Merry Christmas!

You never quite know what to expect your first Christmas in a new congregation. It's been wonderful! We got to be part of one man's 17 year tradition of coming around as Santa Claus to visit some kids. He came over last weekend and Casey just about died. He told us what time he was coming so we knew it was him when the doorbell rang. Casey went to the door with me to answer it and stepped back in awe when he saw Santa. Tony (Santa) came in and said "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas Casey" and Casey looked like he was going to faint - eyes wide, jaw dropped. Sam started crying as soon as he saw him :) Then Santa reached into his bag and pulled out a new Thomas train, Diesel, one for each of the boys. "so cool" Casey whispered in excitement. Of course I couldn't find the camera while he was here - boo.
We had 2 services last night and, again not knowing what to expect, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't have time to take the boys home to eat in between, but by the time we said all our hellos and Merry Christmas' to everyone, I would have brought them home for all of 15 minutes. They just needed something to tide them over but still it felt quite rushed. So, perhaps a drive thru at McDonalds will be part of our Christmas tradition here - time will tell.

Sam with Lauren, our friend and awesome babysitter!

After church we went to eat at a little diner near our house that is open 24 hours and the boys enjoyed pancakes and being up way too late. We came home, put out some snacks for Santa and some reindeer food on the lawn, then got the boys to bed about 11:30 pm. They were actually quite well behaved considering. Sam took an over 3 hour nap earlier in the day which might have helped. That and the pancakes.
So after they were asleep we did Santa duty - putting out the presents and eating the snack. Then we went to bed with a quick prayer that the boys would sleep in a little. Well, Merry Christmas! We heard Sam talking to his baby doll at about 9:55 am and by 10 he was looking for a more responsive audience. Casey started to stir and we went and asked if he wanted to check and see if Santa had come. I raced ahead of him to try and capture the moment - not the best picture I ever got but it does show his excitement.

Both of them were pretty thrilled and got to work. We laughed a lot listening to them investigate the new toys. Each thing that Sam opened, Casey would say "Sam's gonna share that with me!" And when Casey opened something and we said "You can share that with Sam", he would say "Sam wants to play with something else" At one point, he was playing with something of Sam's and we suggested he give Sam a turn and he said "Sam wants to talk to Daddy for awhile or maybe he will just walk around for a few minutes". Of course Sam was sort of wandering around from thing to thing and isn't too into the "what belongs to who" part, but that day is coming.



We had some french toast for brunch and then put the kids in the tub due to the syrup in the hair. After they were all cleaned up we got to work moving all the new toys into the basement. Probably should have gotten rid a few toys first. A friend told us that her kids have to pick a few of their toys to leave under the tree for Santa to take to other kids - might try that next year.
It's been a quiet day - Jeff took Casey to a movie while Sam was napping, as he did last year, which is a nice tradition. Eventually, we will all go. It's pouring rain which is gross, but we are actually grateful it isn't snow because there would be a lot of it by now. We have family coming in tomorrow for a few days - Casey will be thrilled that there are more presents to open!

Second annual family monkey pile. Not only could we not convince Sam to climb up, he was pretty opposed the whole thing. We'll try again next year.
Hope you have had a wonderful Christmas!!