We had a huge Christmas surprise this year. Bella became part of our family on Christmas day. Jefferson said this was this best Christmas ever. I first met Bella when she was 4 weeks old, right after Thanksgiving. It was a long wait till Christmas, but we kept her a surprise and kept busy with our usual Christmas traditions. We saw the candy windows at Light the Night. Carter and I had a mama date and found all the elves at Gardner Village. Carter talked with Santa at our neighborhoods night of giving while Jefferson and I had our Florida adventure. We met up with Connor and Alec for the Christmas sing along at the Delta Center and Jefferson found the Metallica guitar. We made a gingerbread house with grandparents- this time the Bat Cave. We were Santa's elves for the angel tree. We had a Hawaiian Christmas with our Jefferson family and for the family talent show Jefferson played a duet (with his one non broken wrist) and Carter wrote his name. Kenzer joined us for cookie making this year and a few songs around the piano, where Carter wisely figured out to use his finger light for Rudolph's nose. Brad and I were asked to sing What Child is This on Christmas Eve at church, and we made our own arrangement with the guitar and it was beautiful- though a lower key than we originally intended because Brad gave me his cold. We brunched on Christmas Eve with our Dennis family and then celebrated Christmas Eve with our Jefferson family- nativity, piano duets, and Yorkshire pudding and English trifle. We finished off Christmas Eve with our family nativity, reading the Night Before Christmas, cookies set out for Santa, and then Brad and I (as is our annual tradition) watched It's a Wonderful Life. Christmas morning brought lots of fun- Carter loved his Pikachu and Captain America umbrella, and was through the moon when he opened the Boxing Guys game. Jefferson loved his Gryffindor squishmallow and PokeMon Go watch. And the boys were so excited to give Brad his gift- a Hufflepuff card (because that is Brad's new nickname). Jefferson was surprisingly sweet and found a small bottle to put some of his Felix Felices potion in for Brad (good luck potion). And Carter gave Brad and I each one of his super hero capes. Such thoughtful boys. But the greatest surprise was our 10:00 gift wrapped up on our doorstep. When we opened the gift and Bella crawled into our arms we all fell in love. Sadly we all got sick right after Christmas and had a quiet new years at home. Bella is a perfect addition to our family. She is so sweet and gentle and funny and smart. We just love her. Our favorite Carterisms this month were hearing him mimic Bluey and say without knowing what he was saying "that cheeky little..." and when Carter announced now that he can pin his junior ranger badge on his own, he is now a police officer and his job is to pull people over and take them to jail. Our favorite Jeffersonism this month was when we heard him fake calling the north pole to report on Carter's behavior and Carter very worried saying "you can't call Santa, you are a kid, and Jefferson saying to Santa "I don't know Santa, if he tries to get on my bed one more time he might need to go on the naughtly list...ok ok I'll tell him."
