^^ Christmas & New Year's 2008 ^^

Well, here is our holiday post - FINALLY! It's been a busy new year so I hadn't gotten a chance to do this until now. Since I had to travel for work in December, it made the month go even faster! One early gift that we all received was the notification that on top of the regular holidays we got off, my company was giving us the three days between Christmas and New Year's off as holiday time as well - 12 days off, paid, and not using any vacation time! Woohoo!! I felt like a student again!

Zoie was really into things this year and was even more into the Santa thing. In fact, she was willing to go see Santa and sit on his lap - so I very quickly got her to the mall before she could change her mind! When we got to the area where Santa's 'little village' was in the mall, she looked at me and said, "He's BIG!" He was also a very sweet, authentic looking Santa. Even more touching and poignant than her sitting on Santa's lap, Zoie took the Biblical aspect of Christmas to a new level...for those of you who didn't know, SHE was born in a stable in a manger bed of hay and I am Mary...you ask her where she was born, and this is what she will tell you with strong conviction! And if there's a blanket nearby, she will have it wrapped up around herself and saying, "Look, I'm baby Jesus," faster than you could turn around! I love that this is what she talked about the most - very touching and so pure.

We headed out to Gary's on Christmas Eve evening and we did leave a letter for Santa this year - she told me what she wanted to write and she also wanted to trace her hand for him...


The next morning, I showed her that Santa had written a note back to her but she was more interested in what he left for her, so we started with the stockings. Uncle Gary showed her how to dump the stuff out and she was overjoyed to find CHOCOLATE!





Then she saw a few other things that were from Santa. It's twin girls! She loves them so much!



To be continued when I have time...