The unenthusiastic elf…at the end of last week, Charlie’s preschool put on a little Christmas show for some of the employees at the hospital during their holiday party.  He could not possibly have been more bummed out with me and my camera.  If he wasn’t hiding his face with his arm, he was looking as far away from me as possible and pretending he didn’t know the crazy lady who was simultaneously shooting pictures with her big camera and filming on her iPhone.  But secretly, I’m pretty sure he was glad I was there as embarrassing as I am.  I was so happy I made it in time after my last fiasco of missing his first performance a few months ago by 1 minute because I was stuck in traffic.

The preschoolers gave musical accompaniment to the kindergarteners as they sang Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and a few others.  They were hysterical, taking their bell shaking very seriously.  Starting the moment the music started and stopping and waiting the second it stopped.  Well trained by their teachers!  At the end they all received a payment of one Hershey’s Kiss and a lot of applause.  And the cutest thing…the always walk hand-in-hand down the hallways.

This year, the boys are getting just a little bit more excited about Christmas.  They still don’t totally get what’s going on, after all, my oldest is only 3 1/2 right now.  But you can definitely tell they are starting to believe in the magic of the holidays.  It’s so fun to see.  And I know I’m in this precious little window of time where they are really excited about everything, but not greedy yet!  It feels like the real spirit of the holiday, they’re naïve and just super excited about the twinkling lights, Santa Claus, parties, Christmas songs, going to pick out a tree…

Before I go out on shoots of other people’s kids, I always ask my clients a bunch of questions.  My very favorite one?  “What do you want your kids to most remember about their childhood?”.  After all, I am hoping to freeze time and capture moments for them…and the answers to this one always make me smile.

So what are some things they hoped their kids would remember about their childhood most?  That it is filled with laughter…good times with friends and their family…how carefree their life is…that they are safe and loved…that they could be silly and have fun…their best friends…freedom…their dog…that they were loved above all things.

Well that pretty much sums it up, right?

They say your first conscious memories start around age 3.  So that means that my sweet little Charlie just *might* remember Christmas this year.  One of his first memories might be of the holidays this year, and what do I hope?  That it’s magic.  That it’s warm.  That he feels nothing but love and joy.  And that he doesn’t get too annoyed with his little brother when they fight over taking turns with all of the toys that are surely about to come their way.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Choo choos, Christmas trees and Chicago landmarks.  My husband is a sucker for Groupons.  He must buy one a week, probably more.  Good thing, though, because he always finds great ones and we’ve done a lot a fun stuff as a result.  Last weekend the Groupon was for the Wonderland Express train exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  Charlie has been a train freak for most of his young life, so we knew this would be a big hit with the boys.  I actually have never been there before, and I was amazed at how great it was, I can’t wait to go back in the summer when everything is in bloom.

Walking into the train exhibit – it just smelled good – they built the majority of it out of cedar, and re-created so many Chicago landmark buildings with painstaking detail.  Of course, that was lost on the boys…They had the whole skyline, the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie house, Soldier Field, a row of Gold Coast brownstones, the Garfield Park Conservatory…the list goes on.  It was really fun to see.  And with all the twinkling lights, carolers, and fake snow being blown into the air inside, it was definitely starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

At the “Christmas Tree Patch” this weekend, Charlie and Nate had more fun driving their cars around inside their racecar shopping cart than looking at the trees.  They really couldn’t be bothered.  I spent more time zooming them around the aisles of Home Depot – “Let’s go fast Mommy!  Let’s turn here!” – the best part about that is that they both honestly believe they are steering that thing.  On the way there, Charlie told me that we were going to the Christmas Tree Patch, because that’s where you get trees.  And reminded me that pumpkins come in the pumpkin patch, right off of Ogden Avenue.  So now I’m pretty sure that my kid thinks that trees and pumpkins grow in parking lots.  I guess when you grow up around Chicago, they do!

In this first picture, Nate informed me that he was going to stand there, with the ever-present Finn McMissile, so that they could “take a picture for Mama” together.  Totally his idea, which cracked me up that this was the pose he came up with.  Mr. Serious.