Friends, Dogs, and More

We've been busy this week visiting friends' houses and having the kinds of fun you have on Christmas break. Sunday night we made a gingerbread house at our friend Denise's house. She makes gingerbread houses as gifts each year and this year invited us over to help make our own. Thomas LOVED it. I think he ate about 5 pounds of candy, but that's what you're supposed to do. He ate as much candy as he put on the house. But boy do we have a beautiful gingerbread house sitting on our kitchen table. On Monday, we went to my friend D'Ann's house to make and decorate Christmas cookies with Natalie and Bethany. Thomas enjoyed rolling out the dough, and his hair, and my shirt... We were completely covered in flour and icing but had a blast. When we were decorating the cookies, I know Thomas ate at least 6 cookies. He'd put a little frosting on one and then eat it before moving onto the next one. We did make it home with one or two that he decorated that only had one bite missing.

And yesterday we went to my friend Lisa's house to play and visit. Thomas had a great time playing with Amy and James as usual but the story I wanted to tell was about Fifi their English Mastiff. He's a BIG dog (I think he weighs 180 pounds). He seems big to me and I know he must look like a giant to a two year old when the dog is as tall as you are. He's big but he might just be the sweetest dog I've ever met. Thomas and Zack (our 20 pound Cocker mix) have finally become friends and Zack even lets Thomas pet him. Woo hoo! For comparison, Fifi let James ride him when he was younger. And yesterday, he let Thomas put reindeer ears on him. Wish I'd had my camera handy for that one! Last night, Thomas was telling David about playing with Fifi and said, "Zack is a small dog." David asked if Fifi was a big dog or a small dog (even though he already knew the answer) and Thomas said, "He's a big dog alright!"

This Christmas, Thomas is old enough to really get into the whole Santa thing. He asked Santa to bring him a skateboard and a Bertie the Bus. But no matter how many times we discuss it, he's confused about exactly what Santa is going to do. He knows Santa is going to bring him the gifts he asked for but last night he told David that Santa was coming in 5 more days and was going to take all the presents under the tree. And he seemed excited about it. He doesn't understand that he gets to open those gifts AND Santa will bring him gifts too.