We had a beautiful Thanksgiving with all of Zac's family as is tradition. This giant ham provided three delicious turkey breasts for the big meal:
We enjoyed the special time with family but also spent parts of the beautiful weekend at the zoo ...
... and in the park.
Everybody was happy to get some extra time outside.
We began to deck the halls which Cael had been talking about for weeks. He couldn't wait turn on the exterior Christmas lights and gladly started pulling out all of the decorations. He began by decorating his own little tree and making the tough decisions like which star should top his creation.
We moved onto the big tree ...
... as our monster truck-lovin' little guy carefully played with and placed the ornaments.
We just added to the holiday fun with a trip on the North Pole Express this weekend. After getting his ticket punched by the conductor,
receiving his "I Believe" bell from Mrs. Claus,
and walking through the North Pole snow,
Cael finally got to meet the big guy in the red suit.
He still needed a little back-up from mom for his visit with Santa but he did share his Christmas requests: "monkey slippers with brown on them and a monkey costume with brown on it." Not sure what the inspiration was for his gift ideas but he has remained consistent when discussing his planned conversation with Santa over the past couple of weeks.
Cael did warm up a bit once Santa suggested they break out some reindeer antlers. I love Santa :)
It was a great night spent riding the train, meeting Santa, hanging out with Grandma,
and taking in the beautiful sights of the season.
We've had a lot of holiday fun but the most special pre-Christmas moment came for me a couple of weeks ago. One of the organizations that I support annually is Operation Christmas Child which provides Christmas gifts to children in need around the globe. I thought Cael would be old enough to help me put together the gifts this year and so we started talking about the items we would purchase and who would receive them.
We spent quite some time working through the general idea of giving to others and not expecting anything in return. We talked about how we feel when someone does something nice for us and how we wanted a few other little boys to feel just that way at Christmas.
The discussions we had were so special and my heart bordered on bursting as I saw him grasp the idea of giving. He excitedly came up with ideas for our gifts and happily shopped for the items without asking for any of them for himself. The morning finally came to assemble the gifts and he simply glowed as he placed each item in the little boxes.
I could not have been more proud of our little guy, especially as we prayed for the children who would receive the gifts. I just melted into a giant puddle as he eagerly handed each gift to the woman collecting them ... I hope that image always stays in my mind. Cael's Christmas gifting was definitely the cap on a beautiful season of thanksgiving.