Christmas 2012

You like reading my Christmas posts almost two weeks after the fact, right? It seems so last to post about it that I'd probably skip it altogether except that it was just so damn fun this year.

We really talked-up Santa this year...and Grant finally started telling us that he wanted Santa to bring him Thomas toys. He's very into Thomas the Train right now. At first when you asked what he wanted from Santa, he'd say "Uuummm...Grandma". But eventually he'd say, without thinking "Thomas toys". Santa did not disappoint. Santa and I made a pact that we would not go overboard and I'm very proud to say that not only did Santa and I do very well not going overboard...but we also managed to get all of Grant's Christmas presents without once having to step foot inside Toys R Us. There is nowhere worse during the Christmas season than Toys R Us - not even Walmart.

Anyway! On Christmas morning we always do stockings first, then presents, then breakfast.

Brodie waited very patiently for his stocking full of goodies.

He wasn't quite as ready as he thought to wake up.

Grant likes to help pass out the stuff.

Auntie Shauna helping Grant with his stocking.

Pretty excited about the ring pop. There were four in
there and Grant yelled "Another one!" every time.

Finally finished! Grant's is the biggest and, therefore, the
fullest stocking. However, I consider myself quite the stocking stufferer.

She really liked her scarf.

Sword fight with candy stuffed canes.

First present...

Monster trucks - who would have guessed?

He immediately asked to open them.

Fist one from Santa was a Percy toy that made Grant say
"Oh. my. gosh. It's Percy! He wuvs Thomas."

There were, of course, several other presents before "the big one". And Grant was excited about everything (except the clothes). I could bore you with no less than 100 pictures of paper-tearing fun but this post will be too long as it is. So we'll just skip to the big one.

It's a Thomas the train set. When he opened it, Grant yelled "IT'S THOMAS! Oh my gosh!"
Then he started frantically tearing the paper off.

Probably my favorite picture of the day was when he was playing in the little tent that my sister go him:

So then we ate a yummy breakfast that my sister cooked and headed to my mother-in-law's house. Again, I could post a ton of pictures so I just did a collage of some of my favorites.

And just in case we hadn't eaten enough...we had all this dessert:

And on the Friday after Christmas we went to my father-in-law's house to do Christmas and dinner with them:

Grant had such a great Christmas. I love Christmas anyway but watching Grant have so much fun and get so excited and so enjoy spending time with family made it 100% better than it's ever been. 

This has been a super long post so I'm going to cool it and stop for now. But I'm hoping to get a post up about the gingerbread house that Grant and I made together and also just some general pictures of Grant riding his crazy Christmas high.

I hope every one's Christmas was a merry as ours was!

Christmas Eve

Late as usual! Oh well. 

When I was growing up, my parents always "hosted" Christmas Eve. Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Charlie, Nick, AJ, and my Gram always came over and my cooked a bunch of appetizer type stuff (or poker food, as my Dad called it). We all ate too much, watched Christmas shows on TV, my Dad passed out, the kids went sledding, the adults played cards, and we opened our Christmas presents to/from each other. And then the next day Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Charlie hosted the more "formal" Christmas day meal. It was all so much fun and we all looked forward to it so much. 

Now that my parents are gone and my sister spends Christmas with us, she and I like to host a Christmas Eve get-together. Much like my mom, we cook a bunch of poker food...probably more than we all need. But it's Christmas, you're supposed to eat a lot :) And Husband's family comes over and we eat too much and talk and play with Grant. Who, by the way, loves to be the center of attention.

Grant loves to help in the kitchen! So we found
something easy for him to do.

Crushing the crackers for the top of one of the dips.

Just a little bit wired...



Having fun with Grandpa

He loves when Daddy blows the train whistle

After the "party" was over and Grant had at least semi calmed down, it was time to put out Santa's cookies and read stories...then make some sort of attempt at putting Grant to bed.

Santa really likes the store-bought sugar cookie with
the mountain of icing on top. He really likes them.

And that pretty much sums up Christmas Eve. After Grant went to bed, my sister helped me ice the cake I made for Christmas lunch...which I may never let her do again but that's a story in itself.

Hopefully I'll get around this week to posting about Christmas!

Goals For The New Year

Happy New Year! 2013 already. Another year has flown by.

I started 2012 with lots of doctor's appointments and blood work but no real idea what was wrong with me. So I'm hoping 2013 brings better things and more happiness. But 2012 was not without it's merits. We had lots of fun as a family with vacations, day trips, playtime and...I'm pretty sure...we managed to have one full year without Grant being in the ER (hey, that's pretty huge in this house).

Goals for 2013:

• Make friends with my new sewing machine:

I've already made this nifty hooded towel for Grant!

• Cook more: The past few months of my schedule have made me very lazy in the kitchen (although I did try several new baking recipes for Christmas gifts). But I want to get back into cooking real meals for my family. Grant is getting more adventurous with his eating so I'm looking forward to all of us trying some new things!
• Excersize more: I'm not going to be cliche and say "lose weight". Honestly, I'm not uncomfortable with my size & weight. But I hate how tired I am all the time. Part of it is my liver medicine and I can't change that. I think that getting some excersize will help though...so I'm going to try.
• Take more pictures: I have an awesome camera that I need to get to know better but without doing the monthly posts of Grant, I do less "photo shoots" with him. Actually, I don't think I've done one since his two year post. Unless you count our super cute Christmas card picture(s).

The one on the card (Husband voted for Grant looking
at the camera. He rarely gives his opinion so I went with it.)

 My pick, but didn't make the cut.

• Read more and play more: I have several new books lined up to read after I finish up the one I'm working on now. I need to turn off the TV (which is currently on while I write this) and read when I feel like relaxing - like during nap time - and get outside to play with Grant when we need some play time. Our whole family could use some time away from the TV, our phones, and these computers.
• Potty train!: We've made a very good start with this! Grant has let us know that he's very ready.
• More vacations and day trips: Last year we took two family vacations, just like I'd hoped we would. This year I'm hoping we can do that again and work in some more day trips. We had a great time at the beach with Grant so we need to do that more often. I'm already not looking forward to getting sand in places sand should never go...but I'm already looking forward to the look on Grant's face when he plays in the water. I'm hoping this year brings lots of fun :)



Happy New Year!



2012 Pullen Park Holiday Express

All Christmas posts are late. I've had a ton of stuff going on in my kitchen!

So this year we actually made it to Pullen Park for their Christmas train ride (that's what I call it). I've wanted to go for the past couple years but for one reason or another it's just never happened. But this year - a few weekends ago - we did it. Grant is all about trains right now (not to worry, Monster Trucks continue to remain #1 in his little heart) so I knew he'd love the Holiday Express.

The park is decorated with lots of lights and they've got little fun stuff going on for the kids to do. There's a little stage with some entertainment and their playground area is of course open. They have to shut down their little boat ride because the unimaginably long line for the train has to wrap around that ride.


But they did add some cute little animal passengers.

Crazy long line.

I think we waited somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 minutes to get on the train. And Grant was so patient! I couldn't believe it. And every time he heard the train whistle blow he'd get this "Oh!" look on his face and freak out trying to see the train. He loved all the lights they had put up around the train route and really loved waving to all the people we rode by.

Family picture while waiting for the train

Still patiently waiting for the train.

I was hoping we'd have time to ride the train more than once. No such luck. The line stayed long from the time we got there to the time we left. But that was ok. Grant got to play on the playground, we got to walk around and see the lights (with Grant going "Pretty lights! See pretty lights?"), listen to some entertainment and then eat dinner. Which was surprisingly good for park food.

That looks says "No, Daddy, my pizza."

After dinner we went on the carousel. Ever been on the carousel at Pullen Park? If you do, I hope you enjoy feeling like you could vomit at any moment. It seems as if there should be a speed limit on carousels...and this one definitely exceeds it. But Grant loved it. We were relatively close to the front of the line so we asked what Grant wanted to ride. He immediately spied the ostrich (on a carousel?!) and yelled "RIDE CHICKEN!!". So I rode the other "chicken" and Husband held Grant on the ride while trying to keep from being thrown off (it was seriously going that fast).

Riding the "chicken".

We made our way to the car after that. It was worth going and I think we'd try to go again next year. They only sell a limited number of tickets so even though there were a lot of people it never felt overwhelmingly crowded. And Grant had a great time, which is all that matters :)

Conversations With My Toddler

I seem to be having flare-ups of my undiagnosed but undeniable rheumatoid arthritis. It happens every so often and when it does...it's pretty much hell. It's a pain that I can't describe. But pressure helps a lot. So for my wrists, I have braces that I wear when I need them to get me through playtime with Grant and then to help me sleep too. Last week I was wearing one and Grant noticed it immediately.

He came over and lightly touched it.

Grant: You have boo-boo?

Me: Yes baby, I have a boo-boo. A big one.

Grant: A big one?

Me: Yup. Mama's whole body is a boo-boo.

Grant: Ok. Who did it?

Me: Karma. Karma did it.

Grant: Kah-ma?

He walks away very slowly and peeks behind the end table next to the couch. Then creeps over and looks behind the love seat.

Husband: You know he's looking for Karma, right?

He totally was.