My sleepy boy opening his presents on Christmas.

I’d been anxiously anticipating this Christmas for some time, and it did not disappoint. In true Arnold tradition we got our tree the day after Thanksgiving. We found a quite nice 6-7 foot one at Home Depot and tied it to the top of our little Forrester. It fit perfectly in our living room and smelled heavenly. In my family you get a new ornament every year and so I have 27 ornaments that are all unique and beautiful. Most of them have an angel theme, since my mom always gives me an angel for Christmas. I’ve carried that tradition on with our kids and they got cute little snowmen jingle bell ornaments this year.

With our tree up we really got into the holiday spirit. We made all of our Christmas cards this year by hand and we made a construction paper chain to hang around the living room. We did all of our shopping early and mailed out our packages before the crazy busy mailing season started. Everything I got for Dylan and the kids I’d immediately wrap and put it under the tree. In years past I’ve found things hidden away after Christmas that I’d forgotten I’d bought. I wasn’t going to make that mistake this year. When I saw how many presents Shay had I took several of the ones I’d bought and unwrapped them. They’ll be re-wrapped in a month for his birthday. He’ll never know the difference. It was The Seamus Show for awhile on Christmas morning with all the gifts he received. It was hard to get him to stop playing with the gift he’d just opened to open another one. When he opened a bath toy, he immediately took off his pants and ran to the bathtub to play with it. When he opened the new pillow and blanket I’d made him, he grabbed them and ran to his bed to lie down with them.

Taking his blanket to his room right after opening it.

This was the first Christmas that he understood what Santa was. We spent the month watching Christmas movies and talking about Santa and the birth of Jesus. It was so much fun to see him get into the magic of Christmas.

My sister, Sannie, who came from LA to spend Christmas with us.

I was actually up before Seamus this Christmas. My sister, Sannie, was sleeping on the couch, and I came out at about 8:00 because I couldn’t sleep any more. About 10 minutes after I came out Seamus came out and said “Mommy, look, Santa was here!” We looked and sure enough, Santa had come and eaten the cookies we’d left out, drank some of the milk, and the reindeer had nibbled on the carrots we’d left. He was thrilled! The stockings were sitting out on the couch, along with his big Santa gift. We’d gotten him one of the things he wanted so much, it’s called an iDog. It’s a little robot dog that acts as a speaker for an mp3 player. It plugs into the headphones jack of an mp3 player and the little head wags, the ears waggle, and the tail moves to the beat of the music. Sometimes the little foot even taps to the beat. The dog barks sniffs your hand when you stroke his head, and if you leave him alone for awhile he whines. He loves it! Dylan even got him a little refurbished mp3 player and put some Backyardigans and Primary songs on it. The mp3 player also plays videos, so we put 3 Backyardigans shows on it. I think that’s all we could have gotten him and he would have been happy. Still, there were like 20 more presents under the tree for him, as well as his stocking to open. I think he was in shock at all of the things he received.

Dylan opening up some of his gifts, this one is the mini model.

He got lots of great things, including a fun chemistry set for the bathtub, several puzzles, a new blanket and pillow that I made for him, a little electric piano, a cool stage set complete with hand puppets, and lots of other neat things. It was almost more fun to watch him open presents than it was to open my own.

I got some amazing things, too. I got some beautiful jewelry, a new planner, an amazing coupon book from Dylan full of perfect coupons (like a full house cleaning, a night out on the town, and 2 hours of Jessie time…all to myself). I couldn’t believe what a great Christmas I had. Dylan got a bunch of cool things too, what sticks out to me is the mini-cooper model kit that I got for him. It’s so cool! And he’s going to paint it in the manner of his slightly larger mini that he drives around.

After stockings and Santa gifts we had breakfast with eggs, sausage, sticky buns, hash browns and OJ. Then we all went into the living room to open gifts. It only took 2 hours this year as there were only 7 of us. We finished opening presents with my mom, sister, and brother at about 10:30 am. Then we spent some time playing with the things we got and taking naps. Such a fun time. The next day Dylan took off of work and so did my mom, brother, and sister. We took the kids up to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum…but that’s a story for another post. Namely the next one.

I hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did!

Can you tell that these two are brother and sister? Or do they look a little like twins? They're about the same age in these pictures. Unfortunately, they're both sick right now (me too!) but they're just so cute...how can you get frustrated with these faces?

So I think I went a little overboard this year on Shay's Christmas presents. I was looking under the tree and between me, Dylan, and Dylan's family he has like 14 presents. Some of them are big, too. That's not counting anything that my mom and family may have gotten him. Plus his stocking (our stockings are big and packed full of toys and candy). And he also has his gift from Santa. I've decided, then, to grab some of the things I've gotten him for Christmas and save them for a month until his birthday. I'm afraid Christmas morning he's going to open one or two gifts and start playing with them and not want to stop to open more. We're going to finish everyone else quickly and end up with tons of Shay gifts left over. I don't want to spoil him on the first Christmas he's going to remember.

We've been talking up Santa this year and Shay is really excited about him. One of the moms in my mother's group tells her kids that Santa isn't real. She was raised not believing in him and says she feels silly lying to her children. I say "Phooey on that". Believing in Santa is just believing in the magic of Christmas. In the Christmas Spirit--that wonderful feeling of giving and love that people get at Christmastime. What's so bad about believing in surprises and magic anyway? We've been watching The Polar Express like non-stop since we've gotten it from Netflix a week ago. This kid loves the movie and I don't mind it either. It has got some great songs and some good themes. So, Santa it is, until he figures it out. He's been with me this year when we've shopped for stocking stuffers and for gifts and when we've wrapped the Santa presents. He's a bright kid, so I guess I'm hoping that he forgets about it before Christmas. Or I'll tell him that Santa asked Mommy to help do the Christmas shopping this year.

Shay loves playing with Abby. He tries to include her in many of the games he makes up for himself. Case in point: he was playing some card game with himself and he thought Abby might like to play with him. He gave her the cards she needed to play. I came in to find him giggling and covering her with cards and I just couldn't resist snapping a picture. She's a good sport and puts up with a lot of his silliness. I just hope he returns that favor when she starts in with her silliness.


Abby is really strong already. She's holding up her head and chest and doesn't mind tummy time at all, especially when her brother gets down on the floor with her. Don't they look alike? Her eyes are blue, too, but a darker shade than Seamus's.


We went up to Midway a week or two ago for the Christmas festivities. They had dozens of gingerbread houses made by locals...from simple kids ones to a Victorian Mansion that was 3 stories and had a flashing fireplace inside. There were some amazing houses there. They also had gingerbread cookie decorating for the kids. Hence the cookie woman that Shay is standing next to. There must have been 50-75 of these cutouts lining the streets advertising where the festivities were going on. They also had something like 750 creches from around the world in the Midway LDS meetinghouse. Truly a sight to behold. It was amazing to see so many artists' depictions of the Nativity. It really put us in the Christmas spirit.

So I officially have a cuddlebug daughter. She has been super clingy this week--hardly sleeping unless I'm holding her or lying next to her. It's a little challenging to finish the blanket and pillow I've been making for Shay or to wrap gifts or to do anything with an 11 pound baby in my arms. I've managed to get all of these things done with minimal crying. Go me. I've been wrapping everything as it comes so that I don't lose gifts (sometimes I don't find them until March) and so I can see that yes, Dylan and Shay have plenty of gifts and I don't need to get them any more. I'm pretty much done...my Christmas cards have been sent and my gifts are all wrapped. I just have one more box of gifts to send to Seattle and I'm done. Now I can sit back and enjoy the season without worrying about shipping, wrapping, and buying presents.

We've invested in an elliptical machine and put it in the bedroom. I've been running every day (well, almost...not Sundays, of course) for the last two weeks since we bought it. I can make almost 2 miles in 20 minutes. It's sometimes challenging to manage to find the time, but I've made it a priority and I've already noticed a difference in the way I feel and the amount I weigh. We got a killer deal on the thing (60% off of $1600) and it's worth every penny. It's tiny so it fits well in the room and totally silent so I can work out while Abby is sleeping in the bed next to it. I love this thing!

We've been listening to a lot of Christmas songs, thanks to XM radio's Holiday Traditions channel. They have the classic old songs by '40s-'70s singers. Not so much of the Feliz Navidad crap you hear on the radio today. There are no American Idol singers on this channel, thank goodness. Still, there's one song that confuses me. The "I'll be home for Christmas" song has to be the most inconsiderate Christmas song out there. The singer assures his hostess that he will be home for Christmas and to plan on his attending her festivities. Then he makes all kinds of demands...snow and mistletoe...some of which she has no control over. If that wasn't enough he then informs her that yeah, he will be there, but actually he may not be there after all. What the heck? She's getting him presents, making extra food, planning to give him a place to stay...but he may not show up. How rude. :) Happy frickin' holidays.