend and she signed it herself.  According to Emily, Benjamin got to "ride home in my lap, see my Christmas tree, and I took him to Grandma's house to spend the night.  At Grandma's, we danced around and I twirled him.  That's it".

On the drive home

Benjamin checking out my tree

Off to Grandma's house

See you tomorrow Mom!

Emily the Red Nosed Reindeer

 Emily's school had their annual music program on the same day as her field trip to the nursing home.  Her class went to Heritage Hall to sing Christmas music, and we kept referring to the place as "Mystic Meadows" from Sofia the First!  So that's what Emily told everyone she was doing--"singing at Mystic Meadows for all the old people"!  For the music program for the adults, they kept it simple with only 3 songs.

 She was so excited about the "red lip chap!" that they put on their noses (that's what she called it!)

 Showing off her reindeer tail

Geet and Sissy came for the hot chocolate and cookies after the program.

Decorating the Tree

 It's sooooo much easier to put up your tree when your kid can read the letters and colors for each layer of branches!  Emily helped me assemble the tree and was so excited to be my "big helper".

 Jason "helped" by causing mischief and mayhem.  Here is his pose when he climbed into the tree box.

 All hands on deck for ornaments!  And we have tons of them!  Each kid makes at least one a year plus I get them from students as a holiday present.

Now if Willow can just stop eating all the glass ornaments, we might be able to sit back and relax and enjoy this tree!  Five ornaments have bit the dust so far.  Willow seems to seek out the antique, can't-be-replaced ornaments instead of the 10-for-a-dollar ones from Walmart.  She's very picky.