Merry Christmas

(December 2010)

I LOVE Christmas!! I start my shopping well before Christmas and I have spent the past 3 years getting to the mall at 4 am in the morning the day after Thanksgiving, not for the deals but because to me it is my official start to the holiday season!! Now that we have the boys, Christmas has reached a whole new level, not only with regard to the amount of presents we buy, but in the amount of fun we have in the weeks leading up to Christmas. 

We pretty much have done the same thing every Christmas that Jay and I have been together and this year was no different.   Christmas Eve we slept over Omi and Poppy's house and then headed over to Grandma and Papa's first thing in the morning.  Amazingly, the boys slept late this year and didn't get up until almost 8!!  I was up well before them, just waiting (impatiently) for them to wake up.  

When we got to Grandma and Papa's, we realized right away that Santa came because the cookies and carrots we left were gone and only crumbs were left.   The boys ran up the steps and couldn't wait to start digging in to their piles.  I wish I had taken a picture of the piles because they definitely were the biggest ever!

Ryan wanted to open all of his presents in one shot for the most part.  As much as he loved his presents (all of which all were perfectly suited for him and exactly what he asked for), Ryan opened all of his presents with one eye always looking in the other direction.  I am guessing he either wanted to make sure Dylan was not touching his stuff or was making sure that Dylan wasn't opening something better.

Dylan, on the other hand didn't really care about opening presents, much to Ryan's dismay - Ryan kept saying "Dylan, you want me to open your presents for you right?  right?".  Dylan was pretty excited about his Thomas bath toys though and decided to try to rip it open with his teeth instead of waiting for someone to get a scissor.

Once he had his bath toys opened and got his new scooter, he was done and the rest of his presents sat there, still wrapped, for most of the day. 

After we opened all of our presents, the 4 of us headed back to Omi and Poppy's for breakfast and more presents. 

As soon as Ryan finished opening his presents, he found a corner of the room and hid all of his stuff over there and then sat there and played with his new stuff for the next few hours.   Dylan did the same - picked up any Thomas toy he got and went to play with the train table in the other room.   We spent a few hours just relaxing, napping and enjoying bloody marys and mimosas before it was time to head back to Grandmas.   We got the kids all cleaned up since by this point, they had gotten in to their stockings and were covered in chocolate and candy cane stickiness and took some family pictures since we knew it would not be long before they were a mess again.

I am not sure what was so funny in the next picture, but this makes me smile - It is exactly how you should feel on Christmas: full of laughter and fun!!

By the time we got back to grandma and papa's, Aunt Carrie, Marc and her gang were there as was Jasmine's family and the cooking was well under way  - Grandma was finishing up in the kitchen and the guys were out back frying a turkey. 

As usual, Grandma outdid herself and dinner was delicious!!  After dinner, we were lucky enough to have some special entertainment courtesy of Ryan and his new banjo

He definitely has the rock star stance down but we need to work on his playing skills.  For the time being, we have decided to hide the banjo so we all don't get broken eardrums.  Perhaps to escape the noise or perhaps just out to have their own fun, Dylan and Papa went outside and this is where I found them. 

I think Dylan would have been just as happy if he got that flashlight for Christmas since he did not let go of it for the rest of the night.

I took a lot less pictures this year than last year and I think part of the reason why was because I was really just enjoying the day.  Someone asked me what was my favorite Christmas ever and I can honestly say, every year I think it was the best year yet - this year was no different!

 

Easter

(from April 20, 2010)

Keeping up with the yearly tradition, the day before Easter we went to Omi and Poppy's house to dye Easter eggs and this was Dylan's first year participating. It only took him a few minutes of watching to figure out what he was supposed to do.

Well, kind of figured it out.

Ryan remembered exactly what to do - he just had a hard time deciding if he wanted to dye the eggs, color the eggs or decorate them with stickers.   As a result, most of his eggs ended up being brown (from being dipped in all of the colors) and completely covered in stickers

When we woke up the next morning, the Easter Bunny had left baskets for both boys. Ryan found them first and to our shock, didn't take them apart. He came and found us and said "I found something...i think the Easter Bunny was here". He was thrilled though when we showed him which was his and let him open it.

It was beautiful out so Jay and I took the kids to the park for a little while after they played with their baskets for a bit. As we pulled up the driveway of Omi and Poppy's house after the park, Ryan started screaming "look, look the Easter Bunny came" and pointed out all of the eggs that were hidden all over the lawn. We parked the car and before we could even open the door, Ryan's veins were popping out of his neck and he was again screaming "Let me outta here - I need to get my basket and those eggs". And so the egg hunt began.....

 

 We told Ryan to try and leave some for Dylan to find - his idea of letting Dylan find them was finding an egg and putting in front of Dylan and saying "Oooooh Dylan, look what you found" haha. Eventually, we convinced Ryan to look on the other side of the lawn and Dylan got a chance to conduct his own search.

It didn't take him long to realize that the plastic eggs were filled with candy and when he would get a hard boiled egg (both were hidden), he would squish it and when candy didn't come out, he would leave it behind.

After all of the eggs were found, Omi made Ryan a deal.... Omi had a scavenger hunt made for Ryan and if he could finish it, there just might be a surprise at the end.  Ryan was so excited and ran all over the yard looking for the clues.

When he finally got the last clue, it led him to this....

Omi and Poppy, thanks for a great Easter - we had a fantastic time and we love our Easter Egg Hunt tradition!  Hopefully the weather will be as nice next year as it was this year.

Pickle Tony and the tree

(from dec 20)
One night, about a week after Thanksgiving, the four of us were sitting in the house and we heard what sounded like Santa's bells outside our door.   We all went to the door and waiting outside for us was a box.

Inside the box was an elf and a book and we all sat down and read.  We soon discovered that Santa sent this elf to our house to watch us and make sure that we all behaved.  Each night, the elf went back to the North Pole to report our behavior to Santa and  would come back to watch us the next day.  He would hide in a different spot every day and the kids have had a blast running around trying to find him.  Dylan calls him "eff" but he has a name.  According to the book, each elf needs to be given a name and Ryan was allowed to pick.  He immediately said he knew a great name and decided on "Spiderman" to which we said no.  His next two choices were Batman and Ironman and we explained that he needed to come up with a name that was not a superhero.   We offered some suggestions, none of which were good and then Ryan said he knew for sure what the name should be - Pickle Tony.

Pickle because he loves pickles and Tony for Tony Stark, Ironman's real name.  Pretty funny stuff.  So every morning, we would wake up and find Pickle T and one morning we found him here

Pickle Tony brought us our Christmas tree!!! Ryan was beside himself trying to figure out how pickle tony got the tree, how he carried it, how did he open the door etc.   When I asked if he wanted to help us decorate the tree, he forgot all of his questions, thank goodness, and couldn't wait to pick out which ornaments he wanted to hang.   While Jay and I put the lights up, the kids had breakfast and then it was decoration time!!

Both Dylan and Ryan were very excited about helping and while most of the ornaments ended up in the same spot, they did a great job working together.  Dylan threw most of his ornaments at the tree, not really getting the hanging part but Ryan was very patient with him and tried to help.

I am sorry I didn't take a picture of the fully decorated tree because it looked great.   The first day, Dylan kept taking off all of the train and Sesame Street ornaments but after that, he didn't touch it at all.  I love when the tree is up and I turn it on at night as soon as we walk in the door.  

Thanks Pickle Tony for bringing such a great tree - hope next years tree is just as good **wink, wink**