Cookie Decorating

Max chooses the Gingerbread man

Kate decorates while Max eats

Some of the creations.

Max's detritus.  A bite out of each cookie.

Max Meets Santa

Max's annual Holiday Pageant happened during Carrie's visit so she was privy to his first on-stage performance.  I was very nervous for him since his Halloween sing-along was a disaster.  He typically does not follow along with songs or group activities are hit or miss.  He doesn't like costumes, especially wearing things on his head. Plus, I thought he might have a meltdown.  

But surprise surprise, he was fantastic.  He stood attentively, wore his bear costume and even got some of the movements down. (Teddy bear, tedd

y bear turn around...touch the ground...)

Afterwards, he wanted to go back on the stage.

At the close of the event, Santa came parading down through the audience and each kid got to go on stage to receive a colossal present(s) from Santa.  Here is Max approaching Mr. C.

And here's me and Max with his presents.

Cookie Monster

Max has distinguished himself as a true Puglisi descendant. We made cookies this week and he, in the Puglisi tradition, could not stop eating the cookie dough.  This is cheering news, given his penchant for picky eating.

Thanks for the recipe, Mom.  It was for Dee's Spice Cookies, a favorite since the 70's.  

Subsequently, and since it's Christmas time, I made gingerbread and cut-out sugar cookies.  Max seemed to prefer the gingerbread ones.  We had two of his little friends over today to decorate the cookies and Max spent most of his time eating the sprinkles.  

Blast you, Facebook

The whole Facebook thing has really been detrimental to my blog.  And I apologize to anyone who has visited lately to find no updates.  So much has happened in the past month.  We took a trip to Kyoto; My sister came to visit for a week; Max had his end-of-school-year Christmas Pageant; we celebrated Thanksgiving with a potluck party with some of Rich's colleagues.  It's now December 5th.  It was Max's last day of school today so he is on "vacation" now for a whole month.  

We've begun Christmas shopping and sent a few gifts back with Carrie for the family.  I bought a large (artificial) Christmas tree and once we get the thing together, I'll post some pictures.  

We've been watching Max really blossom with his speech. He's speaking in sentences most of the time now - not always grammatically perfect, but he loves to talk and loves to find out what things are called.  He recognizes almost all his letters and points to letters on signs, the TV and the computer screen and keyboard. 

Next up, I'm planning to try to make Christmas cookies and invite some of Max's little friends over to decorate.  That should be interesting.  

We leave for Saipan on December 23rd so will have a quiet Christmas at the beach.  While I'm excited about the vacation, I'd much rather be huddling with family in the cold of the Northeast US.