Can bedtime come any sooner??

Oh my.

This is the first year Ben is really into the whole Santa thing, and the first year he is really excited. I mean, REALLY excited. He was literally bouncing this morning when he got up, because Santa is coming tonight. I have a strategy for today: no nap, lots of running, and *hopefully* they will go to bed early (earlier) tonight. So far, so good. Evan hasn't had a nap, and after dinner I'll give him about another hour. Ben, however, will be the difficult one. He can go either way with naps and be fine, and with his extreme excitement, who knows what will happen. All I'm saying is that they need to be asleep soon so Santa can wrap their gifts!!!

Ben is convinced he is getting a toy jeep (jeef), and Santa has told me he is not. Of course, he has waited until today to drop a big list to us. We keep warning him not to be upset if he doesn't get exactly what he's asked for, so hopefully he'll be excited.

I feel kind of bad. Everytime he tells me he's excited about opening presents, I cringe a little. We want to instill in him that it is a day to celebrate the birth of Christ, a day to spend time with the family, a time to be thankful for all that we have and help those who aren't as lucky as we are. All he really cares about at this point is the presents. I guess he's only four, and that's what I should expect, right? I know it will change over time. When I was that young that's all I cared about!

For now, it's just fun to see him so excited. Okay, well, mostly fun and a little annoying. Being able to hold Santa over his head when it's time to clean his room or quit whining has been very nice, and I'm not really looking forward to that going away! Oh well. I heard that Santa is bringing him a kid's video camera (playskool, fisher price? it's a daddy gift.), so we will have to post some of his movies on here.

I'm off to make an early dinner, because he's wanting to go to bed now that it's dark. Dinner, a final room cleaning (Santa won't come unless their room is clean!), and probably three long hours of him trying to get to sleep.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope yours is wonderful!

:)