Christmas at home

We had a really wonderful Christmas at home.
Levi gave us a nice gift and slept until 8am! He couldn't have been more thoughtful after the sleepless nights we'd had previously. We opened the presents Santa brought, had some breakfast and just played most of the day. It was really nice to stay in our pj's until noon and enjoy our time together.After Levi's nap, we skyped with the Morrisons and Grandpa & Grandma G to wish them all a Merry Christmas. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with my sister Becky and Gabe's dad & Joanne. For Christmas dinner, I made this and Gabe made a wonderful stuffed salmon.
After dinner when Levi was in bed, Grandpa Tom and Gabe had to put Levi's present together. It sure took them a long time. I wonder if the beers consumed during the construction had something to do with it!While the boys labored, the ladies played a game of Qwirkle and had a few glasses of the elderberry wine Tom and Joanne made.We had a very nice Christmas and enjoyed having Tom and Joanne here to visit.
I think we might have to venture out today or tomorrow and find some new storage solutions for all the new toys Levi got for Christmas. The clutter of toys is starting to get on my nerves! But Levi sure is having a blast!

Cookies for Santa

After dinner, we had to get started on a treat for Santa.
Levi loved helping us make cookies!
He got so excited when he got to help daddy pour in the spices!He really loved playing in the mess of flour he made on the floor.And of course doing the quality control taste test.

Levi's all snuggled in bed. We have a few more things to get ready before we're off to sleep as well. Levi didn't sleep very well in the same room with us at Grandma Winnie's house (neither did we). Every one here is pretty exhausted tonight. Plus, it's almost Christmas! Don't want to keep Santa away.
Merry Christmas!

Oakridge Family Christmas

We left town Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days with Gabe's family in Oakridge. As long as Levi is little, especially once he believes in Santa, I really want to be home for Christmas. So we came back home this afternoon. Very quick trip. It was really nice to see everyone. Just wish we could have visited more, and had time to play some games! Here are some pictures from the festivities today. We had a nice brunch together before opening some gifts.
On Thursday morning Gabe, Levi and I set out to find some snow in the hills outside of town. We didn't have much luck. Levi's never seen or played in the snow and the small amount we found wasn't that thrilling. It wasn't fresh powder and Levi kept slipping. (We haven't bothered to buy him boots this year. I'm sorta hopping we won't have to spend the money on ones he'll only wear once.) He did think it was pretty funny when I threw a little snow at him and he kept signing 'cold' whenever he touched it!

Girard Family Christmas

Since my folks are going to be gone for Christmas, we celebrated early at their house yesterday. We opened presents and had dinner together. It was really nice. Levi is definitely getting more into the whole present opening. He even wanted to help every one open their presents. And as soon as he saw there weren't toys inside each gift, he was off to play with his new toys.
We spent our first day of vacation just hanging at home. Played a lot with the new toys Levi got from his grandparents and aunts. Gabe's going to be home the next two weeks as well. I'm really looking forward to this stay-cation. We've got some work we could be doing around the house (like taking out the carpet in the dinning room and installing wood floors) but I'm not sure we're really going to try and make that happen. Both Gabe and I have had a rough couple months at work, so we may just relax with our little man. It might be nice to just enjoy some time with family and friends. That is what this time of year is all about right?

8th Holiday Cocktail Party

*****2012 Edit-We've done some better math, and determined that this is actually our 7th Holiday Cocktail Party.******

Saturday night we had our annual holiday celebration. Our house was full of friends and laughter. Plus some good food and drinks.
Thanks to everyone taking pictures with our camera, we had over 200 pictures of this party. Unfortunately most of them were taken without the flash so they had to be deleted. Most of the time drinks and photography don't mix!

The evening ended with a Gabe and Ross dance party, so it must have been a good time! I decided to spare you all and share the picture of Gabe dancing with his shirt buttoned.

Zoo Lights

(part two)
We tried to go to Zoo Lights a couple weeks ago on a Saturday night. It was so busy we couldn't even find a parking space so we came home. Tonight's trip was much better! A little wet, but it really just sprinkled a bit.

Levi seemed to enjoy all the lights. They have most of the animal exhibits closed off but we did get to see the penguins, polar bears, otter, sea lion, and of course the elephants. Levi really liked the penguins this time. He nodded emphatically when I asked him if he liked the penguins and also when I asked him if they were his friends. Didn't really get very good pictures. But here's one I like of Levi with his Grandpa and Grandma G. Grandpa and Grandma are going to be in Nashville visiting with Levi's big cousins for Christmas this year. So it was nice to do something festive with them since they won't be here to celebrate with us this year.

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

We spent this morning decorating the tree and getting into the spirit of the season. The tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung.
Here's Levi getting into the spirit. Showing his friend elephant the tree. He might even be telling him to smell it...can't really be sure!
Helping Dad put the star on the top of the big tree. Big difference from last year. Wow this kid is growing fast!
Levi wasn't very interested in helping decorate the tree. Mostly he just wanted to play with the ornaments. This owl one was his favorite. I just finally put it on the tree, after we put Levi in bed. Hopefully it will stay on the tree tomorrow.
And here's the finished tree! Notice how it has been baby proofed. Very scarce on ornaments below the three foot mark. And those ornaments below three feet are safe for the little guy to touch. We're trying to just tell him the tree is to look at and not touch. We'll see how that goes.
Now Gabe and I are enjoying our tradition...watching this. We watch it every year on the weekend we get our Christmas tree.

We also spent the evening at my grandparents house today. They gave Levi his first Christmas present, a great cloth Rudolph the red nosed reindeer book. Lucky kid! Anyway, we showed him who Santa was in the book the first few times he looked at it. Then we asked him to point at Santa. He proceeded to then point at Santa in the book, and then his great Grandpa Girard. Apparently, Levi's great Grandpa is Santa Claus. He doesn't have a big white beard but he was wearing a red shirt. It was pretty cute!

Picking the perfect tree

We set off Saturday morning on our adventure to find the prefect Christmas tree. We didn't trek to the forest this year. But we were happy with the trees at the farm we decided on. Lots of really nice trees. This is a week earlier than we usually get our tree so we wondered if that's why there were so many more to choose from. This may be a bit of picture overload. But I had trouble choosing just one.
Here's Levi leading the search.
Here the boys are carefully checking the quality of the trees before we make our decision. Levi really wanted to help his dad cut down the tree but he'll have to wait awhile before that happens!
And here are the boys in front of the tree we all agreed was PERFECT!