Blizzard

We had our first blizzard of the season last night. Henry and I had been hoping for snow, so we were thrilled to have it (and Mike got a snow day from work, so he wasn't upset, either). We got to break in Henry's new sled and play in the snow for a bit. I am sure by next month I will be sick of it, but for now it is a winter wonderland!











(our little dogwood tree is almost buried!)

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful (but tiring) Christmas!

Mike and I were convinced that Henry would be awake sometime near the crack of dawn. Because of this, we ended up waking up incredibly early ourselves in anticipation, only to discover Henry still quietly hanging out in his room. So, in the end we just went into his room to tell him Santa had visited and to have him come out and see his gifts.

He fell instantly in love with his monorail:






In fact, he was so enthralled that almost 40 minutes passed before he realized there was more to be had. We moved on to stockings:



Then took a break for a gigantic breakfast before moving on to the gifts:



After each gift was opened we had to stop and play with it for a bit, so gift opening took a few hours:





(yes, we had a pajama change midway through the morning)

This was the gift Henry made for us at pre-school - so cute!



This is eventually what happened to our living room:



This is what happened to Mike:



Henry decided to wear his new apron and make himself lunch:



Then, a Christmas miracle occured and Henry took a nap!!!! (first one in a month!) He was definitely on Christmas overload.

Later, Mike and Henry made a wonderful Christmas dinner in their new matching aprons:

and in another miracle, Henry actually ate a few bites of turkey (whose child is this???)

It was a great day - the three of us being able to spend a day together with no errands to run or places to be was wonderful. It was almost perfect - the fact that so many of our loved ones are far away was the only flaw. We were with everyone in spirit.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2010

The countdown is almost over for Henry!

Today, we readied ourselves for Santa's arrival. We baked and decorated cookies:



(that is his look of serious concentration)

Henry likes to use excessive icing when he decorates:




A few cookies were, of course, sampled:


Later, Henry helped Mike make the rice pudding for Christmas Eve dinner:



And was very excited to win the "almond gift" from it:



We all opened our Christmas Eve pajamas and Henry also got to open one toy (which turned out to be a cool dinosaur projecting flashlight):



We put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer:




Then, Santa arrived. We all know that the only thing Henry requested this year was a monorail. At first, Santa thought it may not be possible, but he came through (alas, Santa was not aware of how excessively large the monorail was until he set it up. Oops):



It is pretty spiffy - battery operated, makes "announcements" ("please stand clear of the doors", etc) and has seating for various Disney characters:




Finally, the stockings were filled:



And all that was left was to wait until morning...

Festival of Lights

Tonight we took Henry back to Edaville Railroad amusement park to see their "festival of lights" display.





The train ride was once again the highlight for Henry - he loved looking at the different Christmas displays from the train:




We went on some rides, including the Flying Elephant (you don't know cold until you have whipped around in a flying elephant on a late December evening in Massachusetts):



And the carousel:





We warmed up inside where we played with many train sets:




And on the way back to the car we admired more light displays:






Henry passed out in the car on the way home, and the true miracle of the night was that Mike was able to successfully transfer a sleeping Henry from the car to his bed. That has NEVER happened, even when Henry was an infant. Christmas is exhausting!

(oh, I do at some point plan on putting a different hat on the poor kid - I am getting sick of every picture of him from the winter looking the same!)