This year we stayed in Huntsville for the holidays and had Brandon's family come up and over to celebrate. His parents and Nana surprised us by arriving Saturday morning when we thought they were coming after lunch. It was a very welcome surprise though. Aunt Ame, Uncle Drexel and Cameron arrived later that afternoon and Christopher was so excited to have his cousin here to play with, after the shock of having so many people coming on one day. After fixing dinner we loaded up in the cars and headed off to Santa's Village so the kids could see the real reindeer, fake snow and meet Santa. Christopher was not happy about the beaded wonder, so we didn't make him sit on his lap. He preferred Mrs. Claus' story time and the room full of trains instead. The next morning, Christopher woke up bright and early ready to play, but not everyone felt the same way. After we all showered and gathered back at the house we had an early Christmas and opened up our gifts, to which the kids had more fun than I think we anticipated. They each got a new bike to grow into, but still tried to ride, among many other new toys and games. We actually had to take a break in order to start our Christmas dinner, but we quickly went back to opening gifts again. We had a wonderful meal which was followed by much needed naps. That evening we were going to head to the Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas lights, but got a much later start than planned and once we saw how long the line was to the entrance we turned around and headed home. It was a good thing b/c we got a phone call from "Mrs. Claus" that "Santa" was going to be coming by to visit Christopher any minute so we all waited on the edge of our seats for the knock at the door. Again, Christopher didn't want anything to do with Santa, but happily took the chocolate he was given as a pre-stocking gift. We sent Ame, Drexel and Cameron on their way back home and then all headed to bed looking forward to a good night's sleep. Christmas Eve felt more like the day after Christmas and we just hung around the house, ran a few errands and took more naps before heading to church for the Christmas Eve service. We were all worn out from the previous activities and again called it an early night and I think we were all asleep before our heads hit the pillows. Christmas morning we woke up and Christopher couldn't wait to run out and see what was in the den. We showed him his stocking full of goodies and he had more fun pulling it all out. Didn't take long before he started saying, "more! more!" everytime he reached inside. Brandon and I just laughed. Then he immediately went for the few presents we left under the tree for Christmas morning. It was great! He was most excited about the new Thomas the Train set that he got and wanted it out of the box before we could even get all the paper off of it. We fixed taco soup for lunch and helped Mimi and Papa John load their gifts into the truck and then said goodbye. I think Christopher took one of his longest naps yet that afternoon. As we went for a family walk that afternoon we reflected on all the amazing thing we were given and how incredibly blessed we are. It was definitely an unforgettable Christmas and we could not have asked for more.

We had our friends, the Khans and the Shaffers come up one weekend to visit mid-December. We were really looking forward to having Christopher and Nicholas together again, they haven't seen each other since we went to the beach in August and we were all looking forward to seeing John and Lisa and meet their newest addition, Sonora. Burt, Melissa and Nicholas arrived Friday afternoon and the boys immediately hit it off and started chasing each other down the sidewalk on their bikes and playing golf in the front yard. That night we were going to take them to see the Christmas lights at the Botanical Gardens, but changed our minds when we realized they weren't going to stop running around long enough for us to catch them and get them in the car. We had bought each of them a big stuffed animal and so we decided to pull those out and let them tackle those for a while, they went nuts! They spent the rest of the night running and diving onto the big bear and puppy, pausing only to get a quick drink or take a ride on their dad's back. Saturday morning, Melissa and I woke up with the boys and had breakfast while they played and stopped every now and then to see what Pooh and Tigger were doing on tv. Around lunch, John, Lisa and Sonora arrived and somehow got all the kids down for a nap at the same time. That afternoon we played in the backyard and then came inside to start dinner while the boys continued to play some more. On Sunday we tried to get a photo of the three kids together, but it never happened. Christopher was very fascinated with Sonora and every now and then would go sit next to her on the floor and then turn around to find me and say, "Baby!" while pointing at her. It was cute! We played outside some more and then it was time to grab some lunch and everyone had to start packing up to head home. It was a wonderful weekend and we are already trying to figure out when we can do it again.

We have been very busy this month with all sorts of activities. We started off by trying to take our Christmas photo. It actually went better than we thought it would, but was over quickly. Brandon thought it would be fun to do one similar to when we were pregnant with Christopher. Now Christopher likes to get Brandon's stethoscope and try to listen to the baby for fun. Then a few days later Christopher and I had the neighbors over to decorate a gingerbread house and have lunch. It was a lot of fun watching the kids work on the house, but Christopher was more interested in eating the candy. THEN a few days after that we celebrated Brandon's 30th birthday! He was on call the night before so he didn't want to do anything big, just dinner at home with us. So when he got home Christopher and I left so he could get a much needed nap in. Christopher then helped me fix Daddy's favorite, Chinese, for dinner. I was really hoping that he wouldn't want to rush into having birthday cake as soon as we finished dinner because the neighbors were coming over to surprise him. He had no clue anything was going to happen when they all showed up and was very surprised. He said it was the best birthday he'd had in a while. For what happens next, read the above posting! : )