Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas weekend! It was a whirlwind of food and friends. On Monday, we visited my dad in the afternoon for a delicious lunch. On the way to his house, "The Little Drummer Boy" by Bing Crosby and David Bowie came on the radio. A and I love that version. When it got to the part, "I pray my wish will come true, for my child and your child, too," the tears welled up in my eyes. I was just overcome with love and thanks for my boys. They are the only presents I've ever needed or wanted.

After my dad's, we headed to Edaville Railroad to meet up with lots of our friends for the lights display, rides, and a train ride. It was magical! First up was the ferris wheel. Here are some views from atop the wheel:



When I wasn't clenching my jaw in fright because R was wriggling around in the seat, I was able to crack a smile for a nice family photo. :-)


I went on the Jolly Caterpillar ride with R. A took him on the space capsule and flying elephant rides.


The best part, of course, was the train ride. We managed to squeeze all 15 of us onto one car. R and his friend Z chatted together and had their faces pressed against the windows the whole time in absolute wonder at the lights. It was so sweet.


After a few more rides, we headed indoors to warm up and to try out the "cranberry" ball pit (the whole park is surrounded by cranberry bogs) and a walk-through maze.



This was our second year going to Edaville at Christmastime, although our first on Christmas Eve. It's definitely going to be a yearly tradition for us!

After several days of keeping R up late, we were blessed with a somewhat late morning on Christmas Day. R ended up in our bed and opened his eyes at 8am. He rolled over, gave me a huge smile and a sweet little kiss and said, "Mehwy Cwistmas!" And, once again, we could have just given him his stocking and he would have been completely happy. He loved the train ornaments we got him, and he hasn't parted with them since he opened them.

We really did make an effort to limit the number of presents this year, but we forgot to take into consideration the gifts from family and friends. R was a bit overwhelmed by it all, but he got really great gifts that are all things we can play with together as a family. Next year, I think we'll probably just get him one big gift and then if we're tempted to get anything else, we'll save them for his birthday.


I was very proud of how little waste we created, though. I was inpsired this year by another blogger who wrapped all of her family's gifts in pieces of fabric. I didn't have any fabric remnants around, so we used R's old baby blankets and some kitchen twine. It made me feel so good not to have a huge garbage bag of ripped-up paper to throw out afterwards.

One of our favorite gifts for R was an extension kit for the marble maze we got him for his birthday last year. I highly recommend these things. We have so much fun together with them - creating different maze designs, constructing it, and then feeding the marbles in and watching them go around and around. It's mesmerizing.


It was a lovely, mellow Christmas. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, too!