Christmas happenings

It's been a busy but fun December around here.  This is the first year Jack has understood enough to be really excited about Christmas, and boy is he ever excited!  He's not sure when Santa is coming, or why he hasn't already come, and a few times he's woken up in the morning or after nap and asked if Santa came while he was sleeping!  He is sure he has to be good and we've talked a lot about giving things to other people, and those less fortunate.  Just today he chose a few toys to give to Goodwill since not everyone gets new toys, and certainly not as many new toys, at Christmas as he does. I want him to revel in being spoiled rotten, but I also want him to understand how fortunate we really are.

We didn't put out all of the decorations this year since the weekend we like to decorate happened to be the weekend after I went back to work and we were all feeling a little overwhelmed I think.  We did get the tree up though, and Jack and Max have both seemed to love it! 

Jack picked out this train as his favorite ornament...

I picked out this lion as Max's favorite since it's the first one that was sent just to him from his friends the Weavers...

And Kenny and I picked the same one as our favorite, my engagement ring box, which is always hung in the same spot on the tree where I first found it on December 21st 2005! 

 

We did get the stockings up too...and they look just as good as we thought they would when we were mulling over names for Max.  We knew using an M name would make a nice little run of the alphabet when we hung the stockings up each year! That's surely not why we chose Max, but we did think about it!

We've been to see the lights and train at the James Center...

 

and Jack went with Grams and Gramps on a train ride (a REAL train!) to see Santa a few weeks ago!  The rest of us didn't get to go since I wasn't feeling too good, and we're so sad we missed it, but they had a great time and hopefully we'll get to do it again another year.  Jack told Santa he wanted a T-Rex!  We'll see if Santa can fill that order!

Jack also had a little program at school where they dressed up like reindeer and sang some Christmas carols!  It was super cute and I was very proud of Jack for sitting so nicely and following Miss Elva's directions...

We also welcomed Buddy the Elf into our house this year.  He's part of the Elf on the Shelf gang and has been a lot of fun! We all get excited to see where Buddy has landed each morning!  This morning he was in the tree!

And speaking of elves, seems Jack has been doing a little moonlighting himself...here he is on his classroom door...

and doing a little dancing with Grams and Gramps and Max.

Last night we celebrated Christmas with Grandma since she's leaving in a few days for Florida! We always miss being with her on Christmas day but love having her all to ourselves for a night to kick off the festivities.  Jack was super excited about her coming over and about presents!  He patiently ate his dinner though and once he opened the first one, really just wanted to play with it and was done for a while.  It helped that the first one was a really cool dinosaur and jeep set, of course! :)! Max took it all in, but was mostly happy to snuggle with Grandma! 

This week Uncle Aaron and Granny arrive and we'll get to spend some time with Uncle Harold and Judy too!  We're excited about a short work week, lots of family time, and lots of excitement.  The week after that, we're super excited to see the Weavers and celebrate NYE with them!  Seeing Christmas through a child's eye really does make it all magical again!  Stay tuned for more pics...and enjoy this week!