Christmas Eve Day - Body Worlds, CPK, and an Early Visit From Santa!

We had a fun Christmas Eve Day! Ryan spent Christmas Eve-Eve with his dad, so Rara and Papa and I picked Ry up at the hotel, and then headed for Body Worlds at the Leonardo. It was amazing! I worried a little bit about taking Ryan - I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for kids that age. But he was fascinated. It was amazing to see how art and science were combined in order to offer such an incredible educational experience. The exhibit is still here in Salt Lake for another couple of weeks. I would definitely recommend it. Photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit itself, but at the end, they have a gift shop and a hands-on area. Ryan played with a probe camera, looking at everything from my cuticles to his nostrils. (I was told by the woman overseeing that portion that I had very clean fingernails and cuticles.) In this picture, Ryan is holding a REAL human heart! A cardiovascular surgeon in the making!After Body Worlds, we went to Ryan's favorite restaurant (and one of mine), California Pizza Kitchen. Most of you know that Ryan is a "selective" - not picky ;) - eater. Well, at CPK, he snarfed down his whole pizza before the rest of us even got our salads! I'll gladly take him ANYWHERE where he eats his meal that quickly!

We had a fun evening, reading the Christmas story and letting Ryan open a couple of presents (new jammies, of course). As we were sitting in the living room, Ryan all of a sudden said, "Oh my gosh! Santa's here!" and started madly running around the house. I thought he was crazy. Sure enough, we looked outside, and Santa was walking down the sidewalk (but went PAST our house)! Ryan was really worried that he wasn't in bed yet (it was only about 8:00), and continued to run around trying to decide what to do, when the doorbell rang! It was Santa. He said he was just making last minute checks, and wanted to make sure Ryan was still being good. Then he told Ryan to make sure he went to bed on time. Amazingly, Santa agreed to pose for a picture with Ryan IN OUR HOUSE!!!
Ryan put on his new jammies as fast as he could, then poured Santa's eggnog, put Santa's HoHos and candy cane brownies on a plate, wrote a quick last-minute note, and went to bed. As I type this, he is already asleep! I've never seen a child go to bed so quickly on a Christmas Eve before in my life!

As for me, I've cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms in preparation for our guests tomorrow. I think I'm going to sit down for some eggnog and a HoHo.