Christmas Excitement

Christmas excitement has hit our house full force this year. Parker definitely understands the whole thing about presents and Santa Claus and decorations. We were in Citrus Park Mall before Thanksgiving and he saw Santa Claus and wanted to go sit on his lap. Big difference from last year when he ran crying in the opposite direction! So Mommy took him to see Santa and he got his picture taken and did great. He spoke right up and told Santa that he wanted a bike and also trains. They made choo-choo noises together and it was so cute.

Then Parker saw people in our neighborhood putting lights on their houses and wanted desperately for us to put the lights up (this is something we do every year anyway). After school let out, Daddy was able to get the lights up outside with a little help from a certain toddler.

Next Parker turned his attention to begging for the Christmas tree to go up, especially after going to Aydenn's house and seeing their tree. So Mommy was finally able to get that up this past weekend, with Parker offering a lot of help in hanging the ornaments. (Sidenote - the cats may not survive the Christmas season - each morning we wake up to a broken ornament they've knocked off the tree and batted around. The bottom of our tree is starting to look bare as we keep moving ornaments higher! You can see Mary in this picture hanging out by the tree.)

And then this past Sunday, Parker had his Christmas program at school. The 3 year olds and 4 year olds sang 6 songs in the church program at First Hudson: Joy To the World, Away in a Manger, Sleigh Ride, Rudolph, 12 Days of Christmas and What Child is This. Parker wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about singing this time as he was at the VBS program over the summer. He sat on the steps with the other children to sing, but barely mouthed most of the words. Not because he didn't know the songs - because we have certainly gotten an earful of them at home and in the car and we practice with him. We were finally able to get out of him that the other kids were singing too loudly and it was hurting his ears and so he didn't sing because he wanted them to stop!

Wesley of course is oblivious to the whole Christmas thing, but Parker keeps trying to tell him how wonderful Christmas is. We think Parker will enjoy it enough for both of them!