Christmas Eve

We tried to sleep in a bit. Well, Jason woke up as usual, but then fall asleep back in my arms in the living room until Tyler woke up. Either way, I enjoyed not serving breakfast before 8!

Around lunchtime we head over to exchange gifts with Tyler's friend Mackenzie. The two had a gift exchange (after all, they do intend to marry...originally Mackenzie's idea, which Ty is warming up to) and then the little siblings had a gift exchange. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of Tyler and Mackenzie???? Beth and I were likely distracted talking about something very important, like Jason's inability to drink from a cup or Olivia's lack of teeth. LOL.

That afternoon we went to my brother Jim and Cara's place. Cara's 3 kids were there (plus a friend), Cara's sister, myself and the boys, my parents, and my grandparents. We were also joined by Cara and Jim's friend Stanley, who was quite a character, but totally fascinating (more on that later). We also had company for a while from Cara's children's father and their friends Vic and Christina, who happen to be my parents neighbors! Anyway, it was not OUR typcical Christmas Eve, but we were introduced to Cara's family traditions of the seven fishes (I know i'm probably reporting this incorrectly, but at 11:42 I'm not about to look it up). It was a ton of food and a lot of celebrating. Another long night on my feet following around a curious baby in a non-baby-proofed home. A highlight for me was listening to Stanley, who happens to read palms. I'd guess you'd say I was a little skeptical, but he was totally amazing and it definitely brought a new element to our typical Christmas Eve festivities!Al ended up joining us as well, and Tyler was so excited to see him.



That night we weren't probably home until 9:30 or 10:00. Al read Ty some books and then when he left we did the traditional reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas and milk and cookies out for Santa. Then it was off to bed because "Santa Claus is coming to town"!!

Christmas Eve Eve

On Christmas Eve Eve (yep, that's the 23rd) Tyler finally went back to school. Thank goodness, because he was gonna drive me crazy at home! He was happy to go back for his Christmas party, as well as the much-anticipated pajama day for charity. He was riding the sugar high for quite a while at home!

Luckily I was able to get the boys down to "rest" (well, Jason napped) before heading to my Aunt Marcia and Uncle Bob's for our annual Christmas Eve celebration. When we were growing up this was the big celebration with my mom's side of the family, held on the actual Christmas Eve at my grandparents house. As we've grown the family has expanded and people have other obligations, so we all still get together but now it's the day earlier and it's at my aunt's house. Anyway, it's always still nice to see everyone, and there is always some good food (especially dessert...yum)!




We all had a nice time and Ty had a ball playing with my cousins and my cousin Kristen's children. Jason had a grand time exploring, which I believe totalled in at about 5 hours of me following him around the house. Wishing I had worn my ugly crocs! Both boys got some cute toys and got some late bedtimes (not even home until 10:30pm)!

snow days

Well, Christmas vacation came a little early here. The freak 24+inch snowstorm gave us 2 days off of school...days that mommy might have preferred spending wrapping up Christmas shopping and errands, but that's another story.

On Monday I braved the roads to drive all of 1/4-mile to pick up Ty's friend Mackenzie for a sledding playdate. They both had a nice time while Jason stayed home napping and playing with mom-mom.



On Tuesday the roads were much clearer (yet school was closed, hmmm???). We ran up to do a produce junction run for my mom and then to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Afterwards at home Tyler and I made his first snowman. The snow was definitely NOT snowman-type snow, but we did the best we could. He was very proud of his mini snowman, adorned with mom-mom's scarf and hat, hershey kiss eyes, and a baby carrot nose. Too cute.


Oh, and Jason got his 5th tooth, after a few rough nights/days of limited sleep. Thank goodness!

winter wonderland

Friday I went out on shopping marathon with an attempt to finish my Christmas shopping. They were reporting a snowstorm, and I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than head out to Walmart in a snowstorm on a weekend day before Christmas. I managed to get one of the last sleds on the shelves, which proved to be a blessing.

Friday night we prepared Tyler for the idea that we might be getting snow. Reports were varied, but we knew we should at least get something.

Saturday morning we awoke to at least a couple of inches of snow. Tyler was ready, by maybe 7:15 to head out in the snow. LOL. I managed to hold him off until Jason's naptime, maybe 8:45, to go outside. Keep in mind, that was Ty's first real snow and NOTHING was gonna stop him!






Eventually Ty bored of me pulling him on the sled and decided to go "sledding". The conditions were too bad to go to the sledding hill. So he decided to turn our flower bed into a sledding hill. Pretty inovative, and considering he's never been sledding, he had no idea what he was actually missing.


Saturday afternoon I bundled up Jason and brought him outside. As you can see, he was less than thrilled.


Later that afternoon, I left Jason with my mom and took Tyler sledding. There was still a heavy snow and it was quite bitter, but he had a ball.


By Saturday evening there was still a heavy snow.

On Sunday morning we awoke to a "winter wonderland". It was still lightly snowing, but all was peaceful and gorgeous. Tyler was in awe, and frankly I was quite shocked to see snow up to my neighbors windows! We learned on the news that we ended up with 24 inches in Medford. Overall in the area it was the largest snowstorm we've ever had in December, and ranked 2nd in overall snowstorms in history in this area! Hey, Tyler wanted snow, and that boy got snow!


Eventually we couldn't contain Tyler anymore, so he geared up and head out with my dad to "help" shovel snow. We watched from the warm indoors, Jason waving from his highchair. Eventually I did venture out for a bit to take some pictures of our wonderland.












After I got Jason down for his morning nap I decided to join Tyler outside. Yes, I got caught in a snow drift. That's some heavy snow!


Spent a great deal of time getting caught eating snow (or as he called it, "getting fluids".

The obligatory snow angel making.

Eventually we decided to take a "sleigh ride" down to the lake to check it out. What a beautiful site!



After lunch we bundled back up, this time bringing Jason with us. Today proved to be a better experience, now that the snow had stopped and it wasn't so windy. He definitely was confused by it all, but wasn't upset. I think he was pretty interested. He did find Tyler's sled fascinating, but he kept tipping over. Poor kid couldn't control his own body...too bundled up.







Eventually we strapped Jason in his cute toddler sled my mom bought him and we (meaning Tyler and I) took him for a ride. He found this quite fascinating!


Finally, the warm-up! Followed by the e-mail that school for Monday was, in fact, cancelled. Snow day!