Merry Christmas!

I know! Who would've thought I would post on Christmas day?? This morning was fun. When Zach first came down the stairs we asked him if Santa had come and his first answer was a grumpy No! Then he saw that a cookie plus another bite were missing off of the "Cookies for Santa" plate. Santa also enjoyed half the milk we left for him. It didn't take Zach long to get excited about opening ALL of his presents. Last night however was the best part. We had dinner with Tyler's family and my father-in-law made a short program of songs and stories for us to share. It's family tradition for us to do something like this. He reserved 'Twas the Night Before Christmas for me to read. He knows how much I like it. (Said with slight sarcasm.) The best part was Zach has almost the entire thing memorized. We were all shocked. If I said the first part of the rhyme he would finish the sentence over and over. Our favorite was when he quoted line for line Now Dasher, Now Dancer, and so forth on to To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, NOW DASH AWAY, DASH AWAY, DASH AWAY ALL!!!! It was very impressive to hear him have so much memorized. I have always known that he has a really good memory and Tyler and I think it's because as children we had freakishly good memories. Maybe all children do, but in a very Jessica-esque way Tyler stated, "Everyone hated playing memory with me because I always won." (No offense to Jessica she just is freakishly good at everything except baking! Which is why I do it so often, to remind myself I'm good at something. Oh the torchers of childhood.) I on the other hand, if you were curious, was probably younger than Zach and could tell my Grandma where everything was that she couldn't find in her own house. She always marveled at how I knew where things were located that she didn't. So, Zach has the full Santa thing down. Later that night, when my child should have been fast asleep, Zach starts shouting out and Tyler sprang from the couch to see what was the matter. In an attempt to recall what Tyler told me was said, Zach proclaimed to him something like this, "He's here, he's here! Santa is here! I heard prancing and pawing of reindeer feet up on the rooftop. And I heard Santa laugh, ho, ho, ho. And then I heard him eating my cookies and drinking my milk. I need to go down stairs and see what he brought me!" As it was only 9:30pm or possibly 10, Tyler assured Zach that Santa hadn't come because he was waiting for all the boys and girls to fall asleep before he would visit their house. It was still pretty funny to hear all the things Zach was determined to have heard in hopes that Santa had indeed come to his house. Maybe that's why he thought Santa still hadn't come when he woke up this morning. When he's been waiting for the past 25 plus days for the day that Santa would come, why would he think that it had finally happened? He was very glad though when he realized he had come. He got lots of trains that he had asked for and an assortment of other goodies. Nothing too big this year. Just a lot of little things, but a great Christmas all around.