Santa Gave It!

The magic of the twinkly house! The magic is that Tyler has so far refrained from breaking it.

There is nothing better than having the magic and wonder of Christmas back in your house after years of nice-but-not-quite-there Christmases (the one John and I spent in Las Vegas takes the cake - yuck! I can still see the cigarette hanging off the lip of the weathered blackjack dealer as smoke swirled around her head, jingle bells played merrily in the background and the faded decorations from the Carter administration all made me wonder what the heck I was doing). Tyler has definitely got the Christmas spirit and it is truly infectuous. Everywhere we go we see twinkly lights on the houses that either "Jose did it" (our gardener who put ours up) or "Santa gave it" which generally applies to anything Christmassy.

Sittin in the big man's chair. I'll be the judge of who is naughty and nice!

The big man and the little man, both as stoic as stoic can be.

The Santa at the mall is a big draw this year for Tyler. He likes to go and see if he's there in his house, but that's about it. When we had his picture taken with Santa, there wasn't any screaminig or crying (from either of them), but they both looked like they were getting their mug shots after a hard night of drinking eggnog and chasing elves. Once we're at the mall, though, we can spend a good hour or so at Pottery Barn Kids playing with all their toys. The firehouse, the firetrucks, and the firemen are big winners, but T's also really fond of the baby dolls. He especially likes to undress them and give them a bath. Then there is the doll house at Toy Jungle, which he can't get enough of. He plays with the little bunnies and mice and makes them go to sleep then wake up, have an Otter Pop, and cook Swedish Pancakes and soup. It is truly adorable!!

After a hard day of "put out the fire," what do the firemen need? A jacuzzi with "cucumber eyes!"

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We also got to spend some time with Grandma this Christmas. She came to visit while Iowa was having an ice storm and losing power (smart move, Grandma!) and Tyler just loved hanging out with her. I would be upstairs taking a shower and I could hear him downstairs just giggling up a storm while Grandma worked her magic on him!