Christmas - Part 1

After a month and a half of utter craziness, I am thoroughly enjoying the return to normalcy around here! We've had lots of snow over the last week, and there are few things that I enjoy more than that "hibernation" feeling that comes along with it - long, lazy days stuck at home with blankets, stories, hot chocolate and time to catch up a bit on my scrapbooks. I think that Yikealo is really appreciating the change in pace too - he is definitely a child who benefits greatly from a routine. Anyway, I finally have a bit of time to catch up on the blog as well, so here's the first part of our Christmas 2009 memories.


Christmas for us started on the 18th of December when we spent the night at David's parents' house with the other 20 family members. It was so much fun to be together - up late playing games, running around with cousins, and eating way too much! Yikealo got some quality time with his buddy Quinn - they're just a few weeks apart, and they are becoming good buddies.


Susan (Quinn's mom and Yikealo's babysitter) had given Yikealo a Thomas engine the day before, so the two boys spent some serious time poring over the package insert that shows all of the other pieces.


After a VERY short night, we had a yummy brunch and then got ready to open the presents. We had to take the annual "grandkids" picture, of course, especially with the new addition!


Yikealo was very excited to finally be able to open some presents. We'd been collecting them under the tree for several weeks, and he had been asking about them EVERY SINGLE DAY - usually several times!


I was a little worried that he'd be jealous of some of the other things that his cousins got, but he did great! He loved everything that he received, although I think that the favorite gift may have been the $1 bag of clear marbles from Grandma. This child is obsessed with marbles!


After the presents, Yikealo got to play out in the snow for a bit with his cousin Reed. Yikealo LOVES playing in the snow.


After the snowtime, we headed home for a short nap before going to Grandma Alma's Christmas in the evening. More food, more presents, more fun! We generally go to visit Gram on Thursday evenings, and Yikealo is completely fascinated with her old marble rolling game. He plays with it the entire time that we are there, so he got some good lessons in sharing and taking turns when surrounded by cousins!



There were more family pictures: all of the great grand-kids with Gram,


and the family picture for David's mom. There are just too many of us to ever get a really good one, but oh well!


Then it was time for more presents. After waiting patiently for his turn,

Yikealo got some new sleepers from Grandma and a great Thomas set from his cousin Isaac. He was SO excited when he ripped the paper off of that box. He started shouting "Train track! Train track! Train track!" at the top of his lungs and HAD to play with it immediately!


Then it was time to go home and head to bed, where he got to wear one of the new sleepers - oh bliss! We were planning another extended family Christmas the following day with lots of new cousins to meet, so it was definitely time for a bit of rest. What a great start to the holidays!