Happy Holidays!

We all had a wonderful Christmas! Aunt Gina made the trip from New York to spend Christmas with us, and Henry had a fabulous time hanging out with her and enjoying his gifts.

Christmas Eve started with a pancake breakfast for Henry:



We decorated and ate many cookies:



Mike made up for our lack of a fireplace:



We opened our traditional Christmas Eve gifts of new pajamas:



Henry also was able to open one small toy gift, which turned out to be some Thomas trains. I honestly think Henry would have been 100% happy leaving Christmas at that - he loves those trains!



Then, Henry fell asleep while listening for Santa's sleigh:



Santa arrived:




Christmas morning we opened stockings:



Which included one of his favorite gifts - a flashlight (it's the little things...):


Then, Henry saw his Santa gifts - a guitar (which he specifically asked Santa for) and a new scooter. The guitar was a huge hit:






The scooter was also a success:




After a break for breakfast we moved on to the other gifts:







It was chaos:



The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys:






And going back to some old favorites:



Mike made a fabulous, traditional Danish Christmas meal for us:



It was a wonderful holiday. Thank you to everyone who shared the day with us, in person and in spirit.

Working Hard

A visit to dad's office - on a very important phone call:

Snow Day!

Cold - very cold

The really cold weather has finally set in. This is now what Henry looks like when we journey out each day:



Note those rosy, frostbitten cheeks :)

Since the park is probably out for the next 3 months at least, we started Henry back in his My Gym class today, so he can hopefully get his crazies out at least one day a week. Henry got right back into the swing of things, jumping, climbing, and swinging:




I am really annoyed that I had my camera turned the wrong way so the video is sideways (sorry), but here is Henry doing the dolphin zip-line ride, one of his all time favorite things:

The Polar Express

Tonight we took Henry for a trip on the Polar Express! In Newburyport a local school does this as a fundraiser every year - They take over one of the MBTA Commuter Trains for the day and remake it as the Polar Express so kids can take a ride to the North Pole to see Santa.

Henry had a blast!



(yes, he is wearing his jammies. If you aren't familiar with the book, all the kids on the train wear pajamas)

Here is Henry walking to board the train. I didn't quite catch the full enthusiasm. Right before I started filming he was shouting "I'm so excited! I'm so excited!"



And here he is on board waiting for the train to depart the station:



The train ride was about 30 minutes each way. Along the way they served gingerbread cookies and hot cocoa, did group sing alongs of Christmas carols, and had readings of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas":







Rudolph came for a visit (creepy picture alert!)



And of course, once we arrived at the North Pole Santa made an appearance:



We all had a great time - this will definitely need to become an annual tradition!

Christmas is Coming

I can already tell that Christmas is going to be fun this year - Henry "gets" it this year. He knows all about Santa and how he lives at the North Pole, the elves and how they make toys all year, and how if he is a good boy then Santa will land on our roof and deliver presents to him. He is really into the book "The Polar Express" (naturally, since it is about a train), loves listening to Christmas carols, and loves looking at the Christmas lights that are up around town.

Today was a big day because Henry got to meet Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. Now, this is actually the 3rd time Henry has met Santa, and I think we all recall the disaster of last year:



This year was better. Henry was VERY excited to see Santa, but was not too hot on sitting on his lap or going up on his own, so once again I got to share the photo:




When asked by Santa what he wanted, Henry replied "A piano" (interesting because all day he had been telling me he was going to ask for a guitar). When Santa asked Henry what he would be getting me for Christmas, Henry replied "a turtle".



Also today we started the "Elf on a Shelf" tradition - essentially you have an elf who lives with you during the holidays to watch and see how good you are being and reports back to Santa every night. Every morning the elf is in a new place, so Henry needs to find him every morning. Henry decided to name our Elf "Whizby":




Whizby is admittedly a little creepy looking, but Henry doesn't seem to mind.