'Tis the Season!

'Round these parts it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  I'm going to try to smoosh all of our Christmas preparations and festivities into one ginormously long post, so beware!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we started our Christmas preparations by dragging out our Christmas tree and putting up all of our decorations.  "Mr. Helpful" was so excited to put up the tree. 

Last year we put a big gate around the tree, but this year we have let him have free reign.  He's been really good about not touching the ornaments, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to put any presents under the tree yet.  They may all get put out Christmas Eve! 

Caden's favorite part of the tree is definitely the train.  We inherited the train from Gram and Gramps on Caden's first Christmas.  He's never really been interested in it...until now.  Now he is waaaaay into the train.  He loved helping Daddy put it together too.

Last night we went to the Golden Christmas Walk.  We met Nana and Grandpa Kim at Woody's for pizza beforehand. 

Then we bundled up and went outside (in the SUPER freezing cold air!) for the walk.

We had battery powered lights, so Caden got to have one too.  We velcroed it to his jacket and he was able to join in with everyone else.  He was totally mesmerized by the lights and millions of people.

We didn't quite make it to the lighting of the Christmas trees in town.  We waited about 30 min. and then got tired of watching the dancers, our feet were cold, and Caden said he was, "Ready go home."  By that time it was 7:30 and he was getting tired.  We decided we needed to get him to bed because we had a big morning in store for him! 

This morning we went and had breakfast with Santa!  The big guy was visiting the hospital where Nana works and she got us some tickets for an up close and personal visit.  Caden has been so excited!  We've been talking about what he wants for Christmas from Santa (drums!) and that Santa brings toys to boys and girls that are nice and good listeners.  This morning he drew a picture of drums for Santa and talked about seeing him all the way to the hospital.  We weren't sure how CP would react to Santa after our experience last year...

We were prepared for a similar experience, but hopeful that it would be much less traumatizing for all of us.  When we got to the hospital, the volunteers had decorated beautifully...

and the big guy was ready for visitors.  It was perfect for us because there weren't too many people yet, so we could work our way in slowly. 

 

JZ sat next to Santa and Caden sat on Daddy's lap - that was as close as he was getting!  But, he did give Santa his letter and, when prompted, said, "Drums. Nice boy."  We tried backing away and letting Caden and Santa have a picture by themselves, but Caden was having none of that.  I guess we needed a family picture with Santa this year!

I love this picture because CP and Santa are talking to each other - and JZ and I are just smiling away.  That's how we take pictures these days - we just keep smiling and hope he eventually looks at the camera!

After we were done taking pictures with Santa, CP was given a goodie bag.  He opened it up and said, "Where drums at?"  I guess he thought that since he had told Santa what he wanted and that he'd been a good boy that he should get them NOW.  Luckily, there was a lot of good stuff in his bag, so he got over it quickly.

There were also clowns making balloon animals.  Now, usually clowns are "sca-we," but these clowns passed the Caden test and he eagerly (ok, maybe eagerly isn't quite right.  He went.  With me.  And didn't cry.) visited the clowns, HUGGED ONE OF THEM, and got a reindeer balloon animal. 

The funniest part of the whole morning is when JZ put a temporary tattoo (or stamp, as Caden insisted it be called) on his hand

He was so worried about protecting his candy cane "stamp" that he refused to use his left hand. He ran around the hospital with one hand behind his back.  He even played piano one handed!

We decided that if we want him to sit still we just need to put a tattoo on each hand and on the top of each foot.  He'll never move!

What a fun and exciting Christmas this is going to be for us.  For the first time Caden is "getting it." He is counting down the days until Santa arrives and also thinks we should, "Have cake.  Baby Jesus birf-day." I'm not sure who's going to have more fun - Caden or the adults - but I know I'm just giddy with excitement!

We hope you're catching the holiday spirit.  If not, come on over, there's plenty to go 'round here!