Second Christmas

We had second Christmas for Baby Seth.  Seth loved his toy microwave from Grandma and just wanted to play with that and his helicopter.  (Okay, and his mail truck -- "mailman!  mailman!")  Mattie, on the other hand, was quite excited about opening presents and happy to help Seth with his (and the rest of us with ours, too).  Once Jamesie opened his letter puzzle, he just wanted to play with his letters and wasn't interested in other presents.  :)

James continues to be excited about reading -- he sounds out new words and has been enjoying a set of flashcards that Grandma has.  He does very well with three letter words, and longer ones that sound like they're written ("doctor", etc.). 

Outings

We took the twins to Devil's Millhopper, a local sinkhole, the other day. (James said, "Are we at the popper?" I have no idea what he had in mind!) They enjoyed doing the steps, but kept asking where the sinkhole was -- so I guess they weren't too impressed. :)

They do enjoy Grandma's playground, though, especially the merry-go-round! Mattie is much more fearless than he was last time we were here -- he went down the tallest slide without hesitation, and he and Jamesie helped push the merry-go-round.

BCS

 Baby Cousin Seth is here!

A Few More Photos

 Because there haven't been enough recently.  :)

Grandma's Garden

 The boys enjoyed picking carrots (and in Mattie's case, onions) from Grandma's garden! 

Not Swimming

 It's too cold for swimming, but that didn't stop the boys from wading and splashing on the first step of the pool. 

We were sad to say goodbye to Auntie Nora, Uncle Adrian, and Daniel today -- they're off to England!  (I'm sure there will be no swimming or wading there!)

Merry Christmas

 Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Matthew was the perfect Christmas boy -- he loved his stuffed tiger that Santa brought, and happily exclaimed about all his other presents, too.  He especially liked the orange tiger shark airplane that his Daddy got for him. 

Jamesie was a little sleepy at first, but he also really liked all his presents.  In fact, he hasn't even opened all of them yet because he insisted that Mike read him his books after he opened them, and wanted to stop and play with his Scooby dominoes from Auntie Nora. 

Auntie Nora and Uncle Adrian got each other not one, but two of the exact same presents -- great minds think alike!

Jamesie and Daniel liked the air hockey that Santa brought, but James needed some reminders to keep his hand off the table.  :) 

Later in the day, the big hit was the landfill toy (from Toy Story 3) -- lots of fun moving parts.  Thanks, Grandma!

Christmas Eve

 Our neighborhood has a long tradition of doing Christmas Eve luminaries.  The boys enjoyed helping out this year, both by putting the candles in and lighting them.  (Auntie Nora and I questioned the wisdom of letting three year olds play with fire, but it ended up fine.)

Daniel was extremely excited yesterday to get a video email from Santa.  Santa even knew that Daniel would be at Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas!

James and Matthew are still figuring out the whole Santa thing, although James is a big Santa fan.  We saw Santa at the mall before we left, and James dashed over to him and gave him a big hug.  It was so cute!  (Santa asked if he'd been a good boy, and Mattie came up and solemnly said, "Yes, we have.") 

We told the boys that they needed to hang up their stockings tonight.  Daniel went right to it.  (James said, "Santa Claus is coming to town?"  I told him yes, and at first he tried to hang his stocking on the tree -- that didn't quite work!) Mattie was having too much fun running around with Uncle Adrian to hang up his stocking, so James did it for him. 

As they were going to bed, I told Mattie that Santa would come in the middle of the night when he was sleeping, and leave presents in their stockings since they've been good boys.  Mattie then told James, "Jamesie!  Santa is bringing presents for our stockings.  Jamesie!  If you don't eat, Santa won't bring you any presents!"  (Poor James!)