On Christmas Eve

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

I unsuccessfully tried to get a Santa picture with Chase. Last year, we passed altogether. This year, I had a feeling Chase would just be scared by Santa since he was scared of the one at Chris' work gathering, and he is scared by most men in beards anyway. But, I figured we could try anyway. Well, for starters, I took him at a bad time...on Christmas Eve, in the middle of the afternoon, when Chase was grouchy and ready for a nap. We actually waited in line, but after 10 minutes of Chase fussing and wiggling, I decided it was time to get out of line and go home. By the time we pulled out of the mall parking lot (and my great parking spot on such a crowded, busy day!), Chase was fast asleep. Probably a good thing we didn't wait to see Santa. It wouldn't have been a great picture. Guess we'll just have to wait till next year.

The best part of today was going to visit Uncle Jay at the fire station. My brother has been a fireman for over 6 years now? But, we haven't yet brought Chase to the fire station. He's about the age where he would start to appreciate it. So, we headed over to the station. We had to wait a little bit until they got back from putting out a fire. Then, we watched Uncle Jay empty the hoses, and he asked if we wanted a ride (but don't tell because civilians aren't supposed to ride in the fire trucks!). We hopped in the back, and Uncle Jay drove the truck into the street and stopped traffic so that he could reverse it the huge ladder truck and park it in the fire station. Chase got to try the steering wheel out for himself afterwards (when the truck was not moving of course).

But, the best part was when Chase noticed the basketballs on top of the lockers. He had fun throwing the ball to his uncle, playing on the exercise equipment, sitting in the jet ski, and hitting the lockers to hear the loud sound they made.

We had dinner at the Halsall's tonight. We decorated the tree after Chase went to sleep, making sure that all the unbreakables are at the bottom and taking a BIG step back to admire the tree (from afar) with the bright blue LED lights. Chase is going to have an exciting day tomorrow....And I wonder what his favorite gift will be? (probably the empty boxes and tissue paper) He's getting lots of new toys and things! What a spoiled kid!