Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful couple days of Christmas celebrations. On Christmas Eve, we all went to visit Oma in the nursing home. We had a few snacks and exchanged gifts with her. Then we went home so the boys could nap and the adults could get things set up for Christmas Eve. We all enjoyed some delicious food, wonderful gifts, fun party games, and great company. After everyone left and Alex was in bed, Will put out cookies for Santa. He also received a very special email/video from Santa. He thought that was pretty cool!

Visiting Oma

Katie and Jake

Popcorn with Legs

Merry Christmas!

Cookies for Santa

Busy Week!

We had a busy week leading up to the holidays. On Tuesday night, Kristen hosted book club at our house. On Wednesday, we had Will's holiday program at school. On Thursday, we went to Kristen's work party (with kids). On Friday, we went for a horse drawn carriage ride at the botanical gardens and then out to dinner with Kristen's parents. On Saturday morning, we met up with Kristen's friends from elementary school along with their kids for lunch. And on Saturday evening, Kristen and her mom went to Brush to paint "Still Night." It was a fun, but very busy, week!

Vaibhav, Alex, and Parker - the boys of Intervention Insights

It was a cold and windy night...

Elizabeth, Bennett, John, Grey, Henry, William, Alex, and Lucy (missing: Caroline)

Still Night

Will's School Christmas Program

This morning I took the boys to the Children's Museum for a couple hours. Alex had a lot of fun in the toddler area but also really liked following Will around and taking in the sites.

After early naps, we went up to school for Will's holiday concert. We dropped him off in Miss Nikki's room and managed to get first row seats in the "Big Room." Grandma and Grandpa joined us. Will did very well - especially since he wasn't in school for the dress rehearsals.

Who's taking who for a walk?

This one is really long... Will was one of the "6 Geese A-laying"

Cookie Exchange & Gingerbread

On Saturday, Phil went with our friend Ben to pick up gifts that needed to be delivered for Santa Claus Girls. While they were waiting in a long line of volunteers, the boys helped me set up for my annual cookie exchange. Phil, Ben, and Baby Charlie came and picked up Will and Alex right around 9:30am. They went around on the route to deliver the gifts while I did some finishing touches on the brunch. My girlfriends arrived around 10 and we spent a lovely few hours. Some of the hits from the exchange: candy cane snowballs, brown butter chai spice snickerdoodles, and orange cranberry drops. Yum!

On Saturday afternoon, Will and I decorated a small gingerbread house. It was so much fun. We started off with me applying the frosting and Will would place all the candy. By the end, he took over frosting duty as well. Then we went up to PF Changs to celebrate my mom's birthday.

On Sunday, Alex and I ran some errands while Phil and Will went bowling. Will actually got 2 strikes (bumper bowling) and numerous spares. He was pretty excited!

Santa

On Tuesday night, we took the boys to the botanical gardens to see Santa. We took their lists along and waited in a relatively fast moving line. Will climbed right up and hopped onto Santa's lap. Alex was less excited. We snapped a couple photos of the two of them and then let Will sit alone with Santa and go through his list. Then we went inside to look at the "Trees from Around the World" and the trains.

Alex is quite the walker now. He still likes to finger walk (I think he can go faster that way) but he regularly takes off walking and and cover pretty large distances without falling.

Alex was not super happy

Serious Conversation

Watching the trains

Checking out all the trees

Happy Hanukkah!

Grann came over this weekend to celebrate Hanukkah. On Friday night, we went up to Big Bob's for pizza. Despite a bit of a wait (it was packed!) we had a very nice dinner. Alex even had a little pizza. On Saturday morning, we played at home for a bit and then took the kids to the mall. We got a few errands taken care of and the boys were able to play on the breakfast food and the escalators.

After their afternoon naps, we started the Hanukkah festivities. The boys had a lot of fun opening their gifts. They received a lot of really nice things! Will loved his jumping stick (video below) and he also got tickets to go see Disney on Ice in March. He also got a drill set, a really cool personalized miner's helmet, books, and a lot of Hanukkah things. Alex got a backpack filled with Duplo kits, a block puzzle, his own Taggie, books, a parachute, and lots of Hanukkah things. After gifts, we had a delicious dinner thanks to Grann!

Another exciting event from today - Alex started walking! He had taken a few steps (4-5) a few times already but today he did a solid 10 steps on a few occasions. He is very proud of himself and we are proud of him!

So many gifts!

Alex tried to open them before it was time...



We're going to Disney on Ice!
(Doesn't he look like Fievel?)

So curious!

Personalized Miner's Helmet from Aunt Maran and Uncle Josh

Some Alex Videos