Isn't this awesome?!! Mariah is so talented on the computer. She and Dakota love to go all over the property here behind our house (which is my brother's land, so we weren't trespassing, lol) and take tons of pictures. She's even gotten Dakota loving to take pics. It's funny to see his perspective through the lens. Most of his pics are crooked, or heads are chopped off, but he's learning. These pictures crack me up. They are both hugging and kissing that tree. Then she got the idea to make it look this way. She's probably not really happy with how it turned out, because she's like me, never 100% happy with what she creates. But I think it's cool. I also think it's funny how she made herself look taller in the picture, because in real life she and Dakota are the same height! She is 18 and he is 9, but people think they are twins when we go shopping. Dakota says that when he is taller than Mariah, he's going to be her big brother. These kids crack me up!

So Christmas has come and gone and now it is the New Year!!! Can't believe it's 2009! So Christmas was fun and exciting, but a little sad, too. With all of Dakota's questions about Santa and elves and reindeer for the whole month of December, on Christmas morning he flat out asked if Santa was a real person who really left him gifts or was it me. So I told him the truth, and he was ok with it. He is a very logically wired child and it started to not make since to him that Santa could do all the things that up until now he believed he could do. I told him that although St. Nicklaus was a real person a long time ago and that the American version of Santa is not "real", it is the spirit that lives in us that is real. The true spirit of Christmas and all the magic that you feel at Christmas time is Jesus. I have always explained to the kids that Jesus is the real reason we celebrate, not the gifts and decorations and all the hooplah that goes along with it. It is the celebration that Jesus was sent to forgive our sins and that is the most special gift of all! So Dakota is fine knowing that I am the "pocket book" that is Santa. While I was at it, I told him the truth about the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy and he was fine with that, too. Now it's time to start new traditions. We will make cookies just to enjoy and we will wrap all the gifts and not have to hide certain ones any more. I think that next year will be much easier.

Before I go, I wanted to tell a funny Dakotaism. The other day, he was at Nana and Grandpa's house and he told Grandpa that he was on a diet and that he had already lot 2 weights. He meant pounds, but he gets confused with words sometimes. If you lose weight, why not count it as weights, right? Makes sense to me!!