Jason didn't even know.

Jason has no idea how my parents handled Santa/parent gifts growing up.  It's one thing that has never came up, still hasn't.  Because of that I was taken by the way we fell into the same pattern as my parents this year.  Don't tell Hardin, but until this year we rarely bought him anything.  We knew family and friends would get so much stuff we didn't think it was necessary.  Or we're cheap.  The world may never know.

Not surprisingly, I stepped right into the roll of mom and helping Santa.  We thought about what Hardin loves and about what Santa should bring him knowing he's been watching him all year.  Santa had an easy year with my kid.  Fire trucks. 

Jason on the other hand stepped right into the roll of my sweet daddy.  He thought about it for a while, and picked gifts Hardin doesn't know he wants, but will LOVE.  My dad always did that.  99% of the time he bought us some cool new electronic we'd never heard of.  He always made sure mom and Santa took care of all the request, but he went shopping by himself right before Christmas and bought the cool stuff. 

This year Hardin's daddy decided he needed a fishing pole, tackle box, and real cowboy boots.  He went to Walmart all by himself (THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN), and picked out the fishing pole and tackle box for them to use at the little lake.  He also insisted we drive to the western store in Commerce tonight to get the most adorable boots I've ever seen.  Hardin is sure to love them, and I'm sure to smile a little extra Christmas morning at Jason favoring my sweet daddy.

The only other big news is that Hardin had his Christmas party at school and is on break now until January.  The Christmas party was adorable.  I got there a little early and caught a glimpse of reading circle.  According to his teachers H is always front and center for story time, and very vocal about what book he wants them to read.  This was no surprise if you've been around here for bed time.

When the party started we made a craft; a bag of reindeer food to put out Christmas eve.  Evidently everyone feeds Santa cookies but not nearly enough folks feed his sleigh carriers.  After that we decorated a cookie.  As you can see Hardin took that very seriously.  We finished up with a book swap and called it a day.  After 40 minutes I left there feeling one thing:  guilty I didn't get his teachers bigger Target gift cards.  I'm sure every single one of those sweet two year olds are a breeze on their own.  But 10 in one room with two teachers?  THAT takes some kind of magical patience I just don't have.  Not to mention his class is 8 boys and 2 girls.  God bless teachers!