The Holidays revisited

I am a slacker (again) I know. So as the City of Pittsburgh prepares for a HUGE amount of snow (4-6 inches in the next 36 hours), I will share happy thoughts with you about our holidays.

Lucas wasn't sure what to make of lighting the Menorah for Hanukkah. At first he thought we should blow the candles out or sing happy birthday. By the end of the 8 nights, he was yelling Happy Hanukkah! Now it will be fun to see what he does at the next birthday party. Marc's mom hosted Hanukkah dinner. My sister in law and I have been manning the griddles that past few years. We are the Latke Ladies. It is fun to do and let's the dads oversee the kids for a while.

We then went to Buffalo to celebrate Christmas with my family. Lucas and I left a day before Marc since he had to work. Except for driving in the snow in balled tires, the trip was great! As my long time readers will remember, Lucas doesn't always act nicely towards my mom. I hate it and I am sure he picks up on my anxiety and stress about the situation. But this time on the way up, Lucas and I talked about how much Nana loves him and she doesn't want to see him cry and be upset at her house. He told me he wasn't going to cry. I also gave him the option of stopping for lunch in Erie or driving straight through. He told me he wanted to eat lunch at Nana's. That was a huge step forward.

When we arrived, he didn't get upset. He stayed in the house with my mom while I unloaded the car and even sat on her lap while they watched TV. HUGE!!! He was good for her most of the time we were visiting. And he loved sleeping in the toddler bed they have for him. Now if only we can get our act together and get his twin bed set up.

Lucas has this game at my parents house. He will turn the light on in his room when we put him to bed and keep it on all night. I would often turn it off when I went to bed but in the morning, it is on again. I think it is more because he can reach the light rather than he is scared. On Christmas Eve I told him that we needed to keep the light off. If Santa stops at our house and sees his light on, Santa will think that we are still up and not come in. Sure enough, that light stayed off all night long. His child care center also sent home magic reindeer food. We were supposed to put it in the yard so the reindeer knew where to stop. It was a mixture of glitter and oats. Lucas and I left it on the deck in the snow. It was such a cute thing to do. I will continue that in years to come.

My mom said he was really good while opening presents. He waited while I showed him each gift that he took out before tearing into another one. It is nice to see rather than one of my nephew's is isn't very patient.

All in all, we had a good holiday season. Now Lucas is counting down the days until Santa comes again.