tracking santa

Tyler has been busy today periodically checking Santa's flight pattern here and here.

Christmas "Eve"

Normally every Christmas Eve we get together with my mom's whole family. Obviously as we all get older the family is ever-expanding and we've been running out of room to hold it here at my parents house as usual. Not to mention that it would be pretty difficult for my mom to host a big event having just had surgery on Friday. Due to the fact that many of of the "kids" are grown with their own families now there are often other family obligations, so this year we decided it would be easier for us all to get together to hold our Christmas Eve celebration on the 23rd at my aunt's house.

Here are some photo highlights.

ice skating

Tyler has pretty much been wearing PJs 24/7 since arriving. He loves his PJs and, unless HE wants to go somewhere, it's a fight to get him in clothes recently.

Yesterday Tyler agreed to get on some clothes and his "stupid ugly coat" (ugh, I love the words he learns at preschool) to go outside. I quickly spotted this frozen puddle, so Tyler and I enjoyed some "ice skating".

Later he enjoyed seeing his breath in the cold air.

just chillin'

deck the halls...

Last night was the annual Christmas tree decorating extravaganza. Keep in mind, we have an approximately 3 foot tall artificial tree at our house. My parents have the real deal, approximately 10-12 feet tall. Tyler was in utter amazement when he saw it. He was aching to decorate it, so last night my brothers both arranged to be here so we could decorate it as a family.

It was so tall that my brother Jim decided to just stand on our end table and decorate the top.

Tyler loved it, for the first 10 to 15 minutes. Then he was done. LOL. As you can see, even Jason got involved!

My dad, after being the photographer, got in on the action and did some decorating. My brother Chris tackled the right side of the tree.

My poor mom had to watch from the sidelines. I guess I never mentioned it,
but she had to have yet another surgery on Friday. She is still in a great deal of pain, but that didn't stop her from providing moral support. Plus, she's good for snuggling.

welcome to Christmas Central

My mom likes Christmas decorations, to put it mildly. Growing up (and still as "grown-ups") my brothers and I loved to tease her about her obsession. My mom has more decorations on just her piano than I do in my entire house!! Truth be told, Tyler loves it!

Just a small sampling of the insanity (oh, wait, I mean the Christmas Joy)...

arrival in NJ!

So Friday was a whirlwind day, followed by very little sleep (as you imagined by looking at my late night blog post). We managed to finish everything up and get on the road for the airport. Trip there went smoothly, but we arrived to find an absolutely HUGE line for checking baggage. Due to time constraints I didn't want Al to bring us in the airport, so I was left to deal with 4 bags, 2 carryons, and 2 children all by myself at curbside check-in. Thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn and a 4-year-old who is very cautious in these types of situations and stayed right by my side. We survived that aspect, with the help of some very nice ladies in line behind us who helped me wheel some of the luggage through the line. Also heard their story of how they were back at the airport after their flight the day prior had been cancelled. When I actually checked in I asked if my flight was on time and I was told "so far it is". Not encouraging. When we arrived at our gate, barely 30 minutes before take-off, the outgoing flight before ours hadn't even arrived yet. Also concerning. Believe it or not though, only 5 or so minutes before we were supposed to have left they announced that they would begin preboarding our flight. I quick got Tyler off the play area to make a last pit-stop in the bathroom. Lo and behold I hear from his stall "uh oh, eeyore fell in the potty". Lovely, a stuffed animal IN a public toilet. Only to avoid the inevitable tantrum that would have ensued, I reached IN the nasty toilet and fetched the beloved Eeyore and kindly asked a woman who was cleaning the restroom if I could have a trashbag for it. Apparently she did not speak English, so this took a while.

By the time we boarded the flight there were no rows left that were completely open. I finally asked a nice looking lady if we could sit next to her. Nearby a very sweet gentleman offered to give up his seat and find a new one so that we could have a row to ourselves. The boys were WONDERFUL on the flight. Tyler watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my iPod, ate some food, read the flight manual (AGAIN), open and closed the window shade 57 times, and took a small nap. Jason was wide-eyed for most of the flight, only falling asleep briefly after eating, waking after he pooped. I have to tell you, it's not easy changing a diaper in those tiny bathrooms on an apparatus that they manage to label a changing table. The 2x3" flimsy plastic surface hardly qualified as such. I finally got him cleaned up and was putting on the new diaper when he then urinated all over himself and his clean outfit. So then I had to carry him back to our seat in his clean diaper and wet clothes and change him into new clothes in our seat. It was fun.

Anyway, we survived. In fact our flight arrived EARLY. Wahoo!