Today was the annual company Christmas Party and boy was I excited! I managed to plan ahead enough to have matching outfits for the boys - which I never realized was a challenge until last year. Christmas outfits for girls? Tons! Christmas outfits for boys? Ummm... There was a slight snafu with the green pants, so the boys ended up with half of a matching outfit. Oh well, they will probably be less embarrassed about that 15 years from now. Ha!
I was most excited / worried about the photos with Santa. Last year, it didn't go so well and I wasn't expecting much better based on Thomas' reaction on the train ride. So I figured that I would let Henry get a solo picture first since he wasn't likely to flip out and then do a second one with both in case Thomas flipped out again this year. Look at me learning from experiences!
As you can tell, Thomas was *super* exciting about waiting in line to see Santa...
Henry didn't seem to care about lines. He was just happy chilling with his dad. :)
The nice thing about it being at work was that there are plenty of friends there to help take family photos. Several of us got photos which were moderately more successful than just using a remote. We couldn't get one with all four of us looking at the camera. One of our friends got some cute ones - their little girl was totally hamming it up for the camera. And on the other end of the spectrum was a complete toddler meltdown. We all have our days... I think I still managed to get a cute family photo of them, it just wasn't a traditional "everyone looking at the camera" one.
Her mom actually called Thomas a "toddler whisperer" - ha! She actually calmed right down and was all smiles and giggling with my little guy playing with the big Christmas tree. He was probably just happy to be done with the "Smile Thomas! Thomas - look over here! Thomas?!?" It's tough having a camera obsessed momma...
Two of my cuties! Love these guys. :)
After breaking for a snack, we went over to check out the activities for kids. The line for the balloon animals was so long we detoured to the art station instead. He seemed pretty happy to color. He even managed to color all of the buttons on the gingerbread man perfectly. Which apparently was too neat - he then scribbled over them Maybe he's more into abstract art...?
I didn't get many photos of the setting since I was mostly chasing Thomas around, but I did manage to snap a few on the way out. I love, love, love the shrimp boat! They had two big troughs of shrimp and this boat carved out of ice. And I somehow didn't get a single shrimp - argh!!!
As for how the kids did on the Santa photo? (Not taken by me, but I have no idea who to give credit...)
Total champs!!! While they aren't exactly beaming, there were no tears and Thomas was super excited about the candy cane full of chocolate that he got for hanging in there. Henry also got one, but I am thinking Matt and I will take care of that for him. :)