Over the last couple weeks we have attended a nonstop series of holiday-related events. The day after Everett saw Santa in his duck costume we got to see him again at the annual Wauwatosa tree lighting, along with Scott & Lynette & family.

Santa arrived on a fire engine while Everett, George and Emma ran in circles around the adults who were enjoying a disjoint conversation punctuated by child collisions.

The boys sat on Santa’s lap (Emma declined),

and all three of them got candy canes from Mrs. Claus. Looks like baby Sam will have to wait until next year.

As an aside we should point out that Everett definitely has a sweet tooth. He probably gets this from Chris – Melissa prefers savory treats to desserts. This time of year he gets an abundance of cookies, candy and other treats which are quite plentiful from holiday events and the baking we do at home. It also helps that if he asks for treats and doesn’t get the answer he wants then he will shop around until he does. Around the holidays there is almost always someone nearby who will comply.

The next night we went to the Little Red Store in Tosa village to watch the Christmas Train come by:

Last Friday night our house was stop number two out of five on the Kavanaugh Crawl. This is really an ideal way to hold a party. Everyone arrives and leaves at almost exactly the same time, and they stay for 1 hour and fifteen minutes. Unless you sign up to be the last house there are no stragglers. Our house was advertised by Stroby the Snowman in our front yard.

Preparation was a bit exhausting (as Melissa puts it she was in “decorating and cleaning overdrive”) but the party was a lot of fun and cleanup was surprisingly easy. Our signature drink was gluhwein, and for snacks Melissa made shortbread cookies, rumaki and a cashew-bacon mixture. Amazingly, Everett fell asleep while everyone was at our house.

The following day we went for a ride on the Christmas Express train, which is run by the East Troy Electric Railroad. Everett was mesmerized once he realized that he was sitting close to Santa on the train, and he got to talk to Santa for a few minutes to confirm his choice of Christmas gifts.

Rudolph also stopped by (at least we think it was Rudolph):

That night there was a horse-drawn sleigh offering rides in our neighborhood, so we went on that as well but don’t have any good pictures because it was after dark and Chris didn’t want to startle the horses by using the camera flash. Everett continues to monitor who is on which of Santa’s lists: Mom is on the nice list, Dad is on the naughty list (we aren’t exactly sure why), and Everett’s self-assessment is “I’m not on Santa’s nice list. I’m on his super nice list!” Finally, to get into the winter spirit Everett has started sleeping in his igloo at night.