Christmas #1 with the kids...

We're leaving for family visits after our little Christmas at home. So here is the first Christmas.
New princess dress! Big girl bed...and this bed is huge! She should be harnessed to safely climb up the side! Magnetic 'paper' dolls.
We gave both of them their very own chapsticks. Very exciting...and perhaps not very smart. We'll see how long hers lasts. It is sort of fun to think about where it'll end up. Will she eat it? Rub it into the carpet? So many options. But...I didn't want to give him one and not her... so its my own fault.

Spidey t-shirt!

Zip line spidey.

Dad and Caden figure out the directions to the spiderman guy.

Merry Christmas to all!

I learned it from you, ok?

We're in Ohio at my parents house for Christmas. Caden has gotten into a contradictory phase. If someone says "that is a nice shirt", Caden will say "that is not a nice shirt". This is both annoying and disrespectful. This comes and goes, and I've spoken to him about it before. A couple days ago, he was in full swing, and Shann pulled him aside and told him to knock it off. Shann reiterated the disrespectfulness of it, etc. Caden started wailing. He said to Shann "I'm just trying to be like you!" Shann asked him to explain. "You're always saying funny things," he said, "and I want to be funny too!"
I guess humor is a difficult art.

tree topper

Happy Birthday Daddy

Last Tuesday was Shann's birthday. The kids were SO excited...you might have thought it was one of their birthdays. They helped pick out gifts, make dessert, wrap gifts, and then hide them. By the time Shann should have been arriving, they were very nearly beside themselves. I had Caden call Shann to determine his arrival time. When Shann answered, Caden burst out with " We made you a giant cookie!"
I had repeatedly told the kids our evening schedule. "When Daddy gets home, we'll eat, then he'll find his presents, then we'll do dessert. But the moment he came in the door, Alyssa ran and got a gift out of hiding, and shoved it in his face, both of them jumping up and down, screaming Happy Birthday!
After she rehid the gift, we barely made it through dinner before the kids were ready to play the hot and cold game to get him to find his gifts. However, their version is more like "getting warmer..OK LOOK IN THE BACK OF THE DRAWER!" As Shann opened his first gift, Caden could not contain himself. "ITS CHAPSTICK!", he screamed.

I thought this night worthy of being recorded, as in the coming years, I'm sure this enthusiasm won't always be quite so intense.
"Today is your birthday, lucky you. Tra la la la la la lu."

The Glad Game

In a voice as if she were eternally grateful, Alyssa said to me "I don't have peanut butter in my ears, Mom!"

Santa figured out

I cracked. I told them that Santa is fun to pretend about, but isn't real. They took it well. But in the car on the way to small group last night, we were listening to "Merry Christmas Santa" by the Beach Boys, and both of them were singing along (Alyssa in a key of her choice) like this: "Merry Christmas Santa, but we know that you're not real...". Then Caden continued "And we know you're not real because every day we check our stockings, and there is still nothing in them."

So I guess its solved...until next year, when once again they forget he is pretend, and we go through this again.

Cozy?

I came upon Alyssa putting little princesses to sleep in some unusual beds.

Pat-a-cake with Grandma

We bonked heads, she and I

3rd cousins

Alex and Caden amusing themselves with bodysurfing down the stairs while we were in Illinois. I was not aware of this activity at the time!

Santa?

I've never been a proponent of Santa. I'm always afraid that it'll take away from the meaning of Christmas. So last year and the year before, I've told the kids that Santa isn't real. We'd still read some Christmas stories that included him, etc. This year Caden seems to have discarded the little fact that Santa is imaginary. We saw Santa (quite by accident) at Walmart, and so the kids sat on his lap, and got a candy cane.
So since then, Caden has been talking about him, and asking questions. Somehow Caden heard that Santa knows if he is 'bad or good'. So in the car the other night, he asked if Santa can see him.
Eeek! I draw the line at this. I'm not into assigning supernatural qualities to him! I told him that only God can see us, and knows what we're thinking, etc. Next he said, "So does God see us, and then tell Santa?" At this question, Shann and I looked at each other, stumped.
I don't want to be a kill joy, but I REALLY don't want to drown the birth of Christ in other meaningless fluff.
Thoughts?