CHRISTMAS UNWRAPPED

Christmas Eve was spent at church and watching the boys sing with their choir. Aidan took his first communion by intinction. And the boys got glow-in-the-dark stars to remember Jesus' birth.

At home Aidan and Austin got new Christmas PJs from Grammy and were very excited to put them on. They were less excited about going to bed, but before bed they did put out fresh-baked chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for Santa and 8 carrots for his reindeer (Rudolph wasn't coming because it wasn't a foggy night).

Aidan & Austin did eventually fall asleep and Mommy, Daddy and Grammy stayed up a while longer waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa. The boys didn't take our late night into consideration and woke us up with shouts of "It's Christmas" and "Santa was here" at 4:44am! We got them to snuggle a bit in bed, but by 6am, Mommy was tired of hearing "NOW is it time to open presents" every 5 minutes. So I got up with Aidan who was then allowed to wake up Grammy and headed for the living room. Aidan found a letter from Santa and read it with Grammy.

Then the unwrapping began. Some of Aidan's favorite gifts are his train whistle, level crossing and diesel engine for his HO train set and the slot car race track Santa brought for both boys. Austin loves taking pictures on his digital camera, playing with his Hess truck and wearing the special flashlight that straps on his head.

Christmas Card Rejects

Ed bought some matching Christmas outfits for the boys and then some how convinced them to put them on. This is quite impressive since Austin refuses to wear shirts or pants with buttons and Aidan doesn't care for long sleeves.

Come on boys, let's take a nice picture - for Mommy, pah-leeeease. How about standing up and giving each other a hug?

Okay - these are the photos that will not appear on the front of our Christmas card this year.

But they certainly tell a story! And this last one isn't bad.

Breakfast with Santa

The weeks are getting away from me, but we are officially in the Christmas season. This weekend we hosted our annual Christmas "extravaganza" at the Wevodau abode and had a blast. In an effort to get the boys out of the house while preparing for the party, I took them to have breakfast with Santa (put on by the PTA at Aidan's elementary school). Both boys were excited and this was an especially big deal for Austin. He wanted to sit on Santa's lap - something he had violently protested in previous years. Even though it was a pancake breakfast, Austin couldn't wait to eat. He insisted on having a pop tart and glass of water before we left for our 8am visit. At breakfast, Aidan had his fill, eating the sausage links off of all our plates and a couple pancakes. Austin only wanted a glass of milk - which he downed quickly. Then we got in line to get our picture taken with Santa and tell him all about our Christmas lists.
While standing in line, Austin mentioned to me more than once that his tummy hurt. I asked if he need to go potty, "No." was his response. Then he asked if we could go home soon - I should have seen the warning signs, but alas I subconsiously chose to ignore them. After 10 minutes, we were next in line to see Santa. The boys were watching Santa when Austin turned around and said, "Mommy..." which was quickly followed by some spontaneous projectile vomiting. Yup - the pop tart, water and milk all came up. What a shock - I stood there for a few seconds trying to decide what to do. I was standing amidst hundreds of people and their kids - none of whom did I know. Should I leave my kids and find paper towels to at least cover up the evidence. Or should I stay with my sick child? I decided to go get towels in an effort to prevent others from getting sick. Naturally, now the line for Santa had shifted about 10 feet to the right to move away from us. Someone did get the custodian and he was very kind and cleaned up the floor. I got Aidan back in the line and instructed him to talk to Santa, get his photo taken and wait for Mommy right there. Then Austin and I went to the bathroom to clean up. Austin had to wash his hands and I needed to wash my shoes. While this was an unpleasant experience for each of us - thinking back on it just hours later, I was very grateful that Austin lost his breakfast BEFORE he sat on Santa's lap. If he had thrown up on Santa, we would have had to change our name and move Aidan to a new school to avoid the shame. So in the end, I consider myself luck to have avoided a near tragedy.