Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Holiday Cheer

We've officially hit the holiday rush. Thanksgiving week flew right by in Dallas, and we couldn't have had a better time catching up with old friends, laughing with family, and eating way way way too much delicious food. We hit a whole other level of ease with travel this year. We bounced around from house to house staying a couple nights here and a few nights there, and Charlie played his heart out every day with his sweet cousins. I think I saw him for about 10 minutes each day, maybe 14 minutes if you count the Mom-I-need-a-snacks. My siblings are my very favorite people and watching Charlie's love for them and their kids makes my heart explode. Charlie also got everyone dancing to Mr. Mistoffelees at one point or another, and it may be my favorite memory of the week. Well, it might actually be a toss-up between Mistoffelees, and Charlie's first race -the Turkey Trot. He ran his pants off, took a break, and ran his pants off some more. The kid's a natural. As we said good-bye to Dallas on Saturday, we were leaving feeling really worn out but loved and peaceful heading into the Christmas season.


And boom! Christmas crashed into us. The decorations, the tree, Santa and shopping has officially commenced, and it's so fun to have a kiddo that really gets what's going on this time of year. Charlie boy talks about Christmas from morning until night, wants to watch movies and read books purely about Christmas, and has about nine thousand questions about Santa. The story's actually a bit confusing to try to relay to a two and a half year old. We spent Sunday evening with the Wahlers clan picking out trees and Monday night decorating. Charlie's not too big on the whole decorating thing, but he loved the brownies. And every morning he's devastated that we've turned the lights off for the tree. We've been talking and reading and watching so much about Santa that I thought he was going to be more into sitting with Santa this year, but I wasn't prepared for this morning. We had to make the dreaded mall trip to knock some things off our list, and as we rode down the escalator, Santa came striding through a door and over to his big green chair. I thought Charlie was going to lose his mind. "Mom! I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Santa is at the mall!" I told him we were planning on talking to Santa tomorrow, but he had to talk to him right then and there. The vain person that lives inside me dashed into Old Navy, bought him a shirt and jumped in line. We were 10 people back, and it took a freaking hour. They were an elf short, but Santa made up for it by spending loads of quality time with each of the kids. By the time Charlie was up, he literally dashed into Santa's lap and would not stop talking. They talked for a good ten minutes about Charlie's new running shoes, if Santa has running shoes at his house, Santa's boots, Charlie's Paul Bunyan boots, Monster Trucks, Charlie's age (he's 5, by the way - we're really working on numbers over here, promise), and where Santa's sleigh was located. He just kept asking, "Where's your silly sleigh you silly old Santa?" Luckily, it was left in the North Pole, or I have no doubt we would have been on a parking lot hunt for the dang thing. When the lady came over to snap a pic, Charlie turned so serious and then eeked out this awesome smile.


This sweet boy has my whole heart. He's kind and funny and wonderfully talkative. We still have a lot to do before Christmas gets here, but gah! I can't wait.