Christmas Memories

When we checked in to our apartment hotel last Christmas Eve, the first thing Will said was, "Where's our Christmas tree?"  We hadn't really considered how much he would care about that, and luckily we were able to turn a dusty ficus plant into a mini tree, and having Grandma and Grandpa Webb there made it feel like Christmas, but we decided to stay home for the big day this year.  It was awesome.  Some friends invited us for dinner on Christmas day, so we decided to keep our dinner on Christmas Eve simple - Papa Murphy's pizza:)  We have kind of a tradition of take-out dinners on holidays here.  I'm not saying it's a good tradition, but it's what we have done more than a few times.  Anyhow, we finished our pizza, then put on Christmas jammies, and got out the cookies for Santa, and carrots for reindeer. 

We read our last couple of Christmas storybooks, and then headed up to bed.  Several conversations had been had with Will about how since we don't have a chimney in our apartment, Santa would need to land on the balcony to get in to our apartment, so that's where we left our carrots.  Out on the balcony we checked out the other buildings, and saw Rudolph's nose glowing in a couple of different places... The kids did pretty well getting to sleep, and after finishing my work, I went out to "eat some carrots".  On my way back through his room, I saw Will stir a bit, but thought I was safe and started getting ready for bed.  Then the fun began. 

"Mom!  The reindeer didn't eat any carrots yet!"  (I left one in the bowl)
"Really, let's go check."
So we looked out the window, and saw only 1 carrot left in the bowl, which led to a conversation about why the reindeer didn't eat them all.  After he pondered this for a moment, he said, "Let's go see if Santa left any presents!!"  I told him the rules were that you couldn't check for presents until the sun came up, and tucked him back in bed with his anticipation. 

Nate came up a few minutes later, and Will came back in to tell him about the reindeer.  Nate took him out on the balcony to look for reindeer, and after a minute, they started calling for me.  "MOM!  MOM - come and see!  Hurry!"  So I hustled out to the balcony, and sure enough, far across the sky, Santa's sleigh was flashing across the sky, with Rudolph's nose leading the way.  Unbelievers might have thought it was just an airplane, but we knew better.  Will was beside himself with excitement.  He was tucked in again, but didn't last long - he just couldn't get to sleep, so he came in and laid by Nate and they watched a video for awhile until they finally fell asleep.  Remembering that anticipation made being awake until way past 2 am totally worth it. 

 

Will saw the giant T-Rex first, and then a dinosaur book - it took a few minutes for him to even see the bike.  Finley got distracted by the animal crackers - she always wakes up starving, so she just wanted those open so she could start eating. 

Once everyone noticed the bike, they all wanted to ride it - Will did pretty well, and he is pleased that there are training wheels so he doesn't have to worry about falling over. 

While testing out the bike, he noticed a trail of train tracks leading back to the playroom, where he found some new accessories and track pieces - it took Santa a long time to get it all put together, and he was sad because he knew it wouldn't last long... sure enough, Will wanted to just start creating his own masterpieces.  He is pretty good at figure out how to create the hills and bridges, and it helps to have actual pieces that are meant for that so we don't have to create stuff anymore.  Finley also loves putting together the train track, so you can imagine that causes a bit of drama.  One afternoon there was a serious train car heist too - she had to have them all, which led to even more drama...

Snack break:)

 Aunt Heather sent each kid their own art book, complete with crayons, and it is seriously Finley's favorite thing!  She will just sprawl out on the floor and get busy scribbling.  Then she will get out Will's book and scribble on his pages too. 

 Will picked out a present for Finley - a little baby in a walker, and he was really excited to help her open it - it's one of her favorite toys, and it's cute how he remembers that he gave it to her.  She was getting the hang of the opening  too - we were kind of surprised at her abandon with the ripping since she is kind of OCD about things sometimes. 

 A friend's daughter won this unicorn stick horse last year at a Christmas party, but she is 14 and thought we might get more use out of it:) We decided Fin was finally big enough to use it - after a couple of tries, she thought it was fun.  After a few more presents, we got started with our dinner contributions, and showered, then it was time to go to our friend's house.  We took Will's bike so he could try it out for real, and he did awesome with it.  Finley was pretty envious... When we got back from dinner, it was time to get to bed and finish packing since we were leaving for Germany the next morning, so we ended up leaving a couple of presents for our return - the kids were too busy playing with their other stuff, so we figured it would be something to look forward to on our return.  So, to bed, and Happy Christmas to all!