Christmas 2010

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope all you all did too!  We even had a bit of a white one this year!!  We started Christmas Eve with our annual dinner.  We had 15 people this year, which is actually less than normal but we still had a great time!!  We exchanged gifts, ate, ate some more, and then I held our Survivor style auction where I auction off all the goodies I pick up for free all year at CVS off to the highest bidder.  I can’t even tell you who came out with the most this year, but I can tell you my ever so quiet mother-in-law Barbara was quite voracious in finding the extra hidden auction money around the house giving her quite the edge on the bidding!!  It’s a lot of fun to sit back and watch family try to outbid each other over toothpaste and body wash!!

Daniel had a great Christmas!!  This year was full of Thomas trains (no surprise there), a new bike, and Imaginext (my new favorite toys!).  He also got a way cool art caddy bag filled with crafting supplies and most importantly a painter’s pallette (“Just Like Grandpa’s” he exclaimed when he saw it).  We carefully filled it and he painted a beautiful rainbow for me.  I did the first two colors and he finished the rest.  Finally he got a Thomas Uno game and we had a good time teaching him.  He won his very first hand (no cheating allowed) and Troy and I are calling it beginner’s luck!

Enjoy some photos from our holiday!

  That’s my silly sister in the background!  (NOT ME!!!)

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Today was a BIG day for Daniel!!  We went to our local library for (a free!!) lunch with Santa and Mrs. Claus!  They limited the number of children and it really turned out wonderful.  They fed the kids pizza, applesauce and juice boxes and Santa walked around and said “hello”.  Then they called the children up by table and they got to sit in Santa’s lap and allow the parents plenty of photo opportunities! 

This year, Daniel pushed my hand away and went right up to Santa by himself.  This is a huge change from the last couple of years where we had to be right next to him and he would repeatedly tell Santa that I was his mom or Troy was his dad.  The first thing out of his mouth this year was “Where are your reindeer?”  Santa replied “On the roof!”  Then Daniel asked for Molly and Mavis (Thomas trains) and we got a couple of good pictures!!

This evening we finally got our tree out and decorated it.  Daniel was very content on the floor hanging ornaments.  He knew the ones he wanted to hang and had us hang the rest!  He’s pretty excited about Christmas this year and we’re excited that he’s so excited!! 

We’re looking forward to hosting our annual Christmas Eve dinner and I can’t wait to auction off all my leftover CVS goodies from the year (more than 30 items) to my family with the fake money we hand out just for showing up!!  We did it last year and it was so much fun.  The surprise was my quiet father-in-law who outbid everybody on tons of stuff and racked up the items!!

This year has really found me in the Christmas spirit, more so than any other year!  I think Daniel’s excitement is really contagious!!

        

 

Need a Haircut?

Daniel is majorly into scissors.  Safety scissors of course, but if they cut, he wants them.  So imagine his awe when Troy brought out the buzzers to shave his own head.  Daniel wasn’t having any of it and Troy decided to be a good sport and let Daniel take charge.  I’m thinking future barber….

I tried to talk Troy into leaving his hair as it was.  You know, to help boost Daniel’s self confidence in himself as a future barber, but Troy wasn’t game for that!  Guess I can’t blame him!!

 

In other news, we introduced Daniel to his very own lamp by the bed that he can turn on and off by himself.  Every night after we read him books, he will generally “read” to himself for a while before falling asleep.  We’ve always been in control of the cutoff time, otherwise he would read all night.  This lamp was a big step for Daniel and we’re pleased to tell you that he always turns his lamp off after about 10 minutes or so without being asked and falls asleep.  Of course, these two pictures below are the exception.  I walked in around 11 one night to check on him and at some point after I initially checked on him, he had turned his light back on and started reading again.  He was sound asleep, light blasting.  Just look at the pile of books he was sleeping on – and you can’t even see them all!!  I had to roll him and pull books out from under him and the covers!

     

Lastly, Daniel has finally gotten into crafting more than he used to!!  I love this, especially with winter here now, so we’ve been getting the crafts out and creating some fun things.  The below reindeer Troy actually did with Daniel.  Daniel said I was the one with the red pretty antlers, he (Daniel was Rudolph with the red nose) and Troy was the middle small one!  Troy wasn’t too happy about that, but he went with it!! 

These fun glasses Daniel and I made from an egg carton.  I saw this in a parenting magazine recently and since it’s all stuff we had around the house, I thought why not?!  We just cut the egg carton, cut eye holes, decorated with markers and punched holes in the side for the pipe cleaners and Ta Da!  Silly glasses!

     

We’re getting very excited about Christmas and Daniel already knows what he wants from Santa.  We’ll be putting up our tree next weekend and today Daniel and I put garland and lights up outside.  This year I’m feeling more Christmas spirit than ever!  Happy Holidays!