December 1!

Click here for a post from this day of last year. We (really, I, but now, we) have a tradition of waiting until December 1 to start the Christmas Season. We do everything we can to completely ignore the early-onset of Christmas up until this day. But the first thing we do when we wake up on December 1 is get the Christmas CDs out and get the Christmas music blaring. After the Christmas music festival here at home we went to the boys' school for a special school festival called the Spiral of Light. The youngest kids at the school each get to light a candle to symbolize the light within them shining bright even during the onset of the darkest days of the year. It was really beautiful and I had tears in my eyes watching Owen as the first child to walk the path of balsams with his candle, and then watching Kyle hand-in-hand with his best friend Will on the path. Afterward we went out to lunch and then visited Santa. Owen and Kyle have a whole new appreciation for Santa this year. Owen declared immediately that it was "a real Santa!" He was respectfully stand off-ish and wanted to watch closely, but from a little distance. Later he warmed up and sat on Santa's lap for a bit. Kyle was quick to run right up to Santee Claus and ask a million questions of him. #1) "Where are your reindeer?" #2) "Do they eat grass?" #3) "Where is the North Pole?" #4) "How did you get here?" #5) "Where is your sleigh?" ETC., ETC., ETC. Finally when Santa could finally get a word in edgewise he asked Kyle what he wanted for Christmas. Kyle told him: "A real airplane." Owen piped up and specified: "A toy that is just like a real airplane." Santa nodded with approval. As the boys ran off they yelled at the top of their lungs "Bye Bye Santa! HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"