Guest Blogger--Aunt Cat's Holiday Perspective

Christmas at the Zoo--we braved the cold and it was worth it!

The girls with Aunt Cat before Christmas Eve service at church

They loved the lights!




Addy & Cat

When you see my Aunt Cat, yell "AUNT CAT!" Walking out into the Indianapolis Airport Concourse and hearing two tiny voices yelling "AUNT CAT!" and having two tiny little people launch themselves into my arms was one of the highlights of my trip. Visiting Addy & Lilly is always an adventure, they never disappoint. After we left the airport we went to the Indianapolis zoo but not before receiving instructions from Lilly who said "Guys, guys this is the plan when you see more planes yell 'more planes!'" They were both in rare form at the zoo, petting the dog sharks and exclaiming "Ohhhhhhs and Ahhhhhhhs!" at the Christmas light displays.

They received "Elf on the Shelf" on the first day of December, the elf, who they named "Bubba Fiji" served as quite a tool for Aimee and Jeremy. Any instance of bad behavior was immediately reported to Bubba Fiji who apparently has Santa's ear.

I will never forget the singing, Addy and Lilly know the words to nearly every Christmas carol that exists and have no problem correcting anyone who sings one word incorrectly. We all went to church on Christmas Eve and the reason for using electric candles instead of real candles was made abundantly clear by Addy and Lilly collecting an entire church pew's worth of candles in one of their cups.

We left a note for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer and then headed to bed. At about six o'clock AM Lilly said she thought she heard sleigh bells on the roof which is pretty much the only sentence that can melt your heart at six in the morning. After stalling for as long as we possibly could until Grandpa and Grandma arrived to watch them open gifts Addy & Lilly opened countless presents ranging from pillow pets (a dolphin for Addy and a doggie for Lilly) to a pretend grocery store & cash register that quickly became Lilly's favorite toy of all time. I don't think that I have gone grocery shopping for real as many times as I pretended to grocery shop in Lilly's store. I have to give it to the kid though she is quite an entrepreneur, as she charged me $6.00 for a tiny container of milk. Luckily for me she accepts credit cards.

Christmas with two 3 year olds is something I encourage everyone to experience because I don't know of anyone who has ever opened gifts with such exuberance and excitement! Ribbons were quite a challenge for our little ones but nothing was really going to stand in the way of them opening toys! Addy and Lilly both enjoyed Christmas dinner and have quite a taste for filet mignon. They both like the finer things in life, nice cheeses, nice meat, fancy cookies. But they are the sweetest little people, Addy has an "I looooove you" ready all the time. The three of us went on a special adventure to get some frozen yogurt and honestly you would have thought I was taking them to Disneyworld, the way the poured over their choice of toppings was a bit dramatic. Spending the holiday with Addy & Lilly was fun and exciting, I miss them terribly but as a person who has never been a big fan of six AM I don't miss the wake-up call;)