Christmas Day 2011

My family made it to our house in time for a late lunch. We had to go wake Garytt up from his nap to join us, so he ate lunch in his pajamas. It was very nice to have everyone there.









After lunch, it was time to open gifts with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Becca, and Uncle Kyle. Grandma brought a big poster of the Cat in the Hat that we had from Garytt's birthday party so that I can use it to decorate the new Dr. Seuess room. He used it like a huge puzzle.





Bec and Kyle recorded a Charlie Brown Christmas story book for him. He was pretty excited about that!


Grandpa is showing Garytt the book.

The funny thing is that they apparently skipped recording the first page accidentally. Oops!



He also got a Mrs. Potato Head...yeah apparently Grandma thought it was a Mister but it is totally not...Garytt doesn't know the difference. Grandma even made a cool little storage bag to go along with it, which is awesome. It is very challenging to keep all these toys together.





Garytt opened several more packages before he was ready for a break.





We finally got Garytt into some real clothes for the day and decided to snap a quick family picture. Ok, we took about 50 pictures to get a halfway decent picture, but that is how it goes with a toddler.




Ellie tried to get in this family pic but we were not paying attention to the camera...bummer.

Then it was Aunt Becca's turn to get a picture with Garytt. Yeah, he was totally over getting pictures by that point...so this was the best we got.



After that, we managed to get Garytt to open one more package...he got snow boots for Christmas, which I have no doubt we will use up here in Wisconsin.



He loved the new boots so much that we got a few videos of him dancing around in them.





After all that fun, it was time to just hang out and relax until birthday time.


Coloring with Bec and Kyle

At 5:00 pm, as has been tradition in my family as long as I can remember, it was time to celebrate my birthday. Justin followed the family tradition of me having a DQ ice cream cake as well as a homemade oatmeal spice cake (my favorite!). He did a great job on the cake!



And, here I am posing with the birthday packages. Garytt looks pretty excited about it too!



My big birthday gift from Justin, which was a sewing machine (watch out Martha Stewart), was hidden in a scavenger hunt. Now, that sounds like fun...but not as much with an injured foot. Fortunately, most of the scavenger hunt was confined to the downstairs area. He did a great job coming up with rhymes and riddles.

This was by far the funniest clue:

"I am a mother pheasant plucker.
I pluck mother pheasants.
I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker
Who ever plucked mother pheasants."

The answer to that riddle was Kyle since he hunts pheasants. The funniest part was probably listening to me read it while trying not to say any of the words incorrectly. It was a good thing no one was video taping that!

We had a great Christmas Day and I had a wonderful birthday!

Christmas Morning 2011

Christmas Day in our house was very busy! First, when Garytt woke up, we all came downstairs to see what Santa left for him. Of course, he had no clue that he was going to turn the corner and see Santa gifts...I'm sure by next year he will understand more.

Here are a few pictures of our tree, stockings, and Santa's gifts before Garytt got to see them.





Although I didn't get to finish decorating the packages as I would have liked due to my unexpected tumble down the stairs thus causing me to end up on crutches for a few days, I did manage to get bows on a few packages. I am one of those crazy people who likes to have packages with bows and I really rarely use gift bags. It's my thing and I'm totally fine with it, even though I know most people really don't notice. Anyhow, here are a few packages that I was able to complete.





Of course, I couldn't wait for Garytt to come down the stairs with Dad to see the gifts under the tree. We put the book that my parents gave to him with Santa on the front on top of the rocking chair to help him get the whole concept of Santa leaving the gifts...I have no idea if it worked or not.



Garytt spent a good portion of the morning playing with his new tricycle from Santa. He really tried to master getting on and off of it. However, he mostly ended up sideways or backwards. He didn't seem to mind though.













We tried to teach him to pedal a little bit too but we will have to work on that a bit longer. He prefers to push it around or put things in the trunk at this point.







He did play a little bit with his rocking chair as well.



We managed to get Garytt to focus on opening a few gifts here and there but he kept going back to the tricycle.







We also took a few videos of him playing with some of his new toys.









I also like to get a picture with Garytt on Christmas morning while we are still in pajamas. This year it was a bit awkward because he didn't want to be picked up and between being 8 months pregnant and having an injured foot, it was challenging for me to bend down to his level. So, yeah, we ended up with this picture where I definitely don't look to comfortable...



Garytt had a great Christmas morning! He was probably a little overwhelmed with all the new toys. We decided to put him down for a late morning nap so that we could get our Christmas lunch ready by the time my family arrived! We wanted Garytt to be fully refreshed and ready for more fun by the time Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Becca, and Uncle Kyle made it to our house all the way from Kansas!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas 2011

It is pretty obvious that Garytt still doesn't understand the whole Santa thing and the excitement surrounding the night before Christmas. But we dressed him in his Christmas pajamas and took a few pictures anyhow.


"Ho!Ho!Ho!"


He is pretty impressed with his new outfit!


And then he wants the hat off!


Checking out Santa

We then went to his bedroom to start the night routine. He was pretty wound up still...


Let's play ball!


Putting on my socks for bed


Now I'm all set!

We then convinced him to give his stuffed animal, Max, from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas a hug and kiss before bedtime...









Well...then all of the toys in the basket needed hugs. And Mom and Dad needed kisses. And even his bed needed a hug. He doesn't like to leave anyone out.


Hugging the alligator


Hugging the wooden lion


Hugging his bed


Giving Mom a kiss...the crutch makes it a little difficult to bend down

It was finally time for bed...tomorrow is Christmas!



We wish all of you a wonderful Christmas!

2011 Oshkosh Celebration of Lights

We heard about the Oshkosh Celebration of Lights several weeks ago. It is a drive through light display at Menominee Park, just minutes from our house. They also have Santa set up in one of the park shelters for the kids to visit. I was excited to go see what it was all about.

As frugal as I am, we decided to wait until one of the free community nights to go over there. Our original plan was to go last Tuesday night but Garytt really needed a haircut and I couldn't get an appointment until the following Wednesday morning. So, we decided to wait until this week.

Well, perfection is just not something that is going to work with me this year it seems. Garytt woke up yesterday morning with a "clogged pore" on his cheek...yes, who would have guessed that he would have a pimple on his cheek at all much less the day we are going to try to see Santa again...sigh.

We decided to go over and check out the lights and Santa anyway...knowing the pictures wouldn't be great. He are a few pictures of the light displays.









We found Santa's workshop and parked. They actually have a really neat setup. They have a few reindeer outside. Santa's sleigh was parked right outside the shelter as well. We tried to get a quick picture inside the sleigh, but Garytt doesn't look too thrilled about that either...and it's a close-up shot, so you don't really get the effect of the sleigh, but it was really neat.







After waiting outside for a few minutes, we were let inside the shelter. They had a display of snowflakes and some pretty Christmas trees to look at while you waited inside.



I guess I didn't realize how small the shelter was inside because I didn't see the Santa behind the trees. We got up to the front of the line with the Elf and she took Garytt's name down and then we turned the corner and there was Santa. So, I think we didn't get to prepare Garytt enough and he was in no way going to sit on Santa's lap. He instead clung to Justin for dear life!





Maybe next year we will have better luck with the Santa picture! This year it is obvious that Santa is just too scary.