Christmas Day

Christmas morning Alex and Aidan woke up around the same time - they slept in a little bit due to our fun/late activities Christmas Eve. Aidan got a little Pluto stuffed animal in his stocking and some balls that make different sounds.

Alex couldn't wait to see what Santa had brought. Santa left a little pile of presents for Alex by his stocking - but Alex didn't realize they were all for him and was confused that there weren't any tags on them. He said, "How do we know who they're for?" We told him all the ones by his stocking were for him and he got pretty excited. The number one toy he wanted from Santa this year was RC - the Remote Control car from Toy Story.

Aidan sat in his bouncy and enjoyed his new Elmo rattle (from Nana and Papa) and the balls that Santa brought him whilie the rest of us opened presents.

Santa also brought Alex a sled and some new gloves - since Alex lost his after playing in the snow one night. Here he is trying out his sled with the new travel pillow we got him.

Alex couldn't wait to go sledding, so Jon took him to a nearby park and he got to try out his new sled. He had a great time.
Look at him go!

We were supposed to get together with Jon's family on Christmas day, but there was supposed to be a big snow storm, so we postponed it until the Sunday after. We were initially quite disappointed, but ended out having such a relaxing day, that I think we all enjoyed the way it worked out. Plus, we got to extend the Christmas celebrations a little longer. Grandma and Grandpa Gus were so nice to give all the grandkids gift certificates to Wal-Mart - Alex used his (and Aidan's - shhh, don't tell) to get a cool nerf blaster. They also gave Alex a mug that he uses for his hot cocoa. What a fun time.

Christmas Eve

We had a great holiday season (even though I'm blogging it rather late). Christmas Eve, Jon got off work around 2 pm and came home and we all headed to my folks. Before we left, Alex took the last opportunity possible to write a wish list to Santa. He was so cute - insisting on writing the whole thing himself. I told him how to spell each word, and he wrote the entire letter himself. We dropped the letter off at Macy's, as the line for Santa was like 2 1/2 hours long (I should've known not to wait until then - but I thought it could go either way with either being super busy or everyone having their own parties and it not being too crowded). We took one last pre-Christmas picture of our tree before we left.

We had a delicious turkey and ham dinner at my folks, and then enjoyed opening some presents. Sherrine gave Alex a much loved Buzz jacket (Buzz is his absolute favorite).

Aidan was so cute - and as you can see - he quite enjoyed the night. He had several presents to open (see the green elephant on the left side), but he enjoyed the goings-on and people watching as much as anything.
Nana and Papa gave Alex a light saber (or "life saver" as he likes to call it - we're still working on the pronunciation). You can see he was thrilled.

Alex enjoyed playing with his cousin, Isaac.

Jon got his perfunctory work shirt. He is hard to buy for because he doesn't give us many ideas, but he always needs shirts.

Nana and Papa were nice to host all of us and definitely spoiled the kids. We had such a great time.

We arrived home just in time to go to bed and wait for Santa to come.

Our New Camera

We are way behind on the blogging, but I thought I better do a quick post just to get the ball rolling again. For my birthday/having a new baby/our anniversary - we got a new camera! So we of course had to take some pics with it. Here are just some Christmas time pics of us with our sweet Alex. I love this picture of Alex - it shows how spirited and fun he is. This is "his" tree behind him - I took him to the dollar store to pick out some ornaments for it and he got to decorate however he wanted - and he loved it!Jon is wearing his Christmas tie he got for Christmas a year ago - I thought he could wear it the whole month of December to "be in the Christmas Spirit" - but he will still only wear it once a year. And I just couldn't resist this pic of Aidan - WASSSSSSUPPPPP!!!!

Gingerbread House Decorating - A Family Tradition

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. While Jon likes Christmas, he doesn’t share my intense holiday zeal. So, it’s up to me to ensure that our children are indoctrinated in the art of holiday merrymaking. One of our annual rituals is to assemble and decorate a gingerbread house. We hope that our version turns out as well as the model home.
Aidan was alert as we got underway, but he was soon ready for a nap.

Alex showed tremendous concentration applying the new, green icing that came with this year’s kit.

As you can see, the whole family had a great time, even Jon! Thanks, Costco pre-fab gingerbread house kit!

The finished product . . . Alex did a great job with the green icing!

The Festival of Trees

This year we went to the Festival of Trees. It was my first time and it was really neat. There were small trees, big trees, gingerbread houses, and centerpieces on display for sale. All of the pieces are donated and all the proceeds go to Primary Children's Hospital. The big trees go for several hundred dollars. Almost all of the big trees also have decorations or other additional items that go with them. It was quite impressive, but also sad as many of the trees are in memory of those (many of whom are children) who have passed away. Alex quite liked this big Grinch. Aidan was, of course, quite happy during the event.
This Mickey Mouse tree was really cool - with lots of Mickey Mouses on the tree, and tons of Disney movies, books, and toys underneath.

We ate dinner at the Mayan afterwards, and Alex enjoyed watching the cliff divers.

The first real snow

We got our first real snow the other day (along with it came the cold!). As soon as Alex came home from school - he went outside to play in the snow. All by himself - I was so impressed! He usually only likes to play outside if there is someone to play with him. He also built a snowman all by himself! I could see that he had made a ball by rolling the snow. Unfortunately, he didn't pat it together, so it pretty much just fell apart - but I thought it was great that he tried. I went outside and helped him (a little) - pat some of the snow together. Alex told me that he needed some olives and a carrot. I didn't see the carrots right away, so I gave him a tootsie roll. We used a piece of licorice for the mouth. Alex was quite proud of his creation (the 3rd one he did that night).
I finally got him to come in when it was dark. He played outside for several hours - and went back out the next day. He is loving the snow! It also makes it feel a little more like Christmas. :)

Breakfast with Santa

Last Saturday, the nearby Community Center did a Breakfast with Santa. It was very reasonably priced (especially compared to the other ones I've seen), and I thought it was quite good. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, OJ, and an orange slice - as modelled here by Alex. There was a children's choir who sang Christmas carols, and they read The Polar Express. One of Aidan's latest tricks is sticking his tongue out - I think this pic is so cute of him.
Of course a special guest came at the end. Alex was really excited to see Santa.

Santa was kind enough to have all 3 of us sit on his lap! He even gave Alex a bell (just like in The Polar Express ).