The Christmas Season was Merry and Bright for us! We started the season off with our neighborhood night of giving and visit with Santa. Jefferson picked out a gift to give to Santa and was so excited to see Santa but then froze when he was on Santa's lap. Carter studied Santa for 5 seconds then burst into tears and couldn't get away fast enough. (Just like the boys on the Christmas Story.) We joined the crowd for Christkindlmarket and experienced a little bit of Germany for the day with some hot spaetzle and chocolate dipped waffles on a stick. Yum. We love German food! Our traditional extended family Christmas party brought another opportunity to see Santa- and both boys reacted the same- freeze, and crying. We were in charge of our Cultural Christmas Dinner and this year we celebrated Mexico and made authentic Mexican food we learned to make this past summer in Mexico. We even had a pinata and a rosca de reyes with a baby Jesus inside. We made our gingerbread house with grandparents. We bundled up and went downtown to see the candy windows, giant gingerbread house, temple square lights, and we stood in line to light the world. We had lots of nights playing with the train under the Christmas tree and letting "mama Mary, daddy Joseph, the wise men, shepherds, animals, and baby Jesus have a ride on the train. Marci was able to come over this year so we resumed making Christmas cookies and caroling around the piano. We spent Christmas Eve with our Jefferson family and the kids dressed up and performed the nativity- Jefferson was a Shepherd and Carter a Wise Man. Christmas eve we finished our Nativity advent calendar from Grandma and we read The Night Before Christmas by the Christmas tree. Santa made it to our house and the excitement in the morning was magic. We spent Christmas day with our Dennis family and Carter took over the remote while Jefferson discovered the fun of a scavenger hunt to find his present from Grandma and Grandpa. We wound up with edible treats at the Hebdon white elephant and plotted getting THE white elephant next year. We enjoyed our Christmas break with lots of movies, sledding, and of course our 999 piece puzzle (the last piece found a home in the piano last year thanks to a certain 4 year old). We rang in the new year with our Jefferson family playing games, eating too much food and a cousin pillow fight. Here's to 2020 and the adventures it may bring.
Our favorite Jeffersonism's of December: "dada I'll miss the number 19 sticker on the back of the car, can you take a picture of it. " (2019 registration sticker on license plate). Jefferson is going through a hoarding stage so will only let us throw things away if we take a picture for a memory. He saved every link from our Christmas chain. We are hoping this is just a stage. He has commandeered the toy closet as his latest HQ and puts blankets and all his stuffed animals inside and shuts the door to play inside so Carter can't get in. The sweetest Jeffersonism this month was a couple days after Christmas when he said "I'm so thankful for the gifts Santa brought us, I hope he knows." And then after watching his favorite movie about Jesus he said "Mama when you die you will glow like Jesus."
Carter has decided we need to be reminded of early baby stages and is waking up during the night ugh... sleep regression :( He is racing around the house with his walker and will walk from furniture to furniture in the family room. He's discovered he can break through most of our "bug traps" and has discovered that ornaments and puzzle pieces are his most coveted desires. He refuses to go to bed if he knows we are all awake and after a failed bedtime attempt because of over compassionate grandparents he ended up staying up till midnight on New Years Eve! And the next day like the rest of the world, had to recover. ha ha
