Command Central Binder

Caius really knew what was going on this year. He had a lot of fun unwrapping presents. We decided to open presents really slowly. Caius would unwrap a present, and we would open it up for him and let him play with it for a minute. It took a few hours, but we had so much fun watching Caius get so excited over his new toys. We decided though, that we got too many. So next year we'll try to cut back.

Caius got the hungry hippos game! Neal and I played a few rounds with him, and then we played a few more rounds after the boys went to bed that night. Neal is the champ at this game. I didn't win a single game!

I knew months before Christmas that I wanted to get Caius train tracks because I knew he would love them. But, even I underestimated his enthusiasm for trains. This train set is now his most prized possession. One day this week he woke up and immediately started building a track, and then he played for 5 straight hours! 5!!!

Caius also got a play set of tools in a tool box. It has a couple of screws and nails with a hammer, a wrench and a screwdriver. He was pretty excited about that because he likes to watch daddy using his hammer, and has tried to "fix things" with it before. So now he has his very own tools that won't do any damage to our walls or furniture! I haven't taken pictures of him playing with everything but I will soon. We got Cai a new duvet and cover which has never been owned by a 13 year old girl! (Poor Caius has been using some pretty girly bed linens, including pink floral sheets.) Caius also got some craft supplies (some felt, buttons, those furry bendable wires things...are they called pipe-cleaners???) and I am hoping to do some fun projects with him. I've been collecting ideas from the internet and all your blogs and I know Caius will enjoy doing something with mommy while Leland naps.

Leland got a toy with stacking rings and it actually keeps him pretty busy. This was his first Christmas, and he was happy to finally be able to rip all the bows off the presents. We spent a lot of time during the weeks before Christmas keeping him away from the tree and chastising him for taking the bows of the gifts. All we would have to do was say, "Leeeeeland....no no." and he would slap the bow back on the gift and crawl away from the tree as fast as he could, or just curl up and act like he was hiding from us. It was hard not to laugh at him! I don't have any good pictures of Leland to share. He is going through a phase. Whenever I take the camera out, he gets all somber and squinty.

Neal got slippers! Poor Neal hasn't really had any slippers for about 4 years. He had some when he moved out here for his first semester of school but he lived in an apartment with 5 other guys and his slippers became the communal slippers for the whole apartment. He started to worry about foot fungus so he threw them out. Neal also got a robe. And I got swimming lessons! Also, Santa left camelbak water bottles in each of our stockings. We have all been drinking tons of water!!!

I wasn't very good about taking pictures this year, so I don't have any from Christmas Eve. We continued a family tradition from Neal's side. We ate potato soup with rolls and angel food cake by candlelight. And Neal talked about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. To help Caius understand, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out a candle for him before we ate the cake. We have a little nativity scene of just Mary Joseph and Jesus together, that we let Caius hold. We listened to a lot of Christmas music and did a lot of preparation for Christmas, but I wasn't in a good frame of mind until we were all sitting down together on Christmas Eve in the candlelight. The purpose of the tradition is to remember how humbly Jesus came in to this world by sitting quietly together in the most simple setting with the most simple food. Nothing feels better than watching your little ones learn about Jesus' birth, and seeing that they understand it.