Chez Wilkes: Meeting Santa

Now that I am finally to December happenings, I am breathing a bit easier! The end for 2010 updates is in sight!

My dad came down to watch the kids in the Richwoods Christmas play and to watch Charlotte play her first basketball game. The first weekend in December was quite full. In addition to these two events, I had also bought tickets for the local Breakfast with Santa, something that we attended for the first time last year and very much enjoyed. I wanted to go this year for sure because of our new addition to the family; it’s always lots of fun to see how babies react to the white-bearded man in the red suit!

I must say that I didn’t enjoy the breakfast nearly as much this year, especially at first. We arrived 45 minutes after it started, and they were already out of milk for breakfast. They still had coffee and orange juice, but the kids and I don’t drink either one, nor does my dad. They were also out of many supplies for the crafts that are part of the admission price. Stuff like this always perplexes me; they have to know how many tickets they sold. How can they run out of stuff 45 minutes after it starts?!

In any case, as with last year, my dad bought each of us some raffle tickets, and the kids had a great time dropping theirs into the cans in front of the prizes they liked. And, believe it or not, one of Elijah’s tickets actually won this year! He and Charlotte (because we insisted that, since they hadn’t paid for the tickets in the first place and since Charlotte had also dropped a ticket in that can, that they could share) became the proud owners of a kids’ educational laptop, a red Christmas tree decoration, and a $25 gift certificate to a local gas station. Not too shabby!

Jeremy thought he should have won a prize, too, so he tried to climb Charlotte to get hers.

As far as Jeremy meeting Santa, he took pretty well to the Big Guy. I’m not sure if it’s because the other two kids were close by or because he’s just generally a pretty agreeable baby, but we were able to get a pretty good picture of the kids with Santa this year.

Later on that afternoon, Charlotte had her first basketball game. I wasn’t able to get all that many pictures because I spent a lot of time trying to keep Jeremy from killing himself on the bleachers, but I got a few. Charlotte is number 32.

Her team didn’t win, but the score didn’t really reflect how close most of the game was. I hate it when that happens. It’s when I have to keep repeating to myself, “It’s only game. What’s important is that she had fun.” I wonder if I keep telling myself that long enough, I’ll talk myself into believing it?!

Shortly after the game, my dad headed back to Michigan. Here’s a picture of him and the kids before he took off.

That evening, Jeff and I had a work Christmas dinner party to attend, so we dropped the three kids off at some friends’ house for the evening. The house was beautiful, and the supper delicious. However, the weather wasn’t great and the roads were quite slippery, so I was happy to arrive safely back at home.

On Sunday morning, we slept in and then spent the morning decorating the tree. Why weren’t we in church, you may ask? Well, Richwoods is launching a second worship sight across the river from Peoria on the east side. We will be meeting in a junior high school in East Peoria on Sunday evenings for the month of December, before moving to our regular time on Sunday mornings at 10:00 in January. Ergo, we get to sleep in and take it easy on Sunday mornings this month!

I think that the kids had hung up their new 2010 ornaments, but that was about all that on the tree until this first Sunday in December. We had to cut back a bit on ornaments, since we couldn’t put many low on the tree due to Mr. Jeremy, but we were still pretty pleased with the end result. Here are the kids hanging their new ornaments for the camera. Well, the older two are. Jeremy really just wants to eat his.