A Very Merry Christmas - Indeed!

Once again, we had a wonderful Christmas at our house. Having two children who are of the age that Christmas is truly a magical time of the year, just makes it that much more special. The anticipation, the excitement, the thrill.....it brings it all back home for me.

Wednesday night, while the sky was filled with mist and rain here in St. Louis, Tim, the boys and I loaded into my car and headed to Santa's Magical Kingdom to see the BAZILLION Christmas Lights that hang from the trees and everywhere. To hear Mason whisper "AWWWWESOME!" to himself as he saw what lay in front of the car was something that I will not soon forget.

Thursday morning, Tim and I awoke to thundering feet and the screeches of "We got another note from Santa!" as the boys ran into our room. You see, along with our special Scout Elf, Oliver, this year, I have been using candy cane bordered note cards that I found on the shelf in our home office as stationery from Santa. At least once a week since Oliver's arrival, he has returned in the morning with a special note to Jack & Mason from Santa. This one said: "Jack & Mason, The reindeer are hitched and my sleigh is loaded up. I'll be by tonight after you are asleep. Thanks for taking such good care of Oliver for Mrs Claus and I. ~Santa"

The rest of the day was spent gearing up for Christmas. We made our special cookies for Santa, tracked the big guys travels through NORAD and then headed out to spend the evening with Hank, Tricia & Sophie for a little family time. The children played and we sang Christmas songs with them that gave us all flash backs of Christmas 2008 when Sophie sat nodding her head as we sang "Jingle Bells" like she understood everything we were singing when in fact she coudn't understand a single word. My how things have changed in such a short 12 month period of time!






The evening was wrapped up by leaving out our cookies and milk for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer and then Daddy reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the boys like he has every year since Jack was born. After realizing that Santa was not too far from our house, the boys jumped into bed and were quickly asleep allowing Tim and I to go to work and help Santa deliver his goodies!

We also bid a fond farwell to Oliver as we boxed him up and returned him to the confines of the basement for another year. {Oh how I wish I could some how keep him up all year long!}




Christmas morning, along with having the extra special touch of a Christmas snowfall, was a flurry of wrapping paper and presents flying as the boys very excitedly raced through their presents. Nintendo DS Games, a basketball, TAG reader, Legos, ornaments and LOTS of games were just some of the many presnts that Santa brought to the boys. Me? I got to enjoy watching my children marvel at their loot and know that they were one of the many who were on Santa's "Nice List" this year. Yes, by the end of the day I was ready for a xanax and to climb into my bed and call it a day, but it's that what being a parent is all about? I wouldn't want it any other way.






The rest of the weekend was spent in what I like to call "recovery mode". Cleaning up, rearranging toys and finding new homes for the games and what not that are now part of our lives and just trying to relax a bit and enjoy some down time.

Saturday night we had a great get together with some of my friends from High School and their families. The Carl's (Northern Chaos) were in town from Alaska for the holidays and along with The Miller's and another dear friend, we spent the evening catching up and laughing while our 6 children very contentedly played Wii in the basement for what seemed to be HOURS AND HOURS! Thanks Bets, for allowing us to invade your home and thanks Kerry for squeezing us in, and Linda, thanks for making it! I can't remember the last time we were able to sit and chat like that!. It is always fun to see everyone and catch up. It's so nice to have such wonderful friends in our life that we enjoy spending time with.



FOUR Days at home! We were home for FOUR DAYS - and somehow it just flew by! The holiday is over but the decorations still are up. Those will come down this weekend as we say good bye to 2009 and welcome in a new decade. One that I have a feeling shows great promise for us......................