Christmas Eve

Christmas went a little differently this year, as Joe did not make it to Ohio and my parents decided to come back from Ohio when we did, so that they could see all of us for Christmas.  We had a very full house for Christmas Eve and Christmas!  Everyone had a very nice time and as Al put it, there was great fellowship.  It was a fun year with the kids, so it was especially nice that we got to see everyone for Christmas.  On Christmas Eve we went to church at the boys' preschool.  We had two shepherds this year, and Timmy even went up on the stage with the big shepherds when they called everyone up.

After church we went downtown to see the National Christmas tree.  Unfortunately the wind made it unbearably cold, so we only stayed for a few minutes!

Mom, Dad, and Joe stopped for dinner on the way home, and we stopped to visit with Tim and Susan for a while before heading home and getting into PJ's to take pictures in-front of the tree and make cookies for Santa!

Right after the last photo-op I told the boys it was time to go up and get their snuggle puppies and then they could sleep in our room.  Something very special happened when they got to their room; they peeked out the window to see what they could see... and Santa walked across the front yard just as they looked!  The video below really doesn't show much, but you can hear the excitement and the frenzy that the boys were in at the sight of Santa!  I'm so glad to have heard it, because at the time I was nervous about what they would think, and everyone caught Timmy's reaction... but I had no memory of what Tyler's reaction was, and hearing him on this, he was clearly as excited as Timmy and was the first person to say, "Santa Clause!"

Baba went downstairs with the boys to read them a book, when I told Timmy her plan he shouted, "We don't have time for a book!!! Santa's coming right now!!!" But he did calm down and allow her to read to them.  :)  The next morning while stalling them from going upstairs, I asked Timmy if anything special had happened the night before.  With a big smile he said, "I saw Santa!... But I thought that he flies from roof to roof..." I stopped him short and said,  "Maybe they dropped something when they were landing!" and went ahead and ushered them upstairs!