It was recently brought to my attention that not only did I wait to write the
Christmas 2013 post until February 2014, I promised a Part 2 that never came. Well, it's Christmas Eve 2014 (on the day I start writing this), so let's not hold our breath, shall we?
Still, I do feel a little bad about that, so a quick recap of last year.
Starting last year, we changed things up a bit in order to spend Christmas morning at our own house instead of traveling. Thus, my parents'/grandparents' Christmas Eve/Morning celebrations were moved up a couple of days, and we traveled the weekend before the holiday. This had the added benefit of allowing the kids to see Santa the way I used to: in a tiny cabin on my hometown's square.
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| It was unseasonably warm. |
Note the lack of a line to see Santa. I swear this is a popular thing, but last year, we were the only people visiting at that moment.
So here's how it went down. LG was just fine with the big guy in the red suit, despite the fact that the year before, we had to bribe her with a cookie.
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| Though she may have realized she was getting potato chips when it was all over. |
G2, on the other hand... better to let the pictures tell the story.
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| These two shots were snapped within a half-second of one another. |
This was probably the height of G2's stranger danger phase. He was scared of strangers for about one week in December, and it happened to fall over Christmas. Frankly, I don't think it could've gone better. These days, he's as likely as not to walk up to someone he's never met and demand to be picked up.
The rest of G2's Christmas Eve can best be summed up as follows:
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| He never met a present he didn't like... to eat. |
As for Christmas morning, to reiterate, this was the first holiday we spent waking up in our own home as a family. This meant we could start our own traditions. For instance, we left cookies for Santa, but we also made "sparkle bread" for the big guy's reindeer. This is important, as it helps the reindeer fly.
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| So for all the rest of you NOT leaving sparkle bread for the reindeer, you're welcome. |
We also decided that Santa wraps his gifts in fabric, which we mail back to the North Pole so he can use it again the following year. Santa delivers a lot of presents, so he's doing his part to save the planet by recycling.
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| Santa also leaves dinosaurs. Rawr. |
All in all, 2013 was a great Christmas. If you're all very good, maybe Santa will bring a Christmas 2014 post some time before Christmas 2015.
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Incidentally, this was the best picture we could get of the two of them together.
Their cooperation hasn't gotten better in that last 12 months. |
