Christmas Morning

We all got up early on Christmas morning to see what Santa delivered. Nate and Sean were supposed to stay upstairs until 8:00 and they almost made it. When they couldn't stand it any longer, mom let them run down into the playroom where Santa had left his gifts.


Nate says he knows Santa is real because the cookies and eggnog set out the night before were all gone the next morning. Plus, how else would Santa know exactly what Nate wanted?


Sean needed mom's help with the first present but he quickly caught on. He was ripping open packages in no time!


Sean's big fixation this year is airplanes. Luckily he got the Plan City airport complete with turboprop and a little guy to fly it. Sean flew him all around the house that morning.


In the afternoon we went out to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Pat. They had the usual Christmas Tree that reached nearly all the way up to the 2-story ceiling. Everyone had a great time.

Christmas is for... Dinosaurs?

We had to get out of the house for awhile after so much "togetherness" during the holidays. What could possibly be better than a trip to the local dinosaur park? It's a good thing these creatures aren't around today or the whole family could have been swallowed up in one gulp.


OK, so it's not entirely the land of dinosaurs. They also had an ice-age mammoth, and more inexplicably, a giant octopus and a King Kong. The kids didn't seem to care so much about the historical accuracy, though.



Nate particularly enjoyed this epic battle between a menacing meat-eater and a sauropod frozen in time. At first he was a little nervous about entering the park but soon warmed up as he learned that nothing was going to jump out at him.




This seaborne creature looked a lot like what the Loch Ness monster should look like, assuming it had washed ashore to an inland field in the middle of winter.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We went to the children's annual Christmas breakfast over at our church on Saturday. These are a few of the video highlights.

We waited patiently to see Santa, and before long we found ourselves at the front of the line. Nate was excited but Sean got a little nervous. He seemed to calm down when we told him Santa would give him a candy cane.

Nate hopped right on Santa's lap. He knows it's not the real Santa, though. He said this was just one of Santa's helpers wearing a fake beard because Santa is too busy to be everywhere.

Candy Cane or not, Sean wanted nothing to do with it but can you blame him? For the second year in a row we didn't get a good Santa photo but I bet he'll be ready next time!

On Sunday Nate was in the Christmas pageant. Here he is in his angel outfit, backstage before the big event.

Let it Snow!

We got s little snow a few days ago. Nate's an old pro, but this is the first year that Sean was really big enough to enjoy it. They both loved being pulled around the yard in a sled. There wasn't a whole lot of snow on the ground the first day but more fell overnight.


Sean decided that he would try his hand at making a snowball. There wasn't enough to make Frosty but there was certainly enough to throw at his brother!

Grab Bag

The two photos have absolutely no relation to each other, but that's what we have this week so we thought we'd share them anyway.

A couple of years ago, Nate absolutely had to have a light-up reindeer that moved its head back and forth. The whole neighborhood knows our house now: "Oh, you live in the house with the reindeer in the porch." This is the view that greets cars and pedestrians that pass by during the holiday season.

Nate agrees that Sean does a great imitation of Michael Jackson. He doesn't know who Michael Jackson is, but Sean still looks like him.