Christmas Fun

We have had a very busy few weeks around here, just like everyone else I'm sure.  One thing I didn't do too much of this year though was baking.  I just wasn't into making the batches and batches of cookies like I usually do.  Here I am with the boys making my one and only batch of eggnog sugar cookies for the year.



My cookie decorator decided to help himself to a few while he was supposed to be working.



It was fun this year because Rex finally understood the whole Santa thing.  Even better was that we could now use that as a way to get him to behave a little better for a few weeks anyhow.  I only got a few photos of the boys in their matching pajamas on Christmas morning because as soon as Rex saw his new Curious George shirt in his stocking, he took off to put that on and the cute Christmas jammies were over.

Opening stockings and playing with one of the many new Handy Manny toys-


Playing with the new train table from Santa-


More Handy Manny toys (that is Felipe in Wyatt's hand)-


Modeling the new Curious George shirt I mentioned and his brother's new Cars sunglasses-


Opening more presents-


Almost done-

It took forever to get all the presents opened.  Every birthday and Christmas I think, "Okay- now is the time they are finally going to just tear into all the presents and it will just be a present frenzy."  Still hasn't happened.  My boys like to open something and then play with it.  And then after a while, maybe they'll open something else.  Maybe not.  It is tiring and takes so long.  So you will probably notice the still unopened packages on the shelf behind the couch which sat there for quite a while.  They did manage to get everything opened by lunchtime I think but I stopped photographing at this point because I was over it.  We cooked a beef tenderloin for dinner which was fantastic and just had a fun and low-key day at the house by ourselves.  Although we did miss our families a lot, we got to Skype with quite a few people which helps.

One strange thing about our Christmas was not having any snow on the ground.  Our winter has been so bizarre here.  I think it has snowed just twice and both times it was very little and melted quickly.  We have lots of highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s.  It has even been in the 50s this week.  I ran out to get the trash can at the curb today with no shoes or jacket on and I was totally fine.  Normally I think my feet would have frozen to the driveway if I tried that at the end of December.  I imagine our good fortune here with the weather will run out eventually but we are enjoying it as long as we can get it!

The Penultimate Family Room Project Update

So, here it is.  Finally.  After nearly 6 months.  The almost done family room.







Ta da!  We still need to stain and paint some trimwork and cover the spot where the air conditioning unit will go and put wood covers over the metal shelving.  But that's it!  We have been enjoying the new space a lot.  In fact, Rex keeps asking to go play in the basement and I just don't ever want to go down there because I love being in the family room so much.  We incorporated toy storage behind the couch as you can see in the last picture so he has things to play with- don't feel too bad for him.  I realize it's not as much fun for him as the basement but for now, I just want to be in the new space that we've worked so hard on for so long.

We moved a lot of the furniture from the living room out there so now the living room looks kind of empty.



It's hard to really get a feel for just how sparse it is from the picture but let me tell you, with only two chairs and an end table (we have moved that old record player out now too) in a room that is about 24 by 14 feet, it feels mighty empty in there.  This morning we moved everything else out and did the super-clean on the floors.  Now Rob got distracted watching The Polar Express with Rex so we will start working on it again in a little while.  We put some new lighting up last night and now we need to bring the dining table and chairs and the loveseat back upstairs.  They had been banished to the basement for storage because there wasn't enough room for everything before the family room was finished.  Once we get that all done, I will put up some pictures of how our new living and dining area turns out.

And before I wrap this up, I would like to follow up on a few things from my last post.  The Disney Store is sending out the Mickey Mouse that I ordered (yay!) though it is questionable if it will be here in time for Christmas (boo!).  They also told me to keep the wall border and donate it to my favorite charity.  Since there are toy donation things all over the place, I plan on dropping it off at one of those.  My disappointing fresh garland continues to disappoint.  A week after putting it up, it is all dried out and droopy and nasty.  We took it all down this morning because it was so bad.  I guess my comment on fresh garland would be this: Only use it outdoors.  Maybe, maybe, if you live somewhere you don't have to use a heater much you could have it indoors.  I learned my lesson though and I will be picking up some fake stuff at the after-Christmas sales.

And here is a funny picture I took of my boys this week in their awesome big and little brother t-shirts just because.

Do you see the problem here?

I have begun my Christmas shopping and would like to get it all done by the end of this weekend.  We'll see.  I'm not doing too good so far though with it- check this out.



So instead of the crocheted Mickey Mouse I ordered for Wyatt, I got peel and stick Fantastic 4 wall borders.  Or maybe it's all the Marvel Heroes, I guess.  It doesn't really matter though because it is not appropriate for my almost 19 month old son.  Someday, it would be awesome.  But not right now.  Now I get to fix Christmas gift orders in addition to trying to finish my shopping.  Geez.

Things around here are really good besides that.  Rob spent the weekend hooking up all the electronic stuff in the family room.



We have the tv and all related equipment out there now as well as our couch, chair and some other furniture.  I need to take more pictures of the family room and what's going on with the living room too but that will have to be for the next posting.  We put up an artificial tree in the family room with some cheap little decorations and hopefully it will all be little boy proof because they were all over it as soon as it went up.



The decorations and tree are holding up pretty good so far.  It is really nice not having to worry about them spilling water out of the tree stand so that right there makes the artificial tree worth it.  Generally, I despise them but for now, it works much better for our family.  I got some fresh garland and put it up around the house hoping that would bring in that wonderful Christmas tree smell but as it turns out, not so much.  It looks good though even if it doesn't have that wonderful tree smell I was wanting.

It snowed the other day a little bit and Rex couldn't wait to get out in it.  He tried to catch it in his mouth and even make snow angels.





I didn't tell him to do either of those things either.  He just went for it.  I laughed so hard when he tried to do the snow angels.  I told him he was going to need a little more snow on the ground for that to work.  We still haven't had too much at this point but I'm sure he will get the chance to do snow angels before too long.

Since I am always the photographer, I rarely manage to get in the pictures but here are some I got lately with my boys.

In the snow with Rex-


Hanging out with Wyatt-


Well, I think I will go contact Disney customer service now and see about getting a Mickey Mouse doll instead of the Marvel Heroes' wall border.  Wish me luck!