Chri-mas 'ights, Mama. Chri-mas 'ights.

Well, folks, we are just shy of 3 days away from Christmas morning. And we are really looking forward to it this year. Tyler did well last Christmas, but this year he's really gotten the hang of unwrapping gifts (he had practice the other night), and he's been intrigued with all of the lights and trees and sounds of Christmas. He loves to announce (loudly) to us every time that we pass a house with lights on it. He yells, "'Ights, Mama! Chri-mas 'ights!!!! Man!" (That's "snowman" in Tyler speak.) I want to take him downtown to see the lights at the James Center sometime before the New Year, because I know he'll love it.

We put the tree up last weekend, and we are pleased to announce that Tyler has left it alone - for the most part. He attempted to help me decorate, but that was quickly suspended when he just started chucking ornaments onto/into the tree. I finished the decorating when he went to bed, so he awoke the next morning to a fully decorated tree to which he just stared at and said, "Oooh, 'ights." We even have fulyl wrapped presents under the tree, complete with bows. He has just recently started to notice them and slowly inches his way to the gifts to lightly touch them, but so far so good. As long as we can make it 60 more hours, we're golden.

We've gone a bit overboard on the gifts for Tyler - something I said that I just wouldn't do. But it's so hard not to pick up a little something here and there for your favorite little man. We had Tyler with us when we bought a lot of it too - I'm going to miss being able to do that in the future. We also had him with us when we bought our gifts for the Salvation Army Angel Tree, a tradition that has been in my family & Travis' family for years. We're happy to be able to share this with Tyler to show that Christmas isn't just about "gimme gimme gimme". Hmm, I wonder if Santa went as overboard as we did??? Guess we'll have to wait until Christmas morning to see.

Tyler has a party at daycare tomorrow that I'm going to go to. I'm excited to be able to spend the afternoon with him. We have Grandpa & Uncle Eddie coming to town on Christmas Eve and we'll have the traditional Christmas Eve dinner that my Mom started so many years ago. They'll be here with us on Christmas morning to see what Santa has brought, have some breakfast, then head back to Lynchburg. Then we will head out to Trav's grandmother's house in Louisa County. We were originally going to have Christmas at our house, but Trav's dad is having some tests run at UVA on the 26th and they will be spending Christmas night in Charlottesville, so this is the best way to see them. (Please keep Steve in your prayers.)

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (in case we don't update here before then). Enjoy your time with your family and friends! Much love to those that we don't see often! (PS - Sorry about the one lone picture. We just got a new laptop yesterday, and I have not had time to move the files over. This is all I had to work with.)