Since we were out of town for Thanksgiving, we just pulled out our Christmas decorations this past weekend. Saturday morning we put up the tree, then Saturday afternoon, we played in the leaves. Sunday was busy with church stuff and some work we had to do inside, so today I wanted to get outside to hang Christmas lights. Andrea has been mesmerized by even the dinkiest light displays in other people’s yards, so I wanted to put a decent amount up in our own yard this year. Plus, we’re actually going to be home for Christmas to enjoy our lights and decorations for a while this year. (Not to mention the fact that I wanted to actually use some of the new LED lights I got on super-clearance when our local BJ’s Wholesale Club went out of business earlier this year!)
Anyway, I went out about 2:30 after picking Andrea up from school and running some errands. Andrea came outside to “help me” and play while I hung lights. We both lasted about 20 minutes before realizing the long-sleeved shirts we had on were way too warm. It was over 70 degrees outside! I changed into a T-shirt, and Andrea had been wearing a sleeveless dress over a long-sleeved shirt, so I took her shirt off and put the dress back on without it. MUCH better. Andrea has been begging to wear short-sleeves ever since I switched over her wardrobe for fall, so she was thrilled. I couldn’t believe it was warm enough to be hanging Christmas lights in short-sleeves!
A little while later, a neighbor girl saw us and came over to visit and play with Andrea. They played sidewalk chalk, bubbles, tried a couple of games of hopscotch and hide-and-seek (Andrea was outmatched by the 8-year-old neighbor girl), and threw the ball around for a bit. I was so impressed that Andrea was so good about staying in our yard – even when her friend darted across street or when one of her balls rolled into the road, Andrea ran to the edge of the driveway and then stopped in her tracks. She’s not great in parking lots still, but at least she knows not to run into our street! I must be doing something right. 😉 At some point, the other girl heard the ice cream truck off in the distance and ran inside for some money. I didn’t really want to buy Andrea anything from the ice cream truck, but I knew she’d want something if her friend got something, so I grabbed my wallet and took her across the street to buy an ice cream sandwich (her favorite treat ever since her Granddad introduced them to her at the lake this summer). Andrea had never seen an ice cream truck before (other than on Dora), so she was pretty excited about the adventure, as well as the ice cream sandwich.
The girls sat down together on one of our front steps, and were so cute eating their frozen treats outside – in DECEMBER – that I ran inside to grab my camera of course. They hid and yelled “Boo!” when I came back outside (the neighbor girl’s idea I presume?), but they happily sat back down on the step to continue eating their ice cream while I snapped a few pictures. Andrea was in dreamland about playing out with an older girl and eating an ice cream sandwich, so she wouldn’t acknowledge my requests for her to look at the camera, but I liked this one of her making a coy little smile while taking a bite of her ice cream…
Oh, and I’ll post pictures of the lights later. I need to buy a couple more extension cords to get all the new light sets plugged in. 🙂
