Santa Fail

During my absence from posting, we had a nice Thanksgiving in Missouri, except for the fact that 2 out of 3 of us were sick.  Davis came down with a fever in the wee hours of the morning on the day before Thanksgiving and it burned for 4 days, disappearing just in time for us to come home (which was awesome - he didn't make a peep the entire ride home - slept most of the time and otherwise just looked out the window quietly).  My scratchy throat on Wednesday morning eventually evolved into a raging sore throat and double ear infection which made the holiday less than happy, especially when combined with not sleeping for four nights while caring for a sick child.  But, nonetheless, we never forgot all the things for which we are thankful, not the least of which is the fact that the only health issues we have to worry about in our family at this time are the small ones of colds, fevers, sore throats, and ear infections - pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. While I haven't quite gotten brave enough to put up our Christmas tree yet, we have been starting to get into the Christmas spirit.  Almost all of the shopping is done, we took Davis to the drive-through Winterland light show at a local park, and last weekend we went to the tree lighting in our town.  (Tree lighting is a bit of a misnomer, since they're not lighting an actual tree, just stringing a bunch of lights down from the top of a flagpole in a tree shape.)  There were trackless train rides through the park (which we skipped due to the long lines), decorations and refreshments to enjoy, local choir groups performing, and of course Santa Claus. After waiting in line to see Santa, Davis was eager when it was finally his turn.  He ran right up to Santa with a HUGE smile on his face, but as soon as I picked him up to set him on Santa's knee, he had a meltdown.  So we settled for sitting on Mommy's lab while Mommy knelt beside Santa to grab a super-quick photograph. Santa fail. After the "tree" lighting, there was a brief fireworks display, which I was excited to share with Davis.  This was his first time seeing fireworks, since the summer displays are always far past his bedtime.  He watched them from Daddy's shoulders and probably wondered what was going on. Davis is still too young to "get" Christmas, but when we do activities like these, I think fondly of the Christmases that I hope are to come in the future, full of the magic of childhood!

From Loving the Life We Live