Dad's birthday

We went out to eat for John's birthday. His choice was Pappa's Seafood. No one was upset with his first pick.

Christmas blur

Christmas morning...at last. This year has been the best thus far with Zachary. He has understood every aspect, even misbehaving means Santa might not come.

He stayed in his room until 8am, which none of us expected because we were all up by 7:15 am. The next thing I hear from around the corner, is "It's Christmas morning!" STOP...I need to get the camera ready. OK, go.

He saw the items Santa left for him. These were not wrapped, so big thrill apparently. After a bit of encouraging, he did open one box. But back to the wrapped items. "No, no, no, let's do the stocking first." In my attempt to create and control the "perfect" Christmas morning, things were not going as expected.

DUMP...out came all the stocking gifts. Nothing too great here apparently because again, all was unwrapped. Now on to other wrapped presents. He did at least grab the ones with his name. I made one last effort to coordinate opening gifts with Zachary and everyone else. No luck. He was going through presents like a monkey eating an unlimited supply of bananas. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be much excitement as my mom and I tried to get a comment or two from him. On to the next gift, and the next, and the next, until all of his were gone, and then the ones with no names. "Whose is this? Can I open this?" The words flew out of his mouth like a machine gun. Then he tried to open other people's presents.

I sat in amazement and wonder. What just happened? In less than about 30 minutes all of his Christmas presents were open. (Sigh). Open your presents now. All is well. No, I don't get to open mine, I must prep all of his and then play with him, all the while half opening my stocking and shoving pancakes and fruit salad in my mouth. Now I felt like the monkey inhaling bananas.

This year, my joy on Christmas day came when I finally sat down after dinner to watch a movie and reflect on the day. I thought about a little boys excitement leading up to the big day, and how I had been busy being a hostess. When I realized, our phone did not ring once nor had we called anyone. It was just family, in the quiet of our home. I thought, that is how it must have been for Mary and Joseph. After the birth, when all had calmed, an opportunity came to reflect on that great day. I'm still reflecting and decided I will continue to say Merry Christmas until after the first of the year.

Merry Christmas, as you reflect on our Savior's birth.

Precious words

I've missed it this year. The church in front of our neighborhood has a beautiful sign they post every year. Last year, when Zachary saw the 'REJOICE' sign, we would loudly exclaim... 'Rejoice, the Lord is King'. It really helped me keep my eyes focused on the on the meaning of Christmas. It was a big let down last year when they took it down (actually a full meltdown insued). He was excited to see it again this year, but I haven't heard the words that rang out each day as we drove past. So for now, I have the memory of that gentle sound ringing from the back of the car. I'm glad to have the sign as a reminder.

Rejoice...we will celebrate the birth of our King in a few short days.

We got snow

In 2004, we got snow on Christmas Eve. Santa had already dropped his presents off at our house, so I struggled with whether or not to get Zachary up. Well, I didn't, and have felt bad ever since. But Wednesday night, we got our second chance.

This is our backyard

It started snowing and snowed even harder when we stood outside. I ran inside and got him up and dressed, and out we went. He did everything a typical child would do...we made snowballs first, then he plopped down and made a snow angel. We attemted to make a small snowman and catch flakes on our tongue. I finally told him we had to go in. We were wet and cold, but we made memories.

Snow angels

Me and Mom

Thanks Mom for letting me play in the snow!

We are going to the North Pole

And so we did. Sunday night we took the Polar Express train out of Palestine and rode to the North Pole. Zachary's excitement made the six hour round trip worth it.

When we arrived the train was already out on the tracks. I guess they had to back it up to make the grand entrance with all the steam and smoke like in the movie, so when they tooted the horn to back it up, Zachary exclaimed, "all aboard. We have to get on" with a sense of urgency. Mom got a great photo of him practically flying through the air to get in line. He could hardly contain himself.

We had to wait another 25 minutes before we could board. When he heard the train coming, he practically climbed my mom to see it. We boarded the train, and immediately were served hot cocoa and Rice Crispy Treats by the "dancing" servers. They were dressed according to the movie. While enjoying our treats, we saw deer running outside of the train. That was a highlight!

Then we heard the Polar Express story being re-told as we followed along in our books. And just as the sun set, we saw it in the distance. The North Pole. Santa and his elves were coming out of his workshop as we slowly rode passed. Zachary wanted to get off the train, but I told him he didn't have a ticket to get back on. So we watched and waited. Then the train lurched, and we began to head back. That is when Santa came into our train car. He handed Zachary a bell and asked him if he could hear it. Zachary was thrilled.

We then sang Christmas carols, and danced in the isles with the cocoa servers. As we rode back the Conductor came through and punched our ticket. Zachary said, "I need my ticket." He knew he had better get his punched. A wonderful evening was had by all.

As we drove home, Zachary finally drifted off with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head. Now we are counting the days until the 25th.