Well, Ruthie celebrated her very first Christmas! And the milestones keep ticking off. It's bittersweet, but exciting at the same time. We all so enjoyed having a little girl around this year, and shopping for and unwrapping all the pink presents! She was just darling, and despite having a terrible ear infection (that resulted in a ruptured ear drum on Christmas night), she seemed to enjoy all of the attention and love and gifts. One of her favorite presents was the princess chair she got from her Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Rebecca. She loves to crawl all over it, and go from sitting to standing while clapping away. Very very cute. And I love looking at that pretty pink chair in my living room, reminding me that I have a very sweet and darling daughter. She also got a tea set and baby doll stroller from her mammaw, a shopping cart and dolly from Santa, and a new purse from her Grammy. Fun fun fun!! I love that little precious baby girl!
Christmas with the boys was BEYOND awesome this year, since they really truly BELIEVE. They were both full of questions about Santa (especially Mr. Logical, Hayden), and were constantly aware of their behavior should the elves or Santa be watching! What a wonderful tool for good behavior :) Nathan and I really tried to enhance the magic of Christmas this year, with lots of story-telling about Santa and the North Pole, and enacting all of the Christmas rituals, like cookies and milk left out for Santa, with small bites taken out in the morning, and crumbs left around their room!
This year Santa brought a big boy bed for Pierce, complete with Spiderman sheets and blankets, and a cool star curtain so he close it off like a hidden fort. His reaction was precious, as he immediately grabbed his blanky and his paci, and tested it out haha! He just couldn't believe that Santa had brought him this amazing new gift, and Hayden was thrilled because the room was all changed around, with the bed in a new place, and Santa had also left a globe with a special feature - when the lights go off, it becomes filled with glowing constellations! It's very very cool. So they were absolutely thrilled with their new room, and now that Pierce can get out of bed, it's always interested to see where they end up sleeping! More often than not, they opt to sleep together, and I just adore that this is their choice! I'll find them all snuggled up together, snoring away, with their fuzzy pillow pets and blankets. What a special treat it is to be raising brothers who are so close in age, and obviously such great buddies. Their bond is strong and I'm a proud mama.
Some other highlights of our Christmas celebration were decorating gingerbread houses with their Aunt Rebecca, who started this tradition for them this year! It was super fun. They also got a very cool horse swing made out of tires, to complement their regular tire swing at my parent's house, and these fabulous remote control vehicles that move over land and water. My brother and his wife gave them possibly their most favorite gifts, these aerodynamic scooters from Switzerland, that they have been living on! We've been taking long walks every day while they scoot along, and they are getting quite good. It's pretty cute. And great exercise!
And I have to re-count my favorite story of the season. When we went to meet Santa at the mall very early in December, out of the blue Hayden told him that he wanted a baby reindeer that he could feed with a bottle. This was so darn cute! But also so clearly impossible to make happen. So I went home and did some research, and ended up ordering a little stuffed animal "Webkinz" reindeer. And then I began slowly trying to steer him away from a real live animal. I tried the "we don't have enough land" tactic, which was met with a reply of, "well Grammy has a big back yard, he can visit there when he wants to be outside". So I tried the "we can't take a baby reindeer away from his family and mommy" idea, to which he rationalized, "well Dallas and Lilly can be his family". Fail. Finally I said something that appeared to hit home, "honey, our yard is so small that there is nowhere for a reindeer to go to the bathroom, and he might end up going in the house, or even in your BED!" - which met with a complete look of horror! Finally lol. But of course it back fired on me slightly, because the poor child was so worried that Santa wouldn't "hear" his request to NOT bring a real baby reindeer. Literally after he had been lying in bed for about 15 minutes on Christmas Eve, he came out into the living room saying, "Mommy, what if Santa bring me a reindeer? What are we going to do?"! So now I feel like a horrible mommy for worrying him so badly. I explained that Santa likely heard his request, because his elves are always secretly listening, but if we did end up with a baby reindeer, we could definitely take him to live at the zoo with the other animals, and that seemed to satisfy him. On Christmas morning, he was absolutely thrilled to find his little stuffed toy, whom he promptly named "Haydeer", which is so typical original! He loves that little guy, and brings him to bed each night, which makes me feel like it all worked out just as it should have!
This holiday season has certainly been a magical one for our family, and we hope the New Year brings with it lots of great new adventures for our family, and for all of our loved ones as well!
