It's the Most Wonderful Time...

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

As I was singing along with the radio this morning, I realized how real just how real the lyrics "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."are. Sure, Christmas has always brought me joy each year, but I don't know, this year, it seems different. Perhaps it's that Nathan, you are now old enough to appreciate Christmas and all the traditions that go along with it. But I just love to be able witness the joy that lights up your faces as you experience the magical moments of Christmas time. When we are looking at Christmas lights and Nathan, you are yelling, "Blue! My Favorite!!!" every time you see blue lights, and Hannah, perhaps too young to express you opinions, simply goes, "oooh!" when you spot a good sized light display. Another example is when we watched our neighbor's blow up lawn figure slowly inflate. Hannah just stood there through the entire process, mesmerized and when the figure was fully inflated, a huge smile came across you face as you pointed and babbled something out. 

Christmas, a season of joy and giving. This year, I'm viewing this holiday with a different lens. Sure the physical act of giving presents is there, but I'm really appreciating this whole concept of giving joy to an innocent child. Childhood is supposed to be filled with carefree and joyful moments. It saddens me to know that there are children out there who are deprived of this simple, yet powerful gift; so as a parent, I'm striving to make sure that you guys will learn to appreciate this gift and not take it for granted. 

Well, your grandparents came to visit this weekend and the weather was just perfect for being outside. One of the things we did was to ride the Zephyr around to look at the Austin trail of lights displays. While it's probably more magical at night, we think it's good enough for now because we don't need to be carrying around 2 grumpy and sleepy kids through a thick crowd.  

 Hannah, you were able to provide us with a good preview of what airplane flights will be like for the next few months. Yay...

We also drove up north to Georgetown to visit the Bethlehem stroll. They transformed a block of downtown into a reenactment of a marketplace back in the day when Jesus was born.  There were lots of cool things to see. 

Nathan, you got to make your own sand art ornament...

 And watch a demo of someone using an ancient carpentry tool...which by the way, was Jesus' occupation when he was an adult.

 There was even a "Texas" fireplace, safe for kids.

 Nathan even wanted to take a picture with a donkey. While I had to go and change Hannah's diaper during this time, I didn't get a chance to see your reaction to the donkey, but I can imagine that in this picture, you are covering your nose and whining, "stinky!"

On Tuesday, a couple of Hannah's friends came over for a Chinese story time and for the craft, we decorated cookies. Hannah was even sprinkling sprinkles on your cookie, but by the time I grabbed the camera to take a picture, you were shoving the cookie in your mouth. 

 Nathan also had a friend over and you guys did a good job with sharing the blue sprinkles.

 Here's just a random cute picture that I took of Hannah today.

 On Thursday, we went to go visit Daddy at work. We had a quick lunch and then went downstairs to play some Foosball. Both Nathan and Hannah really like it.

  

 Before Grandma and Grandpa left, we went one morning to Cabelas. Hannah loved watching the fish and turtles. You also really liked pushing the buttons on the elevator, which you hardly ever get to do, and going in and out of tents. We spent a good hour there and then went to go visit Daddy at work.

Hannah's really saying a lot more words these days. "Daddy" "Teddy" "More" "Uh-Oh" and also you are getting really good at imitating sounds. 

Nathan is learning how to stand up for yourself at school, fur example, when a friend pushes you or takes your toys, you need to use your words and not just wine and throw a tantrum. We are also talking about how we need to help our friends out too. We've been role playing what you can do if one if your friends is being treated unfairly. We want you to be able to stand up for yourself and also for others. 

I'm looking forward to this weekend as we get to meet up with our centering baby group and make gingerbread houses. I think it'll be pretty awesome to see what everyone comes up with. We'll definitely have pictures to share on that. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy