Happy Holidays!!!

I know it's a day late, but Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Despite the recent rainy weather, we had a fun and memorable Christmas.  Sue's sister and her boyfriend came up from LA to spend the holiday with us.

Cruz loves spending time with his Auntie Jen and Uncle Chris.  Meanwhile Whitney, despite having "stranger danger," took quickly to Uncle Chris.  Auntie Jen... well she's was okay to play with on the ground but poor Jen couldn't pick up her niece without Whitney starting to whimper.

Brother and Sister, dressed to match when Papa picks the outfits

This year, we were visited by our Elf on the Shelf, Zigbee.  For those who don't know, the elf on the shelf is how Santa knows who's naughty and nice.  Elves are assigned to houses and "watch" the children during the day and report to Santa at night.  You can also tell the Elf things, such as what you want for Christmas.  Our Elf came by way of a friend of Lolo and Lola's.

Zigbee, "hanging" out

"I see you..."

Cruz is starting to get more and more behind the idea of Christmas this year.  I mean, last year he figured out it was Jesus' birthday (so last year we had to get a cake and sing "Happy Birthday," this year we got away with doing it on a pie).  But this year he realized the whole present thing along with more and more about Santa.

Cruz, helping me make Santa's cookies

Now Cruz still has a healthy fear of sitting on a strange man's lap, but I was able to cajole him this year into doing it.  Between Zigbee and Cruz' brief conversation with Santa, we were pretty sure what he wanted for Christmas was a Stomp Rocket. 

Yep, we took our picture at our bank again this year

So Santa did get him one and as you can see, Cruz loves it. 

Future Rocket Scientist?

"STOMP!! STOMP!!"

As for Whitney, well, despite being close to a year old, she's still too young to understand what's going on.  So we Cruz got to open her gifts for her.  But she does enjoy playing with her pretend phone and she's already gotten use out of the warm hat that Auntie Jen got her.

"What do I do with this card?"

"What's going on here?"