Santa himself

This is the best picture I could get of the boys with Santa. Zach loved the idea of seeing Santa until he actually saw him and then it was, "I don't want to see Santa." It's a good thing my mom was there, or he wouldn't have gone near the jolly man. What really got him, though, was the elf next to him handing out goodie bags. Once he saw those, his face lit up again and he was ready to sit on Santa's lap (even if it was only to get the candy). But, as you can see he still wasn't thrilled about Santa. And Cade, well, he obviously loved him!

But, afterwards, on the way home, Zach was asking questions like:
"Where was Santa's sleigh?"
"Can I ride on Santa's sleigh"
"Were his reindeer with his sleigh?"
"How will Santa get home to the North Pole?"
"Can we go to the North Pole tomorrow?"
"Is the North Pole up in the sky?"
So, he was catching on to the magic of Christmas. Maybe next year he won't even be nervous. And maybe if he's not , Cade will learn a little more quickly that he's a good guy.
What a fun time of year and a fun time in life for the little dudes!

Santa's little HELPERS

I love Christmas

Who doesn't? But so far, I'm having tons of fun! Mostly, I think Zach is just tortured about how long it is until Christmas is here. But he does have fun, too. He helped me tie this fleece blanket for Cade and was so excited to wrap it when it was done.

Don't you love the tag? That's my favorite part.

And he asked for days when we were going to get a Christmas tree (we buy real trees). And then it was here for a couple of days before we could decorate it (I didn't have any ornament hooks because I threw out our old glass ornaments and bought new ones last year). He was tortured for those 2 days! But when we finally decorated the tree, he loved it.

Cade went to the same spot on the tree over and over and just tossed them into the tree (it was an area of sparseness). So, below is the result of Cade's efforts. I didn't count them, but there are at least twice as many as you can see here, probably more. I was surprised when I went to spread them out how many were there. They just kept coming and coming.

And this was Zach's arrangement. He would stand on a chair and decorate for a while and only moved the chair once or twice. So, we ended up with big clumps of ornaments. I liked it and wished we had about 3 times as many ornaments so it could have looked like this all over. I had to spread them out, though.

Now, Cade knows he's not allowed to play with the ornaments, but it's hard to stay away from the pretty balls on the tree. He mostly bats them like a cat and then runs away. It's really pretty good for a 16 month old.

Merry Christmas! I hope this time of year is magical and fun and full of love for everyone!