This Christmas

I'm not sure that there is anything better than having a two and three year old at Christmastime. I will probably feel the same way next year and the year after that too, but they were a lot of fun this year.

Timmy was excited and Cate was REALLY excited. All the way to church on Christmas Eve, she made everyone in the car hold their hands to their ears to listen for Santa's sleigh. At 4:30. She definitely thought that she heard the bells on his sleigh jingling.

Cate's three year old class had a singing and dancing birthday party for Jesus. She loved it.

Timmy's two year old class was singing and dancing too, but when Tim went in to pick him up, he found Timmy lying on the floor in front of the stage. Timmy reported, "I lay on the floor. I tired." When Cate found out about this, she quizzed Timmy all the way home. "T, were you really tired? Were other kids stepping on you while you were on the floor? Did you cry?" His reply to all of the above was simply, "Nope".

After church we came home for a late Christmas Eve dinner with Mimi, Pop, Auntie Jenn and Nana and Uncle Rusty.

Right before bed, we picked out cookies to leave on the mantle for Santa.

I was so excited to see Cate and Timmy come into the family room and see the tree on Christmas morning. We left Timmy's new Toy Story figures and Cate's long awaited microphone unwrapped because Santa doesn't have time to wrap everything. I expected Cate to see the microphone and go crazy because she has been asking for it for so long. Instead, she saw Timmy's big Toy Story box and started yelling, "Look, T! Look at what Santa brought for you! Do you want to open this?! Look at all of the new stuff you got!"

After we stopped laughing, we directed her to her microphone and she was thrilled.

For the next hour or so they opened so many thoughtful and generous gifts from Mimi, Pop, Nana, Auntie Jenn and Uncle Rusty.

When we were about finished, Cate and Pop checked to see if Santa ate his cookies. Only a few crumbs were left (courtesy of Pop, who did not think I did a good job with the cookie plate or fireplace...he went back and added crumbs to the plate and cracked the door open on the fireplace).

Merry Christmas!