Christmas Eve, Christmas

Christmas Eve

Dropped the kids off at school. Kate often wants to get her waffle or yogurt out of her lunch herself. ("Me do it. ME do it!") Jack quickly disappears amongst his friends in his room, playing superheroes or somesuch.

Picked the kids up at school. (half day) They were singing -- well, Jack's class was, and apparently Jack was shaking bells -- but there was nowhere to park and I dropped Emily off but got there too late myself. Will leave earlier in the future.

Went home and put the last sticker on Jack's advent calendar, the Christmas tree. Gave them lunch, put Kate down for her nap. Wrapped some presents. Got Jack's help making tags for Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins. Nana and Baba showed up. Aunt Linda and Grandma showed up. Jack and Kate are quite fond of Aunt Linda. They played with musical instruments and read books.

Jack and I wrote a note to Santa. Jack drew a picture of Santa on the note.

We all went to church. Kate wore a beautiful red Christmas dress, Jack in a nice red sweater. Jack sat with his cousins, Kate sat with me. For a while she was fine drawing in a pad, then she wanted me to draw. "Make face," she says. "Make face, Daddy." So I drew faces for a bit. When I stood, she sat at first, then stood on the seat, then I held her. It was past her bedtime so there was a point when I thought she'd sleep; she clung to me and was very heavy in my arms. But then she'd see someone she recognized and get interested, or hear music, and talk a little, and wake up.

The kids were called up for the children's sermon. Jack headed up and I was told that he'd take Kate up, but he was already gone when I put her down, so Emily walked her up. All the kids sat up front and listened. I could just see Kate, and she'd stand up and wave every so often. Sit down again. Then, big smile, stand up, wave. Pretty funny. Jack raised his hand to respond to a question about Christmas. I didn't catch the question, but his answer was "presents."

At the end we lit candles. Kate was intrigued. Jack wanted to hold one, then didn't. I said it was OK.

We went home. It was late and I didn't read Jack stories, just lay down and we talked about Santa coming. Emily had found noradsanta online, which tracks Santa's sleigh as it travels across the world. Jack enjoyed it; they checked it again right before bed. He had just been to Ireland!

Christmas

Kate woke up making noise at 5 a.m. We put her to bed an hour late, she wakes up an hour earlier. It's bizarre. Jack also woke up, we heard him go in the bathroom, not exactly being quiet. At 6 a.m. he came in, I think Kate slept off and on, he probably watched his clock.

We made coffee and finally let the kids go downstairs. Got a lot of "Wows" from Kate as she saw her Fisher-Price kitchen. (Kate-size.) And Jack's Hot Wheels Dinosaur Trick Track. (There were Wows from Baba and Daddy too.) We played with it for a bit, then opened stockings. And then Jack noticed his Bionicle, and Bakugan, and showed me how to play with them. We opened more presents. Jack had breakfast at some point, once we reminded him.

At some point he went up to his room with some new toys to play. Didn't want Kate playing with them too, I think. Granted some of the new toys he brought up were hers.

I went into his room and saw him playing with this little windup monkey. He was sitting watching it spin in circles, and he'd wind it up and do it over again.

The next morning, this morning, I heard him wake up around 6, go to the bathroom, go back in his room. Then we heard him playing with his toys. Then the voice of Optimus Prime, and the WooWooWoo of the siren. Around the third time, I said, OK, that's got to stop. I went in. Jack was there, just blissfully happy, playing with his new toys. Optimus Prime, the little train cars that spelled out "Jack", the Bakugan. Happy.