Merry Christmas!

 Christmas this year was really fun. Now that Kaden is old enough to sort of understand what's going on, we all found ways to get into the Christmas spirit and celebrate in memorable ways. He loved decorating, listening to Christmas music, watching holiday movies and seeing all the lights strung up around town when we went out. The night before Christmas Eve ("Christmas Adam" as our friends call it), we celebrated the start of James' holiday break by going out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, and then driving back through the Swan Lake Fantasy of Lights one more time. It's incredible what a good memory Kaden has. Even now, anytime we're driving down the road that leads to Swan Lake, he starts talking about going to see the lights. I'm glad he was able to appreciate some of the "magic" of Christmas!

My memory of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year mostly centers around food. Since we didn't have family coming to town or big plans with friends, I decided to make the holiday special for me (and the baby) by indulging in some special meals and snacks. That may have meant I spent most of Christmas Eve in the kitchen. But hey, it was worth it!

One of our family's Christmas traditions is having a big brunch with Star Wars pancakes after opening gifts. However, some friends from church had invited us over for brunch on Christmas day, so we made our edible X-Wings and TIE Fighters first thing on Christmas Eve instead. After that, Kaden helped me make some yummy muffins. For lunch, I recreated one of our favorite dishes from Thai 2, the restaurant we visited weekly in Osan. It was ALMOST perfect, and definitely worth the effort. Curried pineapple chicken fried rice with cashew nuts - incredible! Then I threw a pot roast in the crock pot to enjoy after our church's evening candlelight service.

While I was busy in the kitchen, the boys found other ways to entertain themselves, including playing daddy's trumpet again, and watching the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the 5th or 6th time. (Kaden thinks Max the dog is hilarious!)

That evening, we got dressed up and attended our Church's unique brand of Christmas Eve service. Only in the South do you have church outdoors, in the woods, sitting in camp chairs around a bonfire! They kept it short for the sake of those with littles (which we much appreciated). But we still enjoyed a full service complete with scripture readings, a short sermon, lots of Christmas carols, communion and - of course - a candle lighting. Poor Kaden demanded he have his own cheese stick (white, cylindrical, waxy looking thing we were all holding - hahaha.) In the end we compromised by letting him help hold daddy's candle and blow both of ours out after the music was finished.

After church, we enjoyed our Christmas roast, and then it was off to bed with the little man so we could prepare for the morning! It's been fun creating new traditions with our family over the last few years, and I think one of my new favorites was born from necessity this year. Kaden was remarkably good about not messing with the Christmas tree too much, so I felt OK about having it out in the open living room. However, James and I agreed that placing gifts under the tree as they arrived would be too much of a temptation. So we hid them all away until after Kaden had gone to sleep on Christmas Eve. That way, when he woke up Christmas morning, he'd be blown away by the stacks of pretty packages all laid out for us! It was certainly fun seeing his surprise when he woke up to this idyllic sight:

We began the day by opening our stockings. We put some lifelike animal figurines in his, which he loved playing with while we waited to open the "big presents". Then, after breakfast, we read the Christmas story from daddy's "big Bible" before starting in on the loot. Kaden doesn't look very happy about having to sit and read, but don't let the serious look fool you - he loved it and now asks us to read the Bible every night at the dinner table. =^)

Then, it was time for presents. As usual, we were spoiled by our loving family - thank you! We especially appreciated having a couple of gifts to open from Kaden (created and wrapped with a little help from his preschool teachers!) Kaden, of course, loved his toys and books and would have happily camped out there on the rug with his new trains, if we didn't insist on having him walk up stairs with us to see the surprise gift James sneakily moved into his room earlier that morning. His eyes were wide as he surveyed his new, gigantic train table. Of course, all spare time for the next several days were spent up in his room playing with Thomas and his friends. I think both of my boys will get many, many hours of enjoyment out of this extensive train set!

"Mistletoes" artwork Kaden made for us!

We saved the trains for last. He was so excited!

 Video of Kaden being surprised by his train table.

Remarkable that he remembered the big suspension bridge from

our 4th of July trip to Charleston this summer!

After about an hour of playing with the train set, we all got dressed and headed over to Todd and Ingrid Solberg's house for brunch. They host our couple's Bible study and traditionally invite whoever wants to come to a big brunch buffet at their house on Christmas day. We enjoyed spending some time with church friends, and Kaden enjoyed being fawned-over by the older folks and their teenagers. We introduced him to the joys of french toast and bacon. He and his baby sister very much enjoyed their meal. ;^)

The rest of the day was pretty laid-back. I made a nice Christmas dinner for us with ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, corn and rolls. Then - in an attempt to keep the day Christ-focused - we baked, decorated, and lit up a special cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus before dessert. I think Kaden had a great time and keeps asking to "do Christmas again!" I couldn't agree more. Thankfully, we have a few exciting things coming up to help us get over our post-holiday blues. Can't wait till the gift of our baby girl arrives in a few weeks!