Reindeer Games

I hitched up the sleigh and loaded up my trio for, yet, another Cibula Family tradition....Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  

Part of me questioned whether Jack would still want to participate this year.  And if he did, well that meant weekend tickets.  With this in mind I asked him nearly a month ago, and got a resounding "yes, I want to go!".  I was loving the fact that my big boy is still a kid at heart, but I was not loving the prospect of a Saturday show.

Surprisingly, it was only a bit more hectic than our quiet weekday visits.  Grandma climbed aboard our sleigh and we were off {thank goodness for the extra set of hands}. Instead of flying through wintery white snow, we dashed through puddles and teaming down rain.  That's Christmas in the south for you.

My merry little ones didn't mind a bit.  They were so thrilled to be heading to see Rudolph and honestly, I was just enjoying the time with all three of them together.  {don't forget I had an extra set of hands with me...that's the key to enjoying three at one time}  

We blared the Christmas station on our XM radio and we I sang the whole way to the show.  Do anyone else's kid's cry out, "stop singing Mommmmmy" in those nasty little voices?  Other than that {and that fact that Lucy started up with cold symptoms} all was merry and bright on our short trek to the theater.

We grabbed our tickets from Will Call, hung up our umbrellas and rain coats, and took one quick picture with proof behind us of the monsoon we had just slushed through before we headed in to the show to grab our seats.  

{And do you see what I mean by little Lu and the start of cold symptoms...poor baby and such a trooper. }

Okay...so I have never in all my merry Christmas's, with kids that is, taken a 15 month old, much less with a cold, to see Rudolph.  You better believe I grabbed an aisle seat and was ready to follow the command of "please take all restless and crying babies to the lobby".

And wouldn't you know that toddler of mine was terrific.  Busy, but terrific.  I never once saw that lobby until the curtain went up and the theatre lights came on.  Lucy danced and clapped throughout the entire show.  And then she ate, and drank, and climbed from my lap to Grandma's to Jack's and then back to mine, and stood up, and ate some more, and drank again.  But was a jolly little soul all the while.  Love that gal.

Post show, we headed upstairs for the Create a Puppet Workshop.  I'm not sure if Grandma knew what she was getting into when she graciously offered to attend the show with us be my extra set of hands.  Surely, she's got it figured out by now.  But, boy, was I thankful for her presence.  When Lucy wasn't sitting in her lap, "making her puppet", she was tearing down all those lovely bulletin boards you see in the background.

All the while, the bigs were very engrossed in creating their Abdominal Snow Monster puppets.  I was reading the directions and guiding them along in between monitoring Lucy's path of destruction.

Somehow we all left with perfectly completed Snow Monsters.

And I just adore how my sweet girl always manages to put the Magpie touch on everything she wears and creates.  A bow for her monster...wouldn't you know?

Before we left, I had to get one more closing picture.  This was proof that we survived an hour long show with a toddler in tow, made three puppets, and still left with the Christmas spirit in check.  All you momma's of multiple children know what an accomplishment that is.

{However, the Grinch in me is still trying to figure out why it is so hard for some people to take a picture and include everyone at equal proportions...geez, Jack barely made the cut, much less his handcrafted puppet.}

I guided our sleigh back home with three exhausted kiddos and three monsters in hand and this time I spared them the en route Christmas caroling.

That's true Christmas love, if you ask me.