Christmas

John Paul's preschool has a Breakfast with Santa where kids can meet Santa, get faces painted, listen to stories from Mrs Clause, etc. In the hour we were there we were able to scarf down some pancakes, swallow a couple of candy canes, sit on Santa's lap, play in a bounce house and of course get faces painted-with no tears-Success!

To be honest, I'm not a huge "take pictures with Santa fan". This is one of the first years I had the kids pose with Santa and looking back at the pictures I realize why it's a bit creepy and I avoid it if possible: Here kids sit on this strangers lap, by force if necessary, I'll even bribe you with some candy-its ok to take candy from this stranger but not under normal circumstances. Is this the real Santa my kids ask? Of course he's not! I can spin some tales to my kids about Santa during the Christmas season but to look them in the face and say yes, this guy sitting in that cheap suit and fake beard is Santa...I can't do it. So not only am I forcing them to sit on his lap but he's not even the real Santa. Weird.

It is always hard to get good pictures on Christmas because we are so busy opening presents, helping the kids set up their new toys, visiting with family, etc-who has a spare hand for a camera? But we were able to get the cousins together for a "photo shoot" pre-Christmas. Below is the first and probably best picture we took. The rest are comical, and those of course are my favorite.

I have one of the pictures of all the cousins on my desktop and the kids love looking at it, especially Adam. He names everyone ten times before we can walk away from computer. I love that they are all so close in age. The Munoz family leaves the beginning of February to go back to Spain for a few months and we are going to miss them.