The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Christmas has come and gone. Amazing that we spend a month, shopping, wrapping, cooking and getting ready and in the blink of an eye, the gifts are open; paper in the trash and we've all gained at least 5 lbs. But oh what fun we have in the days leading up to Christmas and even in the afterglow of it all. Christmas with a 5 year old is totally amazing...the anticipation of everything and the excitement and not being able to sleep because you want to know if Santa is coming or has he been here yet. I love it....I wouldn't trade it for anything. Shane has a GREAT Christmas this year---so many treats and treasures, visits from loved ones. He's so loved and it warms my heart. Here's a few shots to sum up our Christmas....

Looks like Santa has been here!!

Cars 2 GeoTrax that Santa brought.

A Cars guitar from Grandma & Pa!
Baby Van's First Christmas!

The biggest pillow pet in the history of the world...and now it belongs to Shane...

Legendary Santa 2011

The time finally arrived...Shane got to see Legendary Santa at the Children's Museum in Richmond on Saturday. He was elated and the day seemed so long as he waited for time for us to go. He waited patiently until Santa came down the chimney and told of his reindeer and the travels he would make on Christmas Eve night. I love going to see Santa, watching him come the chimney is such a magical thing for me, so I can only imagine what it's like for a 5 year old. When it was his turn, Shane walked right up to Santa and sat on his lap and told him that he wanted the Cars 2 Geotrax for Christmas...Old Santa told him that was one of the coolest tracks he'd ever seen and he would do his best....as long as Shane did his best and listened to his Mom & Dad and did what he was supposed to do. So far, so good.... ha! :)

And remember....Old Santa loves ya!! :)

Christmas Activities Abound!

Whew! What a busy couple of weeks, with no rest in sight! This past weekend, Shane participated in the Christmas play at church, The Mystery of Simon Shepherd. Everyone did such a fabulous job. I was so proud of my little sheep :)

We've had so many other holiday happenings. We've been to ChristmasTown (no pictures), we had our work Chrismas parties (no pictures), we had a Mitchem family holiday luncheon (no pictures), Shane went for his annual visit to the Va Beach Hilton and saw the lights on the boardwalk (I'm sure there's pictures, but not in my possession), he also went to see the lights on Jackson Creek in Deltaville (again, no pictures). Next weekend, we'll be visiting Legendary Santa in Richmond. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of that :) Then Christmas is upon us--time is flying and I still have gifts to buy and wrap and cookies to bake!!