Ho Ho Ho

Inevitebly christmas is coming...sooner rather than later. How can we deny it when it is shoved in our faces everywhere we go? Take for instance this weekend. It was a beautiful weekend her in Michigan (for november) so mark was fishing on saturday to "clear his head" so i decided to take the kids to Henry Ford Museum to see the Lego Castle Adventure. Being that is was the first weekend of the month, and I had my Bank of America Debit card...I got in free, Josie was free (under 5) and brendan was 25% of b/c of my card, and parking was free! So for 8.25 we got to enjoy the whole museum and the LEGO adventure! What a deal.

We had a great time at the museum. Saw the HUGE locamotives, old cars & campers and brendan could not believe that at some point in time McD's burgers were only 15 cents! I mean WOW mom. We headed over to see "Abraham Lincoln's Chair" This is a must everytime we come. Brendan has been so interested in it, since he learned about his assassination in kindergarden. This lead to a talk on equality and slavery. Pretty deep for a saturday and a 7 year old.

The lego's were amazing! bigger than life and I could not imagine how long they took to build....

Before we left brendan was made into a:

hot dog courtesy of the oscar meier weiner mobile!

And the kids made their "pennies"

Josie chose Rosa Parks Bus and Brendan chose the wiener mobile this time!

To get back on track....we stopped by the mall to use a free certificate i got from chilrens place, and to my amazement SANTA was there already! Have to admit it was a cool exhibit. Polar express & snow globes fused together. You even walk through a snow globe and get snowed on! Of course it was free *unless you want a picture of course. so we walked through. Josie a bit aprehensive of santa himself. To my wonderment, when we rounded the corner to santa, and jolly old santa himself asked josie what she would like for christmas, she simply said "a pack and play for my baby" no crying..nothing. And josie NEVER talks to strangers! But hey, a girl wants a pack and play, she will do whatever it takes. Brendan asked for a Nintendo DS.....

So to the root of my post, how do you "BRIBE" your kids at christmas? I told brendan that santa would not even consider such an expensive gift if he does not look through his toys and books and donate some to kids less fortunate and to mommies mom to mom boxes for the spring ($$$ in mommies eyes!) So we will see how he is able to weed through some of the discarded toys that he will most likely say "its my favorite mom" and "i was going to play with it tomorrow"

Josie on the other hand is EASY. We were going through some toys in her room and I asked if I could sell a few things and she said yes! and proceeded to tell me where her pack and play would reside in her room on christmas morning...lol

Of course after we seen santa and told him our wishes, I told them that since they already told santa what they wanted they better start being EXTRA good, because santa, mrs. clause and all the elves would be closely watching them!

Rest of the day was spent letting brendan pick out some clothes (since I usually do it for him, this was a treat for him) and hanging out outside. We had such a nice day, no yelling, no fighting....and no it was not a dream!