A Very Merry Christmas

When you have people you love in your life, every Christmas is special. When you have kids of your own, it gets more special. This Christmas was an extra special for us because it marked a couple of milestones:

1. It was Mathis' 1st Christmas. He was not quite as old as Truitt was on his 1st Christmas but he is definitely right in the love-to-tear-the-paper stage of babyhood.
2. This was Truitt's 1st with great understanding of the whole thing. His first year of understanding Santa and (for the most part) what that means. He also has a much better grasp on the concept of family and, for better or worse, the concept of presents.

For the last few years we have celebrated Christmas Eve in Houston by going to Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen. Going to Madola's started on accident. Gram was with us at Christmas a few years back and we didn't really make any plans, then we called them and we could get a last minute reservation. We have been every year since, almost always due to lack of pre-planning. This year we called the eve of Christmas Eve. Next year we *hope* to plan better and maybe go somewhere in our neighborhood, but we like knowing that Mandola's is there for us should we need them.

Truitt enjoyed a full adult portion of chicken ravioli for dinner, while Mathis sampled the menu, literally.

When we got home, we set out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots and celery for his reindeer. Truitt thought this was quite a bit of fun. We also bid farewell to our Elf, who would be returning to the North Pole until next year.

Getting Santa's milk and setting everything out for his arrival.

^^^This is what the living room looked like when Truitt said "Good night."

^^^And this is what it looked like when he woke up in the morning

First glimpse

He was very excited by the gifts but also had this really sad look on his face as he came in to the room. I asked him what was the matter and he said "Where's Santa?" I was caught off guard and asked "What do you mean 'where's Santa'?" and he told me he thought Santa was coming. Sooo cute. He was so sad because he thought when he woke up, Santa would be here. So we had to explain that Santa came when he was sleeping and just left the presents because he had other little boys and girls to deliver to. Then we showed him the plate with the missing/eaten cookies and nibbled on carrots and he perked up. Things were right in the world again for him. And present opening commenced...