It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh, is this picture a real hoot or what!!! To tell you the truth, I would take this over a huge smile any day. Love it!!! Other than the fact that I semi had to torture the poor baby girl to get this photo. Well...not really....but you know what I mean. And, to make this picture even better, please take a look at the diaper area on Lo...it was a weee bit full with tinkle...oops! Kind of finishes out the picture perfectly though don't you think!

It really wasn't as bad as the picture makes it out to be. As a matter of fact, when we arrived to see Santa Claus, Lola would not stand still in line with me as she wanted to go see him right then. Obviously, she didn't understand the concept of waiting in line...even after I tried to explain it to her over and over. She kept running up to the front, waving and shouting "Hi Santa Claus!". I was really surprised by her intensity to want to see Santa. She would run back to me and say "Mommy, Santa's pretty!". It took everything I had not to crack up by this little comment. Instead I would say "Yes baby he is" and then I would say "Stay in line with Mommy"...didn't work! We had to wait about an hour or so and the entire time she was just elated to go see Santa. Even when we were next in line, she stood right up to the gate waving and yelling "Hi Santa" just as loud as her little voice could go. Of course, this joyous moment would quickly come to an end. As soon as it was time for Lo to sit in Santa's lap, the pic above is what we got. Poor baby girl!!! I hated to walk away with her whaling like that but I had to get the picture...right!?!?!?! Anyway, it was fun and when we walked off to pay, Lola started yelling "Bye Santa". It was good to know she wasn't completely traumatized over it. When we got home I told Lola to go tell her daddy who she saw. She ran up to Clay and said "I sat on Santa's lap....I cried". It was so sweet. I love moments like this!!!

Clay and I are struggling a bit with the holidays. We're about to start Tour de Texas and won't be home for Christmas Day. I'm not sure if we'll always be on the road for Christmas....my vote is to be home on Christmas Day and Clay's vote is to be away...I guess we'll continue to battle this one. It's not that I don't want to be with our family during the holiday...I do and we always will in some sort of way but I struggle with being away on Christmas day.

Growing up my favorite thing about the Christmas holiday was Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house. I still have clear memories of the excitement I felt Christmas eve. We would bake cookies and leave them out for Santa. Adam and I would usually sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve and would have a very hard time falling asleep due to our excitement over Santa coming. First thing Christmas morning we would pop up and go grab my mom and dad out of the bed (I have a feeling this was always much earlier than they would have liked). We would have to wait for my dad to set up the video camera (Yes, we have every Christmas on camera and still to this day record them...not as exciting recording full grown adults but we still do it). Once camera was all set up, we would go see what goodies Santa brought us. This is the great whimsical part of Christmas...I just loved it!!!

With our kids, I fear they'll never have these moments if we're always on the road. Right now it's not as big of a deal as Lola doesn't know Christmas Day from today or yesterday but she will next year so we'll have to figure out what our traditions will be. In addition, as we add to our family, I figure this will all become even more difficult. I guess this is a struggle that all families have to go through and we'll figure it all out.

With that, since we'll start the Tour de Texas this week, we decided to go ahead and have Santa Claus come to our house yesterday. I wasn't sure how Lola would react...would she react??? She did and it was simply adorable! Guess what...I have it on video...keeping the tradition going! Lo kept saying "Oh my goodness" and talking about all her little toys. She would say "Santa brought choo choo train". And then we would get another "Oh my goodness!". It was a moment I'll never forget! The good news about Christmas on the road this year is Lola will have at least two more visits from Santa so I'm thrilled to have a couple more breathtaking moments over the holidays!!!