Christmas 2009

It's taken me a while to post this because I've been busy... living life, instead of documenting it. Ya know what I mean? Sometimes it's just so peaceful to sit back and not worry about taking pictures of everything or writing about everything, or thinking about how you might write about something... you know - just living in the moment and holding it all in and keeping it for yourself.

But then sometimes you gotta just let it all bust out onto your blog... like this:

This would be the fantastic train set that Santa found 3 months ago and took completely apart so it could be stored in the attic at our house and then set up with Daddy on Christmas Eve. Notice the great attention to detail in creating a perfect scene... notice how large and hard to miss this beautiful train set is...

now please take notice that this is what Hayden totally flipped out with pure Christmas joy about.
Not to worry - the train table and trains grew on him... a few days later. {{{grrrrr!!!!}}}

Amanda's top gifts were a box of about 25 chapter books donated by Santa's elves, a mp3 player that mommy stood in line for 3.5 hours for on Black Friday. Yes I did.

Santa also brought her a FurReal pet that she now thinks is a little creepy, and a Taylor Swift Karaoke CD. She loves her figurine from her Aunt Pam and found time to clean her dresser off just so she would have a proper place to display her.


I do believe this was Samantha's favorite part of the Christmas season. The lifespan of the gingerbread house that Amanda built was exactly 23.4 seconds... and then it became a gingerbread tent city... and then Samantha dug in.


Samantha received a baby doll from her Grandma Lee that she took to immediately. We have about a dozen pictures at different times and on different days just like this one:


She also received some fun toys and much appreciated warm clothes for these crazy cold days we've been having here in Florida.







On Christmas Eve we took the kids out for a walk around city hall. It was nice to get out and walk with the kids as a family. Sadly, we don't do this enough. Perhaps we will do it more now.



p.s. the kids receive a ridiculously large gift card for a bookstore from their great Aunt Laura. We're still wondering if it's a mistake. If it's not, I see a huge bookstore shopping spree in their future... or several smaller sprees spread throughout the year. What do you think? Should we let 'em blow it all at once or spread it out over the year?