Christmas!!!!!

Christmas is always fun, and always special; I have loved Christmas at every stage of life.  But being parents brings Christmas to a whole new level because Christmas is so much fun with kids!  Nathan is big enough now to really get excited about Christmas and this year he knew exactly what he wanted Santa to bring him.  The last 3 years Curtis and I have let "Santa" know what Nathan would enjoy, but this year Nathan could speak for himself.  Starting way back in October when the first signs of Christmas were showing in the stores, he has been saying that he wanted a blue bike with two wheels for Christmas.  He never changed his mind and the color never varied.  Everytime someone asked him what he wanted for Christmas he would reply "a blue bike, with two wheels."  And so Santa's elves did their research and found him a blue bike with two wheels.  A really cool thing that Nathan enjoyed this year was his email video message from Santa.  My sister-in-law introduced me to this site and it is amazing.  Nathan LOVED his video message and watched it every night for his bedtime story.  Nathan was totally amazed that Santa knew so much about him and especially that he wanted a blue bike for Christmas.

 Christmas Eve after "Santa" came to visit.

 Two tired Elves ready for bed.

  

 

Christmas morning started at 7 am, the boys usual wake up time.  Nathan was slightly dissapointed at first about the training wheels until Curtis explained to him that they are temporary and that we will take them off when he is ready to learn how to ride the bike with only 2 wheels.  After that Nathan was totally syched and rode his bike all around the living room.  And yes I believe Curtis is asleep standing up.  Bracken didn't need us to introduce him to his wagon, he somehow knew it was for him and walked straight to it and started to climb inside.  A funny fact, Santa's Elves didn't realize that the wagon required so much assembly.  Curtis had the bike ready several days before, but we waited till Christmas Eve to take the wagon out of the box and come to find out that the rear wheel axel rod was missing.  There was nothing we could do at that point so we just put the back wheels insice the wagon and hoped for the best.  Luckily Nathan didn't question the fact that Santa had left a deffective wagon for Bracken.  And on Monday Target was really great about giving us the rod from another box when we told them our little problem.  

 

 It didn't take long for Bracken to find the half eaten remnants of Santa's cookies; Curtis thought it would be fun for Nate to see one of the cookies with bite marks in it.  He zeroed in on the plate and in his attempt to claim the cookie for himself spilled the cookie and sprinkles on our keyboard.  Next year Santa is going to be more careful about where he leaves his plate of cookies when he is through eating them. 

  

 

 Over all it was a successful Christmas morning.  It was paced just right, I like it to linger and not pass too quickly.  The kids would open a gift and then stop to play and explore it.  That gave me the time to drink in the splendor.  Curtis made out with a GPS device and movie projector, and I got my sun oven (SQUEAL) and some new piano music.  Curtis has purchased new music for me every year and I love seeing what he picks out.  

  

 

After the kids had a nap, we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman's house to open more presents, eat more yummy food and spend time with family. Couldn't ask for more.