Weekend of Counting Down

I'm trying to stay caught up with documenting our countdown this year but I'm sure I will slip on the weekends. Finding time to sit down for long enough to put together a thought just doesn't happen during the weekend. I get more time on the computer during my work day. I did stay up Friday night until after midnight watching a movie but I paid dearly for it - I skipped my run Saturday morning (boo).

Friday night I was determine to get a few pics of the boys since I hadn't with our other nights yet. Our activity was to deliver our Christmas plates of cookies to neighbors and then watch "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." Ryan has been very into this book lately so I had picked it up knowing it would be a big hit. After delivering cookies and putting on our pajamas we popped some popcorn and snuggled up to watch the movie. It was actually the perfect length - 26 minutes! Ryan was able to watch the whole movie without getting squirmy and it didn't delay bedtime too much. Reid and I shared some popcorn and snuggled and Dad and Ryan did the same.

Saturday's activity - EPIC FAIL! The idea was that we would go down and eat at Buca Di Beppo and see the plaza lights. As we were driving down I called to see if they took call ahead seating and found out that they were booked the ENTIRE night. They weren't taking any walk ins. Apparently everyone had the same idea as we did because we ended up in a ton of TRAFFIC on the plaza and there were a lot of carriage rides going on. The lights were pretty but the van full of passengers was hungry. We ended up driving south calling and stopping at several restaurants and found nothing with less than a 45 minute wait and by this time it was 7:00. We settled on Culver's. It was nothing special and patience was short. We ate and headed home. Definitely something we will plan better next time. Hockey Ross and Tyler were with us so we're guessing they won't be taking us up on an offer to go out to eat again anytime soon.

Last night (Sunday 12/5) we were ready for something a little more low key. The activity was to read books about Christmas by the fireplace. We picked out six of our winter/holiday/Christmas books and piled up pillows by the fireplace and read them before bed while eating popcorn of course.

The calendar is much harder to manage this year. We have different bedtimes, bedtime routines and activities... but I am determined to see it through - and the boys really do enjoy it. A few things up this week - rice krispy treats, pizza from the pizza guy, shopping for siblings... stay tuned!