Christmas morning

I woke up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve/Christmas morning, sick with a cold and unable to go back to sleep. So I made some hot tea, a cup of Alka Setzer Cold, another cup of Emergen-C, and hit the couch to down my liquids and watch TV until I could sleep again. Eventually, of course, Josh woke up to use the bathroom, saw the lights, and came out to find me as well as the tell-tale signs that Santa had been here. I felt bad that I couldn't share his excitement about Santa's visit because I just felt too crappy. But we cuddled for a bit and he went back to bed, showing an astounding amount of patience, given that the Santa gifts were RIGHT THERE.



We all have two sets of handmade stockings. John's mom made the boys each a stocking with his name on it, and my mom ordered personalized stockings made by a fellow Bull Islander for each of us as well. So this year, we put one set on the mantle and one set on each of our doors.

Just to make sure, Josh left Santa a note near the fireplace. "Dear Santa, if you go strate you will find four stockings. Please put candy in them. Thanks." He wanted to make sure Santa filled both sets of stockings. Santa is a sucker, and Santa complied.



Finding their stockings filled on Christmas morning is always one of the biggest and best moments for Josh and Lucas, and this year was no exception. They just love to find and empty their stockings and admire all their loot.



The first "present" they opened, because I put them inside the stockings, was a card to each of them from Nana and Papa Mickey, with cash inside! They have reached the age(s) where they LOVE cash!



Then they divvied up the gifts from under the tree and got ready to engage in some serious gift opening.

Josh got a new hat, and now he goes by Josh Bieber.

Daddy got a World Series Champion SF Giants tee shirt (the same design as the team wore during the victory parade), but Josh couldn't resist modeling it:



Josh gave Lucas some Shake-n-Go vehicles from the Cars movie, one of Lucas' favorites:

Lucas and Josh also each received a sports-store gift card, or "credit card" as they have taken to saying, and they are so excited to get some gear for their spring sports:

A Lite Brite!

Here they are modeling Lucas' new hat and Josh's new jacket, and opening up their new Screature! They love this dinosaur -- depending upon how you pet it, it will purr (for a good pet), spit at you (you can load it with water to squirt out) (touch the tail), or growl, bite, and spread its wings as it lunges at you (for a bad pet).

They received talking banks from Aunt Alyne:

And Lucas took all my coins because he loved hearing Scooby talk to him when he put money in his bank!

Josh finally received a wallet, which he's been asking for due to his increasing savings. He LOVES this wallet. He went to work with me every day between Christmas and New Years (so John could study for a test next week) and wore his wallet every day, with the chain looped to his belt loop on his pants. Surprisingly a lot of people noticed and somehow knew it was new, and he was so proud! And when we went somewhere and no one said anything, he'd wonder why: "Mommy, why didn't they say anything about my wallet?" He paid for his own lunch for two days, just so he could use his wallet. It's adorable.

(He is also modeling one of his two new pairs of shoes in this picture. It turns out that, in our pile of hand-me-down shoes awaiting Lucas, there is a pair very similar to these that Josh outgrew some time ago. They are still about three sizes too big for Lucas, but he's been wearing them every day since Josh noticed the similarity. They are calling themselves twins and loving their matching shoes! It's pretty cute.)

They received two remote-control cars: a race car and a police car. Vigorous chase scenes have been playing out in our house ever since.

More remote-control fun.

The RC race car and police car, plus two remote-control "bumper cars" (the blue and orange ones): if you hit just the right spot in the other person's car, it ejects the driver and you win! Lots of fun.

(you can also see in this picture Lucas' breakfast plate -- we had beignets for breakfast, and they were SO GOOD!)

A pile of new games for Family Game Nights:

Santa also left some new fruits in the boys' stockings: a pomegranate in one and an Ugli fruit in the other. They were so yummy. We will be asking Santa to continue the tradition of introducing us to new fruits in the future!

We had a very nice, relaxing, and fun Christmas morning. Then we took long afternoon naps, which was also very nice!

Next post, our Christmas evening activities!

Presents from Santa

At long last, it was time to open the presents from Santa!

Lucas had a really big box:



And inside was a really big bear!



As big as Lucas, in fact!



Lucas LOVES him. He calls him Papa Bear.

Josh, meanwhile, was very confident that he knew exactly what was inside his box from Santa: a remote-controlled snake.

And of course he was right!

He LOVES his snake just as much as Lucas loves Papa Bear.

He says he wanted it so he could scare people.

And since the snake's eyes light up as he slithers toward you, it does in fact scare you if you aren't expecting it. So future visitors, you've been warned!

Lucas also asked Santa for a "bad dog." He received Walter the Farting Dog. When you squeeze him, he farts. Both boys think this is the funniest thing they have ever seen.

And Josh's second request from Santa was a remote-controlled flying airplane. He loves it, but it is somewhat difficult to fly while also easy to damage. Daddy and Josh are starting to get the hang of it though.

After we opened Santa's gifts, we finally had our Christmas dinner. The boys had a tree-shaped pizza:

And John and I had crab claws. Delicious!

After dinner, we played and played and played.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Tree

We decided to skip the U-cut adventure this year and buy a tree from a lot, which meant we could once again have a fir! We found a perfect tree -- just the right size and shape, with some spaces between the branches for ornaments. We really love our tree.



After the lights were strung around, the boys each got to select a first ornament to place on the tree. They kept changing their minds, so I don't think the ones in this picture were actually the first on the tree, but it was way too exciting to stick with just one ornament!




Lucas got the honors this year:



Followed by Josh:



And Josh got to put the angel on top:



Lucas has been vigorously fighting us on taking pictures. He refuses to stay still, to smile, and to look at the camera. We tried to get pictures of each of them, and both of them together, in front of the tree, but to no avail. Josh has been much more cooperative.



The finished product: (it has more ornaments than it appears to have in this photo. I think the lights drew the camera's focus and the other items blended in with the tree. But it looks really good.)



Of course it is swimming in presents now, but not for much longer!!

An oldie but a goodie

This picture is a couple months old now, but it's so cute. Josh, Lucas and I were at the zoo and they had wandered ahead of me, and started walking together holding hands. The picture is very reminiscent of a painting John's parents have of two little boys holding hands in a forest; the boys in the painting looked similar to John and his brother Curtis, and now we have a generation 2 photo to match!

Christmas card photo attempts

... have not gone very well. This is what we have.

Nash Elementary Winter Music Program

This past Tuesday Josh's school put on its Winter Music Program. We thought he would miss it, because I was out of town for work (in New Orleans for oral arguments at the Fifth Circuit) and John has his tennis clinic that night, so we had planned for Josh to be home with a sitter. But then he got sick at school Monday, so we cancelled the sitter and the tennis clinic, and planned for John to stay home with him. But then he was all better Tuesday and went to school after all. So it was very day-to-day, and we had not bought a dress shirt for Josh to wear for the program. I thought he could just wear his school uniform and be fine.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when John sent me this photo on my cell phone Tuesday:



Oh my gosh. So handsome. And festive.

Here they are (the Nash Elem. first grade) getting all lined up by the music teacher:



Getting ready to shake some jingle bells:



Singing part of their four-song set:



And another post-concert photo of that handsome young man in his shirt and tie!