The Christmas Series, part 1

 

I have so many memories and pictures from the Christmas season this year, that I have decided to blog them in a series. This Christmas marks the first one where both of our children were old enough to appreciate the magic and wonder of it all.  You think the moment you have a baby that the Christmas magic will be instant.  Year one they're just your super cute accesory, but they mostly sleep and eat through it all. Year two they are one year old. Not old enough to tell you what they want or understand the Christmas stories, but you go through the motions of it all.   The third year, that's when they are two years old, and the magic begins between two and three years old.

You  might be wondering about the magic of Cade's outfit above. He decided Santa wanted to see something "really awesome". So after I picked out his outfit and he got dressed, he went back to his room and re-emerged in cowboy boots, cowboy hat, his plastic bronze Batman buckle and his lime green Chuy's cape.  Awesome indeed.

While Daddy held our spot in line for Santa, I took the littles to go see the ginormous Christmas tree and hope to score some sweet snaps for our Christmas card.  Not exactly what I hoped for, but.... this is four and two for you.

 

 

I was hoping by some stroke of luck a friendly passerby would offer to take some pictures of all of us and let me jump in. No luck. So we got this pic of the boys. Guess who was tired of smiling?

 

And if you've ever tried getting a two year old to smile for the camera, you'll appreciate this gem.
And if you've taken that same child to go see Santa maybe in line you'd notice her tell you, with all the conviction she can muster, "I NOT sit on Santa's lap!" 

Sure enough, she was calm until it was our turn. We weren't planning on getting a family group shot....But when Devyn turned and ran to the friendly momma in line behind us for comfort as she cried and said "No no no!", I just about died. I grabbed my trashing, terrified, unconsollable child and had a huge internal debate. Do I make her sit on Santa's lap? I'd so hate to not have a Santa picture for every year of her childhood. Or do I reject Santa and make Cade sit up there by himself? Ugh, split second decision. I looked at hubs and made the judgement call "Lets all get in together".

The sheer terror didn't end. But I didn't look half bad.
Winning? hm...