Christmas Eve

We've had to rethink holidays a little bit this year as we adjust to Papa being at the care center.  We don't want to leave him out, but bringing him home isn't possible.  So, for Christmas Eve we compromised.  After dinner at Nana's house, we jumped into the car with two of Nana's delicious pies and went to have dessert with Papa.

Noah loves it there and, thankfully, he's always excited to go see Papa.  He can't wait to get out his bag of toys in Papa's room and see the fish in the big tank, but this time there was also a big present to be opened.  With Nana's help, Papa had a gift just for Noah and Luke that was there to be opened.

It's entirely possible that the hard hat would have been sufficient.  But it was just a tease for the actual gift.

After just a few tears into the paper, Noah was all smiles.  He was definitely excited about what was inside.

And, really, what little boy wouldn't be thrilled to get this from his Papa?

Noah was in construction truck heaven. Bruder sure knows how to make amazing trucks.

While the boys in the family checked out all of the features of Noah's new truck, the girls just snuggled and loved on Luke.  Nobody felt short-changed, that's for sure.

So it was a different Christmas Eve than we've ever experienced, but, wow, I'm so grateful we did it.  I want our boys (and the rest of us) to have as many sweet experiences with Papa as possible.  And even if they're too young to remember it, they'll be able to see through pictures a Papa who loves them dearly.