Presents for London--and a big one for Daddy

On Saturday morning we had a little Christmas celebration in Claremont. We read the Christmas story, sang the only two carols London knows ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells"), and opened the gifts that the three of us had gotten for each other. London passed out the packages.


His first Christmas presents were a Transformer and a package of five little die-cast jet planes. He brought the little jets on the plane when we flew to Oklahoma City that afternoon.


Yesterday we went to church with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Dan, and "my cousins Abby and Caty". As in, "Do you think that my cousins Abby and Caty will wait for us?" and "I want to go with my cousins Abby and Caty!"


Then we went back to Mimi's and Papa's house, where London's Great-Grandma Onie and Great-Grandpa Bud celebrated Christmas with us. If I tried to list all the stuff London got, I'd probably crash the internet. His biggest present was this Thomas the Tank Engine toy laptop, but his favorite in time invested in play is a battery-powered Thomas train that he has been chasing across one floor or another for most of the past 24 hours.

Last night London went to spend the night with "my cousins Abby and Caty" in Glenpool. It was only his second night away from both Vicki and me. He handled it like a champ; honestly, he played so hard with his cousins that I don't think he had time to miss us very much. We had time to miss him, though.


Since Vicki and I had the today off from parenting, we drove down to Norman, met Todd and Anna Ruth for lunch, and then went to the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The entrance gallery to the Hall of Ancient Life is under renovation and set to reopen in March. We went to see the reconstructed head and neck of Sauroposeidon--all 39 feet of it--which was mounted the first week of December. Most of it is still behind the barriers, but also above the barriers, so you can get some idea of what it will look like when the gallery reopens:


This is something that I've been dreaming of seeing for more than a decade, so it was a pretty great day.

Stay tuned--lots more Christmas to come!