Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas 16 times with about 12 different families. OK, that's not entirely true, but man, did we get good use out of those "holiday" sweaters!

Grandma Mary's gift to Jack was almost as tall as he was.

Griffin and Grandma Patty watched the present-opening chaos.

After getting snowed in Des Moines, we spent a cozy Christmas day with Grandma Mary and Barry.

We finally made the trip to the tundra where Sally greeted our carload of elves. Check out all that snow!

Housebound!

One cold day Bryan and Jack found a new way to entertain themselves. I can only imagine how long I can hold Bryan off until he decides to see how far Griffin will slide.

Warming Up

As a baby, Sally initiated "spa baths" for Jack, which meant he got warmed towels, a warm blanket and warm jammies following his bath. Here, Jack takes it a step futher. Actually, I think this has Bryan written all over it.

Scrub-a-dub-dub

This was totally staged and wouldn't have been possible without 8 sets of arms holding up Griffin. He's like a greased octopus these days, and this trial bathtime quickly showed us that he is not ready to be released into the big boy tub with Jack.

A Visit with Santa

Griffin braves the "dreaded lap" and discovers it's not so scary after all.

Jack is more comfortable at a safe distance. Given the look of this Santa's crazy shoe polish eye brows, I don't blame him!

Jack realizes that if he's going to get a hockey table, he'd better man-up and tell Santa what's on his list.

Jack decided that a Merry Christmas high-five couldn't hurt to seal the deai.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

They say that anticipation is half the fun of the Christmas season, and this year, we were determined to prove them right. Here's a quick peek at some of the Christmassy things we did to celebrate in December.

We kicked off the holiday season on Thanksgiving weekend with a 3D viewing of "The Christmas Carol." Looking back, it wasn't the best choice for a 3-year-old, but he quickly forgot the ghosts and focused on what treats he could eat.

Jack wrote a letter to Santa about what he wanted for Christmas.

In early December, we boarded the Polar Express to the North Pole (by way of Boone, Iowa). Luckily, we got a warm train car, because it was 2 degrees that night.

Once we arrived at the North Pole, Santa boarded the train to pass out sleigh bells to all the boys and girls on the nice list. Luckily, it was too early in the month for either of the Boesen boys to be considered for the naughty list, but oh were there moments!

Jack took a break from his cookie once the Big Guy stepped on to our train. I'm not sure if that's a look of childlike wonder or extreme terror.