Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

I'm really excited about Christmas this year, mostly because Perrin is really excited about Christmas this year. He's had the hardest time staying away from the wrapped presents under the tree--he knows they're for him and he's just dying to open them. (And he's nearly succeeded a couple of times when I had my back turned).

 Yesterday when I asked him what he wants for Christmas, he said, "A baby." I wasn't sure if I'd heard him right, so I asked him to tell me again. "I want two Brielles," he said. Ha. As much as I love Brielle, I'm really glad we only have one of her right now. Sorry Perrin--no more Brielles for us. But I do think it's sweet that he wants another Brielle for Christmas.

I've spent a lot of time this year teaching Perrin the Christmas story with a child-friendly nativity set. He wants to play with it and hear the story just about every day. So he knows all about Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, but he's still pretty hazy on the idea of Santa. We took him to the library to let him meet Santa last week, and he totally did not understand the concept of sitting on Santa's lap to tell him what he wants for Christmas. Instead, he looked back at us like, "Who is this guy, again?"

 

So we never actually got him to sit on Santa's lap. Oh well. He's had lots of other fun experiences this Christmas season, like helping bake and decorate sugar cookies (oh, the mess) and watching classic Christmas cartoons (over and over and over and over and over) and decorating a gingerbread train (which he sneakily munched on over the next couple of weeks until I finally threw it away) and entertaining us with his debut performance as a drummer boy in our church Christmas play (where he spent part of the time drumming the poinsettias instead of his drum and part of the time wandering aimlessly across the stage with his back turned to the audience. But he sure looked cute doing it!)

 

Birthday thoughts

Yesterday was my 28th birthday. It's hard to believe I'm near the end of my 20s... they've gone by fast. (I also just realized that I met Trey more than 10 years ago... wow! Has it really been that long??) So here we are, with a house and two kids, rapidly approaching 30.

We went on a date last night to celebrate, and we left both kids with my parents for the first time. I love my kids, but oh my goodness it was SO incredibly great to get out of the house and enjoy being a couple again. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in being parents that we forget that we're a young couple in love and that we occasionally need to spend time together talking about something other than choo-choo trains and poop.

We went to Conway for the evening to do some Christmas shopping and eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Mike's Place. There was something really special about going back to the town where we met and fell in love. We drove around and talked about all of our memories there, like the time we went to the park and Trey ordered a pizza in a British accent, or the time I was late for work because Trey and I were having a stimulating conversation online about eyebrows or something, or the time we played on some abandoned carnival rides at midnight (and Trey was freaking out the whole time because he thought the cops would come after us), or the time the cops DID come after us at another park (but we were innocent that time--really.)

After dinner, we drove out to Toad Suck park out on the river. We used to go there for picnics all the time when we were dating. It was dark and chilly, but we walked around for a little while and finally found what we were looking for--a bench where Trey had carved our initials and a heart more than eight years ago. It was still there! We've changed a lot in eight years, but somewhere deep down we're still that couple that loves to explore and enjoy the world together. I wouldn't trade parenthood for anything, but I'm thankful for times like last night to remind me that I'm not JUST a mother... I'm also Trey's wife and best friend. And even though we're currently sleep-deprived and ankle deep in diapers, spit up, and annoying toys, we still like to be goofy and have fun together. And there will be more opportunities for goofy-ness in the future. Life is a lot of work right now, but it won't always be this hard. And someday we can include our kids in our adventures. I told Trey last night that we should take them to Toad Suck in a few years. Maybe we'll even add their initials to our bench.