Merry Christmas 2009!

Wow! Hard to believe that it is February already! Where is the time going! I am, obviously, two months behind in blogging world, but I do so want to say a little about our Christmas.

Jonathan was very in to the whole idea of Christmas this year. It was so much fun to see everything through his eyes and truly experience the magic and wonder of Christmas. For the very first time, he was EXCITED to see Santa Claus. We took him to McCain Mall in NLR as that is where Santa likes to hang out. When it was his turn, Jonathan walked right up to Santa and told him what he wanted for Christmas. Santa talked to him for a few minutes and then asked Jonathan if he wanted to sit on his lap. Jonathan looked at him, thought about it for a minute, and said, “Yes, I will.” He climbed up there, turned around, and promptly smiled and posed for the camera. Hilarious! Such a ham! I, of course, am frantically snapping the camera as fast as it will go. We HAD to buy a picture since he finally consented to see Santa.

We left the mall and spent some time looking at lights in Sherwood. They have the best community drive-through lights display and also one of the best neighborhoods that goes all out decorating. We also found THE tackiest Christmas house you have ever seen. It was completely full from the road to the house and from one property line to the other with Christmas decorations. Most of them were the blow-up powered ones. There was also all kind of things hanging from the trees. It was so great that we had to drive by it three times to take it all in.

Jonathan was a big helper in putting up the tree this year and helping to decorate it. He did a really good job too. Stacey Clayton made a new Christmas ornament for our Gracie for us. She is such a good friend and such a talented artist. She is the one who painted the step stool, clothes tree, and small toy box for Jonathan when he was born.

Jonathan and I also spent some of our time at home doing “art projects.” He absolutely LOVES to do anything art-wise. He works very hard at it and it usually turns out really well. Here is one of our examples of the reindeer ornaments that we made and put on everyone’s Christmas presents.

We put out cookies and milk for Santa. Jonathan was very excited to see that they were all gone the next morning. He did tell me, though, that Santa made a mess and left a lot of crumbs. He said that Santa did not like crumbs. Too funny, seeing as how I left the crumbs on purpose!!

As you can tell, we had quite a few Christmas presents under our tree. It was a blast as usual and I think everyone had a great time. As usual, it took us several hours to open all the presents. We were so glad that MaMa Deb, Grandad, Grandma, Paw Paw, and Aunt Kim were able to come and spend Christmas with us.

Jonathan and Aunt Kim had a great time playing. They were pretending that Jonathan was putting Aunt Kim to bed. He covered her up, read her a story out of the Bible, prayed, and went to sit by the door and sing her a night-night song. It was so precious, and exactly how we put him to bed. He could recite the Bible story pretty accurately as well, which was really neat to hear.

Melinda, Mark’s boss, sent Jonathan a bunch of fun Nativity art projects home. He has had so much fun playing with all of them. He is truly starting to understand more of the Christmas story and we have had so much fun sharing it with him and telling it over and over and over. He also loves all Christmas music and we have sung our way through the month of December.