Wonder and Joy

We spent the best evening together as a family last night! We headed down to Macy's and saw "A day in the life of an elf"....again but this time the wonder and amazement in Riley's eyes was hilarious!  He took it all in and didn't utter a peep!  What a difference a year makes!  Last year he wouldn't let G'ma put him down and this year he walked around peering curiously into the lives of the rather creepy looking elves.  I think his favorite scene this year was once again the dog covered in mail and the elf mailman who he appropriately named Papa.

Our favorite part of the whole thing was seeing Santa again though.  While we were waiting behind the red rope Riley kept turning around with a huge smile on his face asking "Now Mommy?  Now Daddy?" until finally she let us through.  He ran to Santa and like a well trained 2 year old with a camera obsessed Mommy, dutifully let everyone take some precious pictures before he starting telling Santa exactly what it is he wants.  "Nuns and noo noo's pease." 

Translated for anyone who is not familiar with Riwey speak is he wants guns and choos choos please.  Yes, our 2 year old asks Santa for guns every chance he gets.  We/Derrick never pushed this on him.  He saw D's guns after a deer hunting trip this year and hasn't looked back once.  He wants to be just like his Daddy and many a nights the last few weeks has slept with his 'baby gun' that G'ma bought him at a garage sale.  No, he does not point guns at anything other than the deer on the TV that he occasionally sees and the deer head on our wall.  He will understand gun safety at a very young age and be properly trained in how to handle them when necessary but for now we let him pretend hunt with his nerf/baby gun and that is our personal decision. 



But I digress.

We stood back and watched him have the sweetest conversation with Santa about his name, age, likes and whether or not he has been a good boy.  Thank you Santa and every Santa we have seen so far for reinforcing the 'listen to your parents' rule!  For some reason it sounds so much more reasonable coming out of your mouth ; )  After shooting about 25 pics the lady told me I was only able to take 2 pictures...oops, my bad!  So unfortunately I didn't get the shot of him getting off of Santa, walking towards us and then turning around quickly to go back and give the big man a huge bear hug!  Yes, our boy is delightfully sweet! 

We then headed up to the 12 floor for dinner and to our surprise Riley ate everything put in front of him!  Maybe we will be getting a Santa costume and suiting up before every dinner?!  He just sat there smiling at everyone and us, eating his chicken tenders, enjoying life as we overlooked the downtown sky lit up at night.
Perfection.  I just couldn't help but smile and be so grateful to be in that moment sitting across from a 2 year old cutie and my incredible husband.  Life is good people, Life is good!

We even took 10 flights of escalators down to the 2nd floor from the 12th-WHY?  because Riley loves moving stairs and he loved being inbetween us holding hands flight after flight after flight.  After every floor he would say "more stairs?" and then he would squeal in delight as he spotted around the corner the next moving flight downward.  Finally we spilled out onto the skyway and eventually down to the street level to find our hot seats and take in the Holidazzle parade.  Last night was mildly cold and we probably didn't need the hot seats but is was nice to sit down, relax, take off the winter coats and enjoy the light show in the dark.  Riley loved him the choo choo float and was waving his little arm off at all the floats that went by! 

Riley had a full day of Christmas since his classroom celebrated with a party also yesterday and yet he wasn't tired or sick of it.  The boy was just filled with wonder and joy at everything he saw.  He pulled 3 baby puppies, one big puppy, his 'nice car' (his secret santa gift from a classmate) and his lovie into bed last night and all he could do was smile.  Life is grand.  Bring on a weekend full of Christmas to lead us into next week where we can continue with the wonder and joyfest until we just need to spend a whole day in pj's watching movies and vegging out on the couch. 

Loving this time of year and feeling so lucky to see it all through the eyes of our 2 year old.