post-Christmas

(pictures to follow, of course: as soon as I get them off the camera!)

Thomas would say that Christmas was great. He was especially thrilled by two things Santa delivered: a new bicycle and a pair of kid-safe scissors. He definitely feels like a big kid now. The bicycle was discovered (by Santa, of course) at Toys 'r' Us a couple of months ago. The word 'hummer' and the H16 on the side were particularly appealing, for obvious reasons. Thomas is fond of telling people that he got a 'rescue-hero-hummer bike' from Santa. I am not sure where the rescue hero part comes from, but if he's into rescuing, that's fine by me.

Anna talks far less about what Santa brought. Although she wants to use her scissors when Thomas is using his, she has not yet ridden the bike Santa brought her. Far more interesting fro Anna at the moment is Angelina Ballerina: instead of riding the bike, she wants to try cartwheels. Of course she can't, yet, but I think some gymnastics and ballet are in our future--and not the distant future, either. Among the various Christmas gifts, she is particularly enjoying new Kipper videos and a new book--How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

Iain didn't quite get into the Christmas morning frenzy in the way Thomas did. Predictably, his big fun of the day was the boxes and wrapping--particularly taking the torn paper and ribbons out of the boxes in which it had been put in the great clearing-up after unwrapping gifts. I am not sure how to link the short video I took of him playing in the paper to the blog, but I will try. (and if I figure it out, there's a bit of Thomas bike-riding to include as well...) He loves being pushed around on his new trainer-trike. It is a complicated little bit of equipment, complete with sound effects and music. A description would be practically useless: I promise a photo!

As for us parents, we're just happy they were happy. And tired! We finally arranged for a babysitter to come so we could attend midnight Mass on Christmas eve. Only a college student (whom Thomas calls "college Mark" since he started at UGA in the fall of 2006) would be willing to come over to babysit at 11: 30 on Christmas eve! Then Thomas was down the hall, Anna at his heels, at 5:00am, exclaiming, "Look, Santa brought a new bike!!" So what we didn't get for Christmas was a lot of sleep! But so it goes, and I was glad both that we made it to Mass and that the kids were happy on the day. Near Emory there used to be a billboard--one of those at the bus stop--advertising what appeared to be beer with caffeine. The caption simply read: "you can sleep when you're thirty." I remember thinking then, as I have many times since, "not if you have kids!"

The photos to come will, of course, be worth far more than these (less than a thousand) words. So don't give up!

m