Christmas Memories

All was fine on Christmas, from the first moments the kids ran down the stairs until they went to bed after a full day of playing, visiting Grandpa, and eating way too much sugar. Here are Nate and Sean in front of the Christmas tree right before they ripped into the presents. Look out the window and you'll see we had a white Christmas for once!

Grandpa still had a lot of snow on the ground when we visited in the afternoon. Nate really enjoyed the humongous icicles hanging from the eaves of Grandpa's house. Better enjoy them now -- later that evening it got warmer and started to rain. Now the snow is just a distant memory.


Nate played checkers with his uncle. "Somehow" Nate won every game even though he's only played checkers one other time in his entire life. He must be a genius at it or maybe something else was going on?

Santa was very kind to the kids this year and brought them a Wii. Sean is a pretty good player, especially with this sword fighting game. All he has to do is swing back-and-forth and his enemies fall down all over the screen.

Santa Comes Early

Nate and Sean were worried that Santa might not find them this year at Gramms and Pappa's house. Nate wrote a note to Santa asking if he could please come early instead (kind of like absentee voting, I guess). Apparently Santa snuck in while the kids were out one afternoon because when they returned and looked in the playroom, there were all sorts of presents magically placed beneath the tree.


It took all of about fifteen minutes for Nate and Sean to ransack each of the carefully wrapped presents. They got most of what they wanted -- not everything -- but enough to make them happy. Nate got a handheld computer game, and nobody saw him again for the rest of the weekend.

Visiting with Santa

We went over to our church to see Santa Clause on Saturday. Sean is an enthusiastic believer as you can see but we're not so sure about Nate. We think Nate's probably hedging his bets, knowing the real deal but choosing to keep quiet so the gifts keep coming. The day started with lots of crafts for the children, then Christmas carols and story time with Mrs. Clause, and finally with Santa himself. Sean could barely contain himself by the time the preliminaries were completed.

Mom and Dad staked out a good spot in line, and the kids got ready to see Santa. After a few minutes they reached the front of the line but still had to wait at the edge of the stage until the way was clear. It was tough duty but Nate and Sean knew there would be candy canes in their future if they could hold in there a bit longer.

Finally they got a chance to sit with Santa and tell him what they wanted. Let's hope that Santa listened!

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.

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.