Day 21 - Scrooge Theater

When Hunter opened the Advent door for the 21st this morning, the message said we were going to the Arboretum.  We originally were going to go the Sunday before last because they have live reindeer on the weekend, but it was 40 degrees that day, so once again we had to do some shuffling around. 

Hunter was really excited this morning when James read the message to him and kept asking when we were going to the Arboretum.  All day I was thinking how it worked out so perfectly because it was 80 degrees today...perfect Arboretum weather.

Then Hunter woke up from his nap.

He was in the worst mood of his life.  He was crying and throwing tantrums all over the place and kept telling me that he wanted a babysitter to come watch him because he didn't want to leave the house.  I debated in my head about how to handle the situation for a while.  I didn't want to just throw all of our plans out the window because Hunter said so.  I want him to remember he's the child, and we're the parents.  I want him to know his place...that he's not the ruler or center of our home...so that when he grows up he's not entitled.  But, I kept thinking that we really are doing these activities for him.  The point is to have some fun as a family.  We ultimately decided to force him to get dressed and get in the car because he was just in a grumpy mood, and we figured once we got there he'd have snapped out of it. 

It took us so long to get out the door because of H's tantrums, that it was past 3:30 by the time we left our house, so we decided to make a last minute change of plans and head to Northpark to see the Scrooge puppet show.  Northpark would be a much quicker trip than the Arboretum, and the reindeer weren't at the Arboretum today anyway, and they are so obviously the focal point of that activity.

Here's Hunter waiting for Srooge to come out of his house...

He was really excited and kept asking where the puppet was and where he was going to come out.

After Scrooge finally did come out, H seemed a little disturbed...

Scrooge isn't the friendliest guy around, ya know.  H started laughing pretty quickly after that photo, though.

Here's Scrooge...

At the end he told all of the kids to stand up because he had Christmas presents for them.  Once they were all standing, he started shooting water at them from a water gun.  Hunter loved it!

 He's holding his hands out for the water here.

After the show, we went over to Uptown Popcorn...I love that place...I  may have been there 3 times this week already...and yes, I know it's only Tuesday. 

Today we ordered Jalapeno Ranch and Cookies and Cream.  Char and James liked the sweet one better...

Hunter and I liked the savory...

I'm so glad his mood improved!  He ended up really enjoying our outing.

Tonight's verses were Matthew 2:9-10 "After they (the Magi) had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed."