Christmas

Ok, I'm skipping Thanksgiving. I know. It's Todd's favorite holiday. I can't decide if it's mine. I like Christmas just as much. We had both of our families at our house again this year. It was great and uneventful. We had some wonderful family time and that's what it is all about.

Christmas! Wow. Ok. Every year that goes by as a parent this holiday gets better and better. Izzie is remembering things from the past year and asking questions about the new year. Garrett was excited and curious, too, mainly about the lights and the Christmas tree.

We had our elf from the North Pole, Buddy, come visit the whole month. He would go back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa in what he saw the kids doing, good and bad. He would then come back to the house and hide in a different spot to watch the kids again. Izzie and Garrett, both, woke up every morning yelling "buddy!" around the house, looking for him. Garrett even found him first a couple times. Buddy was lots of fun. I liked to remind them during the day that Buddy and Jesus were watching them and their behavior. It didn't really help, in fact some days I swore they acted even worse. Oh well. It is the stage we are at. The kids are trying to figure out how to play nicely together. It's also hard to reason with a one year old and why he shouldn't grab his sister's toys from her hands.

Christmas Eve was spent with the in-laws first to celebrate Christmas. We then went over to my parents just for a little bit for our traditions. Christmas morning is the first time, since Izzie has been born that we stayed home in the morning. We are setting our own traditions as a family now. That afternoon, my family came over so we could exchange gifts and have Jesus' birthday cake. Aunt Brooke and Kurt came down from Asheville. It was great being with them even if it was only a couple days. Izzie really misses them.

The kids were spoiled rotten by all. Izzie would say "oh my goshhhhhhh" with every gift she opened. I don't normally like her saying that, but she was so excited that all I could do was giggle. It's really not bad, but I just don't like it coming out of her. Garrett loved all the presents, too. Santa brought Izzie a big Melissa and Doug princess castle. He brought Garrett a rocking horse. I thought that the horse would be a bigger hit than the castle, I was wrong. We did learn that they need to get very similar things, even though they are a boy and girl. If they don't, then they fight over the one thing that they both don't have a version of. It wasn't too bad. They both did well and tried to share. It's all a learning process as a parent and child.

We were all spoiled. It was a great holiday season in this house. We packed all the Christmas stuff up before the new year. I told Izzie that we had to say goodbye to Christmas for now, but it would be back soon.