Merry Christmas

CHRISTMAS 2009

I'm a little behind posting photos of our Christmas. There are several good reasons for that...

1) Christmas was so busy that we needed a few days to recoop
2) Dylan was busy squeezing in as much quality time with his cousin Payton or should we say bossing his older cousin around (swimming, lunch, trip to the Museum of Flight, etc.)
3) Dylan came down with a nasty cold a few days after XMAS (the first one this fall/winter which is amazing!)
4) We had to prep for our New Year's Day dinner for 12 people

This Christmas was a little extra special with it being Mia's first holiday. While it was Dylan's third, it was still very authentic for him which warms our hearts. Dylan was curious about Santa. While he didn't want to get too close for photos, he couldn't stop talking about him leading up to Christmas Eve. While we were shopping at U Village, he heard bells which stopped him in his tracks. He thought that Santa was near. As I tucked him into bed on Christmas Eve, he kept listening for Santa and the reindeer on the roof. I have a feeling that he stayed up as long as he could to hear St. Nick. Here's Dylan checking out the empty cookie plate and milk he left out for Santa. This year, gift opening didn't take several hours. Dylan's had practice the last few years at tearing open gifts and we've also gotten a bit more reasonable with the # of gifts. However, this year there were a lot of "ooo's", "I like it", "thank you", jumping, and screams of excitement for what was unveiled from the wrapping paper. So we've boxed up some old toys to make room for some new ones. For the exception of Legos, it seems like as the kids get older the toys get bigger - ugh. For example, Dylan got a Thomas train table set from Santa, Handy Manny tool bench from Auntie & Uncle...etc. We have maxed out every inch of storage space in our home - pretty soon we'll be storing things in the attic. As a result, Devin reconfigured the playroom to accommodate Dylan's new stuff - and it was harder than it sounds. Dylan also managed to acquire Zhu Zhu pets - the easiest pet to have (no pooping/clean up required, no vet expenses, etc) and one that keeps on giving.

Mia was happy with just about anything. We could have given her just wrapping paper and ribbon and she would have been happy. Most of the holiday she spent observing Dylan's craziness which is entertainment in itself - for all ages young and old.

There was a lot of preparation and anticipation for Christmas this year. While a little exhausting, it was such a blessing to share the wonderful holiday with our loved ones. We hope that yours was equally joyous.