Christmas with kids makes the holiday much more exciting and meaningful; it's been that way since Henry was an infant. Now that Henry is five and Piper is a chatty and active two year old, Christmas is at a whole new level. All around, this Christmas was just a home run. We even found excellent seating in the crying room for Christmas Eve mass.



Piper really wanted another bear for Christmas. Upon her second visit to Santa this season she had found her courage. She stood in front of him, slowly twiddled her thumbs, stared at her shoes, and then looked up in a burst. "Want another bear!" It looked like she was asking for a raise.

On an unrelated note, a package from Amazon that may have contained a bear was randomly delayed such that its earliest date of arrival was the 27th. Yes, it was ordered early enough, yet there we stood. The dates just weren't working out correctly, and this young lady had put legitimate effort into getting that request to the big guy.

Once the tracking info confirmed that Amazon was going to be a miss, Plan B kicked off. Around December 23rd a charming, local toy store in Anchorage was visited, and a high quality bear was purchased. To conclude, the Easter bunny has a high probability of giving a bear to Piper this year.



Santa came through for Henry, bringing a Lego Volcano set. Mercifully, everyone slept through the night. Unlike last year, Henry did not rise every hour to check if any light peered up the stairs from the first floor (If it's dark downstairs, Daddy or Mommy are still sleeping so you should be as well). Henry followed his strict Santa instructions and snoozed till 7 am. Piper is an extremely light sleeper and surely would have tagged along with any inspections of downstairs lights, so we're thankful for that.

I woke up first to find that our heat was out, and had been for about two hours. This is one of the perfect moments to be in a condo association. Make the phone call to the association, let them summon and compensate a professional, and then merely light our fireplace. It was twenty degrees outside, so our home remained comfortable for the six hours until the zone valve was replaced.



Full set of Christmas photos here.