Welcoming the Holidays

We heard Santa was coming to Kodiak and so we prepared the kids to go pay him a visit. We talked about Santa for a few days prior to visiting him, in an attempt to make sure Emily would be ready to sit and talk with him.

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Santa was coming to visit and take pictures at a local coffee shop. Its rare for Santa to visit Kodiak, so you need to JUMP at the chance to go see him. We waited for about an hour before it was our turn. It was a pleasant wait though, as we just sat a a table with our coffees and a pastry waiting for our number to be called.
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When we finally were called Ethan went up first and immediately started crying. Emily was no different. Eventually Chris and I were talked in to sitting with the kids and Santa, and the four of us got our pictures taken with him. (I'm not sure if we'll use this pic for the Christmas card, so I'll show it to you later.)
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Later that day, and throughout the weekend we decorated the house for Christmas. Emily was SUPER EXCITED about decorating the Christmas Tree! She even helped daddy put up the Christmas lights on the house. Ethan was being his usual "boy self" and took ornaments off the tree, pulled things from boxes, and played with things he shouldn't...there was a lot of corralling going on while we tried to decorate.
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We had a blast decorating this year, and it was fun to share the traditions and explanations of the holidays with Emily. She is definitely looking forward to seeing Santa this year! And, Ethan, well...he has a few more years before he really knows whats going on. In the meantime, he totally LOVES the Christmas Lights!
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By the way, Santa wrote down the presents he's bringing the kids on the blog's home page, in the top left corner. Just in case you're curious. Happy Holidays!