Christmas 2012

What more could be said about our Christmas 2012 than magical.  Hope’s first Christmas and Jame’s first time talking to Santa were the major highlights of the season.  All of the fun we had reminded us why it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Just after Thanksgiving, just a quick note since I did not write about our wonderful Thanksgiving this year; we cooked a record 5 turkeys, a feat that probably will not be repeated.  Usually we smoke a turkey, bake a turkey and deep fry a turkey.  This year we bought a couple of smaller birds and then our friend Bruce called with a fresh turkey and wanted to know if we would like to deep fry that one as well.  All total 1 baked turkey, 1 smoked turkey and 3 deep fried turkeys, yes we had a bit left over. We did have great leftovers like turkey tetrazzini, turkey ala king, and there is nothing better than turkey sandwiches.

Now back to Christmas, just after our 5 turkey Thanksgiving, we heard a familiar Ho Ho Ho ring out in the house but when we ran to find out what exactly it was, all we found was a box that contained an Elf on the Shelf.  For those of you who don’t know about Elf on the Shelf, here is the story.  We sat down with Little Man and read the book to him, after; we asked him what he would like to name his elf?  We thought for sure with his love of playing doggy that doggy would be the elf’s name.  “Bean” is what Little Man said and Bean it was and we welcomed Bean to the house for the Christmas Season.  Bean moved all around the house and even though Little Man was not supposed to touch him we gave him permission to take a few photos with Bean.

 

Before Christmas, I had said that we should get Little Man a haircut so it would look nice on Christmas.  With all the excitement at our house these days, it was decided that Dad should take Little Man for his haircut, of course not without a long list of instructions from Mom.  “Yea Yea Yea, I got it!  Don’t worry I’ll bring him home with a mow hawk.” I said as we headed out the door.  When we arrived at Pigtails and Crew cuts my mind went blank on the list of instructions.   I told the lady that I remembered something about it not being too short on top and then joked about the mow hawk.  “Well I can do that!” she said and went right to work gelling up his hair into a mow hawk and then she asked him what color he wanted and of course Little Man said, “Green”.  All I could do was laugh all the way home and hope that Mom would laugh as well and sure enough, she got a big kick out of it when we got home.

During our busy holiday schedule, we found time to head to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Heading there is always fun but its better with all the Christmas trees around.  Little Man loves the trains and I think he would spend all day in the Steam Engine if we allowed him.  This time we even took Little Man down into the coal mine figuring he was old enough now, he wasn’t scared at all just a bit bored at times and of course he loved it when you get to ride on the train.  After the museum we then headed downtown to Macy’s (Marshal Fields) to look at the windows and the tree and then over to the Kris Kringle Market.  We thought about eating at the market but it was a bit cold so we headed off to the Berghoff for dinner.  After dinner we headed home and Little Man fell asleep before we were out of the city.  

One of the great moments this year was looking at the fireplace with all of our stockings hanging.  When Little Man arrived, we attended a wedding in Frankenmuth, MI and bought his stocking there.  We thought about making the five hour drive up to Michigan to not only get Hope’s stocking but also several ornaments for the Grandparents and for the kid’s tree. Instead we ordered them online. I always remembered as a child that we were not allowed to wake our parents on Christmas morning until the sun came up.  We were allowed to open our door and there hung our stocking.  I decided to keep that tradition, so on Christmas morning Jame found his stocking filled hanging on his bedroom door.

The first year Little Man met Santa he was okay with him, the second year he screamed the third year he was okay but would not talk to Santa so we didn’t know what to expect.  We figured Hope would be fine as long as her brother was fine but if he melted down she wouldn’t be far behind.  I had to head out to “work” and Mom got the kids ready to see the big guy, they got there just before Santa was done for the day.  Little Man had no problems this year, right up onto his lap and even talked to Santa.  I have a feeling Santa was more nervous this year than Little Man.  He told Santa that he had been good and he was taking care of Bean and that he wanted a kitchen for Christmas.  This came as a relief to us since he had been asking for a dog car that turned out to be a walking aid toy for toddlers.  Luckily he had decided to be a cooking man and asked for the kitchen instead.  We took a bunch of pictures with Santa and I will never be able to describe both the wonder and terror I felt with that Santa visit, it was all I could do to fight back the tears. I have always enjoyed being Santa for children, but, what an awesome feeling to be Santa for your own children.

When Christmas arrived it was awesome to see the wonder in Little Mans eyes as he noticed the cookies had been eaten and the milk was drunk by Santa.  Christmas day was hectic at our house with all the toys and people dropping by.  In fact Little Man eventually got tired of opening up gifts, so we just put them back into the closet for his birthday next year.  This was a Christmas that I will remember for a long time or until next Christmas.  I feel truly blessed to have our family.