Dear Santa

Merry Christmas! I know I'm running late on these posts but there were some great ones I couldn't help but document, so you're going to be getting quite a few holiday posts from me. So just bear with me. My camera was smoking today with pictures. I'm sure I'll still be posting about those around February.

We wrote our letters to Santa a couple of weeks ago. This was the first year that Campbell could "write" his letter.

 

And by write his letter, I mean copy my letters word for word, BUT it's in HIS handwriting and that still counts even if he has no idea what it spells. 

The amount of concentration that this took from this little 4 year old was intense.

I was so proud of him for sticking with it and the stationary I found online was perfect. He checked that he had been naughty (thank goodness he's truthful about it). So it was more or less a confessional. 

Nolan is a pro at Santa letter writing. I'm not even sure I helped him spell telescope.

I love this tradition of writing letters and it makes it so easy that we just send our letters with our elf, Pickles to the North Pole that very night for overnight delivery.

This one wasn't much into letter writing but she was into looking cute!

Luckily, Santa is such a sucker for cuteness.

Christmas smorgasbord

I'm about to give you a full dose of our Christmas month of celebration...better known as Christmas smorgasbord. You know, kind of like when you have the most random meal ever known to man with leftover mashed potatoes, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup so that you can go one more night without cooking. Yea, just like that.

In an effort to not post Christmas pictures until February, I'm giving you a glutinous portion whether you're ready for it or not. Hope you've got elastic pants on and that you're in a Christmas mood because there's not room for any "Grinchiness" over here. Because when it comes to Christmas, we go full throttle.

We trimmed our tree Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, it took two days. But I'm pretty proud of the fact that it ONLY took two days. With the amount of Christmas we put out, hearing "I'm hungry" every couple of hours and nursing the baby every 3 hours, I'd say that's pretty darn good.

  I gotta say, Landry looks like she's gotta fit right in lovin' her some Christmas.

And I can't believe that the tree has been left alone this year. Well, I take that back. Nolan makes ornaments almost daily (out of the most random materials). I'm proud to say I'm embracing the fact that our tree isn't "showroom" ready but it's definitely a showroom of our children.

I absolutely love the movie Elf. I'm not sure if my favorite part of this picture is the fact that they're captivated watching Elf or that they're snuggling while they're watching it.

Next year, I have a feeling a certain Miss is going to have her hands all over that tree. And in case you're wondering how many ornaments a baby needs to commemorate her first Christmas....we're at three and still counting.

The house and tree weren't the only things decorated around here. Nope, Landry was equally trimmed. I'm pretty sure she has an outfit for the 12 days of Christmas. 

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We've had a lot of fun with Pickles, our elf. I see all these posts on Facebook and Pinterest with all these elaborate mischievous things that others have their elves up to. We hardly have time to move the darn thing. One night we even forgot and had to do some major covering. And, my boys are mischievous enough as it is...I don't need to be giving them any ideas. 

The elf is great but not as great as the big man in the red suit downtown. This was our second attempt to see him after seeing a line that was way too long and in the bitter cold. 

Waiting really was half the fun. I think the kids thought they were in Candyland.

 I'm so glad we waited. He beats any mall Santa any day. 

Although, Cam looked like he could have waited a little bit longer...

 

My favorite part of this picture is that Campbell is surely thinking, "I got my eye on you, Santa."

 

Landry was such a trooper even though she could hardly see with her little crocheted hat. The things we put our kids through for the cuteness factor.

Grandma and Granddad joined in on the Santa fun and like always, we discover it's a good thing that they're coming for backup until we keep working on fine tuning our zone defense now that we're outnumbered.

 Santa visit...check!

 

You know Santa has a lot on his plate and so we decided we better write him a letter just to make sure that he knew what the boys wanted. (And we had to get this down on paper...Christmas lists were changing way too much for this mama trying to get shopping done). 

Yeah, my baby is reading. We grow geniuses in our family.

And we definitely grow sweet big brothers...well to their sister, at least.

 

I'm amazed at Nolan's ability to write nearly all of his letter. He has come so far from last year. We only had to help him with a few words but he was deep in thought over that list. We have the boys narrow it down to three things because the wise men brought Jesus three gifts and he has so many other children to deliver to. The rest will be up to us or the grandparents. 

 

Campbell was able to draw what he wanted with a little help from his artistic older brother. 

 

Pickles was watching the whole time from an ornament in the tree. So it was really convenient that he could just take the letters with him to the North Pole on his way.

But my favorite moment after all the craziness of seeing Santa, wrapping presents, and shopping are the sweet moments like this that no present can even compare.

I sometimes feel that all this "Santa is watching you" and accidentally touching the elf that causes a meltdown about his magic being gone might land my kids in therapy. I really hope not. I want my kids to look back at Christmas knowing the true reason we celebrate it, that giving is better than receiving and that their mama loved her some Christmas and did her best to make sure that memories were made.

Dear Santa

Oh I dread the day that my boys no longer believe in Santa. I'm completely ok with the fact that some might see them as Britney from Glee when they're in high school still believing in Santa. I'm eating up every second of this time because I know it will not last long. While I'm in the moment I just want to squeeze them and say, "Don't ever grow up! You don't even know how cute you are!" Maybe that's why I'm so obsessed with going overboard on the play-by-play documentation of their lives.

The questions about Santa are starting to come. I mean I can't blame the kid, we've seen four Santas in the past two weeks unintentionally. As for now, he's still believing. And after watching the Polar Express together, he rings the jingle bells that are sporadically spread throughout our home and asks, "Mommy, can you hear that bell?" And I say with complete confidence, "I sure do, honey!" Then I hear him ask his little brother and then explain to him that if you hear the bell that means you believe in Santa. That's when I nudge Justin with my sharpest elbow to make sure he's listening to the insane amounts of cuteness going on before our very eyes.

So despite telling the four Santas in downtown, in the Stockyards, at school, and in a random parking lot what we already wanted for Christmas, Nolan thought we better write him a letter for good measure. I found this adorable stationary at Target last year and Nolan just smiles ear to ear when we get it out.

Since we're still learning to read, I had to help out.

Campbell isn't old enough to write a letter. So what does any other two year old do while their older sibling writes a letter to Santa? Why play the guitar and sing Christmas songs in a rag-tag pajama outfit of course.



Nolan was so proud of that letter and I must say for a Pre-K kid, he's got some beautiful handwriting.


Then he gave it his best slobbery lick. Luckily, it was already addressed to the North Pole and stamped with a candy cane stamp.



With a quick run to our mailbox, the flag was up and the letter is already in Santa's hands.
Is it obvious yet that I live vicariously through my children at Christmas?

Wait a minute, Mr. Postman!

I found the cutest stationery at Target for some serious Santa writing. Nolan knows all of his letters back and forth. Not so much how to use them to make words just yet, but we can just yell out what letters to write and he's good to go.

So we sat down Friday night and decided what we really wanted to tell Santa about. It took some time but I'm REALLY proud of my 4 year old for getting every letter right and writing his first letter to Santa. We did the whole nine yards. He wore reindeer antlers, a Santa hat, addressed the envelope to the North Pole, slapped a stamp on it, and ran to the mailbox to mail it. Seriously, does it get any better than that? Having kids really makes you a kid again when it comes to holidays. It's just the best.

I took a picture of the letter but just in case you're wondering what it says:

Dear Santa,

I've been good. Please bring Elefun, Up (the movie), and Lightning McQueen, Tia, Mia with feathers (we're back into Cars again if you couldn't tell).

Thank you, Nolan

I'm sure he would have asked for more but we ran out of room. Now the trick is teaching him that we can't write him a letter EVERY day. Once again, I have put myself on shopping timeout for him. I remember this starting last year. You can't help but want to get them some "little" thing but before you know it, it's out of control and you remind yourself when you put things back on the shelf what you want your kids to remember about this season...Jesus!

Writing the letter

high five for being a rock star with his letters

So proud...The official letterAddressing the envelopeAlmost done, slip it in the mailboxOn the way to the North Pole!