Christmas: Part III (Christmas!)

We got back home from San Antonio the day before Christmas Eve and got everybody settled in and ready for Christmas. We had done most of our preparations before we left for our trip so there wasn't a whole lot to do once we got home except wrap a few things and lay out all of the kids' stuff from Santa.

Christmas Eve we were able to attend church as a family and we were excited about that. Just as we left to have lunch before church it started snowing outside. It took a long time to convince Clay that it was actually snow. He kept telling us it was just the wind. Little did we know that the whole ground would be white by the time we left church and there would be no doubt in anyone's mind what it was!

Because we had been traveling and wanted to keep everything low stress we planned on going out for Christmas Eve dinner and then taking the kids to see a live nativity in town. We did manage to make it to dinner but between Officer Daddy and the snow there would be no more driving around town after dinner (it was COLD, too!).

We got home, put Carolina to bed, made cookies for Santa and got our Santa list ready. Clay really did not get the whole concept of what Santa does this year prior to Christmas but I wrote his letter and he signed it.

We also did our last night with "the house". I have to admit that after 24 nights of doing the house, I was pretty sad to see it go, too. I had explained multiple times before that Santa was going to be taking the house with him but that he would leave a toy.

The chocolate that the house had for Christmas Eve was a big Santa and Clay was really into it. He would have eaten the whole thing (and taken an hour doing it) but we had to call it about 20 minutes in (and halfway through Santa). Finally, we left Santa cookies and milk and put Clay to bed.

I was SO excited to get all the kids' goodies out and get everything set up. Mike was thrilled when Clay's train table took about 20 minutes to assemble. Then there was the train itself....That took another hour +. I got all the stockings stuffed and we were in bed before midnight. Ironically, I think I'm the only one who couldn't sleep in our house from excitement!

Clay got up a good half hour before Carolina in the morning (totally normal) and so we had him come in our room and hang out with us until she got up. How many years could that actually happen?? He was totally clueless as to the all the fun in the living room.


Carolina got up and we all went to check out what Santa brought. Clay was SO sweet. He walked in and said, "Thank you, Santa!" so nicely. Both kids went straight for the train table and played for quite a while.

We spread out the opening of the gifts throughout the day to give the kids a chance to play with everything and relax. It was so nice to be able to do that without them asking for something else or expecting another present. They were totally content with what they had. Once again, how many years will that last? (I'm hoping many!)

Some of the fun things the kids got this year were*: blocks for Carolina, a train table for Clay, a tool set for Clay, a play cube for Carolina, a big Play-Doh bucket, a pop-up tunnel/tent set and lots of other fun goodies.



Because of all the snow that we had, Clay was able to do a little Christmas box sledding on the hill outside for a while. I think he could have done it all day!



Mid-afternoon, Mike went out to take out the trash and Clay was standing on one of Carolina's new blocks and fell forward on the corner of the train table. All I saw was blood. He had busted his lip at the top-right and bottom-left and left his teeth impression on the table. Luckily, we had saved a big present from Nana and Papa and it was the perfect time to bring it out!

That night, we made a birthday cake for Jesus. While the cake was baking, Carolina, Mike and I played in the living room. I noticed after a minute that Clay wasn't with us so I got up to check on him. I found him in the kitchen---with the chocolate cake bowl.

Well, Little Sister wasn't about to let him get by without sharing!

We had a nice birthday party and talked about Jesus and what Christmas was all about again (in two-year-old terms, of course). Since Thanksgiving, we had been doing different parts of the story of Jesus' birth each night and talking about it a little. On Christmas night, I was so happy to hear that Clay knew the story and could tell me about so many of the things that happened. It makes us happy that God's word is growing in his heart.

We were very blessed with a fun, super relaxed day. I loved getting to move at the kids' pace and enjoyed just getting to sit back and watch them have fun all day. We had ourselves a Very Merry Christmas!