Christmas 2013

This year the boys REALLY got into Christmas. As soon as the decorations were up in the stores they wanted our house decorated. Once our house was decorated I was told we needed more lights! we didn't have enough!! And then the tree HAD to be put up. We made various visits with Santa, not really on purpose but he just happened to be places that we kept going. Despite seeing 3 or 4 different Santas we never got a picture with him because Amelia wanted nothing to do with it. We made reindeer food (oatmeal with glitter) and sprinkled it on the the lawn for Santas reindeer, and we left cookies out for Santa. Normally, we put the kids to bed and Amelia falls right to sleep, but the boys usually get up once or twice before falling to sleep to ask for water or tell us they see a scary shadow, but not on Christmas Eve!! All we said was "you have to go to sleep or Santa can't come" and that was all she wrote. Not a peep until morning. Amelia was the first one up and she immediately started playing with the toys; we told her to wake up the boys and tell them Santa came but she was way too busy playing with the train table and train set that Santa brought. When we woke up the boys by saying, "wake up, Santa came!!" Grayson's first response was, "is he still here??" They came into the front room where the tree is, ran to the tree and immediately started ripping into presents. They didn't care whose was whose or really even what was in them, they just needed to rip them all open. It. Was really fun to see christmas through their eyes...not just gifts but going to see christmas lights in all the different neighborhoods, teaching them christmas songs (their favorite was Santa Claus is coming to town, Amelia even sang her own version "Santa numming to town, yayyyy!!) and also reminding them of the story of Jesus' birth. I know next year will be even better!! We went down to fort Myers to visit with both of our families and the present opening continued. We had dinner at Grandpa Tim's restaurant and the boys seemed enthralled at the unlimited sprite!! Uncle Brad gave them fishing poles and they are learning to cast them; their biggest catch so far is Rosie, our 9 pound shih tzu and newest family member. Nana gave them balance bikes that they are still trying to get the hang of, they are basically standard bikes with no pedals. The theory is that the kids learn to balance at an early age and then once they are on a big bike they just have to pedal (which the boys already know how to do from their tricycle). We are busy trying to find new homes for their toys in the house and I'm sure it will take us a few weeks to get the house undecorated and reorganized, but I really enjoyed the holiday season with my little ones.