Santa Claus is coming to town!

"Mom, where's my presents? You broke my heart. Don't want to go, stay here." These are the heart-wrenching pleas of a misled 4-year old boy as we leave our first Santa visit of the season. 

Our ward Christmas party was tonite. I went with hopes that my 2 oldest boys would have an amicable Santa -lap-sitting experience, but never expecting both of them to actually enjoy the experience so much they wouldn't want to leave. Both Treyden and Caleb stood patiently (pushing the boy in front of them only once) for about 15 minutes as they waited in the long line to see Santa. Once in front of him they BOTH jumped right up and eagerly explained to Santa what they wanted for Christmas. After they took their turn, they received their candy

 cane and jumped off the stage. Trey stood at the bottom of the stage for a moment as if still in awe that he was in such close proximity to a man that could make his wildest dreams come true. When I announced that we were leaving, he hit me in the leg and told me NO! I was a

 little shocked considering he had been quite good the whole evening and actually ate some dinner with all the chaos surrounding him. As I packed the stroller, Trey continued to argue with me about staying, so I decided it was time for a kid chat. I got down on his level and asked what was the matter. He frantically explained that he had told Santa what he wanted and where was his present! I told him that Santa doesn't have his present and that he needs to go back to the North Pole to get his present ready and that he would deliver his present on Christmas. Trey still wasn't convinced. I pointed out that none of the other kids were getting presents as they left Santa's lap. Still no trust. I then asked him if he saw Santa's sleigh or a bag of gifts that Santa had to pull Trey's present out of. He said, "yeah, green present under tree." Sure enough, there was one lonely green rectangle under the Christmas tree that sat next to Santa. One of many times in my life I had no response for my very clever Treyden. Caleb sat very contentedly in the stroller devouring his candy cane through all the drama.

Choo Choo park

Next to Disneyland, one of our biggest loves is the choo choo park. Now, we must be clear. There are 2 choo choo parks, one MUCH cooler than the other. One is a community park that has toy trains to play in, the other is the WAY awesome Irvine Park with a real miniature train that takes you around the park. My boys love it when the conductor bellows, 'BOARD! They sit more still for those 15 minutes than I think they do when they're sleeping soundly in bed. We decided to enjoy the sunshine today at Irvine Park with the Phelps. After we rode the preview of the Christmas train and saw where Santa comes to visit (we'll have to go back when the big guy is actually there) then we went and played at the jungle gym and, in true boy fashion, played swords and banged on innocent cars with big sticks. 

This is the Polar Express

So, I've had a lot on my plate lately and blogging has been one of the sides I haven't been able to fit.

Trey has finally caught on to the spirit of Christmas. He understands that Santa comes to our house and that he can actually ASK for what presents he wants. The other night the boys were restless, so we decided to go on a Polar Express run. We dressed in our jammies (boys only) and hopped in the car. We drove around the neighborhood and looked at lights and then we made the trek to "the North Pole" which just so happened to be Krispy Kreme for donuts and hot cocoa. The photos are from when we got home, right before they went to bed.