getting ready for christmas

so here it is christmas eve, but i just wanted to post about a few things we've been doing to get ready for christmas . . .

william and i drove out to my parents' house in california a few days after peter left. my sister, elise, drove with us since it's her christmas break at byu. the first thing we wanted to do once we got to CA was go to "mickey's house," which, in will-terms, is disneyland. we had fun for the first hour before it started pouring rain on us. we didn't last much longer since we were all drenched. but we'll be back for more disneyland fun after the holidays.

and then, last night, my parents, elise, and i took will to the griffith park travel town museum (which is pretty much a park full of old-time trains that don't run anymore) to go on a little train ride and meet santa. we took lots of pictures while waiting in line :) but it really was tons of fun and will had a blast. we started out by visiting with santa (i would show the picture, but i haven't gotten around to scanning it yet) and his elves.

after telling santa that he wanted "a chu chu train" for christmas (prompted by mama because i couldn't think of anything else to say and will certainly wasn't coming up with things on his own), he was thrilled to go get on a real chu chu train!

we had fun riding the little train around the park and seeing all of the christmas lights. it was a really fun night and perfect for my little buddy who is completely enamored with trains and anything with wheels!

tonight, for christmas eve, my parents had the 4 missionaries that are serving in their area over for dinner. we ate our family's traditional christmas eve meal: shrimp cocktail, my mom's homemade clam chowder, and steak, plus a salad, rolls, and rice pudding for dessert. it was delicious. and will even complied tonight and we were able to get a few photos by the christmas tree before we ate.

by the time dinner was over, will was super wound up. we laid out our stockings for santa and william could hardly contain himself. i don't think he fully understands who santa is and that he's coming to bring presents, but he was certainly more than thrilled about his lightening mcqueen stocking that my dad had gotten him. tomorrow should be a fun day . . . we just wish our daddy was here to enjoy it with us . . . merry christmas daddy! we love you!!!!!