Christmas Roundup

Aw, crap. It happened again.

I swear I just blinked and POOF there went the entire month of December. I don't even know, man.

So! Christmas!

We made a big deal out of Christmas lights this year. We went out several times just to see decorations around our town. For myself, I am generally opposed to inflatables and other holiday tchotchkes on the lawn, but we sure had fun finding them in other yards. Then one night, we saw a light-up crane. The next weekend, we had to buy one. I'm concerned it may be a gateway to a blow-up reindeer the size of the house, but it was Micah's favorite decoration EVER.

Late one Thursday evening, we made an impromptu trip to see the Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Although he seemed underwhelmed at the time, Micah enjoyed it enough to ask about it repeatedly for the several weeks. Of particular interest were all the lighted planes, helicopters, and rockets on the way in.

Then there were the daycare Christmas programs. Aerin tried to eat the jingle bells and succeeded in eating the tissue paper. Micah, despite having loudly practiced every song for weeks on end, refused to sing and instead kept running over to hide next to us.

This year, we hosted Todd's mother's family for their annual get together, and we hosted Christmas for my parents (my granddad was supposed to come too, but got sick at the last minute). Since we had guests, we decorated a lot this year. And I loved it.

And Christmas Eve...oh, I can't even tell you how special it was. After bathtime, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Snowman. Micah was actually laughing out loud, he loved it so much. When that was over, we scattered reindeer food in the back yard and carefully selected cookies for Santa. Todd read The Polar Express and I read The Christmas Story and Silent Night. Then all of us sang Silent Night together and we took Micah up to bed. I can't describe what exactly made it so perfect, but it was.

I never expected how much I would enjoy being the parent of a small child at Christmas.

Of course, then we spent the next THREE HOURS assembling toys. Another thing I never expected? How much WORK it is being the parent of a small child at Christmas.

All Micah asked for from Santa was a pretty castle (his words) and cars for its parking lot. And Santa delivered.

Santa also included an un-asked-for train set. We tried to tell Micah the engine would go around the track on its own, but he wanted to push it.

Among a whole list of awesome gifts, there was also the play kitchen from Papa and Melissa. I'm expecting many, many years of play out of this one.

Oh, and my Aunt Anne sent Aerin a Santa suit. Behold!

It was strange to be the ones hosting Christmas and putting together toys for Christmas morning, but it was also a lot of fun. Give us a couple of years to recover, and we'll be ready to do it again.

Also, I got a new lens. You know what this means.

Hey, so, there was a Christmas! And a big trip out to Colorado Springs to see Papa and Melissa! And it was fun, yay!

Papa and Melissa had two Christmas trees, a fact that just about blew Micah's mind when we first arrived. He was especially enamored of the ornaments on the little tree, and came back to look at this airplane and a glass train over and over and over.

We were some of the most boring guests on the planet, I'm sad to say. It's so rare we get to just sit around (I got a chill just typing that), that we were perfectly content to veg out on the sofa, while staring slack-jawed at the How It's Made marathon the Science Channel. But they were eventually able to pry me out of the ass-dent in the couch for a couple trips to the local park, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and Garden of the Gods.

Papa even got in on the playground fun. You know what will make you smile? A 6' 7" man playing on a swing set with his tiny 3' grandson.

And then there was Christmas morning. Oh gosh.

Micah's still a little too young to completely understand the concept of Santa Clause, but that didn't stop him from being excited about everything Christmas, from the lights to the songs to the special Christmas books to the presents and candy. He doesn't quite get what we're all on about, but HE LIKES IT.

Papa and Melissa went ALL OUT. That boy had a Christmas morning you'd have to have seen to believe, and he loved every minute of it.

A particular hit was the Caterpillar train set. Also, the miniature school bus. Apparently that's the stuff of which toddler dreams are made.

We paid a visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on the day after Christmas, where Micah got to feed some giraffes, meet a lioness, be terrified of the monkeys, and ride a carousel for the first time.

This picture was taken right as I realized that if Micah were to freak out during the ride, there was nothing I could do about it. My expression says, Oh shit. This could be interesting. Fortunately, while he got a little nervous sometime in the middle, I managed to calm him back down and not have both of us fall to our deaths. That mofo was spinning really really fast, y'all.

After Micah came down with a cold and we paid a nice visit to the local Urgent Care, we settled back into our sofa ass-dents while Micah played with his Papa and the dogs.

And then, before we knew it, it was time to go home. Pikes Peak gave us a lovely send-off as we made our dawn getaway.

Thanks to Papa and Melissa for a WONDERFUL Christmas. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing you. Micah has asked to "get onna pwane, go see Papa an Mewissa" at least once every two or three days since we got home, so I can say with some certainty that he misses you both.

Reason #10582711 we're going to Hell

While I was wrapping the last of the Christmas presents:

"Ugh. Why do my presents always end up looking like they were wrapped by Helen Keller?"

"Well...they're, uh, wrapped with love."

"And HHNGGGAAAAAAHHBBBBTH."

Outtakes

"All I want for Christmas is a picture of your families. And a picture of the three boys together."

"I'll swallow your soul!"

 

Sorry, Mom. Looks like we're going to have to buy you a newly-hatched baby dodo. They're easier to come by.

Dat's Kismas, Mommy!

Someone's just a teensy bit excited about all the Christmas decorations going up.