Christmas Eve

This year, Isaac was starting to really understand Christmas. He knew Santa might bring him a present, and most of all, he knew it was exciting. He loved the lights, the tree, the music, and the anticipation. But age three must be that perfect middle ground, because he still had a beautiful innocence and lack of expectations too. My dad was struck by his comment when they were looking at the pile of presents under the enormous tree in the family room - presents to and from 13 people, including some mailed from faraway relatives - a lot of presents! My dad was helping him find a few with his name on them, and Isaac stopped and said, "Do you mean there's more than one present for me?"

Oh, the innocence. And the chance to focus on giving more than receiving. I smiled when my dad told me, but I was also wary of Isaac's discovery the next morning of the piles of presents for him. As much as we tried to keep the holiday low-key for the boys, 13 people inevitably adds up to a lot of presents. And what I hope both boys can learn is that each person's gift is a way of showing his or her love. With that in mind, we open one present only every few hours, in order that each one can be appreciated and connected with the thoughtful person who gave it.

But first was Christmas Eve. Now that we have little boys, we are too tired to go to the midnight service and have been going to church before dinner. We are always forced by overflow to sit in the gym, but at least it's casual and full of families. While Isaac was content to snuggle with DeeDa in the candlelight and eventually fall asleep in her lap, Jonah sat in my lap for all of 5 minutes before he was ready to take a walk. He was an adorable little elf in his Christmas outfit, and he spent most of his time on the move - shuffling between the fold-out chairs, climbing in the stairwell, padding along the carpeted upstairs and exploring dark classrooms.

It's our tradition to open the first present on Christmas Eve, so while we were preparing dinner, each boy picked out one gift.


For Isaac, it was a Tiger mask and set of big paws from Jane and Greg.




Jonah (troublemaker face)


opened a rocket, also from Jane and Greg, complete with space dog, moon rover, 2 astronauts and an alien.


Isaac adored the rocket from the beginning. Jonah loved it too by the next morning, once he'd watched Isaac play with his new toy for long enough that he was ready to do a perfect imitation. But initially, he just loved the bow.


Santa came that night and took pictures for us. Isaac had a play kitchen waiting for him in Denver, as the letter explains, but here in Charlotte they had stockings full of lovingly-selected presents.


I think Santa was proud of his work.


And I think he loved every minute of it.

Dec 23: Charlotte!

We flew into Charlotte on the 22nd, just in time for a great dinner downtown with my parents, Taylor, Dorothy and Lucy. The next morning, the boys were excited to be at my parents' house with so much family. Here is Jonah waking up a sleepy Isaac. A few yoga poses always help...


Or maybe stomping on his bed, practicing his new walking skills on bumpy and kicking terrain - that might do it...


But soon Isaac was awake, running gleefully into the kitchen to greet everyone. He charged into Dorothy's arms for a big hug, and I think we were all touched.

On this trip, Isaac really seemed to get the idea of family - that he had arrived into a great loving circle of people he could call his own, all doting on him and his brother. He was perfectly comfortable, joyful, and he returned the love with that amazing strength of emotion that defines him. As our time in Charlotte passed by, Adam and I were amazed to see our little boy sitting happily in one lap after another, at the kitchen counter or reading books on the floor. He was still ours, but he also belonged to a big, happy family, and he thrived in this setting.


Jonah, early on, started asking for BaBop as soon as he woke up in the morning. My dad made him breakfast most mornings, and he took him on walks outside so he could practice his walking. The two of them would disappear outside most days for a good 45 minutes, a happy pair. Here they are getting Jonah's shoes on before heading out.


Isaac always loved these old bells on the shelves by the stairs, and now Jonah likes them too.




I'm so excited to have four pictures of Isaac's smiling face, looking directly at the camera, that I'm posting all of them. Christmas was exciting; he was a happy boy.


Sorry Mom - this is sort of a strange picture of you, but it's so rare to have both boys looking at the camera.







We didn't get out in the morning like we'd planned, but after Jonah's nap, we took the boys to Freedom Park to play. I remembered going there as a kid and climbing all over real vehicles, retired and cemented to the ground - a fire truck, a train engine, and I think a rocket (I suppose the last one wasn't real, but it was cool too). All we could find was a gutted, graffiti-covered old engine, but it was next to a playground and two creeks with bridges. We played around for a while until we were all too cold. Here's a short video of the boys on the bridge. Jonah was begging us to let him get in that cold water, and you can see those little legs moving so fast as he tried to get to the creek before I could stop him. Isaac, the protective big brother, ran to hold him back. I think we need to get our little guy in swim lessons.

December - Jonah walking day 2, boys in the bath

We don't bathe the boys enough these days, but when we do, they like to be together in the bath. Most of the time, they splash and play and have a great time. They both crawl on each other, and it seems to work out okay.

Unrelated, but I'd forgotten about this video of Jonah walking - day TWO. I think he'd been practicing so long that he was an expert by the time he finally let go of my hand. As you can hear me exclaim several times, I was so impressed with his side-stepping when he'd only been walking for 24 hours!

Dec 19: Christmas Party with Playgroup Families

On the Sunday night before Christmas, we gathered at the house of our friends Ali, Colin, Thrace and Victoria to celebrate the holidays with the families we've seen at playgroups since our first babies were born. Most of the kids were dressed for Christmas, and I had also put Jonah in his Christmas Eve outfit. Here he is wandering around the house - looking like such a cute little elf, I had to take some pre-party pictures.




The party was full of friends. By now, most of us have had our second babies (also around the same time!), so everyone has buddies to play with. We are lucky to have such good people in our subgroup (of Highland Mommies) - warm, welcoming, giving and fun. It was wonderful to spend an evening with families who have become so familiar to us.


The party was a potluck and a sing-a-long, and those who play instruments were encouraged to bring them. Adam and I haven't had the time to practice much in a long time, so we left ours at home. But I could have sung Christmas carols all night. I think Isaac could have too.


All the kids loved the carol-singing. Isaac, of course, knows every word of Hark the Herald, which he has been practicing daily since Christmas 2009...


Jonah was most excited about this green bell in his favor bag.


Typical Jonah, looking like trouble.












After the singing, everyone headed home. The kids had played hard for a few hours, and they were exhausted. Here is Jonah at bedtime - a little groggy, but clinging to his ball. He is obsessed with balls lately - I had to pry this one out of his hands to get his nightclothes on!

Dec 11: Train Ride!

This was another Saturday when Adam needed to get work done, and I took the boys to do something fun. The train museum was running its "Santa Express" on December weekends, and on this weekend, they'd fired up the steam engine. I was pretty excited to ride in one of the old passenger cars and see how the engine looked in action.

We arrived early enough that there was easy parking and no line. As soon as we opened the car doors, we heard the train whistle and the clack-clack-clack of the engine (it really does make that noise!), and we saw a huge white puff of steam backlit by the morning sun.

Our car was from the 1880's, and there were guides - grandfatherly men who loved trains like our little boys do - who were full of information about how the cars and engines worked and what they'd done in their working lives. We got to go around the circle three times. I was fascinated; Jonah just wanted to point out all the ceiling lights; Isaac eventually got bored and asked if we were going to get off soon.






But Isaac did enjoy watching out the window, as we passed old cars, mesa views, the museum, even an old roundhouse. We stopped at one point to take on water - I didn't even know that old water tank worked! But when we tried to go watch, there were too many people in front of us, so we sat back down.






After our ride, we visited the amazing model train setup in the basement, where the model train club members had everything working, from the little ferris wheel, to the tiny streetlights, and even an extra train that we'd never seen before.

Then we went outside to play in Isaac's favorite car.






We could still hear the train chugging around the track, and the steam caught my eye again.






We walked over to the water tank, hoping to catch the men putting water in the engine.


This red caboose is my favorite car.


The train rounded the curve in front of us but didn't seem to need any water.






Santa was inside the museum visiting with kids, but Isaac only wanted to see trains.

From here, we drove back to our neighborhood for Isaac's school holiday party. Santa was there too, but Isaac stood at a safe distance and wouldn't talk much. Jonah just gave him his unnerving, intense stare. In any case, it was a fun Saturday, starting to feel like Christmas!