A Los Angeles Christmas

They say that you get "cheated" when your birthday is close to Christmas. However, I think when your baby brother is born close to Christmas, then you score big. I mean, the parents want to make sure that the older children don't feel neglected now that they have a younger sibling. And more importantly, the parents want to make sure that the older kids have plenty to keep themselves entertained while mom and dad tend to the needs of the new baby.

At least that's how things worked out at our home.

This is Lucas's reaction to Santa's visit on Christmas morming. Notice that Micah appears to be simply excited to leave the bedroom where he and Lucas had been holed up for ten minutes while Grandma, Grandpa and Mom were making the final touches to the living room. Micah is running away from the presents.

This is the image that made Lucas's jaw drop. You see, we found that we were unable to place any presents that were addressed to the boys under the tree because they kept getting unwrapped prematurely. Consequently, Lucas went to bed with perhaps 5 or 6 small gifts under the tree and woke up to this. My jaw would have dropped as well.

It always amazes me how quickly the room goes from the scene above to the scene below.

Perhaps this is the most surreal part of celebrating Christmas in Los Angeles. In the afternoon, I gave Deanna's dad a driving tour of L.A. We started off in our apartment on the west side, drove to downtown and ended up at the temple (all in about 2 hours, which could probably only be done on Christmas day because of traffic). It was a beatiful day... about 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a great New Year! We have a backlog of pictures and stories to tell, so be sure to check back :)