It's Official!

We were so proud of Tony for being elected to the township board. Granted, it's not quite the same caliber as when he ran for state senate, but it's a major victory for him and Republicans in our county. He was sworn in on Friday evening by a good friend of ours, Judge Tom Lowe.
Saturday morning, Andrew had TKD testing. He actually passed on the first try, which hasn't happened for several cycles. We are SOOO proud of him! By the end of the week, he'll be a brown belt. He has only 3 more belts before testing for his black belt. I watched his lesson Friday afternoon for the first time in a long time and I was so impressed with his progress. He's pretty amazing!

Saturday we had some snow, which was the perfect backdrop for the fire station Thanksgiving/Christmas party. We didn't go last year, and in fact the last time Sophie was at the fire station at all was in utero during the hurricane of 2008. The boys enjoy stopping in with Tony now and then, especially Andrew. Sophie was totally in awe of the station. The party always takes place in the bay, with the trucks parked in the driveway. The pitch-in food was yummy, the Providence High School show choir entertained, and Tony's crew even won an award.

Hey, these are really big boots!

The best part of the evening is always the visit by Santa. He (of course) arrives by fire truck. The garage door opens, the truck pulls up, and the kids go wild. He always brings gifts for the kids to open. Tony and I found "Mr. Potato Heads" for all three kiddos with different themes - a pirate, a princess, and a rock star - for Santa to deliver.
Sophie was a joy to watch. She has come to a point where she adores Christmas. She clapped and yelled and cheered when the truck pulled up and jumped up and down the whole time, like...well, like a kid at Christmas.
Andrew was very excited about Santa - you can tell on his face. You see, Andrew knows that Santa can't be everywhere, and that often other people dress up like Santa to help out. He realized that this particular Santa was the fire station's chaplain - and his teacher's grandpa.
Aidan is still a true without question believer. I hope he never loses that!

Even the fire fighters had to visit with Santa!

Today was a peaceful Sunday. I spent some time working on my final project for stats class, we all took naps, and I made a big pot of chili while Tony and Andrew went to cub scouts. While I was folding laundry, however, my little elf decided to cause some mischief. She has such an imagination, I can't even begin to figure what she was thinking. But I came into the room to discover Santa locked in the dog crate. She was nice enough to put Honey's food and water bowl right in front of him.I videotaped my discussion with her about this. To interpret the video, at one point I asked what Santa's doing in there. She proceeds to dance. That's because this is a dancing Santa. What a stupid question I asked - of course he was dancing in there! Enjoy!