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!