OMG...I'm 40!!?!

We've been in full Christmas swing around here, so we'll just let that lil' ol' birthday slip quietly on past.  Here Little Elf is putting the finishing touches on her Christmas tree. 

Saturday, we made it to a Build and Grow to work on the caboose of the train project that will involve the next couple of Saturdays.

I was hoping she would go with the Holiday Express sticker option on it, because, you know, we need another Christmas decoration.  But Little Miss preferred the Wild West package.

We braved the cold breezes to make a visit to Santa.  I thought this year she would jump right in and lay out her Christmas present demands requests, but she pulled up shy.

There were, however, several photo op locations she had planned for the day.

We warmed ourselves by the marshmallow roasting station.

At the library, we found our reindeer car's cousin.

Friday, her class went on a field trip to see Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.  The most fun was listening to the kids try to pronounce "abominable snow monster."

Since she had asked Molly to be a chaperone after I had signed on as well, and we had to take our own car to the show, we had a girls' day out after the show.  We found some fresh holiday greenery at Central Market...and a lot of delicious things to eat.  Little Miss has apparently expanded her palate to the enjoyment of smoked salmon and herb spread served on flatbread.  I had to pull her away from the sample table after she swiped her fifth sample.  Of course, we purchased those tasty morsels to bring home for dinner!

She had her school musical debut Thursday night in a K-6th production of Arrest These Merry Gentlemen.  It was unbearably cute...and unbearably long for squirmy kindergarteners who were, of course, in the front row.  Towards the last half, when they stood to sing, Little Miss threw in a lot of her own hand gestures and choreography.  My personal highlight was when she felt it necessary to unbuckle, adjust, then rebuckle her belt while standing and singing right there in the front row.  It was pretty amusing, too, when the little girl next to her on the end worked some part of her embellished shirt into a situation where she couldn't lift any of her arm except to bend her elbows.  She was flailing her arms around like the robot from Lost in Space.  It was, overall, a very good show.

Now I'm off to work on my "42 by 41" list of things to do in the next year.  I'll keep you posted.