Here Comes Santa Claus...Right Down the Santa Train

Christmas Eve seems as good a time as any to finally post about our trip on the Santa Train.  The Santa Train is a local train that you ride on and there is someone singing carols and then Santa comes to visit.  It's fun for the kids and kind of makes an even out of seeing Santa.  

The first half of the trip we had a man singing carols and playing the guitar and another man playing the saxophone.  The Santa comes onto your train car and everyone takes a turn to go down and see him.  Santa was so nice and friendly.  He gave the boys a train whistle.  Parker asked for a flashlight for himself and a flashlight for Cooper. (He's been pretty consistent all season that all he wants is a flashlight, Santa has a pretty easy job this year.)

Christmas Expectations

I just read something that was sent out by my church that said that if we have low expectations of Christmas, we can't be disappointed.  Disappointment only comes when something doesn't meet our expectations, so by lowering the expectations, you lower your chance of disappointment.  While I agree that this is true (and have seen people be disappointed when their expectations are too high), I don't like this theory.

If we had no expectations for Christmas, would we even be excited about it?  There would be no anticipation for this season!

I think we need to adjust our expectations, especially when we have young children.  I have the expectation that Christmas will be great, but it may not be perfect.  We might not get the perfect family photo, the kids may not behave perfectly, there might be crying at some point in the day.  Nap time is sure to be messed up, which might result in cranky kids.  But we will make memories.  At some point in the day we will all be happy, we will enjoy opening gifts and watching others open gifts.  We will eat delicious food and spend time with family. 

So my expectations are high, but we aren't aiming for perfection here, we are just aiming for some Christmas memories.

Moms Make the Magic

I love Christmas.  I love the day, I love the season.  It's magical.  But that magic has really changed since I became a mom.

When you are a kid, Christmas just happens.  You get to enjoy every second of it, stress free.  All these presents just appear, a meal is put on the table in front of you.  You come down on Christmas morning and the tree is pure magic.  As a mom though, it's now my responsibility to make that happen.  

I have been shopping for months.  December is full of all my usual responsibilities, plus extra parties, decorating the house, visits to Santa, cooking extra special meals, parades, wrapping presents, making sure that everyone on your list has a gift.  (It's not just Santa who makes his list and checks it twice.)  Moms have to make all of this happen, and it's a lot of pressure.  But I gladly do it, because I want Christmas to be a magical time for my kids, just like it was for me.  

Christmas is the one occasion that I think that all of the extra stress and pressure is worth it.  I love all of the traditions, even if it means that every weekend is packed from mid November until the end of December.  

So here's to all of the moms out there who are making Christmas magical for their entire families.  And here's to a relaxing January, with maybe a spa day thrown in there somewhere...

Our Christmas

Get ready for picture overload.  I started typing out a blog post about our Christmas, but it was getting long and out of hand.  So I will try to keep this short and sweet with a million pictures.  

Christmas is my favourite time of year!  This year our Christmas started on December 23, as it always does with the Christmas eve church service.  Parker enjoyed it and tried to sing during performances, dance on his chair and kept telling me to shhhh.  Then Ryan took him out to run the halls as an hour long church service is too long for a 2 year old.

Christmas eve we spent with Ryan's family.  No pictures unfortunately because someone (me) forgot to put the memory card in the camera.  Parker was spoiled by Grandma and Aunt Amy and we ate a delicious meal prepared by Ryan's mom.

 I asked Parker to hold Cooper for the Christmas tree picture.  Parker loves holding Cooper.  Cooper doesn't enjoy it quite as much.  

Opening his new training pants - I'm more excited for them than he was.

Parker got a new Cow Cow backpack.

Parker and Cooper got a new kitchen to play with.  It amazes me how at this age he is already totally into playing pretend. 

Cooper just sat in his chair.

Trying to get a family picture.  Parker grabbed my hair, which is pretty normal.  

Parker's new sneaks.

At the Cottage on boxing day - it's a Parker in a box.

He waited very patiently for his gifts.

My grandma holding Cooper on Christmas day.

My family - I love these boys!

On Christmas day Parker got bundled up and went for a snowmobile ride with Bapa.

A new Cow Cow!

December 27 we went to my grandma's.  This is the kids table!  I thought Parker wouldn't be able to handle it, but he actually sat there and ate some of his meal.  He was following his big cousin's lead!  But seriously, he did everything that Trace did.  If Trace scratched his head, Parker scratched his head.  It was pretty cute.

It was a fantastic Christmas.  I know that every Christmas from here on will just get better and better because the kids will have more fun every year.  

Life Lately

It's a busy time of year, and luckily Cooper is a good baby because he makes it much easier to get stuff done.  He has done a lot in the first month of his life. 

Last week we went to my work's Kid's Christmas party.  They had a reptile show, lunch and Santa.  Parker seemed to like all of the different reptiles and didn't mind touching them.

My parents have this life sized Santa by their front door that sings.  It has completely traumatized Parker and he says no no no no any time you try to take him near it, so we were worried about what he would think of real Santa.  Luckily if Santa gives him a high five he seems to get over it.  He's still kind of unsure of the big guy, but he didn't cry!

 Also last weekend we went and cut down our Christmas tree.  This is the first year that we have done that, but we thought that it would be a fun tradition for the kids.  Obviously Parker doesn't really have a clue what's going on, but it's about starting traditions that they will remember, and he still had a good time.  It's much more expensive to cut down your own tree so I'm not entirely sure that it was worth it this year, but oh well.

Then we decorated it.  Parker was a huge help!  All of the glass ornaments are close to the top, so the tree is a bit unbalanced.  But when we turned on the lights Parker said "Wowwww!"

Finally, this week I did a lot of Christmas shopping.  I'm pretty much done!  So my mom and I took the boys to the mall one day to meet Santa.  Parker was unsure again but this Santa also knew the high five trick.  Cooper slept.  

Once we walked away Parker was much braver and kept saying "Bye Santa"

I just love this season.  It's busy, but it's so much fun. I can't believe that it's only 2 more weeks until Christmas!  

Some Christmas Stuff

For most of you Christmas probably seems like forever ago.  Honestly, it feels like that for me as well.  But since we left on vacation on December 27, I haven't had a chance to blog about the all important baby's first Christmas yet.

I had low expectations for Parker's first Christmas.  Not low expectations for Christmas as a whole, I just figured that Parker wouldn't care much for it.  And sure, he didn't really have a clue what was going on, but he was so good at all of the events!  He would open a present and play with it until the next toy came along.  He did not nap well because who can nap when all of that excitement is going on!  But even with the lack of naps he was pretty well behaved.

Is that a yawn Parker?  Probably because you didn't nap...

We have lots of Christmases in our family.  Christmas Eve we go to my inlaws.  We did Christmas morning with Parker at our house and then headed down the street to my parents.  Christmas dinner was at my Aunt's house (which luckily is just down the street the other way, that's a small town for ya...)  Boxing Day we went to my Grandmas.  So it's only 5 celebrations in 3 days...

But we all had a lot of fun, and of course Parker was the star of the show.  

A baby still has to eat, even if it is Christmas!

I have to give some credit to my husband as well though.  He went all out this year.  He got me a new purse that I love, built me something that I had been wanting and got me this gorgeous piece of art.  He did good.

A Whole Lotta Santa

We had quite the busy weekend over here!  It all started on Saturday with the Santa Clause Parade.  I don't typically go to the Fergus Santa Clause parade, but we missed Elora this year and our good friends were going, so I figured it was a great opportunity for a baby meet up.

 

The parade was fun and it was awesome to spend some time with a friend for me and a friend for Parker.  Ok let's be honest, Parker was more into his mum mum than the parade.

In the past, Parker hasn't really been able to defend himself against Declan who is definitely large and in charge!  These two babies are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Declan is very big for his age and Parker is clearly very tiny for his age.  But he is finally at a point where I don't feel like he's completely breakable and so there was a bit more interaction between them.  Declan did try to pick Parker up a few times though, which I found hilarious.  He's only 17 months old and he could get my 10 month old off the ground! (Don't worry, we shut that one down quickly.)

Then we sat Parker in a dump truck that shouldn't have fit him and Declan promptly dumped him out of it.  Oh I love these babies.

Saturday night was Ryan's work Christmas party which is always a good time.  The food was amazing and it was so nice to have a night out.  Parker hung out with my sister and went grocery shopping and had a bath.  So everyone had a great night!

Sunday was another busy day.  But the highlight was the Santa train.  The santa train is a train that kids go on to meet Santa, instead of going to the mall.  There were two cars, so while Santa was on the first car, we got hot chocolate, cookies and there were a couple singers who went through and sang Christmas carols.  It was a lot of fun and Parker loved looking out the window.

Then it was time for Santa!  Of course Parker doesn't really know what's going on yet, but it's always fun to take a Santa picture anyways.  He seemed pretty unsure of him and seemed to like the elf and Mrs. Clause better, but he didn't cry.  

I just love weekends in December!  They are busy and crazy and you have no time to just sit down and relax but I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm Old Fashioned

I have a feeling that my kids are going to think that I'm a huge loser.  Because while all of the other kids are out playing with their ipads, my kids are going to be getting things like this for Chistmas:

Which by the way they still do actually sell in stores.  Not only do kids today rarely know what a home phone is, but a rotary phone?  They must be so confused.... And yet at playgroup they have one and the kids do actually play with it...

Anyways, for Christmas or his birthday Parker is getting this:

Because I had one as a kid and I remember playing with it and get all nostalgic when I see it.  So I just had to buy it for him.  Remember how it moos when you open the barn doors?  Or is it just me who remembers that.

So I'm sorry Parker, while your other baby friends are playing with their new tablets, you have to deal with old fashioned farms that don't really do anything.  So I really hope you have a good imagination.

He's been playing with his stacking rings for a couple of months now and hasn't gotten bored so I'm thinking we will be ok.