A few other December activities

Ryan's 4th birthday. Sunday dinner at grandma and grandpa Youngs (while dad was in California for work). Blake flew home the night of Ryan's birthday, so we really did more celebrating the day after. Ryan didn't mind celebrating his birthday for a few extra days. In fact he sometimes still thinks it's his birthday.

The crown from pre-school and his hand showing you that he is 4.

Our family firends Fernando and Monica and their daughter Polly and her husband Dejogo and their new little boy Joshua came to Sunday dinner. Ryan really likes to "pet" the babies. Ethan and Sam had a great time listening to Fernando playing the guitar. I didn't know he played that well. It was really pretty to listen to.

Ryan on his way to Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday party with some of his friends. He was pretty excited to go. Earlier in December I was sitting in the front room by the fireplace reading books with Ryan. He picked one of the christmas books that talked about santa. We were reading about how Santa comes down the chiminey and Ryan's eyes about popped out of his head and he started to back up away from the fireplace. Ryan has had this fear of Santa for quite some time, more so than just the fear of a stranger that some kids have. We talked alot about how nice santa is to bring toys to good boys and girls. It was for several days that we had to tell him about how nice santa was before he was "ok" with it. So at the ward christmas party i was really amazed that he was ok--even happy--to see santa. But then even more surprising is that he actaully sat on his lap and told Santa that he wanted a train. (I had pointed out in one of the pictures of Santa with a big bag of toys over his shoulder had a dolly in it and that maybe Santa was going to take that dolly to Ryan's friend Livy or to his cousin Summer. There was also a plane and a train in the bag too so he decided that that's the toy he wanted santa to bring him.) Now Ryan seems to be ok with santa. If he's talking about santa don't be surprised to hear him say something about santa comes down the drain (even though we've tried to explain it's really the chiminey).
Sam and Santa. I'm not sure Sam ever decided what he wanted Santa to bring him.
Ethan was writing his list for santa back before October. So to have the opportunity to sit on his lap is always a highlight for Ethan. We did get him to narrow down his list some, and he is always always good to remember to ask santa to bring something for his little brothers. Ethan believes so deeply, and i really appreciate that.