The best Christmas ever (so far)

A few Christmas pics...
Me and my two peas.

All smiles.

She looks totally overwhelmed. But she persisted and got through them all. Notice the "morning hair"...we tell her it looks like a rat slept in it.

Givin' Daddy some lovin' after all the gifts were opened.

Taking his new car for a "taste" drive.

Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning since Hannah has come into our lives. She has brought back the magic that adults tend to lose as time goes by.

This year, Hannah asked Santa for a gas station and play 'puter (pronounced "pewter"). She said that's all she wanted because Santa needed room in his sleigh to bring presents to the other boys and girls. (ain't that sweet??)

A few holiday highlights:

• Even though this was Carter's first Christmas, we were unable to locate "first Christmas" attire for him (aside from a bib) because apparently they don't make "first Christmas" clothes in 18 months. I guess they figure a child that size would've already had a Christmas.


• As we were riding in the car a week or so before Christmas, Carter was craning his little neck to try and see Hannah's portable DVD player she was holding. She noticed him and matter-of-factly told him, "You shoulda asked Santa for a DVD player."


• One of her favorite gifts from Santa was a pair of hot pink Hello Kitty bedroom slippers. (Or "flippers," as she calls them.) She put them on first thing and wore them ALL day Christmas day...to Maw Maw & Paw Paw's house, Mimi & Pop's house, etc. She spent the night with Mimi and Pop, and Pop said that during the wee hours of the morning she woke up and realized they had come off. So she woke him up and had him put them back on her.


• Because Carter was way more interested in the paper than the gifts, Hannah helped him open his gifts. The problem? She lays claim to every gift she opens. So even though she opened something that was obviously for Carter, she took it.

Of course, Santa went overboard and brought much more than she asked for. She hasn't even played with some of it. And Carter is NOT interested in toys right now. Give him a power cord or a piece of paper and he's a happy camper.

Other gifts Hannah loved:

• A white bird house from Santa. Jason put it on her play house Christmas afternoon, and the birds had moved in by the next afternoon.
• A bird feeder shaped like a church. (She asked for this months ago after seeing it in the feed store with Pop.)
• Littlest Pet Shop house and pets. She LOVED this and sleeps with it sometimes.
• A cute little plush beehive with little bees. The bees have numbers on their tummys and you match them with their holes with the same number. It has also been deemed worthy to sleep in her bed with her and is a permanent fixture in her backpack. I can't believe she can stuff that whole thing in there! Miss Cat is the BEST for giving it to her!!
• A Dora tent and tunnel.
• New DVD player for the car. (One that doesn't blank out)
• Magnetic dress-up doll...picture a paper doll made of wood.
• Water slide for the tub (supposed to be a "shared" toy with Carter, but she hasn't let him touch it yet)

Carter's gifts (the ones to which he gives a passing glance):

• DVD player for the car. So far he's only watched Barney (once in Spanish), but he's more interested in ripping it down than actually watching it. Once I noticed him smiling at it when there were real children talking and singing.
• Crawling Pooh that talks and sings. It says "Hello Baby" and "Crawl with Me." Pooh better watch out...he don't know who he's dealing with.
• Busy ball popper that Hannah got her arm stuck in yesterday. I thought we were going to have to take it apart to get her out.
• Tonka cars

In all, we had a wonderful holiday. We were fortunate to spend time with all our family, and we've been blessed with good health and physical blessings beyond measure. I'm so thankful for the joy we shared over the season, and I hope 2009 brings even more happiness and blessings for my family.