The Best Time of Year

This holiday season has been filled with so many special moments... moments that overwhelm me with gratitude, joy, excitement, and wonder.  We've celebrated Grady and Graham's baptism, filled our days with lots of Christmas adventures, parties, and crafts, enjoyed a D and E trip to NYC, honored Papa's retirement from the military and his upcoming retirement from work, and anticipated Santa's trip down our fireplace.

Cameron and Sophie are both such dynamic, spirited, and different children.  Doug and I often have a hard time believing that their unique personalities stem from the same gene pool! Sophie spends hours playing imaginary games in front of the tree.  Ornaments become characters in her mind, and she dances, sings, and creates conversations while laying under the tree.  She looks forward to each morning when she can open up her many advent calendars, update her countdown chain, and discover our special holiday experience for the day.  She talks often about Santa, the NICE list, Jesus and Mary, the angel Gabriel, and how the three wise men brought "Gold, Frankincense, and Mirrors." Her imagination is on overload because of the magic and faith of Christmas.  It's simply beautiful.

When asked what he will do when he meets Santa, Cameron (with a straight face) told Papa that he will punch him.  Cam is emphatic that he wants to stay on the Naughty list and despite asking for race cars, he now says he doesn't want any presents from Santa.  Cam, too, has a hysterical imagination, telling us "true" stories about animals, nice bad guys, and his favorite created character named "Stripey Polecat."  He calls a lot of things "isgusting" (disgusting) and asks if we "want to hear something funny?" and then tells us about a squirrel crossing the road to get run over by a race car... When Papa was attempting to get his attention, Cameron raised one finger, looked out of the corner of his eyes, and said "in a sec, Papa."  His sentence structure is great, his facial expressions and gestures are comical, and his attitude is extremely hot or frigidly cold.... and I'm truly afraid he is going to punch Santa and/or call him "poopy-head."

We love our children, but Doug and I also love our time just the two of us.  So we enjoyed a Doug's birthday/Christmas present/romantic getaway to New York! It was AMAZING.  We returned home to celebrate my dad and enjoy an early Johnson Holiday weekend.  And now we continue full speed ahead to Christmas!

We enjoyed special nights with friends in NYC, too.