Jack's Birthday

It's been a great Christmas at Stately Wasser Manor.



As my devoted readers know, Jack's birthday is on Christmas Eve, and this year he hit the big oh-four. He and I spent the morning at my mom's house baking and decorating cookies for Santa... and also secretly getting Jack out of the house so that Steve and my stepdad Doug could put Jack's new Big Boy Bed (as opposed to the Medium Boy Bed, or toddler bed, that he had been sleeping in). We made both gingerbread and sugar cookies, giving Steve and Doug ample assembly time. The sheets are the Empire Strikes Back sheets that Steve had as a kid, plus a set of Spider-Man ones for when those are in the laundry. Jack was suprised and thrilled with it...



and with the Millenium Falcon that we hid under it. The Falcon has been on his wish list for a while, but we weren't about to get him the new one we saw at Target. The thing is $250, and for that, it should come with Harrison Ford. Instead, we got him a vintage one, just like Steve and I played with in our own childhoods.


The rest of the day was spent playing with Jack's new toys. We decided not to go out for lunch or dinner this time, instead spending the day eating various snacks - meatballs, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip - stuff like that. It was actually a good idea on our part, since if you call food a snack, Jack is much more likely to eat it than if he thinks he's eating a meal.

Instead of a birthday cake (which creates a whole lot of leftovers when the house is already full of cookies and I'm about to make some dessert the next day for Christmas dinner), I made birthday cupcakes. They are snowmen, and they turned out really cute.



After cupcakes, Doug got out his guitar, and we (badly) sang Christmas carols. Jack, of course, did some dancing.



Then, it was time for our annual reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Steve and I barely had to read it, because Jack has the thing pretty well memorized. It was wild - we're not just talking "visions of sugarplums," but also "the moon on the breast of the newfallen snow."



It was an incredibly fun day - not just for Jack, but for all of us. Best of all, we had absolutely no problems getting him to settle down and go to sleep, even with the excitement of the new bed. Perhaps if I tell him every day that if he doesn't go to sleep, Santa won't come?