Catching up...

So I'm sitting here listening to The Tonight Show - Jay Leno has Will Smith on and there are so many things wrong with it. First, I hear he's going to be turning 40, which means I'm getting closer to 40 and that's not my reality. It also reminds me of the time I was with my mom and Larry in Dave's Laser Disk shop - if that tells you anything - and I see Will Smith and an unknown Jada Pinket and intentionally run into his arm in the isle. "IT'S WILL SMITH, IT'S WILL SMITH", I say quietly, but crazily as I grab my mom's arms. And my mom pulls out some Will Smith movie and asks me if I've seen it and I pull out some girlie movie and ask her if she's seen it (and he actually turned around to see what I was talking about - and talk about feeling like a heal cuz it was so girlie). And at the time, I'm "like" how'd she get this guy? and I'm with my mom and step-dad - I'm an early 20 something at the time. Granted they seem like they have a great relationship and awesome kids so good luck to them, but dang, it's Will Smith. I digress...
The real reason for my post - Christmas! I want to remember all the things Drew got this year that he's in love with. He got several things "from the list" and a few that were not. His faves - the Nerf Guns with protective glasses and vests, Hulabaloo - which is an awesome game for preschoolers if you're interested, Thomas Bingo - which we need to call Great Grandma Campbell and say thanks to, and Curious George, which he got from both the neighbor and Great Grandma and he loves cuz he can share with friends. He's also thrilled with the digital camera he got from Grandma, but has been to excited in the moment to use. We really haven't been home for any of the other presents, including an awesome Playmobil airplane from Grandma that I really can't wait to play with after putting it's 60+ pieces together! He's also gotten some pretty darn cool pj's from Aunt Janice that are Batman and light up - he wore those over a sweater for most of Christmas and this is the kid who gets HOT most of the time. And Uncle Scott gave him a 6ft air hockey table which I'm still not sure where I'm going to put, but Drew can't wait to put up. It was a pretty darn good Christmas! I'm still waiting for vacation in California, but enjoying the time off in freezing Illinois this week. The low tomorrow (including wind chill) is about negative 10 - not so woohoo!

Next?

Holy moly, it's been a fast few days off. We had Christmas at our house, then went to Aunt Janice's and had an awesome meal and some great fam time, then off to friends for a little party. Friday we went out to Grass Lake to do some snowmobiling with friends - it didn't last long as the temperature kept going up. Saturday was a balmy 62 degrees and all 10+ inches of snow are gone. Today (Monday) we packed up and headed to Illinois. It was a nice sunny day but very windy. I mention this because Drew started getting feverish, but also threw up twice on the way. I'm not sure if he's sick and that's why he threw up, or maybe carsickness, or maybe both. He was pretty lathargic when we got here, but now he seems to be perking up a bit. He's been playing with his 1 yr old cousin Jada and I'm just crossing my fingers that she doesn't get what he's got. We'll be here for several days, and head back on Friday.

Christmas Eve

First thing this morning, Drew wakes up and says "Is Santa's sleigh full?" Yep, it is! And why? Because the list is officially closed and we have already bought all the presents and Santa has made everything he can and has loaded up his sleigh to get ready to roll. This all comes from another request for something to be added to "the list" :) I have to say, I'm so glad I don't have to hear about the list anymore, although I'm sure I still will. This morning Drew and I made 3 pies and 5 loaves of banana bread while Mike went to the store to pick up all the last minute ingredients we didn't have. I love having a shopper husband! He also went out and picked up a tripod for the camcorder. So our goal tonight is to put the presents under the tree, finish up a few presents that haven't been wrapped yet, charge up the batteries for the camera, toys and camcorder and we've decided not to do a nap today so we can get a certain little man to bed early so we aren't up until midnight.
Tomorrow we are heading over to Aunt Janice's for dinner with the family. Hopefully the weather will allow us to leave the house. It's been a crazy winter and we are on day 3! We've gotten lots of snow and last night it started raining.

It's almost here!

Friday was a snow day! Yippee! Perfect day to get all the presents that were hidden in the garage and get them wrapped. I wasn't really sure what all we had gotten, so it was a good time to do some inventory on any last minute items we had to pick up.

Drew did some peeking under the tree and found a package mom had sent for him. I was glad we took all the wrapped presents back out in the garage or he would have been over the top! He must have asked about it 20 times over the weekend. And I told him maybe he could open it on Sunday since it's Hanukkah. He whined, "I don't want to go anywhere, I want to open it here!" Last night I finally let him open it since it was the first day of Hanukkah and came from Grandma & Grandpa. I told him the sun was down and it was officially the beginning on Hanukkah so he could open the blue box. "Oh, awesome, the sun went down!" Not oh, cool it's Hanukkah, of course I'm sure he really doesn't know what that means, so it was just as easy to talk about the sun.

TGIF

The week is finally coming to the fun part...the weekend! Mike is on his way home from OH and we are heading right back down there to go to the Toledo Zoo to see the Christmas lights. Hopefully I can get some good shots. Drew didn't think it sounded like fun but thanks to YouTube he's changed his mind...may have already posted that. Anyway, he's excited to go down and dance to the music and the lights. It's supposed to be about 16 degrees so wish us luck. Also, I've posted a few new photos, in my web album, of Drew shaving and some of him on the phone with dad eating his fav - fish sticks and mac n cheese...woohoo!

My son, the singer!

I really need to get the video camera charging so I can grab it any time. I know, I know, I say it all the time, but really I do. The reason - my son the singer. Lately, Drew tries to sing any song on TV or the radio. It's pretty funny since 1/2 the time he has never heard the song before, but he'll get the last syllable of the last word of just about every sentence.

Along those lines, we've been watching the Grinch a lot this week and this morning we were singing Mr Grinch as we were putting on our coats.
Me: You're a mean one, Mr Grinch. You're a nasty, wasty soulllll
Drew: And - You've got garlic in your soul!!!!!
Me (no longer singing): Wha? He's got a garlic soul?
Drew: NO MOM - You've got garlic IN YOUR soul?
Me: Really, is that what they say in the song?
Drew: Yep!
Me: Huh! I didn't know that!
So of course, I think, like lots of other songs, he's making up the words and figured it sounded right. I come to work and google it and...what do ya know? He's right. Of course. he's right. why would I think any different? CUZ HE'S 3 and I'M 35, and he figured it out before I did!

Another good one - Smashing Pumpkins, The World is a Vampire. It's the theme song for WhaleWars on Animal Planet, and Drew LOVES the song. I can't really figure out what he's saying for Vampire something like, "the world is a manpar". Of course now that show is over, so I'm going to have to download the song or something so I can try to figure out what he's saying.

Great parent idea...

I found this great little tidbit from parenthacks.com. I hope they don't mind me pilfering it. The short of it - what to tell your kids if they find presents.

Here's the Christmas "story" she told her daughter to explain the presence of...the presents:
So, if your husband decided to go looking for shoe polish and pulls a bin off the way-high shelf and your kid spots the EXACT TOY she asked Santa for, here is what you say: "That's for charity. When you put that on your list I though some other little girl would want one."
If your kid is smart they will counter with "Doesn't Santa bring ALL kids presents?" And you counter with, "Of course, but you also get presents for Mom and Dad and all your grandparents, aunts and uncles and poor families can't afford extra presents for kids." If your kid is already suspicious this won't help but it saved the day at my house.

Since I don't have a basement, and have very limited room in closets since they are some of Drew's fravrit (pronounced FRAY-VER-IT) hiding spots, and not much space in the garage, I can see this happening - hopefully not this year!

You're a baby nagger mom

There's been the long standing joke in the Jackson family - ask Drew who daddy is and he'll happily reply, "Dad's the king!" Ask him who mom is and it's "Mom's a nag!" So this weekend Drew wasn't thrilled with something I said and announced he's the boss. I told him I'm the boss and he comes back with, "Actually, daddy is the boss. I'm the little boss and you are the nagger...the little nagger...no actually you are the baby nagger!" Then this morning Mike dropped Drew off at school and heard a conversation between Drew and his "future wife" Jillian. Apparently they talk about getting married a lot. And now Drew's been talking about it at home too. He's going to marry Jillian and then he's going to be a dad. Anyway, Jilli and Drew were talking about getting married and something to the affect that Mike is the king. And Jilli said her mom is the queen and told Drew that his mom is the queen too. To which Drew replies, "no Jilli, my mom is the nag!" Ahhh, it's so nice to see daddy's influence on our young man...

He's not a nice guy!

We're sitting here watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Drew is giving us a play by play of all the bad things he's doing. "look what he's doing! He's taking all the candy, and all the decorations. Look it mama...I'm taking all your Christmas stuff" Oh, I forgot to mention, just about everything we watch these days we each have to take a character. He's Mr Grinch and I'm Cindy Lou Hoo. Now he's trying to sing the Grinch song. "why is he whipping the dog??!!" Oy vey! "He's not a nice guy, mama!" "Mom, is he going to be nice?" It just amazes me how much faster this show is when you are older. I remember this being a very long movie when I was a child. In reality, it's a quick 20 minutes and a "what's next" from Drew. Ahh, Christmas!!!!

You just finished decorating for Christmas, what are you going to do next? We're going to Disneyland!

That's right - with some help from Grandma & Grandpa, Northwest Frequent Flyer miles, Priority Club points and some early snow in SE Michigan we've decided to go to Disneyland for Drew's 4th birthday!!! We're really excited and are doing some research for some other activities, like the San Diego Zoo and some sightseeing in SoCal. Don't have much else to report other than it's officially booked...more to follow!

It's going to look so pretty...so pretty!

This weekend was spent decorating, cooking, lighting and relaxing. I made my first Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday for leftovers and made an AMAZING pumpkin chiffon pie. If you're looking for a twist to the traditional go to oprah.com and and give 'er a whirl...it's really, really good and pretty easy. On Sunday we put up the tree and indoor decorations and Drew was really excited to finish off the tree. He just kept saying how much Santa was going to love the tree, and love how pretty we made it. Precious!