Jingle Bells...

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We hope that the arrival of this holiday brings joy, peace, and lots of time with family and friends. We ourselves are still in the Big D...enjoying our first Christmas "at home" with Camden. We'll fly out later this evening and head to North Carolina to spend the next week and ring in the new year with family and friends there.

Before we get too engrossed in the present unwrapping and the breakfast casserole eating, I wanted to share a quick video of Camden's Christmas carol performing debut. I'll apologize in advance for my singing (and for the fact we're in our pajamas) - but if you can tolerate the singing, I promise it's worth the suffering. Personally I love watching him "snap" his fingers. :o)

We hope to cross paths with many of you who follow this blog from God's Country (better known as NC) while we're in town next week, and we wish all of you...from NC to NE to TX and beyond the merriest of Christmases and nothing but blessings for the new year!!!

Love - Mandy, Ryan, and Camden


Jingle Bells from Mandy Jo on Vimeo.

And laying his finger aside of his nose...

Camden loves to be read to. I think he could sit in my lap for hours and listen to "The Belly Button Book" or "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" 100 times and never lose interest. Every morning when I go into his room to get him up he picks up his blanket and Ciggy (the stuffed piggy) and promptly says, "book peas". We spend a good 30-45 minutes every day in the "rocking and reading chair" - usually starting our day with "Hey Wake Up" and ending most every night with "Pajama Time". Seriously, I have done more reading the past year or so than I did the entire time I was in college...but I don't know if that speaks more to my child's love of reading or my love of doing other things in college besides the actual school part.

In the past couple of weeks we've been reading all Christmas books, all the time. He especially loves the "What is Christmas?" book his Great Granny Wagoner got him last year. He's also a big fan of the ones that have places for his picture in them. But his absolute favorite is "Twas the Night Before Christmas". We read that one at least 10 times each day. I pretty much have it memorized at this point so if it's ever a "party game" to see who can write it from memory, watch out because I am ready to thrown down on that one.

Last night we were reading it - as usual - with much feeling and dramatization. I squeeze his cheeks when I read the line, "his cheeks were like roses" and I jiggle his belly when I read the line, "that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly" - you get the picture. But last night brought a new "commentary" from Camden that I hadn't gotten before.

When I turned the page to read the lines, "And laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose" Camden pointed to the picture and said..."Ahhhhh a booger. Ho, ho, ho got booger" And you really can't argue with the kid...here's the picture he was referring to.

So...I did what any good, self respecting mother would do, I told Camden that yes, even Santa sometimes had boogers and that he should be using a tissue rather than sticking his finger up his nose. I finished the book as best I could and then went in the other room to laugh my head off. We've read the book a few times today and once he pointed to the picture and said, "no, tissue" - but I still can't look at the picture without laughing.

Best Santa Picture Ever

This past Friday night our neighborhood had it's annual tree lighting in the park. After bundling up and walking a block or so to the park, we were able to enjoy some hot cocoa, popcorn, cookies, the tree lighting and a chance to sit on Santa's lap. Here are a couple of pictures from our excursion...

Camden with his "girlfriend" Amanda - these two are inseparable and thick as thieves when they get together. :o)

Remind you of that scene in "A Christmas Story" or what? :o)