December 1, 2006 - Christmas Has Begun!!!

Today, according to Johnson-McCormick Family Tradition, we officially began our Christmas Season!!! O.k., really now, -- how much more fun could it possibly get... Christmas with two two-year-olds??!!! Seriously! It doesn't get much better than this! We are (all four) so excited, and by the end of this day our cheeks are all hurting from smiling so hard for so long. And this is just the start! For anyone who's a regular reader, you might remember that about a month ago I wrote something like, "I think Halloween might be K & O's favorite holiday"?! O.k., well, SCRAP THAT. Christmas is definately their favorite holiday.

A few weeks ago Braydon and I had calendared in to take today off from work to do all of our Christmas shopping in one fell swoop. So, picture this: the two of us, first thing this morning, in Toys R Us, each pushing a big cart, smiling ear-to-ear, Christmas shopping for our twin two year old boys. How fun was it?! Just let your imagination run wild. It could not possibly be more fun to do Christmas shopping than that was. We didn't even exit Toys R Us until noon.

By 4:00 our shopping was done. We picked up the boys from daycare, and the fun intensified at least two-fold. We brought the boys to see a huge Christmas tree (photo above). They were mesmorized. Not much else compares to seeing the wonder of Christmas in your own child's eyes.

Soon enough the boys spotted Santa. They ran to him as fast as they could run. As they approached him they started waving and jumping and yelling "Hi Santa!!" "Hi Santa!" They went right up to jolly old St. Nick, looked him right in the eyes, and said, "BOB THE BUILDER PLEASE SANTA?" He shot us a glance, and gave them some candy. There were no other kids around at the time, and the three of them (Santa, K, O) totally hit it off. In between the Santa-Kyle-Owen banter, Santa told me that he himself is a twin!? and that he "loves twins." Anyway, the three of them started horsing around like long lost friends. What a riot to watch. The young women stationed there to act as Santa's assistants and to take photos could not believe their eyes. They never took a picture, they just watched the whole scene unfold. They said to Braydon, "You're kids are awesome!" They said to me, "These are the first kids all day who haven't cried!" Cry? Are you kidding?! This picture doesn't even do it justice:

After Santa, Braydon suggested we go check out the new LLBean. We hadn't been in there yet, and have been wanting to see it, so I said, "sure let's go!" The four of us walked to it. Once inside we quickly discovered the bicycle section. Sitting there were two super duper super cool Schwinn tricycles. One pink, one red. Owen jumped on the pink one. Kyle the red one. And they took off. They rode around the inside perimeter of the store, ringing the tricycle bells and shouting "Watch out! Bicycle coming! Watch out! Here we come! Watch out! Kyle coming! Owen coming!" It could have been an advertisement for LLBean. And as fun as it was to watch K & O, the best part of all was watching people's faces just light up when they'd see them (and hear them) pedaling along. They literally rode around this huge store's inner perimeter about 30 times. Soon LLBean staff were standing along the path cheering the boys on, as if it was the tour de France. And customers were coming from all over the store to get a glimpse of these two "sweethearts" (many people remarked to me: "my goodness! they are SWEETHEARTS!") LLBean should seriously consider paying these boys to do this for the holiday season. Just to get their staff and customers into the holiday spirit. Anyway, in addition to all the "sweetheart" remarks, we also go about a hundred: "You're not even thinking of leaving here without those bikes, are you????" At first our thoughts were: "oh my gosh! no! are you kidding? no way on earth we're even thinking of buying these bikes?!!" Then it morphed into: "gosh, they'd just love to have these bikes." Then: "oh my god, how much do you want to buy them these bikes?" Then: "um, do you think we should buy these bikes?" Then: (a picture says a thousand words)

Yes, we're totally embarassed to admit it, but yes, they rode the bikes right out of the LLBean, down the sidewalk, to the car. (Yes, we did pay for them. Yes, we double and triple checked with Owen if he was "sure" that he wanted a pink bike, not a red one like Kyle's, etc. etc. etc. Yes, he was absolutely sure.)

On the way to the car, the boys just had to ride back to Santa to show him the new bikes. He told them that he thought the bikes were "very cool."

Christmas with Kyle and Owen at age two will only happen once. I want to try to savor every minute and I want to try to remember every moment. December 1, 2006 - Christmas Has Begun!!!