Hi

I thought it was about time to check in.

This week has flown by and today, the whole family is excited to have our own family Christmas this evening. And, to add to the excitement, Santa has agreed to be a flexible fellow and is doing a flyby past our house tonight, so we can open his presents here before heading to be with family next week.

I work hard not to get too engrossed in "chores" surrounding Christmas preparation, and we do pretty well. Really, there are only 3 "have to do" things. Christmas shopping, of course, which I am notorious for finishing early because I don't like crowds, has been done. Christmas cards, which are my LEAST favorite part of Christmas but I do love to receive them, so we carry on, have been done, and lastly, Christmas cookies, which are so delicious to eat and so messy to make, have been made. We have never had a lot of other obligations or time suckers around Christmas so we generally avoid the hustle and bustle and try to sit back and take it in as much as possible, and I am so looking forward to being with family.

We have been opening a stocking gift each night to spread out the excitement. One gift was baseball cards, and when Luke saw one of the cards with this logo on it:

he yelled,

"Look Daddy, this guy plays for the PILGRIMS!"

Another morning, I was in the shower, and he came into the bathroom saying, "Mom, we have an emergency!" When I asked what it was, he said, "We're out of bananas!"

Oh Luke, you make me laugh.

One night, the boys were discussing how many kids they were going to have, and what they were going to name them. Jack decided he would have 4 kids, and name them:

• Mason
• Sarah
• Ellen
• James

I was impressed with these names. Solid, not overused, and mostly not names of anyone he even knows.

So, of course, Luke came up with his list of the 10 kids he decided he would have:

• Matalee
• Nathan Robert
• Luke
• Josim
• Corn
• Sarah
• Snowmen
• Present
• Jack Samuel
• Nathan Miller

He added middle names to the two Nathans, realizing it would be a problem trying to call for one of them and the confusion that might ensue with two of the same name. You might also guess, that as Luke lives in the moment, one of the names referenced something he was eating at the time, and several of the names were things he looked at while he came up with the list. But Matalee and Josim were all his.