Christmas-y things

Even though I have a list of at least ten different things I want to write about here, I just realized that it's less than a week until Christmas and I haven't said a thing about the 856 Christmas activities we've done. And since it is the season I feel obligated to share at least a few of the things we've done relating to the holiday. Because we have been having fun getting ready for the big day.

Kaelyn talked to Santa for the first time ever. I'm not one to take my kids to the mall and pay $50 for a picture of my kids screaming and crying with a fake Santa.  And any time we've had the opportunity to see Santa for free in the past 4 years Kaelyn has not at all been interested. I don't blame her. In fact, I've always been a little glad that she doesn't happily go running into a strange man's lap.  However, when the opportunity came after her preschool Christmas program I thought we'd give it a shot. She was still a little nervous and hesitant.  At first she wouldn't get closer than a foot away and would only whisper.

But with a little encouragement she finally sat on his lap and told him what she wanted this year. A bike, by the way. And I've been coaching her on that for the past four months so she wouldn't expect anything more. (And Brennan is asking for tricycle since he always wants to ride Kaelyn's but Mama and Dada aren't so sure we want him riding only a pink trike for the next couple years. He does deserve to have a few things that aren't girly hand-me-downs.)

Brennan had no interest in seeing Santa so we didn't push it. But he does respond with a big "Ho! Ho! Ho!" every time he sees a picture of Santa, toy Santa or Santa on tv.

He does however, have a lot of interest in a certain little thing under the tree. And it's not any of the pretty packages waiting to be opened.

He could seriously watch the "choo-choo" for hours and still be happy. The expression on his face when Dada first set it up was priceless. Makes me glad I told Maya to pick up that train set for him at IKEA a couple months ago. It could very likely be his favorite thing about Christmas.

He's had a fascination with trains for awhile. We usually hang out around downtown Franklin when Kaelyn is in school and he loves when we are near the tracks at about 10:45 when the train comes by. Luckily we can see it from the community center track where we like to go walking on chilly days. We can even faintly hear the train from our house if it's quiet enough inside. He still gets excited every time he hears it even though he can't see it. He loves this "choo-choo" so much we have resorted to using it as a bribe to get him to do things. In fact, that's how I got him in his pajamas tonight.

Whatever are we going to do when Christmas is over and we have to pack the train up for next year?