Holiday Traditions

Need to catch up on the happenings! We are currently exploring holiday traditions. We started by putting up our Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend.

Just kidding, thats the tree at the IDS tower. Our tree was quickly ransacked by a sneaky elf.

"Alpha" (short for Alphabet since we asked Simon what he wanted to name him and he said "Mommy!" and we encouraged him to choose another name and he just ignored us and repeatedly sang the alphabet song) ventures around the house and I'm not sure what Simon thinks of him but he has provided some laughs. Alpha isn't as creative as some elves (thats the plural form of elf right?)

I hear about but he did bring bagels one morning so that was appreciated. 

We also introduced Simon to our family "tradition" this year. I use quotes because one year it was cancelled due to weather, last year we didn't bother because we just didn't care, and every other year we go we complain about how terrible it is:) BUT ACTUALLY we enjoyed the Holidazzle parade a lot this year and I don't think we even complained once? Well maybe about trying to eat beforehand. And Simon really liked it so it was fun to see him excited about the different floats. Prior to the parade we tried to get something to eat at the Macy's food court/deli type thing. That was a disaster because there were a million people so we didn't want to stand in line forever and Simon spotted little deli sushi platters. So we got one for us to split since its imitation crab and its similar to his beloved kimbap. After that we went to pick our our yearly ornament and Simon chose a cool bell (and loud bell) and then sees a sushi ornament?! Seriously, it's a little platter of sushi and he really wanted it so we bought two this year. 

Then it was outside for the parade.

And home to hang our new ornaments.

Finally, we were able to get into the true holiday spirit because it snowed! Big, sticky, glorious snow. Steve  Simon made his first snowman. 

Have you ever seen a snowman with a orange popsicle for a nose, and dried seaweed for eyes?

We're resourceful here...

But all Simon really wanted to do was shovel, ride his trike, and pretend to snowplow like the neighbors were doing.

Last night he helped me prep the gift tags for gift wrapping. I had 20 different tags to choose from so I"d tell him who to get a tag for and he was very serious about picking them out. Literally picked out a different one for each person. Can't wait for Uncle Scott to see what Simon picked out for him... 

But then he got totally sidetracked because one of the gifttags looks like a cup of hot cocoa and he spent the remainder of the time pretending to drink from it. Sorry Ian, your gifttag may be covered in spit. That entertained him for a good 5 minutes (seriously would take a break from "drinking" to say "burp") before he realized it was absurd to not have any snacks with his hot cocoa so he went and got the sushi off the tree and split his time between eating and drinking. 

Today we had an early Christmas miracle and Simon very sweetly patted G in the window and softly said, "It's ok Gretzky, no barking". And then when whatever G was barking at was finally gone and she stopped barking, Simon excitedly turned to me and exclaimed "Puppy not barking anymore! I fixed it!"

Which is the 2nd funniest thing he has said this week. The highlight being that at daycare he was counting and Nicole's husband started counting with him and Simon pointed to him and said "Let's find the off button". Luckily they found this hilarious because really it's just quite rude! And you know how you assume that kids repeat what they hear? Well please don't assume that with Simon. A couple days prior to this exchange, Simon realized he could turn the tv on by himself and so I had said "It's time to find the off button. Look for O-F-F and push it"...