Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful day with Stella, Abram and Nana opening presents, playing with new toys and games. It's been a long day and I wanted to post pictures but may not have many captions to explain - but who needs to explain a child's joy on Christmas?

"Santa knew I wanted packages! I've never had new toys before!"  

He seriously said that.

Special time with Nana.

 

My two favorite guys.

It's a Christmas miracle!  Josh found Starbucks cards in his stocking.

Stella woke up about 2 hours after Abram and found a new baby doll and stroller waiting for her.

Go Hawks!!!  Irish who?

Sea creatures

The best present of all - beautiful, healthy children.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Rachel hit a homerun with a trunk full of dress up clothes.

Abram can't wait for camping season to use his new sleeping bag, camp chair, and hot dog/marshmallow roaster.

Check out my new spiderman shirt!

This is the gift Josh was most excited about - Abram got a guitar just his size.

Extra train tracks provided some fun play time in the midst of present overload.

Stella appraises her new tea set.

I love robots!

OMG!

I don't usually use this term but - OMG!  I think we will have two little babies who are absolutely overwhelmed on Christmas morning.  We wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays - from Abram

This year we are spending Christmas and New Years waiting on baby #3 in South Bend.  This is the first year we'll be away from extended family and friends and we miss you all.  We are lucky that my mom has come for the holidays and of course we have Abram and Stella to keep us occupied.  I thought I would share a few of Abram's recent thoughts on the big guy in red.  I should preface these stories with the fact that Josh and I don't actively talk about Santa unless Abram asks us questions.  He has several Christmas books and we're assuming he picks things up at pre-school or from his morning cartoons.

Thought on Santa #1.
I had just received a package in the mail from our health insurance company with tons of information on newborns, safety things, etc.  One of the items in the package was a poison control magnet. I asked Abram to put it on the fridge. He of course wanted to know what it was for. I explained that if Stella got into the closet and drank any cleaning chemicals we would call the number and they would tell us how to help Stella. Abram thought that was a good reason and went ahead and placed it on the fridge.  He thought for a few moments and then turned to nana and said, "We have this number to call in case Santa gets into the closet and drinks any chemicals - it's a good thing to have."  In case any of you find Santa passed out on your kitchen floor next to a bottle of draino this Christmas morning you can call poison control at



Thought on Santa #2.
"Mama - in case Santa doesn't come to our house - we can just open all those presents you have hidden in the basement."

Thought on Santa #3.
"We should only leave Santa a few cookies so he doesn't get a tummy ache."

After reviewing Abrams recent thoughts on Santa, Josh and I are thinking we need to take a more active role in shaping Santa's image around here since he is currently thought of as an unreliable, chemical drinking overweight elf.  Abram is also concerned about Santa's lack of seat belts in the sleigh.

Cheers!

More Winter Fun

I found a few pictures of grandpa Terry's trip that I missed before. It wouldn't be a trip to South Bend without heading to the Chocolate Factory.

Abram is an expert chocolate spoon dipper - and eater.

We finished up the tour learning even more about chocolate in a short movie.

Tonight Notre Dame had a family skate night. Abram had a great time even though he didn't quite get the hang of staying on his feet. 

I guess we'll have to keep practicing!  Poor papa is going to need a few aspirin and a hot bath for the massive backache he's going to have tomorrow morning.

Visit from Grandpa Terry

We were very lucky to have a visit from Grandpa Terry to do a little pre-Christmas celebration. Abram and Stella were both very excited to see Grandpa.  They started off with playdough.

Then they moved on to sugar cookies!

Of course we made time for presents :)  

It has been unseasonably warm here - we've only had a dusting of snow but at least one day during his visit it was cold enough to break out winter gear.

You can't have sugar cookies without frosting! The cookie that Abram is decorating is the last one that G-pa Terry, Stella and I cut out the day before. I'm not sure if anyone else gets tired toward the end of baking sugar cookies but you can see we decided to call it quits and make one big final cookie.  Abram didn't seem to mind - that is until he found out I ate the cookie without him one night.

This was taken the morning g-pa had to leave.  We were sad to see him go but hope he can come back soon to see the baby! 

Tonight we went to a holiday party and Josh and I worked together to exploit Abram's vanity to get him to wear this new sweater he got from grandma Linda.  He didn't want to try it on and I told him that I didn't want him to wear it because it might make him more handsome than papa.  I think he had it on within 5 seconds of that comment and was on his way to the mirror in under 10. He told papa not to worry and that they could both be handsome.

Once he saw how snazzy he looked he was all about the picture taking.

We've also decided that Abram can fill the open Secretary of State position.  He is very diplomatic and tries to make everyone feel good.  On the way to the party I asked Abram who is a better driver - mama or papa. Today he had given me several driving tips and I was wondering if he thought papa was any better. Without skipping a beat he said, "Papa tells you where we need to go and you drive him there."  He had moved the conversation forward 1) without telling either one of us we were good drivers 2) pointing out our strengths or at least true statements 3) made us both laugh.  Another good diplomatic technique that he employees is starting out with a request that is way more than he could ever get - "I'll do _____ if I can have a movie, popcorn, a fire in the fireplace, chocolate milk and candy"  We think we've won we suddenly we've agreed to let him watch a cartoon instead of a movie with popcorn and water in order to eat a few bites of PIZZA.  I'm pretty sure he's the only kids in the US that can get his parents to give him things in order to eat pizza.  I am positive there could be peace in the middle east by the New Year if he can just make it through those confirmation hearings without calling anyone a poopy head.

Breakfast with Santa

This morning we had breakfast with Santa.  Abram was looking forward to this all week.  He had a great time but was a little disappointed that:

1) Santa didn't actually sit at our table while we ate pancakes

2) Other kids were there - he was pretty sure that it should only be he and Stella who got to see Santa.

Before we left the house I asked Abram what he was going to ask Santa for.  

He said:

- something for the baby

-something for Stella

-supplies to make a birdfeeder for grandpa

-supplies to make something for nana

I asked him what he wanted to get for Christmas and he said, "I already told you I wanted supplies to make things for grandpa and nana."

I don't know how we ended up with such a sweet little boy and girl but we sure are lucky.