Christmas program and parties

It's been a busy day in the Hamilton Household and it's only 3pm!  I hope it slows down a little bit this evening!  This morning, we were up and moving fairly early so that we could all get ready before go time.  We took Alexander to the bus stop and I rushed around trying not to look like I needed Xanax.  We made it to Otter Creek with five minutes to spare and I was even able to secure a decent spot to watch the program.  There were so many people there!  I was actually shocked to see so many people there.  Not that it's not cute to see your kids on stage, I just didn't expect it to be standing room only for the 3-year-olds to half sing cute Christmas songs.  Anyway, my seat wasn't good enough to get any great pictures of Charlotte on stage (she looked a bit shell shocked anyway).  I did get some good pictures of her running right up to Santa and jumping in his lap.  Um, HELLO???  When we made a special trip to see Santa you couldn't run AWAY fast enough but today?  She was nearly first in line and asked for a pink train.  Santa's going to have to run back to the North Pole quickly to get that pink train 'made'.

After Charlotte's party, we had a little downtime so we went home and relaxed for a few minutes.  Then, we got back in the car and headed over to Glendale for Alexander's Christmas Holiday Winter party.  I can't take any credit for this great party; the mom in charge decided that the kids should do something for someone else instead of collecting another goody bag for themselves.  So, the kids decorated and filled a bag with goodies like toothbrushes, playing cards, toys, kleenex, stickers, pens/pencils, and more to give to families who are staying at the local Ronald McDonald House.  They each wrote a note to the kids and were able to choose the goodies to put in the bags.  It was a fun way for them to give at this time of the year where there seems to be a lot of 'getting'.  Don't worry, it wasn't all serious; the kids also decorated sugar cookies (and ate them), and listened to a story about a dog named Christmas (a true story told by Zoe's Dad).  

Choosing a toy to add to his Ronald McDonald bag.

Starting to write his letter (we need to work on the handwriting!)

After all of the fun, we let Mrs. Sanabria open her gifts and I think she was overwhelmed!  She kept saying, "Oh my goodness!"  I think that the kids and she will be excited to listen to music without commercials.

Mrs. Sanabria opening the iPod pouch that I made for her