Christmas memories

Merry Christmas!  1.5 weeks late!  Jude and family had a wonderful Christmas and took some time off from the computer over the holidays.  We spent the weekend before Christmas with family in Oklahoma -- see the memories below!

Jude cried when he had to leave Grandma's house -- just like his mommy did when she was little! 

On Christmas morning, Jude received a book of mazes in his stocking from Santa.  Here he is, eating his breakfast and working on a maze.  He got other things from Santa too, but the $3 maze book was probably his favorite.  Go figure.

Grandma and Grandpa Carel got Jude a video game that you have to pedal and steer to play.  His favorite level is the one you have to wear 3D glasses to see. 

Post Christmas nap on the couch with the guys!

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Tonight, Jude was a star in a constellation of many other Pre-K stars.  It was their first year in the Christmas pageant at FUMC, and they were fantastic.  This performance brought down the house!  Enjoy!

Christmas in the barn

On Tuesday night, Jude was playing with his barnyard BFFs when he had an epiphany.  He's been learning that baby Jesus was born in a barn, and he happened to have his brand new pocket nativity set close at hand.  So, why not combine these two great toys into one awesome nativity scene?  Voila!  Baby Jesus in the Little People Barn was born.  Did you know that there was a pig on the scene in Bethlehem?  Or a farmer and his tractor?  Well, in Jude's imaginary nativity, these are definitely part of the scene.  He was very proud of his barnyard nativity.

If you're thankful and you know it

 Thanksgiving was a protracted holiday of many blessings for Jude.  We spent Thanksgiving day at Nana and Pop's house, eating turkey and enjoying our family.  On Friday afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving part 2.  Besides the turkey dinner, the Friday festivities had two highlights.

First, Jude put on a thrilling "Turkey Review" show, featuring one of the songs he learned at VBS, "Give Thanks."  See the video for this part of the show.  You'll see that Jude's favorite part is the motions to the word "strong."  Also participating in the show were Josh and his girlfriend, Adell.  This was our first time to meet Adell and we think she's super sweet, and she earned many cool points by decorating and wearing a paper-bag Indian vest along with the boys.

A second highlight was the amount of candy Jude ate while assembling his gingerbread house.  We think that almost as much candy that he pasted to the house ended up in his belly.  And now, four days post construction, the house miraculously still stands with candy intact.  We'll see how many more days it can endure until it means the jaws of a candy-suppressed three year old.

Gettin Ready for Thanksgiving

Turkey Day is on its way, and Jude is prepared.  He had a Thanksgiving feast last Thursday at school.  It was truly a preschool feast, with mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a.  Jude ate . . . the cupcake.  And a few bites of corn.  He is not a starving pilgrim.

He and all his friends had Indian headbands, each with a special Indian name.  Jude's name was "Quiet Elephant."  We are pretty sure that last year, he was "Quiet Lion."  That tells you something about his character!

At school, the kids also made Thanksgiving place mats and their teachers helped write what they said they were thankful for.  See Jude's thankful thoughts below.  Please notice two things:
1. Jude says he is thankful for "sister."  Who is sister you might ask?  Your guess is as good as ours!  She's Jude's dream sibling!
2. He has all of his favorite people listed to the right (including cousin Jackson).  Mommy and Daddy are written to the left, an obvious afterthought on the part of his teacher.  She is a shrewd woman.  We are thankful for her.

Learning to write "JUDE"

Jude is learning to write his name, and we're very impressed with his progress.  I told him this morning that he is best at making the letter "E."  He's still working on writing from the left to the right.  Our next goal - learning to write in lowercase!

Happy Halloween!

Jude had a great Halloween at school and with his family!  Jude was a vintage cowboy.  His costume belonged to uncle Josh who wore it for Halloween 24 years ago.  The chaps and vest were made for Josh by Great Grandma Wolf, and were lovingly saved for Jude and fit him perfectly!

At school, they had a costume show for all the parents.  Jude's class was full of princesses.  Jude the cowboy and Davis the army man were there to escort the princesses.  Will was a rocket ship -- not the right kind of date for a princess.

In the evening, Jude celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pops.  The Carel family was all dressed up for the evening.  Grandpa was Jude's partner (Grandpa said his cowboy name was Fergus, but mommy still doesn't get that).  Grandma was a scarecrow who scared little kids when they came to trick or treat.  Mommy was Flash the horse, another awesome costume handmade by Great Grandma.