BIG Announcement!

Hi, Mom here. Four years ago when I started this blog I was very blogging self conscious. I was worried about this blog turning into a big brag book about my life. I was worried that I would come off sounding like my life was perfect, my kids were perfect, and no trouble ever came into the McClellan home. So I decided to have the voice of Max narrate the blog. I figured that it was a little different from other blogs and the voice of a child would sound cute, not stuck up.

Then 20 months ago Jude (Slimes) was born. I tried to have occasional posts with him narrating but I constantly envisioned him in therapy some day talking about how his brother was the golden child...all because he had his own blog. Then I started to realize the limitations of a child's perspective on family events. I missed telling stories from my point of view infused with all of my adult sarcasm. I also refrain from posting pictures of events that don't involve the kids, which doesn't happen often, but some real gems end up on the cutting room floor. Like the following:

So now that your appetite is whetted, you can look forward to many more classic pictures and stories. Starting in 2013 I'm going to narrate this blog. I want it to be a collection of our family stories and pictures for our posterity. After all what would my great grandchildren do if they didn't see Eric in full pheasant hunting gear?

(my apologies to everyone that thought I was announcing I was pregnant)

Cleaning Up Christmas

Ever since we made the gingerbread house I've been begging to eat it. Mom said after Christmas (which she said last year and then threw it away before I got a chance). True to her word Mom took the house down after Christmas and put it on the table.

I don't care what Mom says about nasty hard candy, Slimes and I were eating it all morning long! It was delicious.

Just thought I'd throw in a shot of Jude being a typical toddler...playing with the container more than the toy!

The Best Day EVER

When I went to bed Christmas Eve there was not a single present under the tree. Mom didn't put any out because crazy Slimes would have unwrapped them all. So when I woke up Christmas morning to find piles of presents under the tree, it was pretty magical! I also announced that I must have been the goodest because I had the most presents. 

We discovered the donut shop was open Christmas morning so we enjoyed our favorite sprinkle donuts. We also sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, it is his birthday after all.

Jude got ready for some serious present opening action!

He got a million Hot wheels cars, some books, 

a sweet latch board, new snow clothes,

a dump truck from cousin Enna, and

this Scoot and Zoom from Santa!

Don't worry, I got snow clothes too. Time to his the slopes!

I also got new play dough, a tooth brush, slippers, some new movies, leapster games, xbox games, and

AN EASY BAKE OVEN!!!!! or a pretzel maker as I had been calling it all month. 

It was EXACTLY what I wanted.

We fired it up and made some "delicious" pretzels. 

After cleaning up the Christmas awesomeness and taking a nap we decided to head to Disneyland.

We had dinner at Tortilla Joes and headed over to Cars Land. Since World of Color was going on there were hardly any people in line. We walked on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree twice and even Jude was finally tall enough to ride it with us! Then we got on Luigi's Flying tires, which I've only been on once.

It was getting late and Jude was overwhelmed with Christmas joy so we headed home. It was a GREAT Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve, a Family Tradition

It was a traditional Christmas Eve at Paga's house. We were just missing Aunt Jen and Uncle Jeff's family. We had our yummy dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, and orange rolls. Then we all moved to the living room for our Nativity play. 

We had a reduced cast this year so Jamie played the narrator. I was a shepherd.

A little caroling and as the piano played jingle bells Santa showed up, right on schedule! 

Jude continued to be tramatized by the jolly man.

But Santa is understanding and gave him a present anyway.

He got 6 giant Tonka cars and a cabinet to put them in.

I, on the other hand, feel quite comfortable with Santa. 

I guess he got my letter because I got exactly what I wanted. A new bike and helmet!

The big hit of the night was Marie's motorized Escalade.

Jude was loving it!

Another successful Christmas Eve.

Freaky Robo Christmas

Freaky Robo Christmas was back this year with a vengeance! It is a house out by Paga's that decorates all sorts of homemade garbage robots with Christmas lights. Uncle Jon and Aunt Lou Ann's family joined us this year. 

I think this is the first year that Jude has been able to "enjoy" this spectacle. 

See what I mean by freaky? Almost every robot has some type of gun.

Pink gas masked reindeer anyone? I think our faces say it all.

Don't let the upside down blow up Santa through the basketball hope fool you, this stuff is weird!

But it's tradition!

Huntington Harbor Light Tour

At the beginning of December we made a list of all the things we wanted to do before Christmas. The Newport boat parade was on the list. When the weekend of the boat parade came Mom and Dad decided they didn't want to try and find parking down there and battle the crowds. So we did a boat tour of Huntington Harbor instead.

We parked and then road a bus down to the harbor. This was one of my favorite parts! Dad got Slimes and I glow necklaces for the occasion.

We found some seats on the upper deck of the boat and prepared to be amazed!

Turns out we didn't need the seats because we were standing the whole time to see all the lights!

The tour was about 45 minutes. We loved looking at all the houses and boats lit up and decorated for Christmas. They have a decorating contest every year so the homes are really done up.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been hot chocolate:) It was a little chilly!

I think we should add this to our yearly holiday traditions!

Class Holiday Party

My class had a Holiday Celebration the day before we were let out for the break. I was pretty excited because our parents were invited! Mom and Slimes came to join me for the morning. We played outside with a giant parachute and then came in for a yummy breakfast.

We had a little dance party and then watched Polar Express. My favorite part was having Mom at school with me.

After school I scootered down the beach path with my friends Jayton and Jackson. We got pretty hot and sweaty so we took our shirts off. My friend's Mom bought us yummy ice cream cones by the pier and we sat on the wall and enjoyed them and dripped them all over ourselves. It was a super fun day.

Visiting Santa

Fashion Island is where we go every year to visit Santa. This year they had a new waiting system set up to wait to get your picture. We had to wait 4 hours!! I don't care if Mom says he's the real one...that is a ridiculous amount of time to wait! Jude was happy up until the moment Mom put him on Santa's lap. As you can see he was not into the experience. Hopefully Santa won't hold it against him.

Aunt Jill, Uncle Doug, Aunt Kelsey, and Declan joined us for the day. We all went over to the Cheesecake factory while we waited for Santa. I think it was the highlight of Jude's day!

Boo Boos and red velvet cheesecake....Slime's perfect combination!

Jude fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. Mom and Dad decided to drive around a little bit to let him sleep. We drove down through Newport and decided to hope on the ferry. It's so awesome that our car can drive right onto the boat!! It was a little short but I ask everyday if we can go back and ride the boat. Such a fun day!