Feliz Navidad 2011

I'm slowly coming out of a Christmas fog.  After the emotional days spent honoring John's life, and then catapulting into two full days of Christmas festivities, the fog is slowly lifting.  What just happened?

We had a lovely Christmas, and it truly got off to an unique start.  On Christmas morning, I woke to a quiet house around 7 am, and thought "Ahhh, let me get a shower before madness ensues."  While in the shower, Dylan busts into the bathroom to inform me Logan was downstairs ripping open presents, all by himself.  "Whaaaaaaa???".  I grabbed a towel, bolted downstairs and sure enough a super overly excited Logan just couldn't wait, and decided to have his own personal Christmas.

It was certainly a different start to our Christimas morning than I had anticipated.  But after recovering from the shock of it all, we settled into a cozy morning of gift opening, toy playing, breakfast eating and preparations for the journey to Grandma's for Christmas, Part Three.

Part One was spent on Christmas Eve at my brother and Jessica's, for Christmas with my Dad and Stepmom.  The kids always enjoy eating lots of yummy food and opening the first round of presents.  And how lucky are we every year that we get to celebrate Christmas three times?

The boys love leaving cookies for Santa, after sprinkling reindeer food out front!

One last note of the season from Tyler, our Elf:

Our tree, adorned with loot, before we settled in for a long winters' nap

aftermath

Mom and Robby's tree, before gift opening

Maya and Josh, looking very tall

My Mom holding our newest family member, Baby Violet



my gorgeous stepsisters

And, no Christmas is complete without a dance party, and a game of Headbandz!

ho ho ho

Logan woke up yesterday and asked if he could 'finally' go have his photo taken with Santa. He's asked a few times but ideas with him can be fleeting and I was waiting to see if he was really serious before I braved the mall. I've managed to not go there once in months and I wasn't about to start now if I didn't have to.

Dylan has no interest in going to see Santa this year. He still believes, but he typed up an email and we sent it off to Santa, content that Santa has entered the digital age and would get his list that way.  Plus, as he told Logan, everyone knows the "mall" Santa is only a helper of the "real" Santa who is busy up at the North Pole.    So he said "Nah, no thanks" when I asked if he wanted to go see him in person this year.

Logan, on the other hand, seemed pretty intent on the idea.   He asked again early yesterday morning and I looked at the clock realizing if we hurried, we could possibly be first in line before Santa even arrived at 9 am.  Which would be perfect since he doesn't have to catch the kindergarten bus until 11:20 am.  So off we went, and we even beat Santa.

Nothing quite like watching Santa come down the mall escalator....  But Logan rehearsed what he was going to tell Santa in line, and got some nice one-on-one on Santa's lap.   Which, as a sidebar, had me wondering how many times a  season Santa gets peed on?  But anyway, we got a really nice photo and $35 later (wth??  You can't even take your own photo) we were done.  

One more thing checked off the ole ho-ho-holiday list.

Santa's giant sack-o-lollipops

That's one happy boy. He's a cutie isn't he? And Logan isn't bad either.

...one is silver, but the others gold

We had some dear, old friends over last night for a sort of small, spontaneous holiday get together.  I've known most of these people since middle school, and some of us even went to college together after that.  Most of them live in Maryland a couple of hours away so we just don't get together as often as I'd like. But when we do......

Wii "Just Dance 3" - a RIOT!

We stayed up way too late, ate way too much, and imbibed more than our fair share of holiday adult refreshments.  We laughed until our stomachs hurt and enjoyed the kind of hugs you can only share with friends who have known you for more close to three-fourths of your life.  Each one of them walking through our front door was like getting a Christmas present.  And what could be better this time of year...spending time with old friends is what its all about.

Poker? I didn't even know her.

Sorry, a little elf humor.

what they won't be getting

I'd like to know who is buying their child this for Christmas this year.   Of course, the commercial comes on TV during cartoons about six times an hour.  Logan, of course, thinks he wants it.  Its fun!  You feed the dog until his stomach gets extremely and then!  The dogs poops!  What Logan doesn't know is that I'm just going to hand him a shovel with a bow on it.  We have a whole pile of doggie doo right in our own backyard he is welcome to.

Seriously, who thinks of some of these toys?    I saw this at Target the other day and laughed out loud.  Actually, I bet its a pretty fun party toy.

While the toy makers are at it, maybe someone can invent some toys based around some other disgusting things, like "Who Clogged the Toilet", complete with tiny plungers.  Or how about, "Road Kill" stuffed animals?  "Autopsy Lab Kit", that would be fun.

How about Operation.  I HATED that stupid game when I was a kid.  I would literally hide it in the house somewhere far, far away so none of my friends would come over and see it, and suggest we play it.  If by some chance it was found and we had to play, I'd grasp those horrible tweezers while clenching up, waiting for the inevitable 'AUHHHNNNN' at 500 decibels.  I still hate that game.

There are disgusting toys, and then there are toys that are just super annoying and clearly were invented by people who don't have kids. This includes Moon Sand (have you ever tried cleaning that shit up?), Pixo's (those horrible tiny balls that will be from one end of your house to the other), and I'm sure some people won't agree but Zhu Zhu pets. Seriously. You throw it in the toy box and that thing goes thru its entire reel of sounds, squeals and giggles. There is no way to turn it off. Sometimes out of the blue when no one has been near the toy box for hours, it will just go off by itself.


I remember once when Dylan was a toddler, someone gave him a stuffed animal that came with a magic marker, so you could draw all over it.  What a stupid toy. Seriously?  I have been teaching him for three years NOT to draw on anything but paper and now this toy came along and undid that?  It got Freecycled immediately.

As I imagine many, many Doggie Doo games will be come January 4th, once the kids are back in school.

he needed a little Christmas

T did a little decorating of his own last night....

fa-la-la-la-la

We always start decorating for Christmas the weekend of Thanksgiving.  My thought has always been why wait until mid-December when its only going to be up for two or three weeks?  Its so pretty, and its so much work, lets enjoy it for a nice, long time. 

Andrew tackles the exterior illumation (this year having a few Clark Griswald moments) while I focus on decking the halls inside.  And every year, we get a few more things to make every holiday even shinier than the one before.  

Once Christmas comes and goes, I'm ready for it to come down and we often take it all down New Years Day.  By then, the needles are falling off the half dead tree and have been tracked from one end of the house to the other.    And its just nice to get things back to normal before we go back to the routine of school/work/life. 

Christmas is only 11 days away.  The presents are all wrapped, cookie baking is planned, and holiday cards have been sent.  Now is the time to really savor the magic and the spirit of the holiday.

And some of my favorite ornaments.  I really need to have the boys make more ornaments this year.  Handmade and/or with photos and years really are the best kind.  I am also realizing I need to create a few ornaments using the boys newborn baby photos, I don't have any of those.

When it all began...

And along came Bella, our training baby.

And two years later, Dylan arrived.

Merry Christmas 2011.