The Monday before Christmas we took a little trip to Madera to visit some family. It's always a blast visiting Uncle Alan and Aunt Gina. I don't know if the kids like jumping on Uncle Alan or playing the Wii more, but either way it's a good time.
One morning there my niece saw a whole bunch of fire trucks and police motorcycles by the firehouse. Something was up and we figured Santa was involved so we decided to check it out. They had headed over to the Children's Hospital to visit the kids there. Maya and Luke had a whole lot of fun checking out the fire truck and talking to the firemen. Santa was even hanging out there and the kids got to say hi.
After checking out the truck we headed into the main lobby of the hospital where Smokey the bear and Sparky the Dalmation were hanging out. Smokey the Bear wouldn't take no for an answer from my sister-in-law and chased her around until he got a hug.
We made lots of goodies, survived the holiday rush at the mall, and stayed up way too late talking - happens every visit. It's so nice to be close to family, especially to visit during the holiday - helped make it feel a little more like Christmas.
We got home late Wednesday and got ourselves ready for a party with friends the next day. Christmas eve was just our little family. We played games, read the Christmas story and sang Christmas carols. Then we all snuggled together and watched a Christmas movie or two with the kids. Then it was time to get ready for Santa to come. The kids didn't want to stay up too late (and they didn't want Mom and Dad to stay up too late either) because they know that Santa won't come until everyone is asleep. So we set up some milk and cookies for Santa and some snacks for the reindeer and tucked the kids into bed. Matt and I stayed up a little longer so I could watch "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time - fun movie.
Maya came down at 4 am (I told her she couldn't leave her room until then and she couldn't wake us up until 7am) and set up a little bed on the couch next to the tree. I remember doing that as a kid. So magical and so exciting. The reindeer left some tracks and a little mess in our entryway, but that's ok.
All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. The only damper was Matt and I had to prepare our talks that we were asked to give in Church the next day, so instead of getting to relax and play with all the fun new toys, I was stressing over preparing my talk. It went well, and it was so nice to come home from church and finally feel relaxed. I even fell asleep on the couch and took a long nap (and I don't take naps).
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