merry (belated) christmas!

Christmas has come and gone and I have to say that I'm both relieved and impressed that I made it through without crying. I did cuss a few times but I didn't shed a tear. The tree will be coming down shortly so I can finally put the holiday season behind me. There's not much to take down this year, as you can see in the photo above. Lets be honest, your tree was nowhere as awesome as mine was. Not every tree has a piece of (clean!) Kleenex as it's central ornament. I guess the piece of Kleenex, which was put on the tree about 2 weeks ago, is much better than the balls of socks that W was throwing on the tree before he put the Kleenex on there. And not every tree only has 6 ornaments on it. That is how we baby proof around here. We just make it so they can't get into anything and let me tell you how much easier that made my life.

I think I will keep our awesome Little People manger up for awhile though. W seems to really love baby Jesus and we can get him to eat a meal if we tell him he can sit next to baby Jesus and feed him. One morning a few days ago I asked W where baby Jesus was and he told me he was in his car seat. And then I realized that W thought baby Jesus was in a car seat because the manger filled with hay looked like an infant seat. I hate that he is smarter than me.

W had a great time this year. This is the first time he was aware of Christmas. He thought every present was for him and helped everyone open their gifts. I ended up getting him a tricycle and a race track for his cars and he got more things with wheels from everyone else that he won't need another set of wheels until he's 16 and forced to drive his siblings around because I'm too lazy to do it. One of the funniest moments of the day was when he got on his tricycle for the first time and said "on! on!" because he wanted me to flip the on switch to make the darn thing go. I guess that is what happens when everything he's ever played with is battery powered and has speakers.

CB also had a good time but was quickly overwhelmed and tired out by the festivities. She didn't understand what was going on but she did enjoy all of the paper that was accessible for her to eat. I got her a learning table and she really likes it, especially because she's now strong enough to pull herself up to play whenever she wants! (YAY!!)

We had really good time and I am so thankful to our friends and family who spoiled my kids rotten and made our THREE days of celebrating very special. Daddy was greatly missed but we kept him in our hearts and thought of him often.