Nick is officially done with this semester of school. He hasn't had too much going on so we have all just been hanging out together. We have had pizza with tortellini on it, hung out at the mall, watched lots of movies and just generally wasted lots of time. I finally talked Atlas into letting me give him a haircut.

As you can see- I don't know how to cut hair and it turned out pretty uneven, but a few days later, it looks just fine. We also went to a special Holiday Water Fire. Santa was there, but Atlas was too scared to sit on his lap.

Here's my dude being cool by wearing sunglasses when it's dark out.

He doesn't love being bundled up

but he'll still always give me a cheeser for the camera.

Throwing rocks in the water is still his favorite pass time.  This is the spot that we go to most often, at India Pointe Park. We walk under an underpass (Atlas loves tunnels) and over a really long narrow bridge to get there.

It's a long walk home.

This week's kick is making hot chocolate. It's easy and fun for him to dump the powder in and stir it up. It's also "deee lishus."

Our countdown chain is getting pretty short. We will be home in no time. For the next six days I will just be a bundle of nerves thinking about getting on an airplane with this terror. We were hoping to drive to Boston for a day this week, but I am not sure if that is going to happen now since when we went to go to church this morning my car's check engine light started flashing and smoke was coming out of the tailpipe. We will have to take it in tomorrow and see what is wrong. The Jeep isn't working either and we haven't wanted to pay for repairs so it has been sitting in it's parking spot for almost 3 months. Now we have two non-working cars. Of course it happens right around Christmas too, when we have a bunch of other expenses. Seems like we always have car troubles. I guess that's what happens when you drive older cars. Oh well, I'm not going to let it ruin my Christmas cheer! I am happy and excited and looking forward to the next few weeks.

Ugly Christmas Crafts

Atlas loves to help me bake. He loves to stir and dump in ingredients. He especially loves cupcakes because I let him choose the colors and put sprinkles on top. The last cupcakes I made, I made the frosting too think, so this time I erred on the side of caution and made a gooey frosting mess.

These lovely cupcakes' beauty was also increased by the fact that I only had Halloween, candy corn muffin papers, and Atlas climbed up after they were all frosted and put finger holes into each and every one. They may have been the ugliest cupcakes ever made, but they were still delicious.

Atlas and I went to make gingerbread houses at a friend's house yesterday morning. Atlas has been carrying it around the house ever since and is very proud. I told him not to eat it so that we could look at it for a decoration, so he started just licking it. Now it is a big smeary mess. (I love his dorky "say cheese" face)

We also made a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas Eve/ our flight to Utah. Atlas colored the pages and I made the rings. He loves to help me cut a ring off everyday.

We've had some frustrating things happen lately, but overall we are in good spirits and excited for Christmas. Atlas has a book of Mickey's Christmas Carol and I read it to him every single nap time and before bed each night. He is learning all about Santa Claus and Christmas. I need to get him a book about the baby Jesus so I can also teach him that story as well. He is such a little sponge lately, just soaking up information from everywhere.