Pretend City

Last Friday we took a break from all of our Christmas themed activities and joined Sarah and Aaron, Jenny and Mattie and Cameron, and Leanne and Isaac at Pretend City. Wesley had so much fun! Pretend City is pretty awesome and this was our first time, so I took lots of pictures. Here's some of Wes' favorite pretend activities:

Driving the fire truck. This was the first place we went and it was nearly impossible to get him out of the fire station! (Daddy is so proud!)

Doing a little fishing (Daddy is even more proud!)

Playing some golf. (Daddy is beside himself with pride right now!)

We visited the special Curious George exhibit.

Wes did a little grocery shopping.

Wes, Aaron and Mattie did a little gardening.

And he did a little plowing in a tractor. (one of his favorite words right now!)

He helped out a little on the bathroom construction project.

And all this pretending made him really sleepy, so he pretended to take a little break.

He waited for his chauffeur to arrive to drive his convertible to the beach.

And I finally got a real picture of all the kids together, plus a few extra, while they pretended to put on a concert.

I wasn't able to visit with the girls too much (read: at all!) but it was a great morning!

Pretending is so much fun!

Mike's Family Christmas Party

Last Saturday night, we went to Grandma Susie's house to celebrate Christmas with Mike's family!

We had Honeybaked ham, scalloped potatoes, stuffing, yams, and creamed spinach. So delicious!

Cash and Wes

After dinner, we did our annual ornament exchange. Some of my favorite ornaments have come from our family exchange!

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Randy picked the glittered can-caning nuns and the glittered church. A perfect match!

Mike and Jessica with their cousins Brandon, Felicia and Amy.

Christmas Party 2009

"Favorite Thing" Gift Exchange

Nadine hosted our girlfriend holiday get-together this year and found a great idea for a "Favorite Thing" gift exchange. Each person brings 5 of the same small gift under $6 (one of your favorite things), then you draw names and go home with 5 of your friend's favorite things. It was such a fun morning with the girls!

Here was my favorite thing: Gingerbread!

I made a gingerbread house kit and here is the letter I included explaining why it's one of my favorite things:

One of My Favorite Childhood Holiday Memories

The smell of gingerbread and the taste of royal icing will always be two of my Christmas time favorites! Every December growing up, my best friend’s mom, Carol, would bake and decorate a gingerbread house. It was always decorated with wonderful candy such as Necco’s, gum drops, Skittles, licorice, candy canes and an array of other colorful candies. She would make it in the middle of December, so for two weeks we would stare at it sitting in the middle of her dining room table and count down the days until we could eat it! On January 1^st all the kids in our neighborhood would gather together on her driveway to smash open that gingerbread house and take home those precious yummy chunks in a plastic baggie.

This kit includes the original gingerbread recipe and the original pattern for making the house and a can of meringue powder to make royal icing along with the recipe. There are also some helpful construction hints and a picture of a gingerbread house I made a couple of years ago. If making a whole gingerbread house seems too daunting, I’ve also included a gingerbread man cookie cutter. And to give you a taste of how delicious gingerbread houses can be, there is a gingerbread man waiting to be eaten!

I hope you enjoy my gingerbread house kit and maybe make it one of your favorite holiday memories as well! With Love, Denise

I received favorite things from Emily: a gift card to Golden Spoon, Courtney: earings, Kendra: a bottle of wine, Leanne: a bottle of dark nail polish, and Sarah: Caldrea countertop cleaner.

Love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Tollefson Family Get-Together

On Thursday, all the in-town Tollefsons got together for lunch at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant at Knott's Berry Farm. It was really nice to visit with our family and what made it perfect was the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits! You can't beat the food at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant!

This was Wes' first time meeting some of his relatives. He did a good job of hamming it up for everyone.

Wes loved everything, which came as no surprise!

Since Santa wasn't occupying his seat in the restaurant, Wes tried it on for size.

Four generations of Tollefson's.

A Trip to the North Pole!

On Tuesday we headed to the North Pole, aka South Coast Plaza, to visit Santa. Wes was not interested in sitting on Santa's lap and I don't think Santa was interested in holding a crying kid because he told us immediately that we should get in the picture too! I love an assertive Santa.

This is actually Crystal Court, and not the main mall. We love coming here because it's less crowded and there is always a fun kid's craft. Wes colored this gift bag for his present to Grandma.

And he loved the little train going around and around the miniature Christmas village. This picture was taken by some grandparents who chased us down when they saw Wesley sucking his fingers (you know the one's I'm talking about). They said their 34 year old son sucked the same two fingers when he was a child and they had never seen another kid who did the same thing. When it comes to parenting, it's nice to know you are not alone!

The little train at Crystal Court was broken the day we saw Santa, so the next day I took Wes to the main mall to do some shopping and ride the carousel. At least Santa knows his reindeer are getting in tip top shape for the big night!

Mailman!

Wesley loves the mailman! It's one of his favorite words, along with mamma, moon, and money. It is a little suspicious that they all sound like "mamma," but he knows what he's talking about and they all have a slightly different sound to them. I came home from running errands last week and found Michael chatting with Sean our mailman and Wesley driving the mail truck. He was in heaven. Now if we can only get the garbage man to let him drive the trash truck!!

Christmas Lights with the Sides Family

On Sunday night we had our second annual evening of fun and Christmas lights with Amber, Jason and Evan. We had a delicious dinner of veggie lasagna, ceasar salad and garlic bread and the boys had fun playing together for a little bit. Then we bundled up, got ready to head out and that's when the rain started! I didn't even know it was supposed to rain so I was shocked!

Here's Evan giving Wes a hug. I love these boys!

And us all piled into our car. We went to Starbucks for a festive warm beverage and then drove to Olwyn street in Tustin. It was pretty much pouring down rain but we saw some fun lights from the car and then headed back to Fountain Valley to the neighborhood off Heil and Sycamore. The rain had turned to a sprinkle, so we were able to let the boys out of the car and get a few pictures.

We'll definitely have to come back a little later in the month when everyone's displays are up and the rain has moved on. But it was a fun night with our friend's none-the-less!

Christmas Lights 2009