Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

O! You better watch out

You better not cry
Better not pout I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list
And checking it twice

Bruce Springsteen's version is my favorite but he's too snotty to allow the lyrics to be posted :P

Christmas Is Love

Alabama

I'd catch that train tomorrow - Boys' tree

The tree in their room went up this morning, with a whole lotta boy glee

Jack and Daddy setting the stage
Harry giving Santa some reminders about the tree he'll be responsible for holding

Jack directing the action while Dean sets the tree

Jack gets a little dramatic about the train set-up

Harry finds a Santa car and makes sure it works

Jack loads up on the train track

Daddy gets jiggy as the train is comin' 'round the bend

Harry showing off his own bling-flingin' style

Ta-DA!

And oooh, look at all that tacky, er beautiful, lite!

Can you spell Christmas magic without a boy and his train?

And for anyone who's wondering about the cool train in the tree, my Mom found it at Lowe's many years ago - I look for it most every year for friends and have yet to find another :-(

It is truly awesome - great sounds, and it even smokes, the train-y kind not the stinky kind!

Elvis's I'll Be Home For Christmas

Yule (B)log - Spin Cycle

Jen's Spin Cycle for this week is all about your blog - how you named it and other bloggy experiences.

HarryJack was what the daughter of my good friend Lori called the boys when she was about a year and they were newborns. For some reason it stuck, maybe because it sounds awfully pirate-y ;-) Lots of other people lump their names together, but often as JackHarry.

I had been sending out emails to family and friends with groups of pix, and often found myself titling them something related to 'adventures'. It got to be sort of overwhelming and I never knew who really wanted to see and hear all our stories, plus the blog seemed like a good alternative to the scraps of paper that I planned to work into some sort of souvenir once they are done with us. This way people can read what they want when they want, I can try to keep track of the little moments that sometimes get lost in the shuffle. When I first started it, Dean was travelling a lot and it was a nice way to let him 'see' our day and have an excuse to watch the slideshow so he didn't miss us as much.

Somehow I stumbled upon a few blogs along the way and met a lot of nice (and snarky, even better!) bloggy friends. Though I'm still a novice at most things cyber and have only the goal of recording our lives, it's a lot more fun (and social) way to do it than all that jotting of notes on scraps of paper!

So, here we are, always glad to find an adventure, see friendly faces, and spread a little Merry along the way - thanx for stopping by :-)

Keep Christmas With You All Through The Year - Spin Cycle

Jen, the Keeper of the Spin Cycle, asked us to post about our Holiday Newsletters, you know the long lists of amazing family accomplishments that start weighing down mailboxes long before I'm ever ready to think about the year ending. You've seen what you want of our year right here, so I thought I'd post the lyrics to a beautiful duet Jimmy Buffett did with Martina McBride about the passing of another year - hope it's treated you well and the next one is filled with more joys!

Trip Around The Sun

Every day's a revolution

Pull it together and it comes undone

Just one more candle and a trip around the sun

Chorus:

I'm just hanging on while this old world keeps spinning

And it's good to know it's out of my control

If there's one thing that I've learned from all this living

Is that it wouldn't change a thing if I let go

No, you never see it coming

Always wind up wondering where it went

Only time will tell if it was time well spent

It's another revelation

Celebrating what I should have done

With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun

(Chorus)

Yes, I'll make a resolution

Then I'll never make another one

Just enjoy this ride on my trip around the sun

Just enjoy this ride ...Until it's done

And here's what a year look like at our house - Harry really wasn't copping an attitude this year and who knows why Jack always looks shell-shocked in this pix....they both had a great time but were much happier talking with Santa than posing for the pic ;-)

This is a Sesame Street carol

What Child Is This?

Some days they just look like such babies still :wub:

Jack is loving playing a version of 20 questions with Dean

Harry is loving making up silly things like calling Sesame Street Stretch-a-me Street and completely cracking himself up.

Reindeer Games (plus a couple of ADVENTures)

They received a subscription to Puzzle Buzz from my mom, and it is a MAJOR hit! If you have kids this age, it's a great gift. They spend a fair amount of time playing the various games - it includes pencil-paper games, stickers, visual puzzles, matching games, etc. Harry loves mazes!

Jack is into Word Searches lately - can you see that look of concentration?

And the decking of halls continues - finally got the last two advents outHere is the above all loaded up

And one of my favorites (also a gift from Mom, thanx!) - I added the LED tealight this year and it looks really good at nite

Gene Autry's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

For One Day

So, the Santa aura has evaporated, likely due to limited sleep and lingering colds, but maybe the pix don't tell the whole story ;-)

The magic of it all is still with us. Note to self: put something cool in those boxes

Jack was in full safety patrol mode and they were both rockin' the hats and glasses

Harry practiced his Home Alone face

Who knows exactly where things fell apart, but they are both sleeping at the moment, so wish us well! Hope your days are Merry and Bright!

Queen's Thank God It's Christmas

Right down Santa Claus Lane

Yesterday was all about getting down Santa Claus Lane

The blur is fairly telling

Checking out the toy options....
wondering if Santa might need a cool new ride....

and trying to find that naughty/nice list....
(they both decided they still liked the Lightning McQueen computer better, but they look pretty enthralled LOL)

whiling away the wait while SC checked on Rudolph...

and finally spotting him - hats up!

And this is how Jack greets him - goofball!

Telling him all their wishes

Merry Merry to you and yours!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Merry and bright

Two groovy dudes giving "Jimmys" - they saw the cover of a Jimmy Buffett album about the same time they figured out how to give thumbs up, and it stuck!

These tie-dyes are their own creations, they made them last week in their wonderful Red Gym art time. Harry corrected me the other day when I called them t-shirts "No, Mommy, they're t-d shirts!" Smart, silly boy!

White Christmas

All I Want For Christmas

Can you guess what made this elf laugh like this??

Santa to Jack: Have you been a good boy this year?

Jack: Well, I was just a little bit good in November, but now that it's December, I'm being good every day so that you'll come to my house with presents for Christmas!

It Must Have Been Old Santa

I will play with these more at some point, but I am so happy to say that I found "our Santa" - the boys first visited him when they were 9 months old, and every year since they've posed for pix. They've also gotten waves and hellos when they passed his 'house' at the mall, taken him treats, and generally enjoyed this amazing Santa. This year, he wasn't at our mall, and I was distraught for a while....I know, it's silly, but this man is great and I realized how good he is after a brief foray at WalMart last week when they guy had no idea how to talk to them. It's a real Miracle on 34th Street experience for me, and I hope it will be for them.

Here they are at 9 months:

and today, four years later (and on different sides):



All is right in my Santa world right now! Thank you to those who have wished me well in the search :-)

12/02/08 Jack: I'm soSOSO excited about Christmas! Harry: Everyone have a Christmas day!


Harry Connick, Jr.

Let There Be Peace On Earth

and let it begin with them ;-)

It was picture day today, and Yes, Friends, there is a Santa Claus! So I am at peace and ready to enjoy the holidays - you'll see why in the next post ;-)

Tis the season to be jolly

Well, it was not a good day for everyone in our house, but there was a lot of jolly to be had this afternoon while Harry helped me decorate.

The "Santa toys" advent -

we had to stack them all to make sure none were lost and get them in the bag better after dumping them in order ;-)

The chalkboard advent - this is the most excited he's been to write - how'd he do?!?
(can you see the pride in that one eye? LOL)

Not quite tall enough for that one...

so I hung the new one 'boy height' ;-)

trimming the tiny tree

and hanging the stockings with care

(Grammy knit these wonderful stockings for the boys - I love them!)

We got thru four big tubs of deco today, with eight to go....yay. Hope your days are jolly!

Deck The Halls