Merry Christmas!

I know everyone says it, but it really is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone for another year. We had a great time doing all of our usuals: making reindeer food, baking cookies for Santa, reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, and waking up Christmas morning to a flurry of unwrapping followed by a big breakfast. I know there will come a year when the kids won't care so much about these traditions, when it won't matter if we leave cookies for Santa or if the reindeer have a snack on their stop at our house. Carson is already questioning and I have a feeling that Laiken might be playing along just for our sake. We are lucky, though, because we will get to extend all of the magic a little longer with Nolan. The best years are so short, with the letter writing, the anticipation, and the sheer joy as kids open up exactly what they had been wishing for. Santa brought Heelys this year--something we wouldn't buy--so Carson and Laiken were thrilled that he listened. We did buy a 4-wheeler and, yes, I am a little more than nervous about it. The kids have had a go-cart for several years, but they are out-growing it. So, we decided to replace it with a bigger kid option. My parents have all that land and Joe and I used to run our 3-wheeler all over the place. We would pull each other in a barrel tied from a rope and jump ditches and run through the mud. I think my parents must have been crazy to let us do half the things we did. I don't think that I'll be able to watch as my kids rig up different ways to potentially injure themselves, but I do imagine that they will have a lot of fun riding with a helmet, both hands firmly on the handlebars, on a smooth patch of ground, with the governor set to keep it at a safe speed.... (O.K., I think I'm close to taking all of the fun out of it...)

Merry Christmas, everybody!