Thursday, January 5, 2012

Christmas Recap

We have had a very eventful few weeks.

Christmas was spent with both our families.  We're fortunate in that our families celebrate on different days.  My family has always celebrated on Christmas eve, Jen's on Christmas day.

My mom lives just over an hour away and we drove to her place mid-day on the 24th.  My sister, her husband, my brother and his girlfriend all also came for dinner.  Unfortunately there was a bit of a delay with dinner.  Somehow the oven got turned off while the turkey was still cooking.  The good news is that the problem was noticed early enough that we did still get to eat at a more or less reasonable time (after the oven had been turned back on and the turkey finished cooking).

Given the situation, my brother thought it would be a good idea to open gifts before dinner so that we could try to keep The Bean on his bedtime schedule.  It worked out well.  As the evening wore on, it was obvious that The Bean was tired, but he was a real trooper.  I think he enjoyed all the excitement too.  We had all agreed to scale back this year, but everyone seemed to really like what they received.

Being wished a Merry Christmas by Oma.

A sleepy Bean playing with his new house.

Won't The Bean and his uncle look cute together in their matching shirts?  (Pure coincidence --the shirt was a gift from my mom who'd never seen The Bean's shirt.)

Because of The Bean's schedule, and also because he is too young to know any different, we decided to wait until the evening of the 25th to drive to Jen's parents.  We stopped by my cousin's house in the afternoon to exchange gifts with them and my Nana.  Last Christmas when we couldn't travel because of Jen's pregnancy, we had dinner with them.  I really liked being able to see them on Christmas day again this year. 

Wearing the cutest Christmas hat ever --an early gift from my aunt.


Petting the puppy in front of my cousins' Christmas tree.


On the 25th left for PA at The Bean's bedtime and arrived just a little before midnight.  After breakfast on the 26th we opened gifts.  Jen's parents really go all out at Christmastime.  Jen's big gift was a set of Henkels knives.  She also got a few different cookbooks and some new clothes for work, among other things.  My big gift from them was a sewing machine.  (Yay!)  Jen got me an antique letterpress box that I ADORE.  Of course, The Bean was the one who REALLY got spoiled.  It took him three days to open all his gifts!  I've been pleasantly surprised that he actually seems to be playing with almost everything he received.  Well, some things are meant for when he's a bit older, but everything that's age appropriate he seems to be enjoying. 

Fueling up for some present opening.

A drum!  (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.)
  
Watching Grandma play with his pots and pans.

Having a picnic.

Christmas cookie!!!

Thomas the Train.  Mama and Mom hope that he doesn't become too obsessed.
The most fun thing to play with... a box! (Of course!)
 
One of Mama's favourite holiday photos.

The apartment has now undergone a reorganization to accommodate all The Bean's new toys.  Maybe it's time to consider a bigger place!

9 comments:

  1. Love the pictures--he's so adorable. Looks like a great holiday. We used to run around from Ottawa to St. Catharines but now we say Christmas Eve is ours and people can come visit us. We do visit others but not on that day. It's just easier for us not to lug our stuff around, especially all of Santa's gifts!!!

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  2. 1. I love the last picture!
    2. Give up on Bean NOT becoming obsessed with Thomas.Train...we tried to ignore IT and see if it went away and the obsession seems to have only grown in LM!
    3. Looks like you had a great holiday and I am glad you did :)

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  3. What a fun Christmas! I sure love that adorable Christmas hat-- too cute! I'm with you on Thomas. My nephew can name every character, and I think his brainpower could be better spent!

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  4. Love the pictures. That hat is adorable! Glad the Bean is playing with all his toys. As for Thomas, neither of our kids ever really got into it. That's the good news. The bad news is that instead, Erik was obsessed with Bob the Builder when he was a toddler and Ian is obsessed with Dora. If it's not Thomas, it'll be something else. :)

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  5. we are always traveling for Christmas as well and we also like to wait until evening to depart for longer trips. Usually, M falls alseep in the car and we can transfer him when we get to our parents' house.

    I know just what you mean about feeling like you need a bigger house for all the gifts!

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  6. Great pictures-- he is adorable.

    I love that Christmas hat-- is it handmade?

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  7. Oh and Thomas... it's impossible. Ours is totally consumed.

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  8. HP got spoiled too. I put half of it in the basement to pull out throughout the year. He never even noticed!

    Our guy hasn't really gotten into the trains/cars thing. He loves balls and books. So you may be safe from the lure of Thomas!

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  9. I guess we stand about a 50/50 chance on the Thomas thing. Really any character has the potential to drive me nutty. Balls and books I could deal with though... probably would enjoy even!

    @Teaberry --yes, the hat is handmade! My aunt is awesome. :)

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