The Donaho's

We have been loving The Polar Express this year. We've watched it in years past, but this year Garrett loves it. I read about an idea on pinterest where you can re-create your own Polar Express.  We had an early dinner and the boys were bathed and put to bed much earlier than normal. They were not happy about it, but had no idea why they had to go to bed. While they screamed and cried, thinking we were the meanest parents ever, we got the car ready: Polar Express playing, popcorn ready, hot chocolate made, etc.  I set some new slippers with a golden "believe" ticket outside their doors.  Mindy joined us for the night and she was our conductor  Zane went outside and blew the train whistle. The boys were so confused. I peeked in on them while they were looking out the window (normally Gus sleeps in his crib, but we let him lay with Garrett for a little while on this night).  I let them come out and they immediately found the slipp...

Sunday was Garrett's Christmas program at church. After such a terrible week with tragic events, it was so reassuring to see the kids tell the story of Christ's birth. In previous years, Garrett was a barn animals. This year he was promoted to an angel. He We knew all the songs, thanks to the cd the program director gave us. We listened to it 20+ times. Gus even knew when to clap.   Even though he didn't do all the hand motions, he sang along to all the songs.  At the end, when everyone started clapping, Garrett turned bright red and covered his face. it was precious!  this might be one of my favorite all-time pictures of him.  he came running to us after the program. he was so excited to see so many people there for him.  Gus immediately put on the halo. After church we went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch. Gus was sooo worn out from a late night and early morning that he dozed off while eating a chicken wing. Yes....a chicke...

Our new playgroup came over to make edible Christmas trees. I thought Garrett might enjoy his creation for a few minutes before eating it, but no. It was gone 2 minutes after he made it.  Gus was pretty impressed with it, but he ate most decorations before they made it onto the tree. He kept screaming "eeeeee, Mama" (tree, mama). Wednesday night at church we did an Old Time in Advent get together while an Advent service was going on for the adults. Kids wore their pj's. we decorated cookies made popcorn garland (and paper nowflakes and orange Christmas pomanders, too) the kids also practiced their upcoming Christmas program. Time for cookie making, but first we needed a few supplies.   Garrett stirred and Gus licked the spoon.   Gus didn't last too long since it was almost naptime. Garrett got to work after Gus went to nap.  I could have left him alone, and he could have done almost all of it himself (other t...

Right before Thanksgiving, Garrett and I had the opportunity to work at Mission Arlington for a few hours. We were invited by Luke and Jennifer as part of Arlington Early Childhood PTA.   We sorted foods to find the items that would be going in over 5000 Thanksgiving baskets.  We were looking for rice/instant or canned potatoes/pasta, carrots/green beans, gravy/broth for gravy, pie filling, and few other specifics things. Everything else had to be sorted out of our selections.  it was the perfect job for this age group because it was all about sorting.   Garrett did really well and stayed on task better than most of the other kids. However, there were some big sticks lying around and the ground was wet enough to make for perfect digging, so he was occasionally distracted. I had to laugh because he just couldn't help himself...that dirt and those sticks were calling his name.   hmmm...thinking ...