'Tis the Season

It is December already!  Is it just me or is time seriously flying?!  I love this time of year - maybe it is because so many people seem happy, I get to bring out our festive decorations, I can get excited and giddy about Little Lady getting excited and giddy, or because it is an opportunity to refocus on what is important in life and all the blessings we've been given.  I'm not talking about material things - in fact I HATE that aspect of Christmas.  Christmas in our household is about the birth of Christ - and I'm trying very hard to keep it focused on that.  We do gifts, but we don't spend much money and I'm trying to do home made items - which I must admit is a much harder and time consuming process than going out and buying something.  When I think of how much I made an hour when I worked, I cringe at how much something I make would have to cost to cover the number of hours it takes to produce.  Eeeek.

So, Boise is getting into the full Christmas swing. I took the wee ones to go see the lighting of the Christmas tree in front of the capitol the other day while Papa studied. We missed the official lighting - Little Lady was napping and I was not going to wake her up, so we headed there right after she got up. Apparently it wasn't essential to be there for the lighting anyways and for those that treid to watch it from home, as one news site said: "This tree lighting brought to you by the U.S. Postal Service."  You've got to watch the video, it will give you a chuckle.

 

A very nice size tree.

 

She was very excited!

Something very weird happened here - I told her I wanted a picture of her with the Capitol and she got on the step, looked at me, smiled, and stood still for me to take her picture.  It was so.......grown up.  It felt so weird.  Maybe she is getting older, maybe she was still sleepy, or maybe the trick to get her to stay still for a posed photo is to be in the cold.  I guess we'll get to test that theory this winter.

 

Getting a candy cane was probably the highlight of her night.

 

They were handing out hot chocolate and cookies.  How awesome is that?

 

The cookies had the state seal in icing.  Mmmmmmmm.

 

Sitting down to enjoy her cookie and hot chocolate that I brought along for her, not knowing they were handing some out.

 

All the kids had a blast running around UNDER the tree.  They all kept saying it looked like a spider web of lights underneath.  At one point Little Lady went and plopped down at the trunk of the tree and just sat there, watching everyone.  Just sitting under a tree.

 

Big tree!

 

So that was the tree lighting.  People were also able to go for tours of the Capitol, but I wasn't sure if there was a ramp access somewhere for strollers, and it appeared people were just leaving their strollers at the bottom of the steps and walking up, but I wasn't up to that with the two of them by myself, so maybe another time.  Another interesting thing I noticed was a sign as we were walking back to the car indicating where the Capitol grounds were and stating that it was an alcohol free zone and no open containers were aloud.  So, does that mean open containers are allowed everywhere else?  Learn something new every day.....

 

The next Christmas event we've done is Claus 'n Paws at Zoo Boise.  It is the one day of the year that there is free admission.  I took the kids while Chris, again, got some studying/school work done.  Santa was there, but he was in a building and it was $5 to go in and have a picture taken, so I lifted Little Lady up to see him through the window and we went on our way.  Santa brought presents for all the animals, so each animal had a wrapped box with treats inside that they we then able to open.  A couple animals were given the boxes already open but most of them got to have the fun of opening them up on their own.  It was kind of cute and kept the animals active - I almost wondered if their treats had a stimulant affect because the animals were more active than I've typically seen at a zoo.

 

 

We saw giraffes.

 

We saw lions.

 

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawr"

 

You my have heard about the monkey that was killed in what sounds like an incident of drunken stupidity.  People have been leaving flowers in memory.

 

 

Here is the remaining patas monkey.  Zoo Boise just announced this week that they are getting two new patas monkeys to keep this guy company.

 

We were also treated to carolers!  I also thought it would be a treat to get lunch at the zoo, so I got a corn dog and popcorn to split.  I regreted it pretty quickly.  I had almost instant guilt about what I was feeding my child, the consistancy and color of the meat grossed me out, but I'm admitedly not a hot dog person.  She seemed pleased with it.  Maybe I'm just getting older or maybe we are eating well on such a regular basis that I was just really kicking myself for spending money on it.  I munched on some popcorn and eventually got one that tasted "moldy" - although I'm also sensitive to that stuff.  Should have just packed a lunch for us.

 

 

We saw a wallaby.

 

I don't remember what these are.

 

 

ZEBRA!

 

 

BEAR!

 

A cute red panda that seemed very bothered by all the visitors. :-(  Some of the animals looked either really bored or anxious.  I'm torn with the whole zoo thing - I like that we can see these animals and learn about them, but I also recognize that it is not their natural habitat and they are stuck in a cage, day after day.

 

There was also a "farm" section where kids could feed animals.  I didn't have any quarters, so we passed on that too.  The goats were glutons.  They would come do a quick lookover of new people coming to the fence, if you didn't have food they quikly shunned you and moved on.  You can't see how much their stomachs were sticking out, but they had HUGE bulges on the sides, which I can just imagine is from their massive consumption.  It seriously looked like their stomachs were going to burst open. 

 

We saw lots of animals, Little Lady got in lots of walking and Papa got in lots of school work.  There were tons of people at the zoo and I think it is great they did the free admission.  It gave an opportunity for people that otherwise couldn't afford it to have that experience.  The weather was rather warm (around 60) so, aside from a brief period of rain, it was a really pleasant day to be outside for a while.

 

 

This past weekend we also checked out a cool light display in Meridian. The Cadger light show.

Awesomeness.

 

 

It was packed but still awesome.  Although, Little Man wasn't happy about sitting still for it.

 

 Here is another video from someone with a closer view.  I don't know how to make it smaller, so sorry it is huge.

 

 

A couple more videos to leave you with today, enjoy!