December 22-25

Day 22 - Lunch with Santa. Ryan is finally convinced that he has met THE REAL Santa this year. He wasn't as interested in meeting Mrs. Claus, but the fact that she was there only solidified this decision.

When Kaylin sat on his lap and he asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "I already told you. TWICE!" I piped in that the other two must have been his helpers because this guy had the real beard and everything. He came around to each table and took a lot of time with each child, which was nice. He even told Kaylin (and probably Ryan too, but I didn't hear) that he'd seen her fighting with her brother a little bit. (at this point, Kaylin's eyes got HUGE and I was trying so hard to hold back my laughter that tears filled my eyes) And that he knows she wants to be a good girl, so could she do Santa a favor and try really hard not to fight with him? (she stared at him in disbelief and nodded in slow motion)

And Jason finally got to meet the big man this time. When the kids asked me, I told them he asked Santa for a rattle, but Ryan wanted to be sure he got the request, so when we got home, Ryan said into the air, "Santa, could you bring baby Jason a rattle, please?"


Day 23 - Bake Sugar Cookies. We ended up being invited over to a classmate of Kaylin's house to decorate cookies on Wednesday, so this worked out perfectly! Plus, I'm a little baked out. I've made 15 dozen cookies in the last week and my oven needed a nap. So we didn't frost the infamous sugar cookies this Christmas.

Day 24 - Bake a birthday cake for Jesus. When you don't plan ahead, Jesus gets a frosted brownie cake instead!

Day 25 - Read the Nativity Story from the Bible. Every year we've intended to do this and this was the first year it finally happened. The kids played with our new Little People Nativity set afterward and acted out the story...it was really sweet!

I hope you enjoyed going through the 25 Days of Christmas with my family. If you didn't put together a schedule this year, I encourage you to do it next year. We had a blast! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!