Merry Christmas!

This Christmas season has been my most favorite yet.  We have made salt dough Christmas ornaments, baked and decorated Christmas cookies, made a gingerbread house, went Christmas light seeing in the neighborhood, spent time with family decorating Christmas trees and had celebrations with our Michigan families.  We have been truly blessed with an amazing family and the only word that comes to mind when describing the experience is MAGICAL.  It was magical from start to finish.  I know that the photo’s won’t do the memories justice, but I hope you are able to see what I see in each of them.

My most favorite memory of this season is Eli’s reaction on Christmas morning.  Ben and I got him a kitchen and had it put together so it was the first thing he saw as he came down the stairs.  He walked up to it ever so slowly, almost is disbelief.  Once he started to recognize what it was, he knew immediately what he wanted to do.  He walked past all of the presents under the tree straight to his playroom and grabbed a cupcake.  He took the cupcake to the kitchen, placed it in a pan and put it in the oven, then looked up and said “I am baking cupcakes”.  This is something he and I commonly do, only we use my real oven (don’t worry, I don’t turn it on when playing with plastic cupcakes).  It was so exciting to see him so excited!  Then, we drew his attention to the tree and got him to open his first present.  He only had asked for a few things 1) Chuggington (train set) and 2) books. 

HOWEVER……I need to digress for one minute to tell a funny story.  We took Eli to see Santa at the mall and we practiced what he would say.  He wanted Chuggington and 5 books.  But, the day before we went, he decided he did not want to go see Santa.  Either way, we ended up in a short line and Eli patiently waited.  Once it was his turn and Santa asked him what he wanted, he drew a blank and had a Ralphie moment (from a Christmas Story) and he asked for a cardboard box….that he could play with outside.  We just about lost it and Santa was terribly confused.  But, the fact that he even spoke to Santa is a win!

Back to opening presents.  Once Eli opened Chuggington, it was all over, that’s all he wanted.  Ben put the tracks together and that’s all he wanted to play with.  It took a lot of convincing, but he did finally make it through all of his presents.  Most notably, he got: Chuggington Trains, Curious George books, Woodstock (from Charlie Brown) stuffed animal, his kitchen, a farm animal set, some trains, and lots of educational counting type toys.  All in all, he was really a great kid this year and I think Santa was right when he told Eli he was on the “nice” list this year!

Enjoy!

Salt Dough Ornaments

This kid can work a rolling pin!  My Grandma Strauss is loving this!

Decorating Grandpa Strauss' tree

Uncle Joe and Mackenzie with Eli

Crazy Cousins!  Madison, Eli and Mackenzie

Making a Christmas Tree with paint and a toilet paper roll

Making reindeer using our hands!

Finally decorating the salt dough ornaments

LOTS of glitter adorned these ornaments.....sorry to the relatives who received these!

Beautiful!

Cookie time!

Sampling one hot out of the oven

Christmas tree decorated with Fruit Loops

Great Grandma Ann got me this snow globe many years ago for Christmas and each year, Eli LOVES to play with it.

Hi Santa!

The Official photo

"Yes Santa, I want a cardboard box that I can play with outside"

Making a gingerbread house

I am pretty sure he sampled a gum drop.....but then proceeded to lick each and every single one before going on the house.  Don't worry, we didn't eat it when it was all done

The finished product

Eli and Colin Avondet and their matching jammies!

Christmas morning

His new Chuggington train set from Santa

*More photo's to come, I just have to sort them out.  But, hold tight, I'll post more!

O' Christmas Tree

I finally have time to catch my breath and catch up on a few things. I intended to post this long ago, but each year, we go to Coleman’s Tree Farm and pick out our tree.  This year was especially fun because I have a tree-hugging son who ran around the whole place like a crazy man.  Up and down the aisles he ran until we finally found the perfect tree!  

   

      

The Guardian Angel ornament was given to me by my dear friend Sally after the loss of our baby back in February and it was positioned on the tree hanging just over the ornaments that represent each member of our family including the cat.  I collect Christmas ornaments from every vacation spot we've been to and love to recall all of the great memories, so it is especially fitting that each year, I get to have something that I put on the tree for my dear Guardian Angel.

Thanksgiving in North Carolina

My long planned for and anticipated drive to North Carolina with a 2.5 year old is finally over and the anxiety that I felt over the whole thing is long gone.  I have to say that Eli was such a trooper in the car.  I had gathered and purchased TONS of stuff for the car in the event we experienced a meltdown, but we had nothing of the sort. If anything, I think Eli actually liked driving through mountain tunnels and over cool bridges and of course countless hours of iPad time.  There was only one incident on the way home where (as Eli calls it) he leaked out on the highway (translation, vomited in the car while on the highway in the mountains). 

Other than the previously reported incident, we had a great time hanging out with the cousins and of course meeting the newest niece, Marigny.  She is the sweetest little baby and it was so cute to see Eli observe her.  I think the one thing that I take away from this vacation as my favorite memory is the interaction that Eli, Ada and Mae had.  I have not seen Eli actually play games or communicate so much with others as much as I saw it with Ada.  It’s clear to me that these two had a great time running around and playing with each other. 

It was such a nice visit and I am so happy that we were able to make this a successful vacation so I won’t be so freaked out next time!

2.5 Year Check Up

At Eli's two and a half year check up, we were able to conform what were thinking...Eli is an amazing communicator.  Nurse Practioner Pat had full on conversations with Eli and confirmed he's way ahead in this area.  We also confirmed Eli is growing finally!  He was 77% in height and 45% in weight.  I didn't get the chance to write down the exact numbers, but this is quite the jump since his two year visit.  All-in-all, we have a healthy and happy child!