Gearing up for Christmas!

The tree is here (but still outside) and the gifts are bought - heck, they're almost all wrapped! We're all set to start enjoying the season!

Today was my company's children's Christmas party. It was pretty fun. I wasn't sure that Ben would get a lot out of it, but he surprised me! They have those huge air-filled jumping/climbing apparatuses (apparati?) for the kids to play in, along with Karaoke, arts & crafts, food, face-painting, and of course, Santa Claus! (They give you a pager and will page you or call your cell phone when it's your turn with the big guy!) Ben HAD to go in the Thomas the Tank Engine jumping thing, and Mommy had to go with him and sit on the side. He was a little leary at first, but it didn't take long before he was hopping all around! He face-planted a couple of times, but came up smiling, so obviously he didn't hurt himself! Mommy almost bit it getting out of the darn thing, but that's another story! I also took him down the (smelly) slide a couple of times - even I enjoyed it (not the smell, the slide). We ate our hot dogs and chips and then had some popcorn. Yep, Ben ate a great lunch!

When we were finishing eating, Dr. Goodbear from the Children's Hospital Foundation came walking by. Ben was asking to get out of his stroller, so I let him go. He beelined it to Dr. Goodbear and kept smiling at him. Ben would turn around to me with a big smile on his face, so I went over to Ben and asked him if he would like to give Dr. Goodbear a hug. Well, Ben didn't just give the Doc a quick hug - he gave him a bear hug! And it lasted for almost a minute! It was so cute. And then Ben had to give him another one before he took off. I guess big stuffed life-size characters don't intimidate my kid! Disneyworld, here we come!

Carrie