30 Days of Gratitude: Days 18 and 19

They're good-looking kids, aren't they? I'm thankful that I got our annual Christmas card photo done and out of the way! It was the usual ordeal to get this done, though. I've been warning the kids all week that I was planning on doing the Christmas card photo this weekend. They still plead ignorance today. Alex and Anthony were trying to play as much on the PS3 as possible, and I had to kick Anthony off the PS3 to get this photo done. That was at least easier than if it had been Alex on the PS3. Natalie had her friend Margot over from a sleepover the night before. Eric really didn't want to change out of his dinosaur shirt. Luckily, they all eventually cooperated.

Getting somewhat matching shirts was another ordeal. Eric is wearing his size 4 shirt that he wore last year. I got him a size 4/5 shirt from Target just in case, but this one still fit pretty well. Natalie's shirt is getting a little short but as she pointed out, she wasn't planning to raise her arms. I did notice that the shirt hugged a few more curves than last year, which always makes Patrick uncomfortable knowing that his dear daughter is maturing. Alex had long outgrown his Boys' Large red shirt from last year, so he was going to wear Anthony's Adult Medium except that Anthony didn't have another red shirt. Luckily, Alex has plenty of white polo shirts that still fit him from his school uniform last year. He also had his red belt and red shoes to match. Those were all his own purchases with his own money. Anthony had to borrow Patrick's white shirt and he was the only one that bothered to tuck his shirt in. All in all, not perfect in any way, but this is the way they look right now and for me, that's what the annual Christmas card photo is all about.

I've also picked out some possible Christmas cards. Now--the annual wait for Patrick to write the text part of the card. This time he has a hard deadline of next weekend for us to save 20%. I need to get these done by the end of the month!

This weekend hasn't been super great weather, but the temperatures have been nice, with the highs in the low 70s, even if it has been a bit cloudy. Because of the warmer weather, Patrick has been going outside to "play basketball" with Eric. Basically he has been showing him how to dribble and to pass the ball. Eric still needs a lot of practice, but he bounces happily outside whenever Patrick suggests playing basketball, so he's enjoying himself. That's what's important. I'm thankful that Eric is enjoying his tour of the different sports so far. We started with soccer and now he's playing basketball. Next will be baseball. Today, Natalie mentioned something about not liking basketball. Eric told her, "Natalie, I'm a basketball player." He is enthusiastic about so many things.

This morning, I got up early partly because I heard Eric playing by himself in the game room. He was doing some writing. He wrote his name (first, middle, and last) several times, along with "dinosaur" and "November", and two of his good friends' names "Christopher" and "Alexander". He still reverses his "b" and "d", but he does pretty well. I'm so thankful that he is enjoying school and writing so much. He has what his teacher calls "popcorn" words like "a" and "the". He also "butters up" the "popcorn" words by highlighting them. His teacher is awesome, isn't she? That is so cute! "Buttering up" his "popcorn" words! We are definitely thankful for his awesome kindergarten teacher!