Christmas with Dave's Family

Michael needed a snack before the marathon of gift opening (milk and a banana - yummy).

The cousins. And no, I don't know what Peyton is doing. Apparently Mandy and Ashlie don't know what he's up to, either. Silly boy.




I think Mason's favorite present was his Batman t-shirt. His favorite character in the recent movie is the Joker. Frightening. Good movie.
Why so serious?


Michael found plenty to keep himself occupied - he had a lot of fun climbing on this box, scooting over until he fell off, and climbing back on. It was a fun game that lasted at least 15 minutes.


When he got bored with the box, he started taking bows off all the presents.


And who better to collect bows than Aunt Robyn?

Christmas Morning with Jen's Family

I figure it's about time I post the rest of the Christmas pictures.
We start Christmas morning off at my parents' house. Michael wasn't too terribly interested in opening presents - or even playing with them after they were opened. But he sure had fun with Grandma's little rocking chair - pushing it around, pushing it through paper, climbing in, climbing out, climbing in, climbing out, climbing in, climbing out....












He did play with his presents for a while - and even swam in the paper (he did that right after all cameras were turned off, sneaky little bugger).


He got a couple hats from cousin Elizabeth - he likes the Santa one best.

Visiting Santa

We went to see Santa this year. We could have gone the weekend before Christmas, but thought it would be crowded with all the last minute shoppers. We thought nobody would be out on Christmas Eve - they're all doing last minute grocery shopping, baking, wrapping, etc., right? Wrong! It took almost two hours to wait in line, get pictures taken, and then purchase the USB. Never again! Next year we're going early, even if we have to take time off work to do it. We did get some fun pictures, though....

Even before he saw Santa, he was a little wary.


Warming up to the photographer.


There's the big smile!


"You can't leave me here!"


"How could you do this to me?"


"I want to go home!"


"That wasn't so bad."


"Yeah! Let's get outta here!"


"Hurry up, mom."


"Don't you know it's Christmas Eve, and we need to get to Grandma & Grandpa's house?"

Decorating the Tree

It took a while this year, but I finally got into the Christmas mood (long story, but try working on budget cuts that affect hundreds of peoples' daily lives, and contrast that with the excess displayed at various celebrations).
Dave set up the tree (the littlest one we have) a couple weeks before Christmas. It's a pre-lit, and he added my red and green lights. Christmas Eve, Michael and I decorated it. Well, to be entirely accurate, Michael played with the beads and I decorated when he took his nap.


"These beads are fun to drag around the house!"

"Look! They're even more fun to drag across the tile!"


"Check out the cool noise they make when I run through the kitchen."




"I'm getting tired. What do you think we should do with these?"


"I know! You can put them up on the tree!"