Here comes Santa Claus

The boys were able to visit with Santa at our Ward Christmas party. Lincoln snuck away from me, cut in front of a bunch of other people in line, and hopped up on Santa's lap no problem, this really surprised me because a couple of months ago when we were at Disney Land he was pretty nervous about getting close to any of the characters. Carson has been over his fear of Santa for years and sat right down and told Santa all about what he wanted for Christmas. We also mailed off our letters to Santa. Last year I saw on the news that our local post office had a special mailbox for letters to Santa. Apparently, I only imagined this because when I took my kids to the post office to mail their letters to Santa there was nothing cool or cute for them to put their letters in. Not wanting the kids to be disappointed I told them that the drive-by mail boxes were Santa's special mail box. Since it is the holiday season, there were a ton of people driving by dropping off mail. While we waited for an opportunity for the cars to clear out so the kids could put their letters to Santa in the mailbox, Carson turned to me and said "mom there sure are a ton of people sending letters to Santa." Carson was obviously impressed by the sheer number of people sending letters to Santa Claus. Lincoln's letter to Santa was primarily comprised of pictures of Buzz Lightyear. Lincoln wants every member of the family to have a Buzz so everyone can play Buzz's with him. Carson asked Santa for: battle bugs, Mario, and a killer whale/great white shark toy. It has been so fun seeing the kids get excited for Santa and Christmas morning.

snow day

We started out December with a snow day! Since snow days are extremely rare in our area, I was determined to make the most of it. Making the most of the snow gets a little bit tricky though when you have to tote a 7 month old along. So we maximized the snow the best we could with Lily. I took the boys to a small hill in our area for some sledding. I bundled Lily up in case I was going to have to carry her around. Thankfully, Lily was pretty happy to sit in her car seat as long as I left the van door open so she could watch the action. The boys had a great time sledding down the little hill. The hill was a bit lame and I had to give the boys a really good push to get them enough momentum to make it down the hill, but we had fun for about 45 minutes until Lily, who was in need of a nap, let us know that she was done. There were several kids at the sledding hill, some of whom knew Carson from school, and they offered to share their much better sleds with him. It was really weird to meet some of these kids who Carson plays with at school and who I had never met. It made me realize that he is growing up and has friends and influences in his life that I am completely unaware of. It made me kind of sad. Anyway, after sledding we continued our fun in the backyard where we made snowmen. We finished off our afternoon with hot chocolate and some good old fashioned Christmas movies. It was a good day. It was a nice break from the daily grind.