A Simple Christmas

This morning we loaded up Kate's "back-a-pack-a" (backpack), stopped by the "Chick-n-Lay" (Chick-Fil-A) for a quick breakfast, and headed to NorthPark Mall to see the train exhibit with friend Luke. As you can see, the kids had a great time wearing their conductor hats and looking at the trains together. After we finished at the exhibit we checked out one of the puppet shows in the mall and since NorthPark doesn't have a kids play area we burned some energy on some impromptu "slides" we found. In the pictures you can see the extreme concentration on Kate & Luke's faces as they climbed up and then the joy that came from sliding down... here's a 6 second video of the fun process:

It's amazing how the simplest things are usually the most fun things for kids - like a cardboard box or the wrapping of a gift instead of the gift itself. Who needs a big fancy mall playground when you can crawl up the side of a planter?!? We definitely enjoyed getting to spend time with friend Luke and see the trains together, but I think that Kate loved sliding on that planter as much as she liked the trains - and the sliding was free! As I try to make this Christmas meaningful for Kate and to go out of my way to make things special for our family, I need to keep in mind that usually the best things in life are the simple things. A simple Christmas sure sounds great to me!