Christmas

I'm sitting here the day after Christmas watching Polar Express for what seems like the 500th time.  Don't get me wrong I love this movie but even the DVD is getting tired of playing.  If you haven't guessed Little Man loves the movie of course it's because it has a train in it.  He loves everything trains Polar Express,  Thomas and Dinosaurs On A Train.  Yes there is a show called Dinosaurs On A  Train just look it up.  I know I laughed as well the first time.

We tried Little man with Santa again but no luck more screaming and running away, oh well maybe next year.  Christmas Eve we went to church driving through a snow storm to get there that night with little man dressed in one of his many Christmas outfits.   He quickly found his Grandpa Jim and brought him a book to read.  Little Man kept us all entertained during the service, I don't think we heard much of the service that night.  We drove home again through the snow, it reminded me of all the Christmas movies and the beautiful snow fall in them.  My ideal holiday season would start snowing a bit everyday from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas and we just about had that this year.  I do have to admit it was nice putting Christmas lights up before the snow hit.

Christmas morning I awoke with the mission to clear the drive.  Our house sits on a hill so the drive up can be a bit treacherous with the snow.  Little Man's Grandpa Jim and Grandma Rose asked for a ride over to our house for Christmas day.  After clearing the drive I loaded up Little Man and off we drove in a Christmas wonderland of snow.  The snow was gorgeous as it glistened as we made our way over to their house.  When we arrived at their house they opened the door to reveal all the presents they had bought for him, it took a bit but we got them all loaded up and headed home.

Little Man began opening all of his gifts.  This year was great he got into ripping the paper off the gifts and even delivered gifts to everyone else.  I happily spent the evening putting together different toys with Little Man pitching in to help out.   I'm not sure what his favorite toy was for this year, he had fun playing with all of them.  

As I walked through the house this morning I got a feeling of what it must of felt like for my parents wondering what in the world to do with all the new toys that have entered the house.  We know have a pup tent, a rocking horse, a tricycle, a couple of trains and several books that we need to find homes for.  Little man did spend a good part of Christmas on the rocking horse in fact he almost fell asleep on it.  This morning I never thought I would ever stop pushing him on his tricycle and he did eventually take a nap in his pup tent.   

Once again Christmas has regained it's magic in our lives and as much as I would like to say it was the best Christmas I know that for years to come Christmas will again be magical in our household.  Merry Christmas.

Shopping

As always we are racing around trying to get ready for our Christmas party.  We went to the grocery store last night with a big list and little man.  It was late enough that his favorite race car shopping cart was sitting and waiting for him, not the broken one bu the one that still has a steering wheel.  Little Man went directly for his cart and hopped into the drivers seat and off we went.  We were not out of the produce section when Jynx suggested that he might want his own cart.  I had seen the carts before but never thought of them for Little Man.  Off Jynx went and returned with a little shopping cart and Little Man got out of the race car and behind the cart.  He has pushed the big shopping cart before but I had not seen him use his own little cart.  Little Man walked over to the produce and grabbed an artichoke and placed it in the cart, he then went back and grabbed a turnip placed it in the cart.  That was just about the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, I stood there in the grocery store laughing.  This continued for several aisles and other customers got a good laugh as well.  We did our best to put items back but sometimes we did not see it right away and it went back in a different place.  I'm sure some stock boy loved us the next day as he found ginger cookies in the toilet paper aisle. 

MSI

We made a promise that we would not decorate as much in order to spend more time this holiday with Little Man but, the boxes and boxes of decorations came up and out.  The village I set up did not go up but all the rest of the decorations made it up.  After spending more time than I wanted decorating and the house nearly finished; I decided to spend a day at the Museum of Science and Industry.  I wanted Little Man to see the huge train layout since he loves trains.  I've lost track (no pun intended) of how many times we've watched The Polar Express.

The next day we got Little Man up and ready to go but he did not eat much of his breakfast and even laid back down a few times.  We drove to the museum and entered to see the zephyr train and his eyes light up.  "DAT!" 
We went into the museum which has changed a bit since we were kids a few more things added and some things no longer there.  We started out tour but Little Man just did not seem the same, no smiles for the camera, no running around or his now famous "DAT!" 

As the day went on it was clear that Little Man was not feeling well but was doing his best to make it through the day.  We did go to the trains and he was excited to see them and watch the model trains.  We took him over to the train engine that he was able to sit in and play with all the knobs and levers. 
We then headed to see all the Christmas trees and he faded quickly.  He took a bit of a nap in his stroller and woke up to see the weather center and the tractors at the end.  I hope he had a good day but I felt bad for him not feeling well at all.  We got in the car and he fell asleep on the way home and did not want to eat much.  That night he slept and slept and slept.  I'm glad we got a chance to get to the museum but I wish Little Man was feeling better to enjoy it more.  I'm still hoping to take him downtown to see the windows but with all the global warming oops sorry freezing temperature's I'm not sure if it's going to happen this year.  Maybe we'll stay in and decorate more.

Santa

Little man got to meet the Big Fat Man.  The meeting did not go well at all but was very funny.  We were at the Johnson girls cookie exchange and little man was having a great time eating and then playing on the organ with his girl Bayle, when Santa arrived.  It was Santa's first appearance of the season and he was showing off his new Santa belt with his name in the buckle.  Little man took one look at Santa and headed for the other side of the room, he was having nothing to do with him.  Santa walked around took pictures and greeted all the other children but little man still wanted nothing to do with him.  After working the room Santa needed to make his exit and the decision was made that he may scream and cry but Little Man had to get a picture with the Big Man.  Mom was not happy about it but she brought him over and the screams and tears started to flow.  The photos snapped and little man was away from Santa as fast as he could go.  A few minutes later Little Man noticed dad out in the parking lot and started to cry for him, he did not settle down until dad was back in the room holding him.  How funny if he only knew.  Yes years from now we will have another laugh about this day.





Mom feeling bad for handing over Little Man to Santa



Running from Santa