This is the first year that both my kids are old enough to get excited about Christmas, and I gotta say–it’s making for some fun memories.

The first bit of fun was when I took Xoe out shopping. The purpose of the trip was actually to pick up curtains, but she spotted a Pillow Pet that was blue and asked if she could get it for Rowyn for Christmas. She then proceeded to find gifts for her cousins–small, but fun. I love that she’s so in the spirit of giving. My MIL took the kids shopping for my hubby, and then my mom took them shopping for me. Xoe was very determined to choose each gift herself and a bit upset when my MIL selected the one for Papa–so she added some chocolates to it when out with my mom. =)

Last Friday when we stopped at the market, I asked David to take Rowyn down the toy aisle to pick out a gift for him to give Xoe while she went with me. Naturally, Rowyn in the toy aisle is hilarious. He kept going, “Rowyn likes trucks.”

David: “Yes, but we’re shopping for Xoe. What would Xoe like?”

Rowyn: “Rowyn likes trucks.”

“What does Xoe like?”

Thinking . . . “Pink trucks?”

LOL. David laughed and said, “Do you see any pink trucks?”

Rowyn looked around for a minute and pointed at a big, red, remote-control monster truck. David put the nix on that one, and they eventually decided on a paint-it-yourself piggy bank. But we got a lot of laughs from our single-minded boy. (And some people dare to argue that girls and boys aren’t just different?)

This was also the first year Xoe could write a letter to Santa. I told her she could only ask for one thing, so she deliberated very carefully before asking him for a pink ballerina princess costume with flowers on it, and ballerina shoes with ribbons. Complete with drawings. And after inquiring after the reindeer, of course. We took the letter to the post office, where they have a special “express delivery to the North Pole” box. She climbed the little stairs, opened the mailbox, put in her letter, and was oh-so-pleased. Then Rowyn said, “Where’s my letter?” Um . . . yeah, we didn’t help him write one. Given that, you know, he can’t write. But as it turns out, he just wanted to climb the stairs and open the box. He didn’t really care about having a letter to put inside. =) And then all evening he kept saying, “Where’s Xoe’s letter? In an airplane? Is it on Santa’s sleigh now?” Very cute.

For our Christmas Eve service, we’re going to be presenting gifts to the Christ child–our gifts being written on paper and delivered. The kids will have wrapped boxes to take him, and our little girls decided they MUST be angels. Xoe was very adamant about this, but also insisted Rowyn had to be something different. His choice? A turtle. There’s nothing saying there were turtles in the stable, but hey. Why not? LOL.

I hope everyone else is having as fun a year as we are!