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.

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!