And Then It Was Christmas

Charlie was up early, of course. But this year we told him he had to wait until 8am before we'd start opening gifts. He was PAINED by this. I kept telling him that when I was a little girl, it was 9am. I have been telling lots of "when I was a little girl" stories lately. It makes me feel very old but I can't stop. It just keeps coming out of my mouth in morally anecdote-ish tales... But anyway, This just meant he was going to spend the two extra hours staring at the tree and checking everything out.

The second the clock turned to 8, Charlie begged to go wake up Henry. I let him wake him up so I could photograph them coming down the stairs. Henry gave me some real winners as he picked his nose the entire flight down...

Henry started asking for "Team Umizoomi" toys in late November. He had never even SEEN them, he just wanted some. Once he asked for them, it's ALL he asked for the entire month of December. It was super sweet to see him open up the boxes with Millie, Geo and Bot inside. He was happy.

Charlie's big gift this year was the Wii U with a new Super Mario Brothers game. It's ALL he asked for. I was resistant to let him ask Santa for such a big gift. I told him it's a very pricey thing for Santa to buy and also, they were very hard to find and Santa might not be able to get one. Charlie, very seriously, told me that Santa would just MAKE one and it wouldn't be a problem... Oy. How they grow up and best their parents at their own games...


We spent our Christmas evening at our best friend's house for dinner. We've been frying a turkey on Christmas with our best friends for years. It is SOOOO good. If you've never fried a turkey before, you must. It's amazing. And look at how manly it is. I mean, what's manlier than beers dressed up in pipe cleaners and googlie eyes to look like Rudolph!?

And Then It Was Christmas Eve

Have I mentioned how unprepared for the holiday I was this year? Have I mentioned how busy I was all month and how everything just snuck up on me? Well, Christmas Eve shocked me. How was it already one day away from Christmas?

We spent the day following our semi-traditions. I backed Mike's car out of the garage to run an errand and smashed the side view mirror against the trash cans. That's not a normal Christmas Eve tradition but, it happened. The objects were closer than they appeared, apparently. I blamed this completely on Mike for parking the car too close but really, I shouldn't be allowed to back cars out of garages.

We went to the children's church service in the evening. It was a really sweet service with an adorable nativity play put on by children. The kids were so pumped up that they handed out glow sticks for the "candlelight" singing of Silent Night. They were so well behaved and sweet in church until Mike popped one of the glow sticks and made it start glowing a half an hour too early. Then they started playing lightsaberss. Of course. After I convinced them there was no lightsabering in church, they used them to play doctor and look in each other's ears and mouth...

Last year, my brother was in town for Christmas and his tradition with his wife is to go to Cheesecake Factory on Christmas Eve for dinner. We all went together last year and my family really loved it, so we decided to go again this year. I went in SWEARING I was not eating so much that I'd have no room for cheesecake (since I've never, ever made it to the cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory). But, I ordered my favorite shrimp pasta and ate so much. So, so much. I couldn't fit in another bite.

And finally, we ended our day with the tradition of reading Twas The Night Before Christmas to the boys. I love this tradition. I love them both snuggled on my lap, excited and hopeful for what the morning will bring.

Rudolph Run & Blitzen Bash

Back in September, all my friends were gathering together for dinner when my girlfriend, Keri, announced that her husband, Jay, had been claiming he could run a mile in 6 minutes 30 seconds. She said there was NO WAY he could do it and that she was betting mowing the grass on it. Suddenly, all the husbands were saying that they could do it too -- and then all the wives were also making bets. We decided we'd put the guys to the test with a timed race at a high school track. After rescheduling and rescheduling the race throughout the fall, we finally got the run settled for December 22nd. The Rudolph Run... followed by the Blitzen Bash, a Christmas-themed ugly sweater drunk-fest following the race.

The problem with a December run is that it's cold FREEZING outside. And on this particular day, it was also really windy. But the race had to go on. The guys refused to forfeit. So, I loaded up with double Nikons to shoot the race - one equipped with my 24-70mm lens and one with my 70-300mm. Normal people probably don't appreciate double Nikons as much as I do. But, I was really excited to be wearing two cameras.

Getting ready to run...

The runners.

The audience.

One mile was four laps around the track. The guys were running so well that all the wives started to worry they'd run themselves into a heart attack just to prove a point! Coach Mike kept track of their time and their splits and as he realized that Jay was looking like he'd make it under 6:30 - he ran the last turn with him while cheering him on! Jay was the official winner with a time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds!! Brad and Dave did awesome - Brad just barely over 7 minutes and Dave at 7 minutes, 21 seconds!!

GO, JAY!! GO!!!

After the men did us proud, we took them back to Jay and Keri's house, dressed them in ugly Christmas sweaters, fed them some delicious Mexican food and gave them lots of celebratory liquor. Aren't our outfits soooo pretty!?