A visit with Santa

The boys had their first visit of the year with Santa earlier this evening. 

Remington was scared of Santa last year, so I wasn't really sure what to expect this time around. He did great! Southern was so excited and jumped right on up onto Santa's lap. Remington just followed along. It probably helped that we talked about it ahead of time too.

 Southern wanted to write a letter to give to Santa when we saw him, so he spent a good amount of time one day last week writing his letter, putting it into an envelope, and putting stickers on the envelope. It said "I want Transformers", and the envelope said "From Southern". (He came up with that all on his own. I just helped with spelling.)

And it was Baylor's first time to see Santa! He didn't fuss or fidget a bit when he was being held by Santa.

After the picture-taking was out of the way, Southern had time to talk to Santa. He told him, "I want Transformers. And a remote control car. And that's all." When we got out to the parking lot, Southern remembered that he had forgotten to tell Santa about Angry Birds as well. I told him that he can always save that for next year. "Okay," he said. I love how excited he was to see Santa, and he was not shy at all!

Remington told Santa that he wanted "a basketball. A really, really big basketball." He was so sweet and earnest when he said it. 

Christmas Tree

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...

In our family, we like to put up the Christmas tree and decorations the day or the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year, however, we have been dealing with the tree and decorations the day and the weekend after Thanksgiving. And the day after that. And the day after that.

I guess it's because I have never had a baby this young during Christmas time before. Or maybe because I have never had this many children during Christmas time before. Or a combination of the two. But this year, putting up the tree and decorations has been a real process. I've only been able to do things a bit at a time. Silly little stuff like preparing meals, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, doing the laundry, feeding the baby, reading to and playing with the boys, etc. has been getting in the way ;)

Over the past several days since Thanksgiving, we have driven to get everything from storage, set up lights and decorations outside, hung the stockings, decorated inside, assembled the tree, strung the tree with lights, and vacuumed up all of the tiny little "pine needles" our tree shed on the floor.

Today's plan was to also hang the ornaments on the tree. But as it approaches dinner time and I sit here nursing the baby, I'm wondering if we will have time for that today after all...

Oh well, it will get done eventually. The two older boys have really enjoyed being included in everything. And for now, we can just enjoy our tree as it is.

I must say, it looks pretty good with my good looking guys in front of it! :)