Christmas is always a magical holiday, but there is something extra special when it is celebrated with little kids. This year was a big one for our family as James was finally old enough to start to prepare for it. He is still scared of Santa and went into full panic mode when we tried to explain that Santa was going to come during the night to drop off presents. And then went into extreme terrorist mode when we tried to explain that we should leave out some cookies for Santa to eat. No one gets James' cookies. So after that we just side stepped the whole Santa business and decided to deal with it next year. Even without the magic of Santa, it was still beyond awesome. John's brother Stephen was able to drive up from Charleston and that in itself was probably the biggest present for James. James was up at 730 and didn't open his last present until right before dinner. He took his time and played with everything. I don't think we have ever had such a laid back, peaceful Christmas.

Papa Steve got James a bouncer - which is either going to be a great energy buster or an arm buster. Only time will tell...

James helped Madeleine open her gifts but she always seemed more interested in whatever he was playing with. She started crawling on Christmas Eve and so now poor James couldn't get away from her with his new toys.

The dogs got a new big bed and some toys - they stayed on the bed the whole day, I think it was long overdue to get them a new one! The bed is almost double the size of Madeleine's crib so there is plenty of room for both of them!

 

James' big present from us was a Lego train set. James sought that one out almost right away and wanted to put it together immediately. He played with that for over an hour before he wanted to even open up anymore gifts. I think John had just as much fun putting it together as James did.

 

Madeleine tried to eat her way through most of the wrapping paper...

 

I finally caved and got James some play dough. It is so messy and gets stuck to everything that I really did not want it even in the house - its just that he loves it in art class so much that I caved. However, I was suckered in by a good deal and got 6lbs of it at Costco. Yes, 6 lbs. I'm going to be paying for that lapse of judgement for a long time I'm sure. Poor Stephen got to pay for it on Christmas though :)

We got her teething biscuits, I don't think anything made her happier. She gnawed right though those babies.

 

Madeleine destroying one end of the train tracks... 

 

And James playing on the other end (notice the dogs are still on their bed - they really stayed on there all day!)

 

James is teaching his sister all the different animals with his new animal magnets. She's just thinking how she can get those in her reach to chew on them.

 

 

She will really try to chew on anything at this point, it's a good thing no teeth have come in yet or else she would have popped that balloon... and I don't think that would have ended too well for her.

 

 

It was a fantastic holiday, even without Santa being involved. Lots of relaxing, laughs and of course a few spiced hot apple toddys!

Our neighborhood has a great bar and grill that hosts a lot of our neighborhood activities. This morning we had our neighborhood Christmas brunch there with lots of food and even Santa came! James was not thrilled to see Santa and was about two minutes away from having a nervous breakdown when he saw that Madeleine was going to sit on Santa's lap.

Madeleine however had no problem with the big man at all - she tried to eat his beard.

Once we explained to James that if he said hi to Santa he would get a candy cane, he decided it was worth it.

James even gave Santa a high five in hopes that he would get two candy canes! He is all about the bargaining.

I think next year he might even sit on his lap! But then of course it will Madeleine's turn to be scared :)

John was out of town this week and so the kids and I camped out in the family room and made cookies - not a shabby few days to ourselves!

Tonight our town had their Christmas festival and since it was 70 degrees out, it was packed. The firehouse had Santa, there was a stage full of singers belting out Christmas songs, lots of food and crafts, and a ton of kids activities. It was definitely the most fun Christmas festival I have ever been to and activities like this make me thankful to have a child who can enjoy them. I just love how emotional James is about everything. He's comically scared of Santa but loves the walking character snowman, wants to ride the carousel but is totally beside himself when there is only horses and not other animals he can ride, and cannot get enough of the bounce houses. At this age he shows his emotions without thought or care - I wish I could be like that!

 

The other day James and I made Christmas ornaments. I was not sure how much fun he would have but he loved it. I should have known it would be a hit since its a messy activity - and anything messy is always successful!

 

John and I had a hard decision to make - its one that we have been debating over for months. We finally just sucked it up and did it... we put our dining room table in the attic and moved all of the toys into what was the dining room but is now the new playroom. I was sad to see the dining room go, but I didn't realize how nice it was to have our family room void of toys and have a playroom without a TV. It has worked out better than I ever could have thought and I'm now wishing we did it sooner. 

Last weekend we headed to a farm right outside of Charlotte to get our Christmas tree. John and I were so excited to go walking through the rows of trees to find our perfect tree to cut down but James had other ideas - he couldn't pull himself away from the farm animals and haystack. After about an hour hanging out at the entrance of the farm thinking he would get bored, we finally gave up and tried to bribe him away to go tree hunting. When that didn't work, we just picked out one of their pre-cut trees and let him keep on playing. It was still a great day though, just in a totally different way then we planned. Much less walking and much more mooing.

These past three weeks have been a crazy whirlwind - James went Trick or Treating for the first time, and then the next morning we packed up and headed to Ohio for two weeks! It was a good thing we had Superman with us ;)

I think today is the first day that I feel caught up and relaxed back at home. Even though it was an exhausting two weeks, the memories were worth it. Ohio was a great trip filled with lots of friends and family, can't beat that.

The day after we got back, Madeleine had her 4 month appointment. She is great (15 lbs 3 ounces and 25.5 inches) but the four vaccinations that she got put her under the weather for a few days. Yesterday she was feeling much better and so we decided to try and feed her some bananna. The doctor told us to start her on food if we wanted and since it might help her sleep through the night - we wanted to try it! However, she had other ideas - and eating solids was not one of them. It took several tries with James to get him to understand the concept of swallowing, so we will keep on trying with her too.

Photo Dump

James has to wear an eye patch for two hours every day (alternating every other day which eye gets "to be a pirate") for three months. To say it has been a struggle is an understatement but we are half way through and hopefully this will be the end of the patch!
 

James is the big lump under the blankets - Since Madeleine is asleep, James is pretending he is asleep as well!

John was out of town for almost two weeks in a row - so we had a lot of phone time with Daddy. James is almost a pro at holding the phone and doing something else now :)

 

Just a few pictures of how James was sleeping recently - he is always finding new ways to sleep!

James followed John around the whole time he mowed the lawn, John was pretty excited. He thinks that this means James will want to mow the lawn in the future - I have a feeling he is going to be disappointed!

Madeleine was giving the bear on her jumper the stink eye for some reason. For only being 3.5 months old, she has the stink eye down!