The Christmas tree is still up.  There are at least 5 nativity scenes scattered throughout the house.  But sometimes it still takes that little toddler voice piping up at dinner...

"Baby Jesus is BORN!  He's in da MANGER!  Mawwy was pwegnant and now Baby Jesus is BORN!!!"

I'm thankful for faith like a child, especially when we start seeing the trees by the curb and the Christmas lights taken down when it's not even Epiphany. 

Why is it that society tells us we must spend the entire month of December (and much of November) celebrating Christmas, but the moment it becomes appropriate to do so, everything is thrown in the trash?  Just because we're done buying presents doesn't mean we're done celebrating!

Our New Year's Eve

It was BEAUTIFUL weather here on the last day of 2011, so we decided to head out to Gravelly Point to watch planes take off at National.  John Paul was SO EXCITED!

On the car ride there he very excitedly exclaimed, "BIRDS!  And the MOON!  And an AIRPWANE!  And ANOTHER MOON!"  We explained that there's only one moon...  He got the hang of it quickly.

Dad pointed out the types of planes that were taking off.  John Paul didn't really care about different types - he mostly just shouted, "Seagulls!  And the moon!  Airpwane!  And more seagulls!"

He was VERY excited by the water as well - "I see da WATER!  I see da WIVER!"

The planes landing weren't quite so exciting, but our reward for sticking around for a few landings was a view of a BOAT in the water, as well as some ducks.  What could be more exciting?

Running in the grass, of course!

I don't think there's any airport in the US that has a more beautiful view during takeoff and landing, particularly during sunset.

We'll definitely have to get back here when it warms up,  John Paul had such a blast and I bet Cecilia will be excited come spring.

This was the biggest plane we saw and it flew right over our heads.

Cecilia had to make sure to CLING to me - it was pretty noisy!

There were TONS of people there.  We'd never been before, but apparently it's a pretty popular attraction even though there's nothing to do except watch the planes.

Happy Birthday!

To the father of this little hoarder...

And this little daredevil...

Oh, and to my wonderful husband!

John Paul is VERY excited that "DAD IS TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD!  AND NEXT HE WILL BE TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD!"  Andrew feels weird to be in his late twenties.  Cecilia doesn't care.  I look forward to April, when I'm only a year younger again :P

A box!

A simple afternoon foray...

Into a box!

With a celery stick and an empty milk jug.

What could be better?

In a nutshell...

This is how present opening went Christmas morning...

After Mass we came home for brunch with the family and tried to get some good pictures in front of the tree.  Cecilia was NOT okay with this, so we gave her a present to appease her.

But you know what happens when a little boy hears the word "present" - he has to come running!

And here you see the little hand going for his sister's present...

But the ribbon was tricky, so Dad had to come in to help.

Cecilia was happy to observe John Paul opening a present.

But she finally got hers back!

Only to have it ripped away by her brother, who hands her some wrapping paper and kisses her to make up for it!

Then, despite having a pile of his own presents, John Paul had to steal the present back from Cecilia after we gave it to her.

Once again, the ONLY acceptable present is the one your sibling is playing with!

Luckily, Grandma showed them that they can play TOGETHER!

And here they are later, in various states of undress...  Aunt Sister was just TOO excited by the matching Star Wars!

Hope your Christmas morning was less hectic than ours!