'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

As soon as I told her she should dress fancy for church tonight, she tore off her "plain" clothes and went straight to her dress up box to put on her "Irish Princess" crown (and of course we had to add a necklace and bracelet).

Making "Elf treats" for Santa's elves

Sprinking Reindeer food on the lawn.

It would probably look prettier on top of snow, but most of it melted.

Christmas Eve tradition

Milk and cookies for Santa (and snacks for the elves).

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?

A letter to my children

My dearest children,

My wish for you is that you will love each other this way always.

Even amidst fights over toys and the ever constant battle of sharing and taking turns during childhood,

after the teasing of adolescence,

arguments about who's the favorite or who gets treated unfairly, 
and the teenage battles over phones and cars and who spends too much time in the bathroom...

I hope you remember how you loved to cuddle with each other and make each other laugh. How you would hug first thing in the morning. How Brennan would follow his big sister around and try to copy everything she did because he wanted so much to be just like her. And how Kaelyn would take care of her baby brother and try to protect him around other bigger kids.

I hope you will love each other like this always.

Please don't ever forget to treat each other kindly, to celebrate the uniqueness of each other or to just give each other hug even if you are mad at the other for not sharing a toy, or the phone, or the bathroom.

In the words of Kaelyn, "I love you, I love you, I always love you!"

Love,
Your Mama

Muscle Man

Bren has been doing the cutest thing lately when you ask to see his muscles. The video doesn't quite do it justice, but you'll get the idea.

Big muscles!