Merry Christmas!

It’s hard to believe this is already our third Christmas with our sweet not so baby boy anymore and he was into it more than ever this year.  He has been asking about Christmas and Santa Claus and anything else Christmas related since August.  He truly enjoys every aspect of this joyous season, and understands the reason for the season, Jesus’ Birthday.   From reading Christmas books every night to making rice krispie treat Christmas trains, decorating Christmas cookies, and making Christmas crafts at home and school, the kid has done it all and has truly enjoyed every minute of it.  It’s obvious that the presents are a nice perk of the season, but Will seems to understand that it’s much bigger and more important than that.  His pure joy and childhood innocence reminds us all what Christmas is truly about.

On Christmas Eve, we went to St. Joseph’s with Nonna, Poppa, Corey and Stacey, and The Hoover Family.  As always it was very special to be there with the entire family, especially since we got to all sit together in an actual pew.  No standing room only for us this year! 

After mass, we went to Nonna and Poppa’s for dinner and to open up one gift to appease the kids, then headed home to fulfill our little family’s Christmas traditions.   Will finished his advent calendar and put the last cotton ball on Santa’s beard.  We then made reindeer food, threw it out in the yard, and stared at the sky hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh.  Will then meticulously chose which of his iced Christmas cookies he wanted to put on Santa’s plate and requested that Santa had chocolate milk this year.  He also left some carrots for Santa to bring outside to the reindeer.  You name it we did it all!  The night concluded with us reading to him “The Night Before Christmas.” It then  took 2 hours for him to go to sleep as he decided to take a nice nap during church.

As expected Christmas morning came very quickly and Will anxiously walked out to all of his goodies Santa brought him.  He was so sweet as he had all kinds of toys from Santa, but the first thing he noticed was that Santa brought a dog bed for Lulu.  After exploring his toys inside for a while, he noticed Santa left him a note that told him to look outside for his surprise and he walked out to find Santa had brought him his very own two story fort/sandbox.  He loved it!  His favorite part of the fort was that he could “see everysing from up here!”  However, he followed that up with “where are the swings?”  So, looks like mommy and daddy have to complete what Santa didn’t finish in the next few weeks ;)   Throughout the day, he kept going outside and let his imagination run wild.  His favorite thing to play so far is pirates.

Around mid -afternoon, we headed over to Nonna and Poppa’s to open Christmas presents over there and eat Christmas dinner.  Will was ecstatic over all the goodies he got to unwrap over there.  I think his two favorite gifts were his spaceship tent and dream lite. 

Meanwhile, I forgot to mention that late Christmas Eve Ben started running fever and on Christmas day went to the walk in and was diagnosed with the flu.  So, in an attempt to prevent myself and Will from getting sick, we decided to spend Christmas night at Nonna and Poppa’s house.  

And, just like that Christmas had come and gone again.  It’s always so exciting in the weeks leading up to this blessed day of Jesus’ birth, then when it actually gets here it goes by too quickly.  Will is already asking “When it’s going to be Christmas again?”  It’s especially exciting to think about next year’s Christmas as we will be celebrating it as a family of four!  (Well 5 if you count Lulu ;)

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!