Visits with Santa

James has been lucky enough to see Santa a few times already this year! I'm not sure how Santa has the time to be traveling, since Christmas is only a few weeks away?! Those elves must be working over time.

I thought James would be scared but he loved seeing him every time! The first time was at the infamous Foley Family Christmas Singalong. We had such a great time, and already looking forward to it next year! We spent time with the Connelly's, Staniak's, Knutson's, and Foley's. James even received a kiss on the lips from Reese! Could it be a love connection?! Also, he received his very FIRST Christmas gift of 2008 from Bryan and Kay! Thank you so much! He loves it!!!

The second was James' trip to Mommy's work. Santa was there, handing out presents to all the children. Above are pictures from both visits.

Mean parents???

So we had an issue with James continuously turning off the TV. He found it to be hysterical, because he would receive a reaction out of us...and run away laughing. Nothing seemed to work. We tried scolding. Didn't work. Time out....surely didn't work. He laughed the entire time. But this seemed to work...

Buddies

Here is the other side of the relationship between James and Lenny. I will say that this occurs about 10% of the time. The other 90%, Lenny is hit with baseballs, stomped on, chased with an airplane, teased/taunted, or verbally abused by James. But it's nice to see this once in awhile!

Making my list for Santa...

James is very serious about Christmas this year. Whenever we see a Christmas tree, he yells out "Christmas!!!"...but sounds more like "Mist-mas".

Here's James studying the Target catalog in order to send his list to Santa. He's thinking very hard about he wants...

James and his Best Friend..

James may consider Lenny his best friend, but I'm not sure the feeling is mutual. Here is an example of the "love" that James shows to Lenny.

Trick or Treat...monkey feet...

This was James' first year trick or treating! He was a rolly polly monkey...even though some people thought he was a bear?! Learn your animals, people! Anyways, we thought the costume was fitting since he's obsessed with nanananana's. (banana's).

Luckily, James has his cousins show him how it's done! He got the hand of it after a few houses...but then had his fill and decided to hitch a ride in the wagon. Rather than saying "Trick or Treat", he was more polite and said "Pleeeaaz". We had so much fun watching him, and I can only imagine it will get more adventurous as the years go on.

Here we go Irish.....

Last weekend, Mark and I traveled to South Bend for the ND/Pitt game. (My cousin, Chris, is a walk on for ND's football team! We are so proud of him!!! ) Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Darlene were kind enough to invite us out for the game. We had such a wonderful time and it was so nice to see everyone. Even though we lost after QUADRUPLE overtime, it was such an amazing night. Losing the game AND losing our car after the game. Ha...don't ask! And yes, we were completely sober! :)

Here are some pictures of the Bathon clan...Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Darlene, Aunt Mag, Joe , Chris, Katie, Maggie, Patrick, James, Mark, and myself.

We hope to see everyone again soon!