On the Ninth Day of Christmas...

We saw at least 9 kiddos dancing while waiting to see Santa

Every year our neighbor dresses up in his Santa costume and their family invites the entire neighborhood over for a party. We love to go to visit with neighbors and to see Santa. It's really nice not having to go to the mall and pay to see him. Plus, he's the coolest Santa I've ever met. He's says funny things, he guessed what Daniel wanted, and he remembers what James asked for last year.
This year was the first time that James actually had a smile on his face... I think the basket of candy canes by Santa had something to do with it. At first he said he was adamant about not going to sit on Santa. But that all changed when he learned that Santa was The Guy handing out the candy. Daniel wasn't entirely sure of the whole thing but James and his overpowering sweet tooth got over the fears pretty quickly.

Side note: Mike and I are done with Christmas. We almost took our tree down last night... The boys are wild, patience has run out, boys have been sick for three weeks straight not to mention Mike and I have picked up another seriously nasty bug going around, I can't listen to Christmas music anymore,  and we are all exhausted. Next year our family is going to rent a cabin in a remote mountain location to read, watch movies, ski, and snowshoe the week away! Not really, but it sounds so very appealing right now amidst the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations.